MILITARY
Military assets, troop strength, readiness, morale, capabilities, skirmishes, battles, war, exercises, bases, training areas, no-fly zones, defense zones, identification zones.
The Israel-Hamas ceasefire has ended. Israel is already calling on Palestinian residents in southern Gaza to evacuate. As previously noted, there is nowhere left for civilians to evacuate to.
“A shooting at a bus station near Jerusalem on Thursday morning left three Israelis dead and 11 others with various injuries.
According to Israeli police, the shooting was carried out by two Hamas terrorists who drove to the Givat Shaul junction on the outskirts of the Holy City in an armed vehicle and opened fire on unsuspecting victims standing there. Police responded to the bus stop at around 7:40 a.m. local time… Israeli police said the two shooters, who were from east Jerusalem, were shot and killed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in the area.”
“NBC News reports that US diplomats in the Middle East are ‘sending emails back to Washington saying their most levelheaded counterparts in the region are warning them that America’s reputation is being seriously damaged by its approach to the war'”
“A Hamas source said that 10 more Israeli hostages will be released from the Gaza Strip on Thursday evening, two of them also holding Russian citizenship, as part of one-day truce extension.
Previous statements by the sides had said eight hostages and three bodies will be returned today. It appeared that the two Russian citizens could be slated for release as part of a side agreement between Hamas and Moscow, as has occurred in previous days.”
“France’s amphibious helicopter carrier Dixmude has docked off the coast of El Arish in Egypt where it will serve as a floating hospital for Palestinian civilians wounded in Gaza”
SkyNews claims IDF opened fire on Palestinian civilians attempting to return to North Gaza to look for survivors.
“UN Relief and Works Agency chief Philippe Lazzarini says that 108 UN staff have been killed since the 7th of October, says the UN has ‘never ever lost as many staff in such a short period in the conflict’.”
“Israel and Hamas have agreed to extend a temporary truce for an additional two days as of Nov. 27, according to the government of Qatar, which has presented itself as a mediator in the conflict.”
As part of the deal an additional 20 hostages will be released from Hamas custody, while Israel will release 60 additional Palestinian prisoners.
An eyewitness claims Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) fired tank rounds at an Israeli home on October 7th, after a stand-off with Hamas terrorists. The Tank rounds killed multiple Israeli civilians inside the home. The Israeli government later blamed their deaths on Hamas.
“Armed clashes erupted in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown on Sunday in what the government said was an attack on a military armoury, as it imposed an immediate national curfew.
Witnesses told AFP they heard gunshots and explosions in the city’s Wilberforce district, where the armoury is located along with a number of embassies.
Other witnesses said they heard exchanges of fire near a barracks in Murray Town district, home to the navy, as well as outside another military site in Freetown.
Video posted on social networks showed groups of men on the streets who were described as escaped prisoners.”
“US thwarted a conspiracy to assassinate a Sikh separatist named Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil and issued a warning to India’s government over concerns it was involved in the plot “
Analyst Comment: This follows a successful assassination of a Sikh separatist in Canada. Canada alleged the Indian government of being responsible for the assassination.
“Israel’s government voted on Wednesday to back a deal for Palestinian Hamas terrorists to free 50 women and children held as hostages in Gaza in exchange for a four-day pause in fighting, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said… A U.S. official briefed on the discussions said ahead of the deal that it would include the exchange of 150 Palestinian prisoners.”
“The Department of Defense (DOD) is requesting approximately $114 million to finance its latest round of diversity initiatives… The funding request is the largest of its kind yet for the DOD, which earmarked $68 million for DEIA initiatives in fiscal year 2022 and $86.5 million in fiscal year 2023, according to reports from the Daily Wire.”
Israel-Hamas War Update
- “A strike this weekend on a school run by the United Nations that was being used for shelter by thousands of displaced people in northern Gaza killed at least 24 people, a U.N. official said Sunday.”
- Israel has announced it will soon begin operations in southern Gaza, where it told Palestinians to flee to. Civilians in Southern Gaza have no where else to go. The border with Egypt is closed. IDF now occupies Northern Gaza. The Israel-Gaza border is locked down, and the sea borders the last side. A/C: As previously assessed, Israel is attempting to create a humanitarian crisis to encourage other nations to take Palestinian refugees. Very little effort is being made to disrupt Hamas ops.
