Lebanon 

Committee to Support Palestine Resistance Held Extraordinary Meeting Headed by Hezbollah Official 

The Lebanon-based Committee to Support Palestine Resistance held an extraordinary meeting on Thursday, hours before the latest terror attack to hit Israel, headed by Hezbollah’s Palestinian Relations official Hassan Hoballah. According to Hezbollah’s Al-Ahed Newspaper, the assembled officials “conveyed their heartiest salutations and praise, and highest forms of pride, to the Palestinian people and their resistance, and their heroic martyrs, for the quality attacks in Beersheba, Hadera, and [Bnei Brak] against the usurping Zionist entity.” They also condemned the recent summits between Arab and Israeli officials – including the recent meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh and the Negev Summit – as “conspiring against the Palestinian cause.” They also called on Palestinians, wherever they were located, to participate in Quds Day protests, which were established by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. 

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Yemen Announce Return of Ambassadors to Lebanon 

On Thursday, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Yemen announced a return of their ambassadors to Lebanon. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry said its ambassador returned in response to calls by “moderate” Lebanese political forces and after remarks by the prime minister regarding “ending all political, military, and security activities” that affect Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. Riyadh emphasized the importance of Lebanon “returning to its Arab depth.” Lebanese officials have made such statements of disassociation before. Thus it is unclear why this utterance will be different from the previous commitments. Hezbollah continues to play a dominant role in the country, and uses it as a platform to project power for itself and its patron Iran throughout the region.

Israel and Palestinian Territories 

Fourth Terror Attack Hits Israel

In the fourth such terror attack in two weeks, on Thursday, a Palestinian gunman opened fire on Israeli civilians on Dizengoff street in Tel Aviv, killing 28-year-old Tomer Morad and 27-year-old Eytam Magini, from the city of Kfar Saba, and wounding several others. A third victim, 35-yr-old Barak Lufan, succumbed to his wounds on Friday. 

The gunman was later identified as 29-year-old Raad Fathi Hazem from the Jenin refugee camp. He evaded capture by Israeli security forces for several hours before being located hiding near a mosque in Jaffa by two Shin Bet agents, who exchanged fires with Hazem and killed him. The Shin Bet said that Hazem had no known organizational affiliation, previous arrests, or security background. Palestinian reports said that his father was a senior officer in the Palestinian Authority security forces but retired about a decade ago. The agency said that Hazem had entered Israel illegally and that it is being investigated if he had received any support.  

Palestinian terrorist groups associated with Iran, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas, were quick to praise the attack, though none of them claimed it. Even the spokesman for Fatah – commonly understood to be the most moderate Palestinian faction – described the attack as the “reaction of the Palestinian people, as part of the natural response against [Israel’s] policy of assassinations, killings, and abuses in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque, and its provocations against the feelings of Muslims during Ramadan.” 

Hezbollah also issued statements praising the attack. In its initial report, the group’s Al-Ahed newspaper described the attack as a “heroic quality attack deep within the Zionist [Entity], which confounded the Zionist enemy, proving its fragility and weakness.” Hezbollah’s official statement – headlined “the Palestinian people’s resolve is stronger than the will of the occupation” – echoed these sentiments, describing the attack as a “humiliating blow where the [Israelis] didn’t expect it, deep within their usurping entity.” The statement went on to say that the “heroic operation” carried out by “the martyr Raad Fathi Hazem in Tel Aviv revealed the weakness of the Zionist entity, its fragility, and the confusion of its security and military agencies, and their abject failure to confront a single Palestinian mujahid, despite deploying a thousand soldiers to the site of battle.” The statement called on “the free peoples of the earth, the peoples of our Arab and Islamic ummas to support the Palestinian people with all means possible.” 

Israeli Cyber Firm Exposes Sophisticated Hamas Espionage Campaign 

Israeli cyber defense firm Cybereason revealed that hackers affiliated with Hamas had targeted Israelis through a complex cyber-espionage campaign spanning the past six months, making use of fake Facebook accounts, social engineering techniques, and advanced malware, to hack into phones and computers belonging to Israeli soldiers, police officers, and emergency personnel. The goal, according to Cybereason, was to “extract sensitive information from the victims’ devices for espionage purposes.” 

