Ten days after Hamas terrorists infiltrated into southern Israel to massacre and kidnap civilians, the Israeli military raised the number of hostages in Gaza to 199.
“The families of 199 people have been notified so far that their loved ones are being held in the Gaza Strip after they were abducted during Hamas’s terror onslaught in southern Israel on October 7,” The Times of Israel reported Monday, citing IDF officials. “Israelis and foreign nationals — infants, children with special needs, octogenarians with chronic health issues — were dragged by terrorists into Gaza.”
Many of the captives are women, children, and elderly. Several U.S. nationals are also among the hostages.
The Israeli military may have some information on the captives’ whereabouts and was conducting strikes away from those locations. An IDF spokesman “emphasized that IDF strikes are intelligence-based to avoid harming the captives,” the Ynet reported Monday.
As Israel’s military secures the country’s borders and gears up for a possible ground offensive against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, the Iran-sponsored terrorist militia Hezbollah is stepping up attacks on Israel’s northern border.
On Monday, Hezbollah snipers destroyed surveillance cameras along the Israel-Lebanon border in a bid to conceal terrorist activities near Israeli military posts. The attempt was made less than a day after the Iranian foreign minister threatened Israel with unleashing another large-scale terrorist attack if the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continued strikes on Hamas terror targets in Gaza.
The IDF, expecting a terrorist offensive from Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon, has begun evacuating Israeli civilians from the north. The military has created a 4-kilometer-wide security zone along the 80-mile Israel-Lebanon border to prevent a terrorist intrusion similar to the one staged by Hamas last Saturday.
The Associated Press reported Hezbollah activities on Israel’s border:
Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said Monday it has started destroying surveillance cameras on several Israeli army posts along the border as tension rose following the Israel-Hamas war that began Oct.7.Hezbollah’s military media arm released a video showing snipers shooting at and destroying surveillance cameras placed on five points along the Lebanon-Israel border including one outside the Israeli town of Metula.The militant group appears to want to prevent the Israeli army from monitoring movements on the Lebanese side of the border after days of fire exchange that left at least seven people dead, including four Hezbollah fighters, on the Lebanese side.
While IDF is working to evacuate civilians from northern Gaza ahead of a possible ground offensive, Hamas has stepped up rocket fire on cities across Israel. On Monday, Hamas bombarded Jerusalem and Tel Aviv with rockets, forcing Israeli lawmakers to adjourn the parliament session.
The Israeli news website Ynet reported:
Central Israel and Jerusalem came under a rocket attack on Monday afternoon. The sirens alerted of incoming fire, disrupted the opening of the winter session of parliament and sent lawmakers and guests into protected areas, soon after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ended his address. In it he warned Iran and Hezbollah, not to open a second front against Israel in the north.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military conducted air strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza, particularly against its Nukhba special forces, which led to last Saturday’s terrorist incision into Israel, the IDF disclosed in a statement released on Monday afternoon.
“Over the last few hours, dozens of military command centers and mortar shell posts were destroyed. In addition, the operational command center of Ali Qadi, one of the commanders of the Hamas “Nukhba” commando forces who was killed several days ago, was struck,” the IDF statement said. “Furthermore, IDF fighter jets killed several Hamas terrorists inside of a military compound belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization.”
The Jerusalem Post reported the latest IDF strikes:
The IDF carried out strikes against dozens of Hamas operational headquarters across the Gaza Strip, as well as one mortar launcher, the Israeli military said Monday.Among the headquarters destroyed was the one used by killed Nukhba commander Ali Qadi, who was successfully targeted in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday.A number of Hamas terrorists were killed by airstrikes targeting a Hamas military complex in the Strip, the IDF added.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY