Israel-Hamas War: What happened on Day 245?

The cherry season is at its peak but there is little traffic in the orchards and the fruits are rotting on the branches.

Israelis, unlike every year, are avoiding a pilgrimage north to the self-harvesting orchards in Odem, Merom Golan, Kela, and Elrom. The winds of war gripped the Golan Heights this week with intensity.

Dozens of forest and pasture fires broke out in the northern plateau near Katzrin and up to the western slopes above Kibbutz Gadot.

Hezbollah has been hit in recent weeks by IDF operations. Their desire to respond, to take revenge burns inside them.

Therefore, they chose to increase the range of fire for military targets in the Golan Heights. This is how Hezbollah broadcasts that it is looking for revenge in addition to preparing the fighting space for the day when Israel will make a significant move in Lebanon.

Israeli soldiers from the Golani brigade take part in a military drill in the Golan Heights, northern Israel, May 22, 2024 (credit: MICHAEL GILADI/FLASH90)

Under new management

A month and a half ago, Col. Benny Kata assumed the position of commander of the 474th Brigade, the brigade that defends the Golan Heights area.

Ostensibly, he should have turned his attention to the east, towards Syria and even deeper into Iraq, but already in the process of taking over the role, he realized that he must also be ready for missiles and UAVs also from the northern theater in Lebanon.

In the weeks he has been in office, almost every day, Hezbollah fired rockets or launched anti-aircraft missiles into the Golan Heights from Lebanon.

80 percent of the forces in the Golan Heights are combat-reserve units. The previous times that the reserve army was in the Golan Heights in such numbers were during the Yom Kippur War and both the first and second Lebanon Wars.

The eastern border with Syria is a fake border. On the one hand, the Separation of Forces Agreement was maintained even during the civil war in Syria during the Arab Spring.

UNDOF forces, entrusted with maintaining the armistice agreement and the separation of forces, act with respectable assertiveness, unlike the UNIFIL forces on the Lebanese border. On the other hand, beneath the false silence, unrest is taking place. Even binoculars for viewing from a distance will not reveal what is taking place.

The Iranians managed to take control of considerable areas in Syria during the days of the civil war.

They sacrificed their lives to save the rule of Assad Jr. 

Thousands of Shiite Iranians migrated from northern and western Iran to Syria. In the world media, they are called "pro-Iranian militias". In practice, they are Iranian fighters under the operation of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards.

"The Iranian proxy was in our eastern arena. We know what the capabilities of Iran and Hezbollah are, and they exist among these militias in Syria and in Iraq as well," said one military official.

This is the reason why Col. Benny Kata and his soldiers work around the clock. On the one hand, the IDF is improving readiness in the Golan Heights, through more training and improving the means for both attacks and warning, as well as improving the line of fortifications and carrying out engineering operations.

The IDF says that the goal is to damage the capabilities of the Iranian militias deep in Syria and even in Iraq. To this end, the army was deployed not only on the Israeli side of the border but also in the security area, which is a section of hundreds of meters, defined as Israeli territory, but it is east of the perimeter fence.

According to foreign publications, the IDF operates every few days in much deeper ranges, both in the outskirts of Damascus, Homs, Quneitra and more.

"We are not evacuating the residents of the Golan. Our defense activity is in the space beyond the fence," says a military official. But in the 747th division, they don't take any risks after October 7.

Along with the offensive defense plans, they are strengthening rear defense systems, including refreshing and strengthening all the standby classes in the settlements. The IDF increased the classes, trained the fighters, and even provided combat equipment that would allow dealing with forces' infiltration into the Golan Heights area.

The decision on whether to go for a ground maneuver in Lebanon may be made at the political level soon.

This is, of course, if we judge by the level of statements and threats heard in recent days. The IDF understands that such a move will open at least one more fighting front in the Golan.

The IDF revealed on Friday evening the identities of a further eight terrorists killed by an Israeli airstrike while they were operating from within an UNRWA school in Nusierat on Thursday.

The terrorists had been from both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The identities of the further eight terrorists killed were confirmed by the IDF Intelligence Directorate and the Shin Bet (Israel Intelligence Agency), the military noted.

Who were the terrorists killed?

One of the eliminated terrorists was confirmed to have taken part in Hamas's October 7 attacks, where over 1200 people were killed and another 250 kidnapped.

A total of 17 of the terrorists eliminated in the strike have now been identified. The IDF released the identities of 9 other terrorists eliminated.

Terrorists eliminated in IDF strike on UN facilities, June 6, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON UNIT)

Hamas claimed that 45 people were killed in the strike.

IDF spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari had said  the strike was conducted after concrete intelligence showed that terrorists hiding in the school were planning an imminent attack. "We stopped a ticking time-bomb," he explained.

"Our intelligence indicated that the terrorists were operating from inside these three classrooms," he had said. "We delayed our strike twice because we identified civilians in the area. We had aerial surveillance that had been monitoring the Hamas compound for a few days.

"We conducted the strike once our intelligence and surveillance indicated that there were no women or children inside the Hamas compound, inside those classrooms," Hagari added. "Despite the complex operational conditions, our Air Force used precise munitions to target the three specific classrooms that the terrorists were hiding inside."

The IDF announced on Friday night that a senior Hamas General Security Forces commander was eliminated during an airstrike in Rafah on Thursday night.

Salame Muhammed Abu Ajaj was struck by IAF fighter jets under the direction of IDF intelligence, the military reported.

Ajaj was reportedly a leading terrorist in the Hamas General Security Forces in the Rafah area. The IDF stated that he oversaw Hamas military activity and the disruption of IDF operational activity in the Gaza Strip.

PALESTINIANS FLEE Rafah with their belongings, May 28. (credit: ABED RAHIM KHATIB/FLASH90)

Another terrorist eliminated in the strike

The IDF also announced it was aware of reports that the mayor of North Nuseirat, the terrorist Eiad Almaghari, was killed in the strike.

Almaghari was also a terrorist operative with an lengthy history in Hamas, the IDF said. He had previously served as part of the Hamas West Bank Headquarters. Additionally, he reportedly also took a significant role in the planning of terror attacks in the West Bank.

The Biden administration made it clear to Israel that the US does not believe that a "limited war" in Lebanon or a "small regional war" are realistic options, as it would be difficult to prevent them from expanding.

The US warned of a scenario in which Lebanon would be flooded with terrorists from pro-Iranian militias coming from Syria, Iraq, and even Yemen.

The Biden administration advised Israel in recent weeks against the idea that a "limited war" could be waged in Lebanon and warned that such a move could push Iran to intervene - this is what two senior American officials and an Israeli official briefed on the talks told Walla.

Why it's important:

• The exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah, which has been going on since October 7, has escalated dramatically in the last two weeks, which has caused senior officials in the IDF and the cabinet to call for a significant expansion of the fighting against Hezbollah.
• Senior American and Israeli officials said that the IDF and the Defense Ministry are increasingly concerned that the situation in Lebanon is reaching a turning point. The US and France have tried to find a diplomatic solution to reduce tensions on the border but have not yet made progress.
• Preventing an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah that could lead to widespread destruction in Lebanon and Israel was a central goal of the Biden administration in its efforts to prevent the fighting in Gaza from expanding into a much wider regional conflict.
• The Biden administration believes that it will be impossible to restore peace to the Israel-Lebanon border without a cease-fire in Gaza.

A view of a damaged site in Houla village, near the border with Israel, southern Lebanon, June 3, 2024 (credit: REUTERS/Aziz Taher REFILE)

In the news center:

• The exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah along the border has been steadily escalating for the past eight months. Many of the Israeli settlements near the border are deserted.
• More than 60,000 Israelis who were evacuated from the area after Hezbollah began attacking northern Israel on October 8 have not yet returned to their homes.
• Both sides have increased the range of their attacks in recent weeks. Hezbollah launched drones and rockets at military targets up to 50 km from the border.
• Earlier this week, Hezbollah attacks and extremely hot weather ignited massive forest fires across northern Israel that took more than 48 hours to extinguish.
• The fires and growing public criticism of the government over the war of attrition in the North led to an emergency meeting of the War Cabinet on Tuesday night.

