Dr. Limor Simhony is a freelance writer. She was previously a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv.
As troops from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) 98th airborne division enter into Lebanon, they know that fighting Hezbollah will prove dangerous and difficult. Although Hezbollah has deteriorated after Israel’s recent attacks, its terrorists still have significant fighting capabilities. The elite IDF troops are backed by the Israeli airforce and artillery. It’s been nearly 12
Israel has started to prepare for a ground invasion of Lebanon amid international calls for ceasefire. This is the next stage of Israel’s operation against Hezbollah – which began with exploding pagers and walkie-talkies, and continued with the killing of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, as well as nearly all of the terror organisation’s top commanders. The
Israel has said that it killed Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut yesterday. Information that Nasrallah was at Hezbollah’s main headquarters in Beirut arrived while Israel’s Prime Minister was addressing the UN in New York, and a decision was made to target the man who has been terrorising Israelis for more than three decades. He
It was late in 1997 when I got to a small military base on the border between Israel and Lebanon. Straight out of training, my welcome to the base involved sitting in the war room wearing a helmet and a bulletproof vest, hoping that the barrage of rockets flying over our heads, courtesy of Hezbollah,
This hasn’t been the easiest week for Hezbollah. It started with the terror organisation’s pagers mysteriously exploding, killing 37 people people (according to official reports) and injuring some 3,000 people, mostly members of the group. This has stunned Hezbollah – and the world. A day later, their walkie-talkies starting blowing up too. The attacks, which have been attributed to
Has Hamas finally been defeated in Gaza, nearly a year after it launched the most deadly attack in Israel’s history? Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has proclaimed that Hamas no longer has a military capacity in Gaza. Hamas has indeed suffered a considerable blow since October. Many of its tunnels – one of its greatest strategic assists
Benjamin Netanyahu is the great survivor of Israeli politics, but his grip on power is slipping. ‘You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.’ Abraham Lincoln’s saying applies now more
The heartbreaking news that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have recovered the bodies of six Israeli hostages has caused rage in Israel against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. All six hostages – Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Master Sergeant Ori Danino – were kidnapped alive on 7 October. They were
An Israeli airstrike on a school in Gaza in the early hours of this morning has once again triggered an information battle in the narrative of the war. Shortly after the strike, the Hamas-controlled government and media-affiliated service reported that there were 100 dead, including women and children. According to Israeli sources, the Israel Defence
A full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah now seems closer than at any point since 7 October. Recent escalations, including the killing of twelve Druze children by a Hezbollah rocket and the assassination of the organisation’s armed forces commander, mean that war is now a more likely scenario. A war in Lebanon would look very differently to
Israel has been accused of killing Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a strike on Iran overnight. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but Hamas said Haniyeh was ‘killed in a treacherous Zionist raid’ and vowed revenge. If indeed Israel did target Haniyeh in his Tehran residence it could mark a major escalation in the
If Donald Trump becomes president again – which seems likely – American policy towards Israel could see a dramatic shift. Since the war between Israel and Hamas started last October, Trump has repeatedly expressed his support for Israel. The head of the Republican Jewish Coalition claimed that Trump would grant Israel ‘a blank cheque’ to
When an opportunity came today for Israel to take out the leading Hamas member and head of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif, it could not afford to pass it up. It’s unclear yet whether Deif was in fact killed in the strike, which took place near the city of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has started another round of strikes in Khan Younis, having left the Gazan city in April. This isn’t the first time that Israeli forces had to return to areas from which they’ve already withdrawn. As Hamas terrorists flee current fighting zones, such as Rafah in southern Gaza, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) need to
Benny Gantz, leader of the Israeli Resilience party and a member of the war cabinet, has resigned from Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Gantz, a moderate who joined the cabinet days into the war against Hamas, has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the prime minister over a lack of a plan for Gaza. Gantz positioned himself as
Joe Biden’s introduction of the three-stage deal to end the war in Gaza was a clever rout to bypass Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden has lost confidence in Netanyahu’s readiness to present things to the Israeli public, and to his own cabinet, in an honest and truthful way. By presenting the terms of the deal clearly and
The devastating fire that, according to Hamas, killed dozens of displaced civilians in Rafah and that reportedly started because of an Israeli attack on Hamas terrorists, has come at the worse possible time for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Four days ago, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel must immediately halt activities in Rafah. Although
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that Israel has to immediately stop the Rafah operation wouldn’t have surprised anyone who knows how deeply biased the ICJ is against Israel. In response to a request by South Africa, the court ruled that Israel must ‘immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the
In a dramatic announcement, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, declared today that he has applied for arrest warrants to be issued for Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. He has applied for three more for the Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet is at risk of falling apart as the country’s defence establishment turns on him. Last night, Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity party and a member of Netanyahu’s coalition, issued the Prime Minister with an ultimatum. In an extremely critical speech, Gantz blamed Netanyahu for letting personal