According to Cybereason, the hackers use social engineering techniques to find their victims and lure them, as well as fake Facebook profiles “to trick specific individuals into downloading trojanized direct message applications for Android and PC, which granted them access to the victims’ devices.” The so-called trojan horse program that was downloaded to their devices, researchers say, is much more advanced than malware software deployed by the group in the past, targeting both computers and mobile devices. The spyware provided hackers with full access to the computers or phones, including their microphones and camera, and even included “operational security” mechanisms intended to prevent detection and automatically updated itself, one researcher explained. 

Hamas has learned how to make more believable fake accounts, one Cybereason researcher explained. “They set up fake accounts, but while usually such accounts are quite easy to spot, in this case they would seem very real to an untrained eye.” The fake accounts, all of which pretended to be Israeli women, were set up months in advance. “They were extremely active accounts, they were very well versed in Israeli politics and current events, they chatted with their victims and posted in perfect Hebrew, with none of the tell-tale signs of fake foreign accounts. 

“After gaining the victim’s trust, the operator of the fake account suggests migrating the conversation from Facebook over to WhatsApp. By doing so, the operator quickly obtains the target's mobile number. In many cases, the content of the chat revolves around sexual themes, and the operators often suggest to the victims that they should use a ‘safer’ and more ‘discrete’ means of communication, suggesting a designated app for Android.” For example, some targets were asked to download a fake messaging app called “Wink Wink Chat.” 

“In addition, they also entice the victims to open a .rar file containing a video that supposedly contains explicit sexual content. However, when the users open the video they are infected with malware,” Cybereason's report explains. According to the researchers, the victims were specifically targeted during their work hours with the hopes of infecting their work computers. 

According to Cybereason, Hamas’ revamped toolset and playbook was made most clear by the fact that they targeted Israelis as opposed to their usual Arabic-speaking targets in places like Jordan or Saudi Arabia. 

Iraq 

Rocket and Drone Attacks Target Kurdish Businessman and U.S. Forces 

On Wednesday evening, three Katyusha rockets were fired at an oil refinery in Erbil. No injuries or damages resulted. The refinery reportedly belongs to the KAR group. Iran fired missiles at the home of the CEO of the KAR group, Baz Karim, in March. This shows the continued focus of Iran and its affiliated militias in Iraq on Erbil after that March attack. In recent weeks, Iranian officials have been warning of additional operations in Erbil, given their fear of Israel’s ties to the Kurdistan Regional Government. 

Separately, on Friday, the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq announced that it shot down an armed drone that targeted Ain Al-Assad Air Base in Iraq, which hosts U.S. forces. No injuries or damage were reported. Iran and its affiliated militias have previously attacked Ain Al-Assad Air Base, most prominently in retaliation for the U.S. targeted killing of former Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani in January 2020. 

Syria

Shelling Injures Four U.S. Personnel in Syria 

Hours before the attack on Ain Al-Assad Base in Iraq, U.S. officials said on Thursday that four U.S. personnel suffered minor injuries after two rounds of indirect fire hit support buildings at the Green Village in eastern Syria. A tribal source told Reuters that the attack was carried out by Iran-backed militias. The source added that several rockets were fired by the Iran-affiliated militia, and that two landed near al Omar oil field where U.S. forces are based, which is near the Iraqi border.

IDF Identifies New Demographic Threat in Syria 

This week, news reports circulated that the IDF has identified a new threat resulting from demographic changes and the significant increase in Shiite and Alawite populations in Syria as the war nears an end. The IDF believes Iran may exploit such changes for recruitment, as Hezbollah did in Lebanon. For example, according to the report, in 2011, Syria had 21.3 million residents, with 59% Sunnis, 11% Alawites, and only 4% Shiites. But today, under the territory the Syrian government controls, there are only 10 million residents, with Shiites comprising 10% of the population and Alawites 30%. As Israel Hayom noted, “in other words, if Alawites accounted for some 15% of the Syrian population a decade ago, they now account for some 40% of the population in areas under Assad's control.” 

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