The big picture:

• A senior security official said that the situation has been escalating since May because Hezbollah was able to carry out successful attacks using UAVs against Israeli targets that the IDF was unable to intercept.
• At the same time, Hezbollah began launching "Burkan" rockets with warheads of 1,000-500 kg of explosive material, which caused heavy damage to IDF bases along the border.

What they say:

• State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Wednesday that the US remains "deeply concerned about the risk of escalation along the Israel-Lebanon border."
• "We are engaged in intensive diplomatic talks and intensive diplomatic negotiations to try to prevent this conflict from escalating beyond control," he said.
• Miller added, "Israel has been claiming to us privately for a long time - and they have said this publicly as well - that their preferred solution to this conflict is diplomatic."

What next:

• At the War Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, no decisions were made, but the IDF presented several options for expanding the fighting, including a ground invasion aimed at driving Hezbollah's Radwan force away from the border, an Israeli senior official said.
• He emphasized that since October 7, the instructions the IDF received from the political echelon were to focus on defeating Hamas in Gaza and to avoid a war in Lebanon. The Israeli official said that this policy change could have far-reaching consequences.
• The Israeli official said that a war with Hezbollah or a limited operation in Lebanon would have "enormous consequences for Israel," and after such an operation would cost many lives and resources, it would most likely lead to an agreement similar to the one Israel and Lebanon are trying to achieve now.
• "We need to understand this before making decisions," said the Israeli official.

Houthi security forces have detained at least 15 Yemeni employees of international organizations including the United Nations, three officials of Yemen's internationally recognized government told Reuters on Friday.

In a series of raids on Thursday, armed Houthi intelligence officers detained nine UN employees, three employees of the US-funded pro-democracy group National Democratic Institute (NDI) and three employees of a local human rights group, the officials said.

Intelligence officers of the Houthi group, which controls the capital Sanaa and large parts of the north of the country, raided the homes and offices of these people, confiscating phones and computers.

The detained UN employees work for the human rights office and the office for humanitarian affairs, said the officials, from the internationally recognized government that controls mostly southern parts of Yemen.

Neither the UN office nor NDI immediately responded to a Reuters request for confirmation or comment. A Houthi spokesperson did not immediately comment.

The IDF revealed on Friday that the Israeli air force struck and eliminated Hamas terrorists sheltering inside an UNRWA school as they planned attacks on Israel.

The terrorists had been utilizing the school grounds of the 'Asmaa' UNRWA school in Shati as a Hamas Operations Cell and meeting point for Hamas terrorists, the military reported.

Using civilian infrastructure

The terrorists eliminated had reportedly been planning an imminent attack on Israel while using the school as a civilian shield for their terrorist activities.

The US military announced on Friday afternoon that the humanitarian port in Gaza is back in operation after several days of non-operation, KAN reported.

The IDF has completed control of the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza, a correspondent for the Qatari Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed reported on Friday afternoon.

The Israeli military now reportedly has total control over the Corridor from the Kerem Shalom crossing to the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed report comes as the IDF has expanded it's activates in the southern portion of the Gaza Strip, including in the southern Gazan city of Rafah.

An analysis conducted by the Associated Press based on data provided by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has revealed that fewer women and children have been killed as the war progressed.

This trend is significant because it contradicts the ministry’s public claims and coincides with tactical changes made by the IDF, AP reported.

Based on figures provided by the Hamas-run ministry, the rate of women and children being killed in the war, between October and April, dropped by over 20%. AP stressed that the United Nations failed to comment on this change and the Hamas-run ministry had also remained silent.

Speaking with Germany's foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, on Friday, Minister-without-portfolio Benny Gantz said that Israel would respond to Hezbollah's aggression on northern Israel, Israeli media reported.

"Hezbollah's aggression on the northern border undermines regional stability, Israel will not hesitate to act with force," Gantz said.

Gantz also reportedly reiterated to the German foreign minister the importance of the international community in pressuring Hamas to accept a hostage deal.