- Israel released video showing them breaking into the underground bunker / tunnel complex under Al-Shifa hospital. There was no evidence the complex was recently occupied or being used by Hamas.
- Former Israeli PM Ehud Barak admitted on CNN that Israel in fact built the reinforced tunnel complex under Al-Shifa hospital it claimed was a Hamas HQ.
- “Major General Giora Eiland, former head of the Israeli National Security Council: ‘They are not only Hamas fighters with weapons, but also all the ‘civilian’ officials, including hospital administrators and school administrators, and also the entire Gaza population that enthusiastically supported Hamas and cheered on its atrocities on October 7th. … Israel is not fighting a terrorist organization but against the State of Gaza.'”
- Israel and Hamas are reportedly close to agreeing on a ceasefire in exchange for a hostage release.
- “A Israeli-owned ship seized in the Red Sea by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in retaliation for the war in Gaza is raising fears over more widespread disruption in one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.”
“Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced additional security assistance to meet Ukraine’s critical security and defense needs. This announcement is the Biden Administration’s fifty-first tranche of equipment to be provided from DoD inventories for Ukraine since August 2021…
The capabilities in this package, valued at up to $100 million, include:
- Stinger anti-aircraft missiles;
- One High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and additional
- 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds;
- Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles;
- Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems;
- More than 3 million rounds of small arms ammunition;
- Demolitions munitions for obstacle clearing;
- Cold weather gear; and
- Spare parts, maintenance, and other ancillary equipment.”
“In an interview with CBS News on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Hamas terror group has endangered civilians throughout the Gaza Strip and that the Israeli side has not been entirely successful in its efforts to limit civilian casualties.”
Analyst comment: Israel is doing very little to target Hamas military targets. Instead, they appear more interested in creating a humanitarian crisis so other nations will step in and take Palestinian refugees. The goal is not to eliminate Hamas, it is to push all the Palestinians out of Israel and make them someone else’s problem.
Israel-Hamas Updates:
- “Poll by Israel’s Channel 12 shows Netanyahu’s Likud would plunge to 17 seats from current 32, while the National Unity led by Benny Gantz would surge to 36 seats, up from current 12.”
- “Thousands of Leaflets were dropped on the City of Khan Younis in Southeastern Gaza earlier today, as a Signal that the Israel Defense Force may be planning further Ground Operations in the Southern Gaza Strip where some Israeli Officials have stated they now believe the Leadership of Hamas has Escaped to…” A/C: Previously, IDF pushed civilians from North Gaza to South. It’s unclear where Palestinians would escape to as the Egyptian border is closed to refugees.
- “The body of Judith Weiss from Kibbutz Be’eri [Oct. 7th attack] was found on Wednesday near the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the IDF announced on Thursday.”
- IDF located a tunnel inside the Al-Shifa hospital complex with a handful of small arms. A/C: IDF has still not managed to find any evidence of a Hamas HQ and tunnel hub that they claimed was under the hospital. Gaza is filled with Hamas tunnels and there are viable military targets everywhere, yet IDF continues to target hospitals, resulting in medical care disruptions to thousands of civilians. These disruptions have directly resulted in civilian deaths.
“Pentagon again fails annual audit of $3.8 trillion in military assets — this is the sixth time that it failed”
“World Health Organization chief says they have ‘lost contact’ with staff inside Shifa Hospital and are ‘extremely worried for the safety of staff and patients'”
“Jordan’s military says that 7 staff members at Jordanian field hospital in Gaza have been wounded, affirms Israel’s responsibility to provide protection for the hospital.”
Analyst Comment: The IDF have been deliberately targeting hospitals, claiming that Hamas are using them as operations centers. So far, Israel has been unable to provide any clear evidence to substantiate those claims. Hamas certainly has extensive tunnel networks in Gaza, and Hamas fighters are being treated along with civilians in Gaza hospitals, but whether Hamas is making use of hospitals for operations remains an open question. Israel has put itself in a very precarious position as many of these operations deliberately target, injure and kill civilians in direct violation of international law. Unless Israel can definitively show how Hamas is using Gaza hospitals for conducting operations, international condemnation of their actions will grow.
IDf forces took control of the Al-Shifa medical complex and have been searching it for an alleged underground Hamas HQ.
