In a comprehensive <a href="https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column_article/correcting-the-record-on-the-idf-and-lethal-targeting">must-read article</a> for its explanation of how a moral war can be conducted, the U.S. General who was responsible for developing the air campaign in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and the U.S. Army judge advocate officer who served as the Army&#8217;s senior law of war advisor harshly criticized The New York Times for its spurious implication that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) made a deliberate decision to green-light increased civilian casualties.
General Charles Wald and Geoffrey Corn referred to the New York Times article titled, “Israel Loosened Its Rules to Bomb Hamas Fighters, Killing Many More Civilians,” and stated that the information provided by the Times was presented “in a manner designed to lead to an invalid inference: that the IDF’s civilian casualty thresholds were a quota that every attack was designed to meet and, by raising those thresholds, the IDF displayed potentially illegal indifference towards civilian casualties.”
“This is a misrepresentation of the function of civilian casualty thresholds and what the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) <a href="https://jinsa.org/jinsa_report/israel-hamas-law-of-armed-conflict/">demands</a>,” they bluntly declare. “Crucially, civilian casualty thresholds indicate nothing about whether a particular attack does or does not comply with the LOAC proportionality rule. An attack falling within the scope of the threshold authority may not be proportional, while one exceeding it may be. Nor does the raising of the threshold mean that every IDF attack caused civilian casualties up to the authorized number. The Times cites examples of IDF strikes that did result in many casualties, but it fails to cite the numerous attack proposals that were <a href="https://www.israelhayom.com/2023/05/11/idf-cancels-gaza-strike-due-to-presence-of-children/">canceled</a> or <a href="https://x.com/IDF/status/1722801833691726111">suspended</a> because a commander who could authorize them decided not to do so. Without such balance, the true meaning of this threshold expansion is lost.”
“The article’s implication seems obvious: that the decision to modify these thresholds and expand attack authority at lower levels of command was indicative of an overall disregard for the laws of armed conflict,” they wrote. “But this implication is almost impossible to square with our observations as well as those of a number of military experts who have interacted with the IDF to assess operational and tactical practices. As we, together with other retired U.S. military commanders, argued in a <a href="https://jinsa.org/jinsa_report/gaza-war-observations-2023-2024/">JINSA report</a> informed by a fact-finding visit to Israel in which we were briefed by the IDF about their operations: ‘the IDF has carried out its mission to eliminate the Hamas threat with operational and tactical excellence and in overall compliance with the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC). This occurred despite encountering a complex urban and subterranean battlefield….’”
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?_gl=1*1lail3r*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE3MzIyMDEyNDkuQ2owS0NRaUEwZnU1QmhEUUFSSXNBTVhVQk9JSkM0VnNsMFVreURxYXUxVWVEVWdOdjZkNzR2Y1pEeEZQeHVBcGl2R3BLaTdBMjVzT1p5TWFBdG1nRUFMd193Y0I.*_gcl_au*NDUxNDQ0NzYwLjE3MzY3ODI2NDY.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczNjk1NzYwMy4zNDAuMS4xNzM2OTU3NzE2LjYwLjAuMA.." target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?_gl%3D1*1lail3r*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE3MzIyMDEyNDkuQ2owS0NRaUEwZnU1QmhEUUFSSXNBTVhVQk9JSkM0VnNsMFVreURxYXUxVWVEVWdOdjZkNzR2Y1pEeEZQeHVBcGl2R3BLaTdBMjVzT1p5TWFBdG1nRUFMd193Y0I.*_gcl_au*NDUxNDQ0NzYwLjE3MzY3ODI2NDY.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczNjk1NzYwMy4zNDAuMS4xNzM2OTU3NzE2LjYwLjAuMA..&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1737430804505000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2S7KENhvlT7FAUHjrI0iAs">CELEBRATE #47 WITH 47% OFF DAILYWIRE+ MEMBERSHIPS + A FREE $20 GIFT</a>
The authors quoted urban warfare expert John Spencer, who <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/israel-implemented-more-measures-prevent-civilian-casualties-any-other-nation-history-opinion-1865613">asserted</a>, “Israel has taken precautionary measures even the United States did not do during its recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The authors spent considerable time explaining how armed conflict is supposed to work when civilian casualties are part of the issue: “Civilian casualty thresholds are best understood, as one of us has <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2485624">explained</a>, as an important civilian risk mitigation precaution. When such thresholds are imposed, they do not, as is suggested in the Times critique, authorize inflicting that number of civilian casualties. Instead, they limit the attack decision authority at different levels of command to those expected to create a certain level of civilian risk. If the anticipated civilian risk exceeds the threshold, the decision whether to attack has to undergo greater scrutiny and be made at a higher-level command.&#8221;
“Nothing about the ground campaign the IDF was compelled to launch against Hamas mirrors prior confrontations with that enemy,” the authors noted. “As noted in our JINSA <a href="https://jinsa.org/jinsa_report/gaza-war-observations-2023-2024/">report</a>, this was a combined arms maneuver campaign involving up to five maneuver divisions (approximately 100,000 troops) against a determined enemy numbering somewhere between 35-40,000 fighters organized into 24 battalions operating under, on, and above ground.”
“Unfortunately, the Times article ignores this military operational reality that almost certainly influenced this modification,” they continued. “Anyone reading the critique would assume that nothing changed in the operational situation confronted by the IDF between October 6, 2023, and the commencement of its Gaza campaign. But such an assumption is simply absurd. The campaign the IDF conducted against Hamas and other organized armed groups in Gaza was unprecedented in scale and intensity, certainly the most extensive campaign against an enemy in decades.
“There is nothing remarkable or unusual about the fact that the IDF leadership modified these thresholds to align with the nature of the campaign they were about to conduct. If anything, the fact that limits were retained is an indication of their consistent commitment to the precautions obligation,” they declared.
They concluded:
<blockquote>
Educating the public on the procedures implemented by professional armed forces to balance the needs of military necessity with the imperative of mitigating civilian risk is both important and valuable. However, it is imperative that such education reflect both the true nature of the law that regulates war and the military operational realities in which it is applied. Ironically, to suggest an indiscriminate campaign, the Times article employed indiscriminate analysis. In the context of an unprecedentedly complex conflict, the IDF’s decision to expand civilian casualty thresholds was both logical and justified, and in no way supports the inference of a military indifferent to the human costs of war.  
</blockquote>

