![Israel must continue to be able to deter Hezbollah, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar stressed on Wednesday, speaking amid efforts to reach a ceasefire with Iran's Lebanese terrorist proxy. "We need to keep the freedom to act if there will be violations. And we will have to act in time, before the problem will grow," the minister told a gathering of nearly 100 foreign ambassadors in Jerusalem, the Times of Israel reported. A deal to end more than a year of fighting on the northern border must be durable, Sa'ar said, saying Jerusalem “would like to reach an agreement that will stand the test of time." He added that a ceasefire would be an "opportunity" for Lebanon to regain its sovereignty after the Israeli military severely degraded the Iranian-backed group in recent months. He called for the Lebanese Armed Forces to be strengthened and urged the international community to invest more in the economically devastated country, which is drowning in debt following years of mismanagement and corruption. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also emphasized on Wednesday the necessity for Jerusalem to be able to act against any Hezbollah threats that may arise after a ceasefire deal is implemented. “The condition for any political settlement in Lebanon is the preservation of the intelligence capability and the preservation of the [IDF’s] right to act and protect the citizens of Israel from Hezbollah,” Katz said. Meanwhile, U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein remained in Beirut for a second day on Wednesday to discuss "technical details" of an American ceasefire proposal with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who heads the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement. President Joe Biden's point man in the Land of the Cedars announced he would travel to Israel on Wednesday night, speaking after he made "additional progress" in a second meeting with Berri. Hochstein was scheduled to meet with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer shortly after his arrival, followed by a tête-à-tête with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the following day. “The meeting today built on the meeting yesterday, and made additional progress,” Hochstein said. “So I will travel from here in a couple hours to Israel to try to bring this to a close if we can.” The Biden envoy added that he will work with the incoming Trump administration on ceasefire efforts, saying that he has kept the president-elect's transition team informed of progress. Hochstein described as "very productive" his meetings with Lebanese officials on Tuesday. “We have a real opportunity to end the conflict, and now is the moment to decide. We are committed to doing everything we can to work with Lebanon and Israel to end this conflict,” Hochstein said at a press conference on Tuesday. Hochstein also met on Tuesday with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and he was scheduled to meet with Lebanese Armed Forces commander Gen. Joseph Aoun. Mikati emphasized that Lebanon’s primary objectives are achieving a ceasefire and safeguarding its sovereignty. He highlighted the need to implement international resolutions and bolster the Lebanese Armed Forces in the southern part of the country. Lebanon delivered its written response to the latest U.S. proposal on Monday. According to Ali Hassan Khalil, an aide to Berri, the response included “comments” that were “presented in a positive atmosphere.” He did not provide details on the nature of the comments, saying only that they “affirm the precise adherence to [U.N. Security Council] Resolution 1701 with all its provisions,” according to Reuters. Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said in a speech on Wednesday that the terrorist group had "read the ceasefire proposal. "We have our comments, and Nabih Berri has comments, and ours and the Lebanese government's comments are, Inshallah ['God willing'], identical," Qassem said. "We have decided not to discuss these ceasefire proposals or our comments in the media. All I will say is that Israeli is trying to obtain through negotiations what it couldn't through war." The terrorist leader vowed to “continue our efforts on the ground, whether the negotiations succeed or not. “We are confronting a savage enemy, and we will remain on the ground, no matter the cost, as we will also increase the cost for the enemy. We are facing Israeli human monsters supported by American human monsters,” threatened Qassem. Disarm and retreat Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, stipulated that Hezbollah must disarm and retreat north of the Litani River, but was never enforced. The Litani lies some 20 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border. Its enforcement, along with Israeli freedom of operation in Lebanon should Hezbollah violate the terms of a ceasefire agreement, are the key sticking points in the current negotiations. Netanyahu emphasized during a speech in the Knesset plenum on Monday that Israel will not allow Hezbollah to “return to the state it was in on Oct. 6, 2023. “We will be required, in order to ensure our security in the north, to systematically carry out operations—not only against Hezbollah’s attacks, which could come. Even if there is a ceasefire, nobody can guarantee it will hold. So it’s not only our reaction, a preventive reaction, a reaction in the wake of attack but also the capacity to prevent Hezbollah from strengthening,” he