Hezbollah 

Hezbollah Continues Low-Level Harassment of Israel

Members of the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group were filmed carrying out a patrol on Israel’s border while fitted with military gear, in what appeared to be a violation of a United Nations resolution, the Israeli military said Tuesday. Israel Defense Forces troops filmed the camouflaged Hezbollah members walking along the border near the northern Israeli town of Dovev last week. The troops did not engage the patrol, and on Tuesday, footage of the close encounter leaked.  

“During routine activity last week, the IDF recorded Hezbollah operatives moving in Lebanese territory near the border fence,” the military said in response to a query on the matter.

According to Israeli military intelligence, Hezbollah has increased these low-level harassment actions – which amount to taunting Israel while testing its limits – due to the negative impact of the judicial overhaul legislation on the country’s unity, the IDF’s battle-readiness, and Israeli deterrence. The IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate reportedly sent four letters to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning of the security consequences of his coalition’s judicial overhaul plans, the latest arriving days before the Knesset approved the first piece of controversial legislation earlier this week.  

According to the reported assessments, Israel’s enemies view the summer of 2023 as a historic low point in the country’s history, and officials are concerned that serious harm may be caused to its deterrence. Although intelligence officials think Iran and Hezbollah prefer to stand back and allow the crisis to destroy Israel from within, the risk of escalation is believed to be the highest since the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War in 2006, it said.

According to the report, the military has deduced that Israel’s enemies view its deterrence as based on four aspects: the strength of the Israel Defense Forces, strong ties with the United States, a strong economy, and strong internal cohesion — all of which are believed to have been weakened by the overhaul in the long term. 

Relatedly, a speech given by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah the day that the Knesset passed the first part of its judicial overhaul package – and touched off massive protests throughout the country – seemed to echo IDF intelligence assessments. Nasrallah gloated that Israel was on the “path to disappearance” as chaotic demonstrations by opposition activists protesting the passage of the first judicial overhaul law wracked the nation on Monday.  

“Israel was once thought of as a regional power that can’t be beaten, and regional countries accepted its threat as a fact that can’t be removed,” Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address marking the seventh day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, days ahead of the major Shiite festival of Ashura, according to media reports. He added that “its trust, awareness, and self-confidence have deteriorated into the crisis it is experiencing today.”

The Hezbollah chieftain branded Monday Israel’s “worst” day since the state’s creation. “This day, in particular, is the worst day in the history of the entity, as some of its people say. This is what puts it on the path to collapse, fragmentation and disappearance, God willing,” he said. 

Israel and the Palestinian Territories 

CENTCOM Chief Arrives In Israel, Discusses Iran, Hezbollah With Military Brass

The head of US Central Command (CENTCOM) overseeing all American forces in the Middle East, Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, met Wednesday in Tel Aviv with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, just two days after the Knesset adopted controversial legislation called the "Reasonableness Clause" eroding the powers of the Supreme Court and triggering concerns in Israel over the readiness of its military.

A statement issued by the Israeli Defense Ministry said that the meeting, held at the Defense Ministry headquarters, also included IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, head of the IDF Operations Division Oded Basiuk, IDF attache in Washington Hedi Silberman and head of the Political-Security Division at the Ministry of Defense Dror Shalom. "In their conversation, Gallant and Kurilla discussed the security challenges in the region, focusing on Iranian terrorist activity throughout the Middle East, including funding, training, and the transfer of weapons to terrorist organizations in Syria and in Lebanon," read the statement.  

Kurilla’s visit, and a separate conversation between Israeli security establishment officials and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, seem intended to send the same message to Jerusalem: that despite the rift between leaderships – particularly over Israel’s controversial judicial reform legislation – Washington does not intend to stop its military aid to Israel. They also signal that both defense systems continue to collaborate on the Iranian threats, including the nuclear program and Iran-affiliated Hezbollah.

The latter issue was surely discussed at length at the meeting with Kurilla on the backdrop of growing action by Hezbollah on the Lebanese border fence, attempting to damage it several times in the past few weeks. The last such incident occurred on Tuesday, when Hezbollah operatives were filmed patrolling Israel’s border in military gear. Also on Tuesday, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah gloated that Israel was on the “path to disappearance” as chaotic demonstrations against the judicial overhaul took place outside of the Knesset on Monday.  

Hamas, Fatah Negotiate Reconciliation Under Turkish Auspices as PA Accuses Hamas of Recruiting Youth 

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas together with Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Ankara on Wednesday, Erdogan's office said. Abbas is paying a visit to Turkey and had previously met with Erdogan on Tuesday. Abbas and Haniyeh have been unable to repair a rift since 2007, when Hamas, which opposes peace deals with Israel, seized control of the Gaza Strip. Abbas' Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) remains dominant in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.  

On Tuesday, Abbas agreed with Haniyeh, who currently resides between Qatar and Turkey, to hold a broad meeting of factions in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, at the end of July to discuss the conflict with Israel and ways to end internal divisions. Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank held little hope that the meetings could reconcile the ongoing power struggle between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah faction, the backbone of the Palestinian Authority, after many failed attempts in the past 16 years. In a statement issued by Hamas on Wednesday, the group said its leaders reaffirmed in Tuesday's meeting with Abbas that "resistance was the most efficient way to confront the (Israeli) occupation."  

Meanwhile, back home, Palestinian Authority officials accused Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad –Iran-backed terror groups – of recruiting hopeless youth for terror attacks. The Palestinian Authority faces an uphill battle in its attempt to curb terror in the West Bank, where Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have been recruiting impoverished youth to carry out attacks, a senior officer in the PA’s Preventive Security Service revealed in a meeting this week, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told The Times of Israel.  

Brigadier General Hassan Asfour, who serves as director of central operations in the Preventive Security Service, told members of the Palestinian diaspora in the United States that the PA had intensified its arrests of Hamas and PIJ fighters in the West Bank in recent months. 

While interrogating those suspects, the Preventive Security Service learned that many of them were from the poorest segments of society with “no food to eat” and “nothing to live for,” Asfour said, according to the source, who requested that the exact time and location of the meeting in the United States not be shared to protect his identity. 

The source said Asfour shared that Hamas and Islamic Jihad often pay the suspects arrested by the PA to carry out attacks against settlers and Israeli security forces. “Hamas and Jihad want to destroy the West Bank, and they don’t want the PA to be around,” said Asfur, whose Preventive Security Service is tasked largely with counter-terror operations targeting the two terror groups that are Ramallah’s main rivals in the territory. 

IDF Finds New Launch Pad in West Bank After Hamas Claims Rocket Fire from Jenin 

According to the Gilboa Regional Council spokesperson, the IDF located "what appears to be a launch pit for a rocket" on the Palestinian territory close to the separation fence. However, the spokesperson emphasized that it was a preliminary report and "the IDF has not finished the investigation." 

Earlier on Thursday, Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades claimed to have fired a rocket at the Israeli settlement of Ram On in the Jenin area in the West Bank. "We were able to bomb Ram On settlement in the Jenin area with a Qassam 1 missile in response to the aggression of the occupation and settlers on Al-Aqsa," the terrorist group said. 

Motorcycle Bombing in Syria 

A motorcycle planted with explosives detonated in a Damascus suburb near the Sayida Zeinab shrine, killing at least six people and wounding dozens a day before the solemn holy day of Ashoura, state media reported, citing the Interior Ministry. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the explosion occurred close to positions of Iran-backed militias. Iran’s Foreign Ministry later denied any Iranian was killed.

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