New York Times Headquarters in New York City

U.S. General, Army’s War Advisor Rip NY Times For Implying IDF Indifferent To Civilian Casualties

civilian casualties

Hamas

Israel

Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

Media

Politics

The New York Times

In the face of those who have criticized the Israeli military for targeting hospitals where Hamas terrorists hide, on Tuesday, Israel Defense Forces released a video in which a member of the terrorist group Hamas admitted that Hamas and Islamic Jihad use hospitals to hide their terrorists and weapons specifically so that the Israeli military won’t target them.
The Israel Defense Forces released a video of Anas Muhammad Faiz Al-Sharif, 21, a Hamas terrorist who had been hiding out at Kamal Adwan Hospital, being questioned. Using a civilian or another protected person as a shield for military operations is a direct violation of International Humanitarian Law and is considered a war crime. That is clearly stated in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“I work at Kamal Adwan Hospital as a cleaning supervisor,” Al-Sharif stated. “I joined the Al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas) in 2021 in the Nukhba forces in the Western Battalion.”
The “Nukhba forces” are an “elite unit within Hamas, which includes operatives chosen by senior Hamas leaders,” CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbctv18.com/world/israel-hamas-war-who-are-nukhba-force-military-unit-palestine-army-gaza-idf-18042121.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a>. “Five Hamas leaders secretly planned the bloody invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, with 70 commandos from the terrorist group’s elite Nukhba Force leading the charge across the Gaza border, the London-based, pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported on Wednesday,” JNS <a href="https://www.jns.org/five-hamas-leaders-planned-oct-7-attack-70-nukhba-fighters-led-the-charge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> in January 2024.
“Where were you arrested?” the interrogator asked.
“Inside Kamal Adwan Hospital,” he replied.
“When you were at Kamal Adwan Hospital, who else was there?” the interrogator continued.
“There were people there, the staff — the medical team I work with daily and directly. There were also operatives from Hamas and Islamic Jihad from the Al-Nasser Division and other organizations in Northern Gaza,” Al-Sharif admitted.
“Why were you hiding in Kamal Adwan Hospital?” the interrogator queried.
“They believe it is a safe haven for them because the military cannot directly target it,” Al-Sharif said.
“What do you mean when you say it is a ‘safe haven’?” the interrogator pressed.
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“Because there are civilians and patients there,” Al-Sharif answered. “They think the military cannot bomb it, such as with a missile from an F-16 or by demolishing the building.”
“Now, when the operatives were in the hospital, what were they doing?” the interrogator wanted to know.
“The operatives were there transporting equipment and weapons like AK-47s &#8230; and pistols,” Al-Sharif revealed. “The weapons were transferred to and from the hospital from the outside in and from the inside out within the hospital. It was used for observation and patrols. They leave the hospital late at night; they arrive at the hospital in the morning. Inside the hospital, they distribute the grenades and mortars equipment for attacking tanks, for ambush positions and for tunnels underground to the command and control center, whether at Kamal Adwan, Faluja (Jabaliya Camp), or in new locations where the operatives are located.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/asBARDtg4P0?si=b8sGNGql1budYx0s" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Kamal Adwan Hospital after Israeli attacks on Gaza

WATCH: Hamas Member Admits Terrorists And Lethal Weapons Are In Hospitals So Israel Won’t Attack

Hospitals

Terrorism

World

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/israel-defense-forces-idf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Israel Defense Forces</a> (IDF) declassified footage on Thursday showing a raid that IDF commandos carried out on September 8th, 2024, deep inside Syrian territory on an underground Iranian missile manufacturing plant.
The raid from the Israeli Air Force&#8217;s (IAF) Shaldag Unit was the result of years worth of &#8220;extensive intelligence gathering and monitoring,&#8221; the IDF said in a statement.
&#8220;The soldiers landed using helicopters, with fire and intelligence-gathering support from aircraft, fighter jets, and naval vessels of the Israeli Navy,&#8221; the IDF said. &#8220;The compound was a flagship project for Iran&#8217;s efforts to arm its terror proxies on Israel’s northern border. The compound included advanced assembly lines designed to manufacture precision-guided missiles and long-range rockets, significantly increasing the supply of missiles to Hezbollah and other Iranian terror proxies in the region.&#8221;
&#8220;During the operation, the forces reached critical machinery for manufacturing precision missiles, including a planetary mixer, numerous weapons, and intelligence documents, which were transferred for investigation,&#8221; the statement continued. &#8220;The soldiers destroyed the compound and safely returned to Israeli territory.&#8221;
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that he was proud of the commandos for the &#8220;bold and successful operation deep inside Syria.&#8221;
&#8220;This is one of the important countermeasures we have taken against the Iranian axis&#8217; attempts to arm itself to harm us, and it testifies to our determination and courage to act everywhere to protect ourselves,&#8221; he added.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The Israeli military declassified intelligence on a commando raid that destroyed an Iranian-funded and supported underground compound for manufacturing precision missiles in Syria:
On September 8, 2024, over 100 Shaldag commandos raided an underground compound in Masyaf, Syria.… <a href="https://t.co/IacE7zQrt2">pic.twitter.com/IacE7zQrt2</a>
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeTruzman/status/1874848162453893500?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2025</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
A video from the day of the operation, showing the sequence of events on the ground: <a href="https://t.co/a1bAS9Q2nr">pic.twitter.com/a1bAS9Q2nr</a>
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeTruzman/status/1874848169366024451?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2025</a></blockquote>
The operation marked <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/israel-destroys-underground-iranian-built-missile-factory-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the first known ground operation</a> by Israel inside of Syria in years.
The raid happened in the western part of Syria, near the border of Lebanon, while the IAF conducted an intense bombing campaign to stop the Syrian military from being able to send reinforcements to respond to Israel’s operation at the factory.
Israel notified the U.S. of the raid in advance and received no opposition to launching the operation.
The Syrian guards who were protecting the terrorist manufacturing facility were caught off guard by the raid and were killed in the Israeli commandos’ surprise attack.
U.S. and Israeli sources confirmed to Axios that Iran started building the underground facility in 2018 in coordination with Hezbollah and the Syrians after Israel “destroyed most of the Iranian missile production infrastructure” inside the country.
Israeli intelligence services reportedly monitored the site, built inside of a mountain, for five years. Israel previously considered launching an operation to destroy the site, but deemed the project too “high-risk.”
The raid could foreshadow how Israel might deal with Iran’s nuclear facilities as the country gets closer to obtaining nuclear weapons, partly due to a lack of deterrence from the Biden administration, some experts say.