said. Hezbollah has launched some 16,000 rockets, missiles and drones from Lebanon at Israel since joining the war in support of Hamas on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after the Gaza-based terrorist group’s massacre in southern Israel. More than 60,000 residents of northern Israel remain internally displaced due to the ongoing rocket and drone attacks from Lebanon. Seventy-six people in northern Israel have been killed by Hezbollah cross-border rocket, missile and drone attacks since the start of the war, including 31 soldiers and six foreign citizens, according to the latest data provided by the Prime Minister’s Office, updated on Sunday. In addition, 729 people have been wounded, including 497 civilians and 232 soldiers. Of these, 29 civilians and 37 soldiers were severely injured; 63 civilians and 38 soldiers were moderately injured and 405 civilians and 157 soldiers were lightly injured. Hezbollah’s leadership has been left in tatters following a series of targeted killings by Israel, including that of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Sept. 27. This was preceded by Israeli sabotage of Hezbollah communication devices that killed 39 people and wounded more than 3,400 members of the terrorist group. Israel has been waging a devastating aerial campaign against Hezbollah throughout Lebanon, including its stronghold of Dahieh south of Beirut. According to Israeli estimates, the terrorist group has lost most of its arsenal to the ongoing strikes. Then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in late October that Hezbollah had lost an estimated 80%-plus of its long-range rockets since the start of the war. Israel also continues to battle Hamas terrorists in Gaza. The terrorist group still holds 101 hostages in the Strip, 97 of whom were kidnapped on Oct. 7. Many of the captives are believed to be dead. Brazil summit Meanwhile, G20 leaders gathered in Rio de Janeiro for a summit put out a joint statement on Monday calling for “comprehensive” ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon. The leaders of the world’s biggest economies called for U.S. proposals to end fighting in Gaza and free the hostages, and one for Lebanon “that enables citizens to return safely to their homes on both sides of the Blue Line.” The 13-point U.S. proposal presented to Lebanese officials on Nov. 14 includes a 60-day truce, during which Lebanon would redeploy its troops along the border. The proposal also calls for Moscow to prevent Hezbollah from resupplying itself via Syrian land routes. Hezbollah would retreat north of the Litani River, with the border area then being under control of the Lebanese Armed Forces, overseen by the United States and Britain. Israeli officials are emphasizing, however, that the Israel Defense Forces must retain freedom of operation in Lebanon to thwart attempts by Hezbollah to violate the agreement and rearm and reestablish itself. A senior Israeli diplomatic official told Israel Hayom on Saturday that the IDF will retain operational freedom to respond to any security threats from across the northern border, regardless of any diplomatic arrangements. However, a source close to Hezbollah told The Washington Post that the group’s “condition for progress remains clear: Israel must be prohibited from conducting operations within Lebanese territory.” Berri emphasized at the time that any ceasefire agreement must not include the ability for Israel to attack by land, sea or air, Channel 12 reported. “Otherwise, what’s the purpose of an agreement?” he remarked. Another sticking point is Lebanon’s objection to the United Kingdom and Germany monitoring the implementation of U.N. Resolution 1701. Beirut reportedly favors the United States and France. If the ceasefire efforts fail, there are plans in the works to expand ground operations in Lebanon, an Israeli military official told the Post. Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer discussed the proposal with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump during a visit to his Florida estate earlier this month, as well as with senior Biden administration officials in Washington. Dermer also traveled to Russia to discuss the ceasefire proposal. Tehran is telling its Lebanese terrorist proxy Hezbollah that it supports ending the war against Israel, The New York Times reported over the weekend. Ali Larijani, senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, met with senior Lebanese officials in Beirut on Nov. 15 to discuss the matter. Two Iranians affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps told the Times that Larijani conveyed messages to Hezbollah from Khamenei that he supported the end of the war and that the regime would assist with rebuilding the terrorist group’s forces and recovering from the war.](https://jewishwebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Gideon-Saar-1320x880-2-218x150.jpg "Sa’ar: Israel must be free to act against Hezbollah truce violations")
The Israel Defense Forces is pursuing a staged operation to dismantle Hamas’s last stronghold in Rafah, southern Gaza.
The IDF on Monday began evacuating some 100,000 civilians from eastern Rafah and announced the widening of the humanitarian zone at Al-Mawasi, on the Gaza coastline, to accommodate increased levels of aid flowing into the Strip. The area includes new field hospitals and increased quantities of food, water and medication. The IDF also fixed a waterline leading directly to this area.
