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Amid Escalating Threats, Here’s What’s Been Happening in Gaza
Israeli soldiers operate during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, July 3, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
Over the past few weeks, fighting in the Gaza Strip has continued at the same reduced pace, and with the same methods on both sides.
The IDF is slowly combing through the Rafah area against pinprick ambushes and raids by Hamas and other groups. Apparently, most of the Palestinian terrorists fled along with the civilians when the IDF provided evacuation notices to the latter, and are now trickling back to fight. Preventing the flight of terrorists with the civilians would have required the IDF to first conduct a rapid attack through the area north of Rafah to cut off access between it and Khan Yunis and the designated safe haven, but that would have increased civilian casualties and so was not viable.
The latest IDF raid into eastern Khan Yunis lasted two weeks. During that raid, IDF soldiers found the bodies of five more Israelis who were killed on October 7, and then had their bodies abducted. They were hidden inside a tunnel behind a false wall. According to one report, the information enabling their recovery was acquired from a captured Hamas terrorist. The IDF reported that during this raid, 150 terrorists were killed. The population that had been evacuated from the area of the raid prior to its start was allowed to return.
Below is a piece of Fatah propaganda against Hamas (provided by Israeli blogger Abu Ali Express from Palestinian social media): It says that in July 1994 Arafat entered Gaza following the Oslo Accords; In July 2024 Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu entered Gaza. The message: We, Fatah, liberated Gaza, and you, Hamas, destroyed it.
The population of the northern area of Nusayrat and Burayj (south of the IDF cordon separating northern Gaza from the rest of the Gaza Strip) was told to evacuate, and airstrikes and small raids have been conducted there.
The IDF conducts airstrikes in areas where its ground troops are not operating. These strikes are based on intelligence, and last-minute evacuation orders are provided to civilians living in or very near the target. Hamas and the other groups have been using UNRWA facilities, schools, and other “sensitive” locations to protect their personnel; the IDF locates them, monitors them, and then strikes them. Each time this occurs, Hamas claims that all the casualties incurred were civilians. The IDF provides information that they were mostly terrorists, though unfortunately some civilians have been hit too.
Hamas fired rockets from inside the safe haven area, so a portion of it was declared a combat zone and the population there told to evacuate. Some of the rockets fell inside Gaza, including on an UNWRA school in Khan Yunis, causing Palestinian casualties.
During the fighting in Gaza, three Israeli soldiers have been killed since my last update and a few dozen wounded (a few severely but most of them only lightly).
Below is a Palestinian “civilian” medic in action, also from a video posted on Palestinian social media, provided by Abu Ali Express.
Judea and Samaria:
The fighting in Judea and Samaria continues. Each IDF entry into Palestinian towns faces varying intensities of resistance, including bombs dug under roads (cleared by having bulldozers tear up the asphalt), rifles, machine guns, grenades, and improvised hand-thrown bombs as well as petrol bombs.
Since my last report there have been a couple of hundred more Palestinian attacks in or emanating from Judea and Samaria, bringing the total number of Palestinian attacks since October 7, 2023, to approximately 4,000. Several Israeli civilians and soldiers were wounded but none killed.
The Palestinians claim that more than 9,855 people have been arrested, but the official Israeli number is approximately 4,250 (no official update since my last report, but partial reporting adds a few dozen arrested all told) of whom approximately 50% belong to Hamas and the others to other groups. The discrepancy is apparently explained by the fact that the Palestinians count anyone who was detained, even if they were released after questioning.
Occasional skirmishes continue between the Palestinian Authority’s security forces and Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad cells. In at least two cases, these have included the detonating of bombs targeting Palestinian Authority security patrols inside the Authority’s sovereign controlled territory. At least one security officer was wounded. In another case, Palestinian Authority security personnel entered a hospital in Tulkarem to arrest a Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander wounded in a skirmish with Palestinian Authority security forces (a bomb he tried to hurl at them exploded prematurely), but he managed to escape with the help of civilians in the hospital and other armed members of his faction. His escape was afterwards feted by a street celebration. This suggests the relative popularity among the local population of Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority, and its rivals.
During their skirmishes, the factions often cooperate to attack Israelis. Symbolic of this occasional cooperation is that during the funeral of a killed terrorist, his body was draped in the flags of Fatah-affiliated organizations while being carried to the grave and then in Palestinian Islamic Jihad flags at the grave itself.
Dr. Eado Hecht, a senior research fellow at the BESA Center, is a military analyst focusing mainly on the relationship between military theory, military doctrine, and military practice. He teaches courses on military theory and military history at Bar-Ilan University, Haifa University, and Reichman University and in a variety of courses in the Israel Defense Forces. A version of this article was originally published by The BESA Center.
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Washington Warns UK, France Against Recognizing Palestinian Statehood