IDF Releases Footage From Raid It Carried Out On Underground Iranian Missile Factory

Global Politics

Iran

Syria

American Israeli Defense Forces reservist Chaim Meisels didn’t just fly from New York to Israel on October 7, 2023, to fight against Hamas — he also helped the IDF acquire the drone that located Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Sinwar, 61, was killed in October after the drone detected a group of militants moving between buildings. The drone helped pinpoint the terrorists’ location, leading to a firefight and the terrorists splitting up before being killed. Sinwar ran alone into a building and was eventually killed.
Sinwar&#8217;s final moments were captured by another drone, which recorded him sitting with his head covered and throwing what appears to be a stick at the device. The IDF was not immediately aware that Sinwar was part of the group of militants.
The first drone, donated by a group in New Jersey, was a DJI Mavic equipped with thermal imaging and primarily used for general observation. The second drone, a DJI Avata, was donated by London fashion designer <a href="https://www.instagram.com/chansufrin/?hl=en">Hannah Lancry Sufrin</a>, and is designed for navigating small spaces, such as entering buildings through windows, according to Meisels. Lancry told The Daily Wire she has raised close to half a million dollars since the war began to assist with getting supplies to the IDF.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a> Drone footage shows the last seconds of Sinwar’s life <a href="https://t.co/XwmEZRzWfo">pic.twitter.com/XwmEZRzWfo</a>
&mdash; Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) <a href="https://twitter.com/AvivaKlompas/status/1847007721922744415?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
Meisels, 30, told The Daily Wire that after being honored as a guest of a synagogue in Teaneck New Jersey, a family hosting him asked how they could support the 828th Bislamach Brigade he belongs to. Meisels explained that his unit would benefit from more equipment, including drones. 
“When I got to my unit after October 7, it’s sad to say but we had almost nothing,” Meisels said. “After October 7, there were close to 300,000 reserve guys that joined in and had to become part of the fight and the IDF did not have helmets or vests for them. Jews in America pitched in and donated so we could do our job.”
Lindsay, who requested her last name be withheld for fear of her safety, told The Daily Wire she organized the fundraising, which amounted to about $10,000, given by members of her shul, the rabbi’s discretionary fund, and a few donors from another state.
“The excitement we all felt when we heard Sinwar was dead and that the drone we donated helped locate him was unreal,” Lindsay of Teaneck, New Jersey, who helped organize the fundraising for the drones told The Daily Wire. “It was great news to receive.”
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_848885" style="width: 334px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-848885" class="size-large wp-image-848885" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/7dfd9771-8a37-4357-96e8-644578bde6af-324x576.jpg" alt="" width="324" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/7dfd9771-8a37-4357-96e8-644578bde6af-324x576.jpg 324w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/7dfd9771-8a37-4357-96e8-644578bde6af-169x300.jpg 169w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/7dfd9771-8a37-4357-96e8-644578bde6af-768x1366.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/7dfd9771-8a37-4357-96e8-644578bde6af-864x1536.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/7dfd9771-8a37-4357-96e8-644578bde6af.jpg 899w" sizes="(max-width: 324px) 100vw, 324px" />DJI Mavic drone donated to the IDF by a group of Jews in New Jersey. (Photo: Courtesy of Chaim Meisels)</div>
&nbsp;
Lindsay and her family purchased the drones in May and provided them to Meisels. According to Meisels, the drones were fully operational in Gaza by June.
“October 7th wasn&#8217;t an attack just on Israel. It was an attack on Jews all over,” Meisels explained. “So they wanted to help and one of the ways they were able to help is by donating equipment to the guys on the front lines in Israel. So a lot of drones were donated, a lot of helmets, a lot of vests, a lot of tourniquets or basic stuff for the guys in order to be able to fight better.”
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Meisels explained that while the IDF has many drones, they are often shot down and need to be replaced, which is costly. He said that when one is donated, its software is modified to function in combat and connect to IDF systems. 
Though Meisels is proud of his unit, which used the drones to help eliminate Sinwar, he was not present during the operation because he decided to take a few hours off to see his wife and newborn daughter on what appeared to be a low-action day.
“Because my wife came to Israel I went to visit her,” Meisels explained. “When I came back I realized that they had killed Sinwar and they were doing a lot of good stuff. I was kind of sad to not be part of it, but we put in a tremendous amount of work the days later to find hostages.”
<div id="attachment_848881" style="width: 423px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-848881" class="size-large wp-image-848881" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/c28eb201-6d2f-47c6-b0d6-138f50f5d169-413x576.jpg" alt="" width="413" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/c28eb201-6d2f-47c6-b0d6-138f50f5d169-413x576.jpg 413w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/c28eb201-6d2f-47c6-b0d6-138f50f5d169-215x300.jpg 215w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/c28eb201-6d2f-47c6-b0d6-138f50f5d169-768x1070.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/c28eb201-6d2f-47c6-b0d6-138f50f5d169.jpg 888w" sizes="(max-width: 413px) 100vw, 413px" />Chaim Meisels sitting on the chair Sinwar was seen sitting on before he died. (Photo: Courtesy of Chaim Meisels)</div>
