Nagel committee rewrites national security doctrine, Hezbollah sends rocket barrage

A committee appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “review the budget and force buildup” status of the IDF has already finished collecting the data it needs to start moving toward conclusions, the prime minister’s office said on Thursday.

On August 5, the PMO announced the establishment of the committee led by Netanyahu’s former national security council chief and close adviser, Jacob Nagel.

According to a PMO statement, the committee has already met with all relevant officials from the IDF, defense ministry, finance ministry, Bank of Israel, and elsewhere, as well as having received data and recommendations from the general public.

Netanyahu met with the committee to discuss their progress and to give them updated directives regarding their work.

Earlier statements from the committee said that they would produce a full report which could lead to a complete reshaping of the defense establishment’s doctrine, force buildup priorities, and budget priorities by around December 5.

At the same time that the Nagel committee was running forward at a breakneck pace, Netanyahu had refused to allow a state inquiry of any kind to examine the failures leading to the October 7 disaster.

Many observers have raised questions about how the Nagel committee will be able to reach the optimal conclusions regarding Israel’s future defense posture without a full review of the failures of October 7, including at the political level.

To date, only the IDF is working on probes of the October 7 failure, and these are limited to studying the military’s errors, and do not examine the political echelon’s errors.

The Nagel committee also moves forward to change the face of the military as Netanyahu competes with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi over that issue, with Halevi postponing resigning due to his part in the October 7 failure, and continuing to appoint a range of military officials throughout the high command and levels close to the high command.

Escalations in the Noth as Hezbollah launches barrage

Meanwhile, in the North, Hezbollah continued launching rockets and drones, but at a much lower level than on Wednesday when it suddenly jumped to around 100 attempted aerial attacks on Israel.

Between 1:36 and 1:46 p.m., Hezbollah launched around five rockets at the Ramot Naftali area. While the IDF intercepted some of them, others penetrated the Israeli air defense shield, though they did not cause any injuries.

Next, the IDF said Hezbollah launched two drones at the Western Galilee, with at least one striking near Ya’ara.

Further, the IDF later shot down two more Hezbollah drones while they were still in Lebanese airspace.

The IDF’s record in shooting down rockets has been better than its shooting down drones, since drones can fly low and maneuver unpredictably.

It was unclear if Thursday was a pause with heavier Hezbollah rocket fire due to return soon, or whether Wednesday’s sudden escalation was the exception, and the Lebanese terror group may now try to return the northern conflict to a low burn.

For its part, the air force struck around 10 Hezbollah rocket launchers and other terror infrastructure which it implied were about to fire on civilian areas.

According to the military, its attacks on the rocket launchers took place in the Jeban, Zawtar ash-Sharqiyah, and Ramia areas of southern Lebanon.

Moreover, the IDF said it had attacked a Hezbollah position in the Qana area of southern Lebanon.

Regarding the West Bank, the IDF said that the air force had logged a full 300 flight hours of drones over the last two weeks of the current intense operation.

This would seem to be an unprecedented amount of air force focus on the West Bank given that from 2005-2006 until mid-2023, the air force almost never carried out attacks in the West Bank.