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy leaves Downing Street, following the results of the election, in London, Britain, July 5, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Toby Melville
i24 News – The United States has warned the UK and France not to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state at a UN conference scheduled for June 17 in New York, the Middle East Eye reported Tuesday.
France and Saudi Arabia will co-host this conference on the two-state solution, with Paris reportedly preparing to unilaterally recognize Palestine. France is also pressuring London to follow this path, according to sources from the British Foreign Office.
French media reports indicate that French authorities believe they have the agreement of the British government. Meanwhile, Arab states are encouraging this move, measuring the success of the conference by the recognitions obtained.
This initiative deeply divides Western allies. If France and the UK were to carry out this recognition, they would become the first G7 nations to take this step, causing a “political earthquake” according to observers, given their historical ties with Israel. The Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer threatened last week to annex parts of the West Bank if this recognition took place, according to a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
In the United Kingdom, Foreign Secretary David Lammy publicly opposes unilateral recognition, stating that London would only recognize a Palestinian state when we know that it is going to happen and that it is in view.
However, pressure is mounting within the Labour Party. MP Uma Kumaran, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said that the government was elected on a platform that promised to recognize Palestine as a step towards a just and lasting peace. Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, believes that there is no legitimate reason for the United States to interfere in a sovereign decision of recognition, while highlighting the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump on this issue.
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Police, Shin Bet Thwart Suspected Iranian Attempt Perpetrate Terror Attack

A small number of Jewish worshipers pray during the priestly blessing, a traditional prayer which usually attracts thousands of worshipers at the Western Wall on the holiday of Passover during 2020, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 12, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Ronen Zvulun.
i24 News – The Shin Bet security agency and Israel Police thwarted another Iranian attempt to recruit Israelis, according to a statement on Tuesday, arresting a resident of East Jerusalem for allegedly carrying out missions for the Islamic Republic.
Iranian agents recruited the suspect, who in turn recruited members of his family. He is a resident of the Isawiya neighborhood in his 30s, and is accused of maintaining contact with a hostile foreign entity to harm the state by carrying out a terrorist attack against Jews.
The suspect had already begun perpetrating acts of sabotage and espionage, including collecting intelligence about areas in Jerusalem, including the Western Wall and Mahane Yehuda Market. He also hung signs, burned Israeli army uniforms, and more in exchange for payment totaling thousands of shekels.
He was also charged with planning a terror attack in central Israel, including setting fire to a forest, and was told to transfer weapons to terrorist elements in the West Bank.
The suspect’s sought the help of family members, including his mother. A search at his home revealed sums of cash, a spray can used in some of his activities, airsoft guns, suspected illegal drugs, and more.
His indictment is expected to be filed by the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office.
The statement said that the case is yet another example of Iranian efforts to recruit Israelis. “We will continue to coordinate efforts to thwart terrorism and terrorist elements, including those operating outside Israel, while attempting to mobilize local elements in order to protect the citizens of the State of Israel,” the Shin Bet and Police said.
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Pro-Russian, Anti-Israeli Hackers Pose Biggest Cybercrime Threats in Germany

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt holds a chart showing the development of antisemitic crime, during a press conference on Figures for Politically Motivated Crime in the Country, in Berlin, Germany, May 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
Cybercrime in Germany rose to a record level last year, driven by hacker attacks from pro-Russian and anti-Israeli groups, the BKA Federal Crime Office reported on Tuesday as the government said it would boost countermeasures to combat it.
“Cybercrime is an increasing threat to our security,” said Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt. “It is getting more aggressive but our counter-strategies are also becoming more professional,” he said.
Some 131,391 cases of cybercrime took place in Germany last year and a further 201,877 cases were committed from abroad or an unknown location, a BKA report said.
The actors behind the hacker attacks on German targets were primarily either pro-Russian or anti-Israeli, said the BKA, adding targets were mostly public and federal institutions.
Ransomware, when criminals copy and encrypt data, is one of the main threats, said the BKA, with 950 companies and institutes reporting cases in 2024.
German digital association Bitkom said damage caused by cyberattacks here totaled 178.6 billion euros ($203.87 billion) last year, some 30.4 billion euros more than in the previous year.
Dobrindt said the government planned to extend the legal capabilities authorities could use to combat cybercrime and set higher security standards for companies.
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