Meisels, a native of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was raised in the Orthodox Jewish Satmar community — one of the largest Hasidic groups. He is the great-grandson of the famed Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, the former leader of Satmar, who passed away in 2006. 
Meisels says he is the only grandchild (of about 500) fighting in the IDF, as the group does not support its members fighting in Israel’s military. But Meisels said he felt a connection to Israel at a young age and agreed to a short commitment that turned into nearly six years of service, during which time he rose to the rank of captain.
“It ended up that I was there for close to six years after becoming a commander and then going to the Israeli West Point, which made me an officer and later a captain,” he said. “After my service, I moved back to the United States to continue my life over here.”
Meisels served about six years in Israel as a “lone soldier,” a term used for Jews from the diaspora fighting in the IDF without any immediate family present in the country. He said most of the time he was training for a potential war, but on October 7, just four months after his wedding, he flew to Israel to fight.
“I went to JFK to be on the first flight to Israel, and I was there on Sunday,” he said. “Only when I landed in Israel, I realized what actually happened. I knew it was very bad but I didn&#8217;t know how bad it was.”
Meisels first went to the Lebanon border with his unit in case Hezbollah decided to replicate Hamas’s attack. Then he was one of the first units to enter Gaza to help bring back the hostages. 
Fighting in Gaza has been difficult because of the urban warfare environment, said Meisels.
“It just changed my whole perspective on fighting in a neighborhood where the civilians might be terrorists,” he said. “We got shot at by people who looked like regular people. So we didn&#8217;t want to open fire on them in the beginning. But then they see you start shooting at you in civilian clothing and it kind of made the world very tough for us to be able to differentiate when you&#8217;re going to shoot back and when not because we didn&#8217;t want to kill civilians.”
Meisels said it shocked him that he found weapons in every Gazan house he entered. He said he also found traces of hostages in civilian homes.
“You go into a house and everything is normal and then you find papers or an I.D. from one of the hostages so you knew those guys had to be involved with that, which was very shocking to me in the beginning,” he said. “There isn&#8217;t a lot of civilians and a lot of the people there identify with Hamas and will try to kill you if they can.”
Meisels supports balance when it comes to having more Orthodox men fighting in the IDF, a topic that has caused stark divisions in Israeli society. Many religious groups prefer to have men studying the Torah in religious programs, called yeshivas, while other religious groups and secular society believe fighting-age men should participate in Israel’s mandatory draft.
<div id="attachment_848877" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-848877" class="size-large wp-image-848877" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/729b7958-6f57-49a5-a954-97390be8c3c7-768x576.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/729b7958-6f57-49a5-a954-97390be8c3c7-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/729b7958-6f57-49a5-a954-97390be8c3c7-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/729b7958-6f57-49a5-a954-97390be8c3c7-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/729b7958-6f57-49a5-a954-97390be8c3c7.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" />Chaim Meisels praying while serving in Gaza for the IDF. (Photo: Courtesy of Chaim Meisels)</div>
“There are 7 to 9 million Jews living in Israel and we want to protect them,” he said. “You can’t force people to join the IDF though, so to get this group to join it has to be done in a smart way, including making following religious observance possible while serving.”
He added that though he believes more men should serve, not everyone is cut out.
“I think that most of the Haredi community should serve, but not everyone,” he said.  “Some people are just not made for the army system. There&#8217;s a lot of people who should, but you can&#8217;t make it everyone, because then it&#8217;s going to become very hard for some guys that I don&#8217;t want to get a gun.”
He said that other roles for mandatory service, such as in the ambulance system, fire department, or police may be a suitable compromise.
“We, as Orthodox Jews believe that a lot of men that are able should be learning and become rabbis because we believe that that&#8217;s also helping to protect Israel and it&#8217;s good for the future we need,” he said. “Like we need professors and doctors in the secular world, we need people who learn and know Torah very well.”
While Meisels is not on reserve duty in the IDF, he serves as the National Chapters Director at the nonprofit <a href="https://nevut.org/about-us/">Nevut</a>, where he spearheads efforts to support returning lone soldiers as they transition back to the United States.
“There are a lot of guys who went to Israel to fight and then when they come back, some are struggling with PTSD,” he said. &#8220;We just basically try to tell them they&#8217;re not alone and we didn&#8217;t forget their service and we try to take care of them.”

