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Enforcing the Truce: ‘Our Actions Will Talk,’ Israeli Security Official Says
A view shows the moment of an Israeli strike on a building, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in the Chiyah district of Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon, Nov. 25, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
JNS.org – The Israel Defense Forces delivered a severe blow to Hezbollah during the recent conflict, significantly degrading the Iranian-backed Lebanese terrorist organization’s capabilities, and is determined to use force if it detects attempts to supply it with weapons, according to Israeli security officials.
An Israeli security official said on Wednesday that on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after the Hamas-led mass murder attack in the south, “it was Hezbollah that started a war against Israel.”
He emphasized the impact of the conflict on Israeli civilians, saying that Hezbollah fired more than 17,000 rockets, missiles and UAVs at Israel over the past year, targeting civilians, cities and towns, killing dozens of civilians and forcing 60,000 Israelis out of their homes in the north.
“Hezbollah made a mistake starting this war with Israel. [The group’s leader Hassan] Nasrallah made this mistake,” said the source.
The official detailed the achievements of the IDF: “Today, after almost 14 months, we have brought a major achievement that has brought a severe blow on Hezbollah, bringing Hezbollah dozens of years back. Hezbollah brought a disaster on Lebanon and tried to drag all the Middle East into a larger escalation.”
Highlighting the IDF’s current posture, the source said the Israeli military is currently positioned in Southern Lebanon, where it is patrolling the ground, while the Israeli Air Force conducts patrols over Lebanon to enforce the truce arrangement.
“We are ready for any development or any violation of Hezbollah. And there is a possibility for a new reality in Lebanon,” said the source.
He called on the Lebanese government to enforce the ceasefire, saying that it “should enforce it on all terror organizations. And this is what agreed. And by enforcing this agreement, this is the condition, I think, for the stability and also the prosperity of Lebanon as a country.”
The official stressed Israel’s commitment to preventing Hezbollah’s rearmament. He vowed that the military would respond to any intelligence of attempts to deliver arms into Lebanon for Hezbollah. “We will enforce it by fire. We will not let any arms be delivered to Hezbollah from the Syrian border or by any other method. And our actions will talk, not our words.”
The Israeli security official also addressed the mechanisms in place to prevent Hezbollah’s rearmament, saying, “We are monitoring the Middle East, we are monitoring Syria. We are monitoring the pathways. We are monitor not just the pathways, but any other way or method to deliver arms to Hezbollah.
“Of course, if we will see Hezbollah coming back or trying to build any capabilities …, we will prevent it. Of course, there is a mechanism in the agreement, but in the end the mechanism, if it won’t be enforced by others, it will be enforced by the IDF,” he added.
Addressing the initial phase of the truce, the official said this period will be crucial, and will see the IDF remain in positions in Southern Lebanon.
“If everything works in order and to plan, this is a gradual agreement. Our forces will leave Southern Lebanon after 60 days,” he explained. On the other hands, if the IDF sees armed terrorists trying to restore military facilities, it will act, he said.
“There won’t be any houses with missiles or rockets or arms. This is unacceptable,” the source clarified.
A different reality
On Wednesday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said, “The activity in Lebanon was very determined, and the enforcement of the ceasefire agreement will be even more determined. With determination, according to the guidelines approved yesterday by the minister of defense, the prime minister, and the Cabinet, Hezbollah operatives who approach our troops, the border area, and the villages within the area we have marked—will be hit.”
Halevi emphasized the importance of ensuring the safety of residents of northern Israel, saying that IDF ground troops will be the first to encounter terrorists returning to Southern Lebanese villages with “a warning, with fire, with capabilities and mostly with air support.”
The general highlighted the IDF’s preparedness to enforce the truce, adding that Israeli aircraft are continuously airborne while naval vessels are gathering information and also capable of striking targets. “Above all, we are preparing, getting ready for the possibility that this approach won’t succeed,” he cautioned.
“We are very, very determined to enforce the guidelines and bring about a completely different reality for the residents of the north,” said Halevi.
Hezbollah is no deterrence
Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, former head of the National Security Council, said that Iran’s position has deteriorated significantly, speaking during a call organized by the Jerusalem Press Club on Wednesday.
“Iran now is much weaker than a year ago,” Amidror said, adding that while Hezbollah in Lebanon is stronger than Hamas in Gaza, neither can function at this time as Iranian proxies capable of deterring Israel.
“That was the whole idea to build Hezbollah—to deter Israel. Hezbollah is no deterrence anymore. We know how to cope with it. We know what its weakness points are and we know how to continue to destroy it if there will be a need. They lost Hezbollah as an asset against Israel,” said Amidror.
He highlighted the impact of the war on Hezbollah’s leadership. “We succeeded in eliminating all its leadership from Nasrallah down three levels. No one answers the phone anymore. The whole leadership, which … led Hezbollah in the last 40 years, their leadership does not exist.”
Discussing the potential for Hezbollah’s rearmament, Amidror said that the more Hezbollah understands its weakness, the “more cautious Hezbollah will be to violate the agreement.”
He also warned of the consequences if the terrorist group attempts to rearm, saying, “The minute that Hezbollah feels that it is strong enough to violate the agreement, then it’s the end of the ceasefire. From my point of view, my advice will be it’s the end of the ceasefire.”
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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