IDF Making Progress in Lebanon, Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip

Reports out of Beirut on Thursday evening indicated that an Israeli airstrike had targeted Wafiq Safa, Hezbollah’s Liasson and Coordination Unit chief. Hezbollah said he was still alive following the strike, but there was no independent confirmation of that. The strike hit a building in a neighborhood of Beirut that had not previously been targeted, and Hezbollah claimed that at least 22 people were killed and over 100 others were wounded.

The strike came amidst reports of heavy fighting in southern Lebanon, with IDF forces taking control of several Hezbollah tunnel shafts, capturing large quantities of weapons and ammunition and eliminating dozens of terrorists in close-quarters battles. Hezbollah is also still managing to fire salvos of rockets into the Galilee, but most of the rockets are being intercepted, causing little damage and few casualties.

In Judea and Samaria, a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander was eliminated, but three IDF reservists were also killed in action in the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours.

The strike on Safa occurred as he was in an apartment in an eighth-story building on the seam line between the Al Nuwairi and Ras el-Nabaa in central Beirut. Another nearby building was reportedly hit minutes later, although the target of that strike is unclear.

The IDF issued warnings in Arabic prior to the strike so civilians could move away from the targeted area.

Safa, who is reportedly in his early 60s, has been a well-known official in the Hezbollah leadership team for decades and played a key role in ending the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

“As the head of Hezbollah’s security apparatus, which is directly linked to Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, Safa has exploited Lebanon’s ports and border crossings to smuggle contraband and facilitate travel on behalf of Hezbollah, undermining the security and safety of the Lebanese people, while also draining valuable import duties and revenue away from the Lebanese government,” the US Treasury Department wrote in 2019 in a briefing given to explain why he was being added to a list of sanctioned individuals.

In related news, Israel is being heavily criticized for an incident this week in which an IDF tank fired a shell that hit a position that was manned by UN Peacekeeping troops from the Italian contingent. Israel is responding to the criticism by saying that the UN Peacekeepers were deployed in southern Lebanon to prevent Hezbollah from sending their own forces there. But they utterly failed in that mission so they have no reason for being there anymore and are now just getting in the way of the IDF's efforts to solve a problem the UN failed to prevent.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah continues to fire volleys of rockets into northern Israel, including barrages aimed at large cities like Acre and Nahariya. Additionally, a 27-year old Thai worker was killed and several other people were wounded by anti-tank fire Hezbollah fighters directed at Kibbutz Yaraon in the Upper Galilee on Friday morning.

However, the situation has stabilized enough so that the IDF Home Front Command has loosened on educational activities and other public events in the Galilee region.

The Battle Continues in Judea and Samaria and in the Gaza Strip

The IDF announced on Thursday that the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Nur Shams refugee camp, near Tukaram, in Judea and Samaria, Muhammad Abdullah, had been eliminated. He took over from his predecessor, Muhhamad Jabber, was killed in a shootout with IDF troops in late August.

In Gaza, the IDF announced the deaths of three reserve soldiers who had been killed in action over the last 24 hours. They were named as Master Sgt. (res.) Ori Moshe Borenstein, 32, from Moreshet, Maj. (res.) Netanel Hershkovitz, 37, from Jerusalem and Master Sgt. (res.) Tzvi Matityahu Marantz, 32, from Bnei Adam.

All three men served in the 5460th support unit of the 460th Brigade.

They were killed in action amidst a strong push by the IDF in the city of Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip. Dozens of terrorists have reportedly been eliminated in battles with the IDF in this city over the last 24 hours, and stocks of weapons and ammunition were captured.

In a related development, the UN children’s agency announced Thursday that an agreement has been reached to allow “humanitarian pauses” in specific areas of Gaza so a second round of polio vaccines can be administered to around 590,000 children under the age of 10.

Elsewhere, White House Mideast czar Brett McGurk, spoke with American rabbis for a High Holiday address on Thursday, telling them among other things that “Yahya Sinwar remains the decision maker. He remains — we believe — alive and in a tunnel underneath Gaza, holding hostages, and likely with hostages in his vicinity."