Drone and Sinwar

Drone That Caught Yahya Sinwar Was Donated By New Jersey Jews Says IDF Captain

Gaza

Yahya Sinwar

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched airstrikes against targets belonging to Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen during the early morning hours on Thursday after the group fired a missile into Israel that destroyed a school.
&#8220;Today, the IDF conducted precise strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen &#8211; including ports and energy infrastructure in Sana&#8217;a, which the Houthis have been using in ways that effectively contributed to their military actions,&#8221; said IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. &#8220;Israel will not hesitate to act in order to defend itself and its citizens from the Houthi attacks.&#8221;
Ramat Gan Mayor Carmel Shama-Hacohen said that the damage to the multistory Ramat Ef’al elementary school would need to be entirely rebuilt after sustaining millions of dollars in damage from the Houthi missile strike. No one was inside the building when it was hit.
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Israel&#8217;s military said that its strikes against the Houthis involved 14 fighter jets that were deployed in two waves — the first of which targeted the ports of Hodeida, Salif, and the Ras Isa oil terminal, while the second targeted energy infrastructure in Sanaa.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
A significant explosion following Israeli airstrikes earlier tonight in Yemen. <a href="https://t.co/VLcvmJ23w4">pic.twitter.com/VLcvmJ23w4</a>
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeTruzman/status/1869602727736819813?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2024</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Reported footage of Israeli strikes on Hodeidah, Yemen, a short time ago. <a href="https://t.co/agI6qxtu5L">pic.twitter.com/agI6qxtu5L</a>
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeTruzman/status/1869566023932039541?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2024</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
An Israeli airstrike in Yemen a short time ago. <a href="https://t.co/0ydLEpxbqV">pic.twitter.com/0ydLEpxbqV</a>
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeTruzman/status/1869567751322583440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2024</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Damage at the Hezyaz power station in Sanaa, Yemen, following overnight Israeli airstrikes targeting Houthi assets. <a href="https://t.co/yp1L3r7Doy">pic.twitter.com/yp1L3r7Doy</a>
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeTruzman/status/1869755472422879265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2024</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The scene at the Hezyaz power station in Sanaa, Yemen, this morning following Israeli airstrikes against the Houthis. <a href="https://t.co/Wn2qmSjf04">pic.twitter.com/Wn2qmSjf04</a>
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeTruzman/status/1869754482546163797?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2024</a></blockquote>
“After Hamas, Hezbollah and the Assad regime in Syria, the Houthis are almost the last remaining arm of Iran’s axis of evil,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “They are learning and they will learn the hard way, that whoever harms Israel pays a very heavy price for it.”
The Houthis have fired more than 200 ballistic missiles and launched more than 170 suicide drones at Israel, in addition to the scores of attacks that the terrorist group has launched against cargo ships and oil tankers.

Israel Launches Intense Airstrikes Against Houthi Terrorists In Yemen

Houthis

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched strikes against Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon on Monday after the terrorist group violated a ceasefire agreement that went into effect last week.
Hezbollah violated the ceasefire agreement when it launched two projectiles that struck Mount Dov on Monday.
The IDF responded quickly to the attack as the Israeli Air Force (IAF) struck dozens of launchers and additional terrorist infrastructure inside Lebanon.
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&#8220;Hezbollah’s launches tonight constitute a violation of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon,&#8221; the IDF said in a statement. &#8220;The State of Israel demands that the relevant parties in Lebanon fulfill their responsibilities and prevent Hezbollah&#8217;s hostile activity from within Lebanese territory. The State of Israel remains obligated to the fulfillment of the conditions of the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The IAF struck Hezbollah terrorists, dozens of launchers, and terrorist infrastructure throughout Lebanon a short while ago. Additionally, the IAF struck the Hezbollah launcher in the area of Berghoz in southern Lebanon shortly after the launch of the two projectiles toward Mount…
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) <a href="https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1863682089117422065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 2, 2024</a></blockquote>
Hezbollah started the war with Israel last October shortly after Hamas — an Iranian-backed terrorist group inside Gaza — launched its unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel.
The terrorist group has fired thousands of missiles, rockets, and drones inside Israel, displacing hundreds of thousands of Israelis who were forced to evacuate their homes and who have not been allowed to return.
Israel has wiped out nearly all of Hezbollah&#8217;s top leaders and senior commanders over the last several months and has destroyed the majority of the terror group&#8217;s massive stockpile of munitions, according to the IDF.

“Operation Iraqi Freedom – An F-16 Fighting Falcon flies a mission in the skies near Iraq on March 22.  The F-16s are from the 35th Fighter Wing Wild Weasels, Misawa Air Base, Japan. “

Israel Pounds Hezbollah After Terror Group Violates Ceasefire By Launching Attacks

Hezbollah

In October, journalists from leading mainstream media outlets embedded with the Israeli Defense Forces on tours in Lebanon. But when Hezbollah threatened legal action against the journalists, they all abandoned ship — and a month later, none have returned.
The IDF organized the tours on September 30, October 11, and October 13 to expose Hezbollah’s vast terror infrastructure. Reporters were given a firsthand look at tunnels and weapons caches hidden in villages, and other Hezbollah resources Israel faces as it attempts to dismantle the terrorist group.
Among the outlets represented during the 90 to 120-minute visits were the BBC, CNN, Fox News, the Associated Press, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and Reuters.
On October 12, BBC reporter Lucy Williamson <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c80r9zyk89yo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published a report</a> titled, “Inside Israel’s combat zone in southern Lebanon” about what she witnessed. In response, on October 14, Hezbollah condemned the BBC, accusing it of violating Lebanon’s sovereignty and calling for legal action against the outlet and its staff in Lebanon.
“Not only did the BBC, across all its platforms and languages, display blatant bias towards the killers and criminals, justifying the Zionist barbarism against the Palestinian and Lebanese people, but it also shamelessly sent a team of journalists who entered one of the southern villages accompanied by the occupying army, violating Lebanese territory, sovereignty, and laws, as shown in the reports published by the organization,” Hezbollah wrote.
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“Hezbollah’s Media Relations Office denounces this unjustifiable and unacceptable move as it calls on the Ministry of Information, the National Media Council, and relevant judicial and security authorities to take legal action against the BBC and its teams operating in Lebanon,” the statement added.
A subsequent statement <a href="https://daraj.media/en/journalists-accompanying-israeli-occupation-forces-in-southern-lebanon-where-do-ethical-and-professional-boundaries-lie/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly expanded</a> the condemnation to all outlets that participated.
An Israeli government official granted anonymity told The Daily Wire that several reporters said they could no longer participate in the tours for fear of the safety of their colleagues working in Lebanon. Not a single mainstream outlet has accepted an invitation to embed since Hezbollah issued its letter, but many are requesting access to travel to Gaza with the IDF, according to the source.
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<div class="p-rich_text_section">The absence of mainstream media journalists has frustrated Israeli officials, who aim to highlight that Hezbollah has used Lebanese civilian areas to attack Israeli civilians since the terror group began launching near-daily rockets at Israel on October 7, 2023.</div>
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Following the BBC report, seven BBC Arabic employees suspended their work in protest over their colleague’s participation in the tour, <a href="https://english.almanar.com.lb/2231946" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hezbollah-run outlet Al-Manar</a> reported.
The employees, Sanaa al-Khoury, Mohammad Hamdar, Marie-Josee Azzi, and Joy Slim, and three others from the BBC Extra team, reportedly refused to return to work unless the BBC issued an apology or disciplined their colleagues who were embedded with the IDF. The BBC has not issued a formal apology or stated that they disciplined the team that entered Lebanon through Israel.
The Media Secretariat of the Lebanese Popular Conference urged the Lebanese government “to halt the operations of the BBC team in Lebanon due to its cooperation with the Zionist enemy forces and its violation of Lebanese laws and national sovereignty,” <a href="https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/10/16/735377/bbc-fox-news-line-fire-embedding-journalists-south-lebanon-israeli-army" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to</a> the Iranian regime-run outlet, PressTV.
&#8220;Reuters appreciates the concerns expressed by Lebanon’s Ministry of Information,&#8221; a Reuters spokesperson told the Daily Wire. &#8220;We are committed to covering the conflict between Israel and Lebanon in an independent, unbiased and reliable way in keeping with the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles, as we do around the world.&#8221;
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<div class="p-rich_text_section">This piece has been updated to include a comment from Reuters.</div>
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Israeli Forces Highlight Alleged Hamas Infrastructure In Northern Gaza

How Hezbollah Scared Journalists Out Of Embedding With The IDF In Lebanon

Lebanon

The disgusting, corrupt, and anti-Semitic International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
In order to suggest a moral equivalence, they issued an arrest warrant for Mohammed Deif — who is dead. He was the military chief of Hamas killed in an airstrike months ago. 
The ICC arrest warrant is ridiculous and disgusting. The claim is that Israel was deliberately attempting to starve the Palestinians.
Let me explain how insane that is.
Israel has shipped in — I kid you not — 900,000 kilotons of food aid into the Gaza Strip. Kilotons, not pounds. Kilotons. We&#8217;re talking about roughly two billion pounds of food aid shipped into the Gaza Strip in the middle of a war in which Hamas, with the help of some civilians, is currently holding Israelis and Americans hostage. 
Now, the ICC has decided it is going to move forward with this arrest warrant. It’s possible this is an attempt by the prosecutor of this case to avoid the fact that he&#8217;s now been hit with a sexual harassment allegation, apparently by members of both sexes. Thus, he may be attempting to misdirect away from that by issuing an arrest warrant.
The ICC arrest warrant doesn&#8217;t apply in many places that don&#8217;t abide by the ICC. For instance, the United States is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court. Why? Because we are aware that it is, in fact, a repository of evil: dictatorial states and their European dupes. As Americans, what we are concerned about is that they would then attempt to arrest, for example, members of the American military who served in Afghanistan or who served in Iraq.
A note: This is something the Trump administration should, indeed, be worried about. If the ICC issues an arrest warrant for any signatory country to the ICC, that signatory country then has a legal duty — under the ICC — to make the arrest. If you think that won&#8217;t be attempted against Donald Trump, you&#8217;re out of your mind.
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This is why the United States is not a signatory to the ICC. This used to be a bipartisan understanding, as the U.S. knew the ICC is a trash organization that manipulates the very idea of international law — which doesn&#8217;t exist in the first place — in order to militarize and weaponize against the opponents of some of the world&#8217;s worst regimes. 
The proof is in the pudding. They&#8217;re not just doing this against Netanyahu. They&#8217;re also doing this against Yoav Gallant, his former defense secretary, who was basically fired by Netanyahu and became a sort of opposition figure for a while.
Both Argentina and Hungary have said they&#8217;re not going to abide by the ICC warrants. The ICC is now signaling it may revoke the arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Galant if there is, what they call, a “credible investigation” into charges of genocide and famine in the Gaza Strip by people inside Israel, which figures.
It figures because inside Israel, there are people who are actually allied with organizations like the ICC. The deep state is present in an enormous number of jurisdictions across the globe, whether it be the deep state in Brazil currently targeting Jair Bolsonaro or the deep state in Israel targeting Netanyahu.
There are career appointees in a wide variety of administrative agencies across the world who are directly opposed to the elected governments of these particular places and will use their power in order to stifle the agenda of those particular elected governments.
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The incoming Trump administration has already said they&#8217;re going to take severe measures against the ICC.
The fact that Hamas is celebrating the ICC decision says all anyone needs to know about the International Criminal Court. The ICC is clearly so moral. They are so decent. 
In the International Court of Justice, another U.N. agency, South Africa — a place of tremendous human rights violations — brought a case against Israel for genocide. They did so almost certainly because Iran was paying them.
All these international institutions have been completely weaponized.
It will happen to President Trump. I would bet that at some point, the ICC, at the behest of some corrupt state, will bring some sort of prosecution against Donald Trump and will then try to get the Europeans on the hook to arrest Trump if he were to arrive. Frankly, that would be the best thing that ever happened because no European country is going to arrest the sitting president of the United States.
All of this shows why this institution should be dismantled wholesale.
It&#8217;s vile and it&#8217;s disgusting.

Israeli Authorities Announce Rescue Of Four Hostages From Gaza

The Vile ICC Targets Netanyahu. It Should Be Dismantled.

Ben Shapiro

Benjamin Netanyahu

International Criminal Court

Opinion

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reportedly destroyed a top-secret nuclear weapons research facility late last month where Iran was actively conducting research for its illicit and undeclared nuclear weapons program.
Israel hit the facility in Parchin during retaliatory strikes against the Islamic regime after it launched more than 180 ballistic missiles into Israel early last month.
Multiple U.S. and Israeli officials <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/11/15/iran-israel-destroyed-active-nuclear-weapons-research-facility">told</a> Axios that the strike against the facility &#8220;significantly damaged Iran&#8217;s effort over the past year to resume nuclear weapons research,&#8221; the report said.
The site where the nuclear weapons research was happening was the Taleghan 2 facility in the Parchin military complex, the report said.
The strike destroyed advanced equipment that is needed to design sophisticated explosive materials that are required to detonate a nuclear device.
Satellite imagery shows that the facility, which was a previously declared nuclear weapons facility decades ago, was completely destroyed in the strike.
U.S. and Israeli officials said that Iran was trying to conceal its nuclear weapons research at the facility by presenting it as research for civilian purposes.
The report said only a small number of officials in Iran&#8217;s Islamic government knew about what was going on at the facility.
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A U.S. official told Axios that the strike was &#8220;a not so subtle message that the Israelis have significant insight into the Iranian system even when it comes to things that were kept top secret and known to a very small group of people in the Iranian government.&#8221;
Andrea Stricker, deputy director of the Nonproliferation and Biodefense Program and a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said in an interview this week that she does not expect Iran to retaliate against Israel for destroying the facility because that would be an acknowledgment that it was conducting illicit nuclear weapons research.
&#8220;Israel stayed under [President Biden&#8217;s] red line of not targeting the major nuclear sites because in order to protest, Iran would have had to admit that it was violating its nuclear non-proliferation treaty obligation not to work on nuclear weapons,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Israel really did the world a service here by creating a potential bottle neck in the program.&#8221;

ISRAEL-BLUE FLAG-AIR COMBAT EXERCISE

Israel Destroyed Top-Secret Nuclear Weapons Research Facility In Iran

Iran Nuclear

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/israel-defense-forces-idf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Israel Defense Forces</a> released footage this week that was discovered inside Gaza that showed Hamas terrorists torturing Palestinian civilians.
&#8220;The same civilians that Hamas outspokenly claimed to be fighting for, are the same civilians being tortured in this video,&#8221; the IDF said in a <a href="https://x.com/IDF/status/1855587044421947706" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> that contained the video.
&#8220;Hamas is not only Israel’s enemy—they’re Gaza’s enemy also,&#8221; the post added.
IDF troops discovered what was <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-publishes-footage-of-hamas-torturing-palestinian-detainees-in-gaza/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">described</a> as &#8220;years&#8217; worth of CCTV footage&#8221; of Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists torturing civilians in Gaza.
Israel said that the footage was evidence of Hamas&#8217; &#8220;brutal methods for interrogating civilians, violating human rights, and systematically oppressing residents suspected of opposing the organization’s rule.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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During the ground activity in the Gaza Strip, our forces uncovered materials exposing Hamas&#8217;s brutal methods for interrogating civilians, violating human rights, and systematically oppressing residents suspected of opposing the organization’s rule. <a href="https://t.co/5T8HMQc13c">pic.twitter.com/5T8HMQc13c</a>
— 4IL (@4ILorg) <a href="https://twitter.com/4ILorg/status/1855618527899595116?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
&#8220;The videos document Hamas activities at Outpost 17 in the Gaza Strip, where brutal interrogations of civilians suspected of opposing Hamas are conducted,&#8221; the Israeli government said.
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The statement added, &#8220;These materials reveal the Hamas&#8217;s methods of governing the Gaza Strip, enforcing terror, harming Gaza&#8217;s civilians and infringing on their freedom of expression.&#8221;
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These materials reveal the Hamas&#8217;s methods of governing the Gaza Strip, enforcing terror, harming Gaza&#8217;s civilians and infringing on their freedom of expression. <a href="https://t.co/HQH7sfxVeh">pic.twitter.com/HQH7sfxVeh</a>
— 4IL (@4ILorg) <a href="https://twitter.com/4ILorg/status/1855618533566149027?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
A senior Israeli military official told the media that it took the IDF months to go through all of the thousands of hours of footage that was recovered.

