The Times of Israel is liveblogging Wednesday’s events as they happen.
IDF taps high-ranking officer for new humanitarian liaison role in Gaza
By Emanuel Fabian
COGAT official Col. Elad Goren speaks in a video statement on October 18, 2023. (Screen capture: Israel Defense Forces)
The Israel Defense Forces says it is creating a new position within the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories unit to act as a liason for humanitarian activities in the Gaza Strip.
COGAT official Col. Elad Goren will be the first “head of the humanitarian-civil effort in the Gaza Strip,” and be promoted to the rank of brigadier general, the IDF said.
The IDF says that the new role will “deal with the integration and implementation of the humanitarian effort in the Gaza Strip and the coordination with the international community, in a way that will allow the implementation of the humanitarian effort while upholding the security interests of the State of Israel.”
“The IDF sees great importance in the continuing humanitarian effort in the Gaza Strip, in order to continue fighting the terrorist organization Hamas, and within the framework of achieving the goals of the war,” the military adds.
The IDF says Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi was authorized by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to create the new role.
Sources confirm overnight strike blew up Hezbollah missile shipment
By AFP
A Lebanese security source says an alleged Israeli airstrike hit a truck loaded with Hezbollah missiles deep inside Lebanon overnight.
“The Israeli air force targeted two Hezbollah” trucks some 10 kilometers (six miles) from Baalbek, a stronghold of the Iran-backed group in eastern Lebanon, the Lebanese security source says. “One of the vehicles was hit and a series of explosions were heard in the area.”
One person was wounded in the strike, the health ministry in Lebanon said.
A source close to Hezbollah confirms the hit: “The munitions which were inside the truck caught fire.”
Alleged Israeli drone strike reported on car near Syria-Lebanon border
Lebanese and Arab media outlets report an alleged Israeli drone strike on a vehicle on the Beirut-Damascus highway near the Lebanon-Syria border.
The strike takes place on the Syrian side of the frontier, according to the reports.
Footage shows smoke and fire rising from the targeted car.
من مكان استهداف السيارة على #الحدود_السورية_اللبنانية#سوريا #لبنان #أخبار_اليوم #Lebanon #akhbaralyawm pic.twitter.com/77S8G6lWTo
— Akhbar Al Yawm (@akhbaralyawm) August 28, 2024
No further details are immediately available.
War toll in Gaza tops 40,500, Hamas-run health ministry says
By AFP
The Hamas-controlled health ministry in the Gaza Strip says the death toll in the war there has risen to 40,534.
The toll includes 58 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to ministry figures, which cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed at least 17,000 Hamas-led operatives in the Strip, as well as another 1,000 killed inside Israel during the October 7 attack.
Large fire threatens buildings in Sderot, nearby kibbutz
Firefighters are battling a large blaze that has broken out near the Gaza border town of Sderot and neighboring Kibbutz Nir Am in hopes of keeping the flames from reaching buildings.
“Firefighters are concentrating their efforts on containing the fire on the ground, with a high potential for it to spread and threaten structures and property,” Ashkelon station crew chief Shai Kreesy says in a statement. “We still haven’t gained control.”
שריפת קוצים בסמוך לקיבוץ ניר עם, צוותי לוחמי האש פועלים במקום https://t.co/lQhCt0A6kq pic.twitter.com/GsUtQ51huD
— ???????????? MivzakLive News – חדשות מבזק לייב (@mivzaklive) August 28, 2024
Pictures show large balls of smoke rising up from next to a Sderot factory and near Nir Am.
The station has put out a call for more units to respond to the fire.
Foreign minister calls for Gaza-esque war in West Bank, including ordering civilians to flee
Foreign Minister Israel Katz says Israel should consider ordering West Bank Palestinians to move temporarily as it embarks on a major anti-terror raid in the northern West Bank.
“We need to deal with the [terror] threat exactly as we deal with terror infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian civilians and any other step needed,” he says in a tweet. “This is a war in every sense.”
Katz says Israeli forces operating in Jenin, Tulkarem and other areas are working to dismantle an Iranian-backed terror network being built up in the West Bank.
“Iran is working to establish a terror front against Israel in [the West Bank], according to the model it used in Lebanon and Gaza, by funding and arming terrorists and smuggling advanced weapons from Jordan,” he says in the tweet.
Palestinians in Gaza ordered to flee Israeli military action have expressed worries that their forcible removal will become permanent as part of an plot to grab more territory. Israel says the moves are necessary to protect civilians who could be caught in the crossfire as it battles Hamas-led fighters in the Strip.
PA puts death toll in West Bank at 9 killed
By AP
The Palestinian Authority health ministry puts the death toll in Israeli raids in the northern West Bank at 9, paring back a tally of 10 killed reported earlier by the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Seven people were killed early Wednesday in Tubas, and another two in Jenin, the ministry says, identifying the two killed in Jenin as Qassam Jabarin, 25, and Asem Balout, 39.
The governor of Jenin, Kamal Abu al-Rub, says on Palestinian radio that Israeli forces have surrounded the city, blocking exit and entry points and access to hospitals, and ripping up infrastructure in the camp.
The army says it has embarked on a major anti-terror raid, following a failed bomb attack in Tel Aviv earlier this month.
Doctor hopes rescued hostage al-Qadi can go home later today
Rescued hostage Farhad al-Qadi (center) reunites with family members at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba on August 27, 2024. (Yossi Ifergan/GPO)
The doctor of Farhan al-Qadi says he hopes the rescued hostage will be able to be released from the hospital later today, Army Radio reports.
“He’s super excited, barely slept last night,” the doctor is quoted saying. The doctor says al-Qadi told him “I’m enjoying every minute I have in the light with my family. I was in the dark for so long.”
The outlet also reports what it says are new details from al-Qadi’s rescue, saying that after being found, he repeatedly told troops “You don’t understand, there’s a Gaza above ground and a Gaza below ground.”
The army believes al-Qadi was last held with other hostages in December, and that he spent the last week before being found in a tunnel by himself, though he did have food, the radio station reports.
Troops raiding area where Tel Aviv bomb attack thought to have originated
By Emanuel Fabian
Israeli police at the scene of a bomb explosion in Tel Aviv, August 18, 2024. Police later said the incident was an attempted suicide bombing in which the bomber blew himself up. (AP Photo/Moti Milrod)
Troops taking part in the IDF’s large-scale raid in the West Bank are operating in an area from which an attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv was launched last week, military sources say.
The military believes that a terror network that planned and directed the intended attack is based in the Tulkarem area.
The bomber was named by Hamas as Jaafar Mona, from the West Bank city of Nablus. He was killed when a bomb in his backpack exploded prematurely as he walked down a Tel Aviv sidewalk. One passerby was injured.
The Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups claimed responsibility for the attack on August 18, although did not offer any proof.
IDF expects major West Bank raid to last several days
By Emanuel Fabian
Israeli soldiers and military vehicles deploy in Nur Shams camp near Tulkarem on August 22, 2024. (Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
The IDF has launched a large-scale counterterrorism operation in the northern West Bank that is expected to last several days, military sources say.
The operation is mostly focused on the Tulkarem area, but troops are also carrying out activities in Jenin and the Far’a camp near Tubas.
At least 10 Palestinians have been reported killed so far in clashes and IDF drone strikes.
Several wanted Palestinians have also been detained amid the operation, according to the military.
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