Analyst Comment: So far the search has only turned up a few small arms and no evidence of larger tunnel structures or a headquarters for Hamas. This is looking increasingly like another major intelligence failure for Israel and will delegitimize their operations and Gaza.
“World Health Organization says 22 out of the 36 hospitals in Gaza are no longer functioning due to ‘lack of fuel, damage, attacks and insecurity’.”
“Hamas agrees to Qatari-mediated deal to release 50 hostages in exchange for 3-day ceasefire, prisoner release”
Israel-Hamas Conflict Updates:
+ The Palestinian Red Crescent alleges that Israeli forces ‘opened fire on the intensive care unit at Al-Quds Hospital’.
+ France’s president Macron tells BBC that ‘Civilians are bombed – de facto. These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop’.
+ IDF held a flag-raising ceremony in Gaza while Iran warned expansion of the war was now inevitable.
+[Israeli] “air strikes have hit the Strip’s biggest hospital, Al Shifa, killing at least one and wounding several others. Other hospitals were were also reportedly struck at dawn, including strikes on the grounds of the Indonesian Hospital and the Rantissi cancer hospital”
+ “There are around 11,000 Gazans dead at this point, mostly civilians, causing UN Secretary-General António Guterres to tell a conference this week that something has gone ‘clearly wrong’ with Israel’s operation.”
+ A survivor of the October 7th Hamas attacks claims Israeli security forces killed Israeli civilians while attempting to secure the area.
“Israel has agreed to daily four-hour military pauses in northern Gaza for humanitarian purposes, the White House said Thursday, even as President Joe Biden said there was no chance of a full ceasefire.
Biden has been pressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for longer breaks in the fighting after more than a month of war sparked by the October 7 attacks by Hamas.”
“The U.S. on Wednesday outlined its expectations for the postwar rule in Gaza, including Palestinian control over the territory, days after Israel said it intended to play a security role there after its planned overthrow of Hamas.
Senior U.S. officials called for the Palestinian people to be at the center of governance in Gaza—unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described a vision for rebuilding Gaza and a path toward Israelis living side by side ‘in space of their own with equal measures of security, freedom, opportunity and dignity…’
On the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven major economies, Blinken said the U.S. objected to ‘forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.’”
“The U.S. Air Force’s proposed plans to retire all of its iconic U-2 Dragon Lady spy planes by 2026 have taken a major step forward with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s signing of a critical waiver to make the controversial move a reality. This mechanism allows the Secretary of Defense to jettison congressional requirements that would ensure the capabilities lost by the end of the U-2 program would be replaced in a cost-effective manner.”
Israel-Hamas Conflict Updates:
- IDF has encircled Gaza and is attempting to split it into North and South sections.
- Israel has again cut off phone and internet access in Gaza.
- Turkey, South Africa, Chad and Jordan have recalled their ambassadors from Israel.
- “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday disciplined a junior member of his cabinet who appeared to voice openness to the idea of Israel carrying out a nuclear strike on Gaza.”
“U.S. and European officials have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, according to one current senior U.S. official and one former senior U.S. official familiar with the discussions.
The conversations have included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal, the officials said. Some of the talks, which officials described as delicate, took place last month during a meeting of representatives from more than 50 nations supporting Ukraine, including NATO members, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the officials said.”
“The National Guard is behind on paying enlistment bonuses to nearly 13,000 troops, including nearly 4,000 service members who have since left the service without receiving the bonuses they were promised at enlistment.
Thousands of Americans enter the National Guard every year with promises of bonuses as high as $20,000 for their part-time service, but the National Guard is behind on paying bonuses to roughly 6% of those service members owed the incentive, a National Guard official confirmed to Fox News Digital.”
Israel-Hamas Conflict Round-Up:
- U.S. officials have asked the Israeli military to explain its airstrike on a densely populated refugee camp in Gaza this week, after the attack killed dozens of people, according to U.S. and Israeli officials.
- France’s foreign minister that the ‘French Cultural Institute in Gaza was hit a few days ago in a way that caused astonishment, incomprehension and which led France to call for explanations from the Israeli authorities’
- Bolivia has become the first Latin American country to cut diplomatic ties with Israel over what it describes as “aggressive and disproportionate” military actions in Gaza.