Israel-Gaza Conflict

Israel Publishes Footage Showing Hamas Torturing Palestinians

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/israel-defense-forces-idf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Israel Defense Forces</a> (IDF) hit military targets throughout Iran during the early morning hours on Saturday in retaliation for Iran launching more than 180 ballistic missiles into Israel at the start of the month.
The IDF said in a statement that the strikes were now over and that its objectives were achieved. Israel did not hit Iranian oil or nuclear facilities.
More than 100 combat aircraft, launched from inside Israel, were used during the strikes, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/10/26/world/israel-iran-lebanon-gaza" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Times</a>.
Iranian media said several members of the military were killed during the strikes on 20 different locations, which concluded around 6 a.m.
The IDF said that the fighter jets &#8220;struck missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the State of Israel over the last year.&#8221;
&#8220;Simultaneously, the IDF struck surface-to-air missile arrays and additional Iranian aerial capabilities, that were intended to restrict Israel&#8217;s aerial freedom of operation in Iran,&#8221; the statement continued.
The IDF said that it only deployed &#8220;some&#8221; of its wide range of offensive operational capabilities during the strikes &#8220;on strategic assets deep within Iranian territory.&#8221;
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It said that it was ready to engage in further offensive or defensive military action if need be.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman posted a video on X showing the Israeli fighter jets returning home after the mission.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Israel fighter jet squadrons all returning home from Iran after destroying its air defense systems and several military installations. Kol Hakavod! <a href="https://t.co/J1HBXRT6OU">pic.twitter.com/J1HBXRT6OU</a>
— David M Friedman (@DavidM_Friedman) <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidM_Friedman/status/1850214140977008660?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2024</a></blockquote>
The message to Iran was clear. Israel has a significant military and technology advantage over Iran and has the ability to operate with impunity in Iranian airspace.
During the first wave of the operation, Israel targeted &#8220;air defense batteries and radars&#8221; in Iraq and Syria from Iran&#8217;s allies to prevent any disruptions during the operation, the Times noted. Israeli jets then hit air defenses inside Iran.
In the second wave of the attack, Israel struck manufacturing facilities responsible for building Iran&#8217;s long-range missiles. The strikes focused on &#8220;destroying a critical component in the production process,&#8221; the report said.
This was the largest attack on Iran since the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
Iran mostly downplayed the result of the strikes, suggesting that there was little to no damage.
Experts said that Iran downplaying the strikes was a positive sign because it indicated that the Islamic regime had no appetite for escalating the conflict against a vastly superior opponent.
The extent of the damage was not yet clear, but it appeared to be highly precise and achieved the intended the goal of establishing deterrence.
Joe Truzman, senior research analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), posted satellite images that showed the impact of the strikes on one location.
&#8220;Satellite images provided to me by a source reveal that the Parchin military base, east of Tehran, was targeted overnight by the IAF,&#8221; he wrote.
&#8220;The image on the left depicts the site prior to the strike, while the post-strike image on the right indicates two areas affected by an attack,&#8221; he added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Satellite images provided to me by a source reveal that the Parchin military base, east of Tehran, was targeted overnight by the IAF. The image on the left depicts the site prior to the strike, while the post-strike image on the right indicates two areas affected by an attack. <a href="https://t.co/Um2WbPh0Y6">pic.twitter.com/Um2WbPh0Y6</a>
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeTruzman/status/1850200736795328632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2024</a></blockquote>

ISRAEL-POLITICS-ANNIVERSARY-INDEPENDENCE

Details Emerge About Israel’s Large-Scale Strike On Iran

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/israel-defense-forces-idf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Israel Defense Forces</a> (IDF) are reportedly conducting a second wave of airstrikes against military sites in Iran during the early morning hours on Saturday.
A U.S. official <a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/iran-israel-conflict?mod=WSJ_home_mediumtopper_pos_1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The Wall Street Journal that a &#8220;second wave&#8221; of strikes was happening as Israel&#8217;s response to Iran&#8217;s ballistic missile barrage earlier this month is unfolding in multiple stages.
A source with direct knowledge of Israel&#8217;s operations <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/live-updates/israel-gaza-lebanon-live-updates-idf-targeting-hezbollah/?id=114980385&amp;entryId=115167424" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> ABC News that the strike against Iran was expected to be just a one-night event.
An official with knowledge of Israel&#8217;s planning <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/10/25/israel-iran-tehran-war-news-gaza-hamas/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The Washington Post that the strikes were expected to continue for another several hours and were focused on targeting &#8220;military assets, particularly missile manufacturing facilities and aerial defense sites.&#8221;
Iran has claimed that it successfully repelled the attack and that the explosions that its citizens have heard and felt were from its defense systems firing at Israeli war planes.
However, there is no proof to validate their claims and Israeli officials have said that there have been no casualties or planes damaged in the strikes.
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The attacks are intended to establish deterrence against further Iranian aggression after the Islamic regime has launched two direct missile attacks against Israel this year, the first time it has ever directly attacked Israel.
The attacks, coming in at least two waves, are considerably more extensive than Israel’s pointed retaliation against Iran for its first direct strike against Israel in April. Israel’s April strike was a show of force that eliminated radar batteries for an anti-missile system, but it didn’t succeed in dissuading Iran from launching more than 180 ballistic missiles against Israel on October 1, prompting Israeli leaders to intensify their latest response plans.
Dalia Dassa Kaye, former director of the Center for Middle East Public Policy at the RAND Corporation, said that the strikes appeared to have offered Iran an offramp instead of forcing the conflict to escalate.
“From what we know now, this is the best case scenario in terms of keeping this round contained, given Israel seems to have limited its strikes to military targets rather than nuclear or oil infrastructure,&#8221; Kaye told The Journal. “This gives Iran an exit ramp if it’s looking for one. But we’re still in a different place because Israel and Iran are now in a direct and open conflict.”
Iran claiming that it repelled the attacks and minimizing claims of any damage happening was viewed as a key signal by experts of Iran&#8217;s intent to not respond to Israel because it does not wish to invoke an even more intense response.
“If we hear Iranian officials downplaying the success of Israel’s strikes, it could be a signal that they are looking for an excuse to avoid further retaliation,” said Michael Singh, a former senior director for the Middle East at the U.S. National Security Council.
The airstrikes appear to have hit multiple locations throughout Tehran, including the eastern, western, and southern parts of the city, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/10/25/world/israel-lebanon-gaza-iran" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Times</a>.
In the east, there are military bases and secretive military sites, and in the west is the headquarters for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the report said.
The Times added that explosions also were happening near Imam Khomeini international airport, which is in the southern part of the city.
The Times said residents also reported hearing explosions in Isfahan, hundreds of miles south of Tehran; Mashhad, hundreds of miles east of Tehran; and Kurdistan Province, a couple hundred miles west of Tehran.

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