‘We are transforming the Middle East’: #Netanyahu hails series of blows to #Iranian axis “Elimination of #Nasrallah was a turning point in collapse of axis,” #Israel is “taking it apart step by step Whoever cooperates with us reaps great benefit Whoever attacks us loses greatly”
Overnight, the Israeli Air Force and Israeli Navy carried out strikes in the Gaza Strip, killing top commanders in Hamas's general security mechanism, the military announces.
Hassan Labad, the deputy head of the security mechanism, along with senior officials Asem Shabir, Abdullah Abu Kaloub, and Mohammed Abu Marek, were killed in the strikes, the IDF says.
"The senior officials of the general security mechanism were eliminated to remove a threat, after they had recently been involved in attempts to rebuild the Hamas terror organization and in assisting the organization's senior leadership in advancing terror activity against the State of Israel and IDF troops," the military says in a statement.
The security mechanism, according to the military, is a clandestine Hamas body responsible for security for top Hamas officials, communications between them, coordinating their meetings, and transporting them between emergency sites.
The mechanism is also responsible for producing intelligence assessments, "which assists the organization's senior leadership in decision-making and in carrying out terror plans against the State of Israel," the IDF adds.
Despite the ceasefire in Lebanon, the IDF says it continues to target Hezbollah in the south of the country.
"The fighting in southern Lebanon is ongoing, as the IDF continues to target Hezbollah facilities and infrastructure located in and near your villages," warns army spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee.
He warns residents of southern Lebanon not to travel south of the Zahrani River "until further notice.
"Anyone traveling south is putting their life at risk," Adraee adds.
The IDF says it killed at least two Palestinian terror operatives who "posed a threat" to troops in the Gaza Strip yesterday.
In one incident in southern Gaza, the IDF says it struck and killed Ahmed Abu Mughaysib, the head of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket-launching cell.
The military says Abu Mughaysib was involved in advancing attacks on IDF troops and Israeli civilians, and took part in "facilitating smuggling attempts into the Gaza Strip."
In another incident overnight, a strike targeted several Hamas operatives in central Gaza, who the military says advanced attacks on troops and "posed an imminent threat" to Israeli forces.
At least one Hamas operative was killed in the strike, the army says.
During a visit to the Haifa Naval Base today, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir says that in Lebanon, "there is no ceasefire for our forces."
"We are working to maximize the freedom of action that has been granted to us and will seize every opportunity to remove threats to the citizens of Israel and to our forces," he says, in remarks provided by the IDF.
Zamir also says that the Israeli Navy is becoming "an additional long-range strategic arm" of the military.
"Upon assuming my position, I directed the strengthening of the Navy as an additional long-range strategic arm of the IDF. We are now accelerating the implementation of the operational concept," he says.
Zamir says the Navy has been operating "across all combat fronts, in challenging maritime arenas near and far, and in operations that cannot yet be disclosed to the public."
"The IDF, across all its branches, is prepared to immediately return to combat against the Iranian terror regime. The Navy plays a decisive role in our ability to once again strike the terror regime with force, as we have done in the past," he adds.
Col. Ayub Kayuf takes charge of the IDF's Golani Brigade from Col. Adi Gonen, during a handover ceremony held this morning at the Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon.
A Hamas terrorist who abducted Israeli hostages from a roadside bomb shelter near the Gaza border community of Re'im during the October 7 onslaught was killed in an airstrike yesterday, the military announces.
The IDF says the strike targeting Youssef Ayesh Awad Ramadan was to "remove a threat" to troops.
Ramadan, a deputy commander of a Nukhba Force cell, invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, and took part in the abduction of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alon Ohel, Eliya Cohen, and Or Levy, according to the IDF.
The IDF says that during the war and recently, Ramadan advanced attacks on Israeli troops and citizens, "and therefore posed an immediate threat to our forces operating in the Gaza Strip."
The IDF says it struck and killed five terror operatives in the Gaza Strip in recent days, "to remove an immediate threat" to troops.
The operatives had planned attacks on forces stationed in Gaza, "in the immediate timeframe," the military says.
They are identified by the IDF as: Salem Qariqa, a member of Hamas's Shejaiya Battalion who worked to build explosives and advanced sniper attacks on troops; Saeed Shamali, a Nukhba Force team commander; Ahmad Khallas, a sniper platoon commander in the Palestinian islamic Jihad; and two more Hamas commanders who planted bombs targeting Israeli troops.
The IDF says it struck Hezbollah weapon depots, command centers, and other infrastructure where members of the terror group were operating in southern Lebanon yesterday.
The military publishes footage showing some of the strikes.