According to Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, former head of the Research and Assessment Division of IDF Military Intelligence and currently a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, the order to begin evacuation came after a lengthy process aimed at “accumulating legitimacy” for an Israeli operation.
“There is finally some [international] legitimacy to some extent, due in part to Hamas’s problematic stance in the [hostage negotiation] talks, and because of the mortar barrage shelling, which killed four IDF soldiers, and was launched from close to a civilian population, and close to Rafah Crossing,” said Kuperwasser. This provided additional legitimacy for the Israeli operation in Rafah to begin, he added.
“There is no choice but to carry it out. In the end, it probably needs to be done gradually to preserve this legitimacy,” Kuperwasser added.
The first stage of the operation will focus on evacuating civilians, before the military enters eastern Rafah, in an area of the city that is closest to the Israeli border.
“This is also a kind of pilot, in the sense that if we manage to conduct this operation and also cause heavy damage to Hamas forces deployed in this space while avoiding hitting civilians as much as possible—it’s clear this will be a central effort in the operation—then it will be possible to expand the operation later on,” Kuperwasser said.
The four Hamas battalions in place are no different from the other 19 enemy battalions that Israel dismantled since its ground offensive in Gaza, launched on Oct.27, he added, but the difference is that Egypt is in close proximity, as are many civilian aid agencies.
“This is the last Hamas fortress. Hamas will likely try to defend it ferociously. There could be more terrorists in addition to the original four Hamas battalions,” he added.
At the same time, Rafah will feature many of the same challenges that the IDF already overcame in Gaza City and Khan Yunis, such as underground terrorist infrastructure and a terrorist army entrenched in civilian areas.
“I don’t think Hamas’s deployment in Rafah is substantially different from its deployment in other places. There is of course the issue of tunnels leading to Egypt, which was absent in other areas of Gaza,” said Kuperwasser.
Hamas’s leadership could try to use them to escape to Sinai, an effort that the Egyptians may not find so easy to stop, he cautioned.
Once the operation gets into full swing, Israel will have new pressure levers to apply in negotiations for the release of hostages, said Kuperwasser.
“If we show this can be done without large civilian casualties, Hamas will likely be under pressure from the prospect of Israel completing the operation, and it losing Gaza,” Kuperwasser said. “In that sense, this operation could be a game changer, both regarding the question of hostages, and the question of the day-after in Gaza.”
Gradual plan
Speaking on Monday, IDF Spokesman to the international media Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said the latest moves are part of operational plans approved by the Israeli War Cabinet.
“We are going to have situational assessments and will operate according to this gradual plan. And this is part of our endeavors to dismantle Hamas that, as we saw yesterday, is still active in shooting from Rafah,” Shoshani said.
The IDF Southern Command’s Population Evacuation Unit leads these efforts. The unit uses an advanced digital map that divides Gaza into more than 600 polygons, enabling evacuations from very specific areas. A green polygon on the unit’s digital map means over 75% of the population has left, enabling ground forces to move in.
The Rafah operation is expected to involve significant air and artillery strikes and tank movements.
The military began issuing calls to Gazans move to the humanitarian areas through airdropped flyers, text messages, phone calls and media broadcasts in Arabic.
Shoshani described an evacuation operation limited in scope to temporarily move residents from the eastern part of Rafah, stressing that this was not a general evacuation of the city.
The amount of aid going into Gaza in the upcoming days is not going to change, Shoshani said, adding that aid is flowing through Route 96—built by Israel in March to enable trucks to enter northern Gaza directly from Israel, airdrops, as well as goods unloaded from ships at Ashdod Port, while the Kerem Shalom Crossing in southern Gaza has been temporarily closed following Sunday’s deadly mortar attack there by Hamas. The mortar attack was carried out from Rafah.
“We are calling on the people of Gaza, of the people of the eastern parts of Rafah to move north to the expanded humanitarian area,” said Shoshani.
Rafah is a densely populated urban area. The military will aim to attack Hamas targets from the air and the ground using its many sensors and precise firepower.
The operation is expected to involve the 98th Paratroopers Division, which led the four-month operation in Khan Yunis, and the 162nd Armored Division, which spent six months fighting in central Gaza and setting up the Netzarim Corridor separating northern and southern Gaza.