Lebanon and Hezbollah 

Hezbollah Establishes Military Outpost Inside Israeli Territory

Hezbollah has set up two military posts in Israeli-controlled territory on the border with Lebanon, a discussion in the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Wednesday revealed. Security sources said that the posts were set up inside tents and manned, among other things, by armed operatives of Hezbollah. The Israeli army said it is familiar with the issue, which "is being dealt with by the relevant authorities."  

According to Hebrew media reports, up to 10 Hezbollah fighters infiltrated Israel at its northern border and set up a small armed military position a few meters into Israeli territory over a month ago. Since the incident, the IDF has been working with the Foreign Ministry and has been in dialogue with UNIFIL to convince the small Hezbollah contingent to withdraw – without the use of force. UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told Israel’s Kan News that the peacekeeping force has been “present at the site from the moment the whole matter began weeks ago,” and is seeking a solution through dialogue with “all sides.”  

According to pro-Hezbollah Al-Akhbar, Hezbollah responded to these interlocutors by saying that the territory its fighters have occupied is Lebanese, and it thus has the right to enter them by any means necessary – either through the “formal state institutions” or “the local residents who derive their livelihood from the agricultural lands there or shepherding.” According to Al-Akhbar, Hezbollah therefore “completely rejected vacating the areas, and instead strengthened its hold on two other positions.”  

Israeli officials, including IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari and Israeli Energy and Infrastructure Minister Israel Katz, have said that if dialogue fails to eject the Hezbollah outpost from Israeli territory, then the IDF will do so by force. 

Israel and the Palestinian Territories 

Hamas Claims Responsibility for West Bank Attack that Killed Four Israelis 

Hamas claimed a terrorist attack that targeted a restaurant near the Israeli West Bank settlement of Eli, in which its militants murdered four Israelis and wounded four others. 

One of the victims was identified as Elisha Antman, an 18-year-old resident of the town of Eli. Another was identified as Harel Masoud, a 21-year-old resident of Yad Binyamin. A third was later identified as Ofer Feirman, another Eli resident aged 63. The fourth was identified as Nachman Shmuel Mordoff, 17, a resident of Achiya. Hezbollah issued a statement praising the terror attack.  

Two terrorists entered a restaurant next to the gas station and shot several people there before going to the gas station and shooting another person. At that point, an armed civilian shot and killed one, and the other fled. 

A short time later, a Hamas official said the gunmen belonged to Hamas’s military wing, the Izzadin al-Qassam brigades. The attack was in response to the IDF operation on Monday in Jenin, he told Al Jazeera. 

The day prior, Israel had launched a raid into Jenin, which included a helicopter assault on the city for the first time since the Second Intifada in the early 2000s. The strike killed five Palestinians, identified as Ahmed Saqr, 15, Qassam Abu Saraya, 29, who was claimed as a fighter by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Khaled Asasa, 21, and Qais Jabareen, 21.

Then on Wednesday night, the IDF conducted its first targeted killing in the West Bank since 2006, killing three Palestinian gunmen near the Jalameh Checkpoint north of Jenin. In a joint statement, the IDF and Shin Bet said that the gunmen had opened fire at Jalameh Checkpoint, north of Jenin. Following the shooting attack on the checkpoint, a drone carried out a strike on their vehicle. The cell was also responsible for a number of recent shooting attacks in the area, the IDF and Shin Bet added, including toward towns in northern Israel, over the West Bank security barrier. The gunmen were named as Suhaib al-Ghoul, 27, Muhammad Awais, 28, and Ashraf a-Saadi, 17. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad said al-Ghoul was a commander in a local wing — known as the Jenin Battalion — and a-Saadi was a fighter. Awais was identified as a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a coalition of armed groups loosely affiliated with the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah party.  

Hamas, PIJ Chiefs Meet Iranian Officials in Tehran 

The leaders of Palestinian terror groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas held talks Monday with top Iranian officials in Tehran as deadly violence flared in the West Bank.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi received Palestinian Islamic Jihad chief Ziyad al-Nakhalah while Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh held talks with Ali Akbar Ahmadian, the newly-appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), ahead of a meeting with other top officials.  

“The most efficient way to end the more than 75 years of occupation of Palestine is resistance,” Ahmadian told Haniyeh, according to the Nour News website close to the SNSC. 

Haniyeh and his Hamas delegation also met with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Wednesday. During their meeting, Khamenei said that while “Gaza was the heart of the Resistance,” it was “the West Bank that would bring the enemy to its knees, where great strides forward have been made so far.” Nakhalah met separately with Khamenei as well.  

Relatedly, Palestinian Islamic Jihad politburo member told pro-Hezbollah Al-Mayadeen that Iran was aiding Palestinians in “confronting [Israel’s] Judaization of Jerusalem,” and that the joint PIJ/Hamas delegation’s visit to Tehran was proof of the Islamic Republic’s positive impact on the Palestinian arena. 

Syria 

U.S. General: Russians Will Grant Iran Freedom of Action in Syria 

U.S. Airforce Lieutenant General Alexus Grynkewich, commander of the 9th Air Force and combined forces air component commander for U.S. Central Command, told Israeli reporters that Russia could open avenues for Iran to advance in the Middle East and sow further chaos in the region. Iran and Russia, he said, have a growing relationship that, in many ways, left Moscow “beholden” to Iran.  

The two countries, he noted, have a joint interest in the departure of U.S.-led coalition forces from Syria, which would feature “freedom of action to have Iranian-aligned groups move advanced conventional weapons and lethal capabilities across Syria for their own purposes: to threaten Israel or to threaten other interests with whom they disagree,” Grynkewich said. “If they are able to open up avenues where Iran is able to push lethal aid through Syria that threatens Israel, that’s certainly a concern for the United States.” 

But, Grynkewich added, “the Israelis have every right to act in their own defense and the United States has an ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel. And that will continue.” 

Despite this, like other top American officials, Grynkewich praised the recent renewal of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran in a deal brokered by China. “Anything that diffuses tensions in the Middle East I view as a positive trend line,” he said. 

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