While PM says Rafah offensive key to victory, Hamas warns it would torpedo hostage deal

Troops of the Givati Brigade operate in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, in an image published by the IDF on February 11, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says the Givati Brigade has “deepened” the damage caused to Hamas’s western Khan Younis Battalion, and has strengthened its “operational control” in the area in southern Gaza.

Over the past two weeks, the IDF says Givati troops killed some 100 Hamas operatives in close-quarters fighting, tank shelling, sniper fire, and by calling in airstrikes.

Footage released by the IDF shows one of the airstrikes against three Hamas operatives who were spotted by Givati troops carrying a large explosive device on a motorcycle.

Hamas: An Israeli offensive in Rafah will torpedo hostage negotiations

A Hamas spokesman tells the terrorist organization’s Al Aqsa channel that if Israel launches an offensive on Rafah, where some 1 million displaced people are sheltering, will put an end to any negotiations for a hostage deal.

His comments come after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News in an excerpt from an interview set to air later today that Israel will “get the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions in Rafah.”

Palestinians mourn after identifying the bodies of relatives killed in overnight Israeli bombardment on the southern Gaza Strip, at Al-Najjar hospital in Rafah, on February 10, 2024. (Said Khatib/AFP)

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says the Palestinian death toll in the Strip since the start of the war has reached 28,176, and an additional 67,784 people have been injured.

These figures cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires. The IDF says it has killed over 10,000 operatives in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

Gallant: IDF’s intelligence findings in Gaza are bringing a ‘realistic’ hostage deal closer

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant gives a video statement from a display of Hamas weapons and intelligence findings found by troops in the Gaza Strip, at the Julis Base, February 11, 2024. (Elad Malka/Defense Ministry)

Speaking at a display made by the Military Intelligence Directorate’s so-called intelligence collection and technical spoils unit — known by its Hebrew acronym Amshat — Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says Hamas intelligence findings recovered by the IDF in Gaza are bringing a “realistic” hostage deal closer.

“You can see a small part of [what the IDF recovered] here, missiles, explosives, mines, many maps, communication devices, documents, computers, hard drives,” says Gallant.

“We penetrated into the heart of Hamas’s most sensitive places, and are using their intelligence against them,” he says.

“The more we deepen this operation, the closer we are to a realistic deal in order to return the hostages,” Gallant adds.

The display will be shown to government ministers today.

UN maritime agency says it is working ‘tirelessly’ to solve Red Sea crisis

Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Arsenio Dominguez at the IMO’s London headquarters, on February 6, 2024 (James Rybacki/AFP)

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is working “tirelessly” to solve the Red Sea crisis, which is severely disrupting the global transport of goods, its head Arsenio Dominguez tells AFP.

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched dozens of attacks against ships in the Red Sea since November, targeting boats it claims have ties to Israel as an act of “solidarity” with Palestinians amid Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Despite retaliatory strikes by the US and UK, the rebel group is still launching attacks, firing at US ship Star Nasia and UK vessel Morning Tide last Tuesday.

The IMO, the United Nations agency responsible for security at sea, is working to ensure that “parties continue to talk so that the situation does not degenerate any further, and we can return to a safe maritime environment,” Panama-born Secretary General Dominguez says.

“We are working tirelessly to coordinate action that will lead to a resolution,” Dominguez adds from the IMO’s London headquarters.

Attorney general says government has been making decisions without following legal procedures

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara at a welcome ceremony for her in Jerusalem on February 8, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara warns the government against making decisions in the absence of “binding professional and legal infrastructure,” which she says has occurred several times in recent weeks.

“This letter was sent following a number of recent events, in which substantial decisions were brought for the government’s approval during its meetings, in the absence of a binding professional and legal infrastructure or when it was stated in advance that there is a legal impediment,” she writes in the letter sent to members of government.

“Government decisions have significant economic, security and social consequences for the public, and therefore it must be ensured that these decisions are made according to proper processes with coordination between government ministries,” she continues. “In the absence of such infrastructure, illegal decisions may be made that harm the public interest.”

She instructs the government to reverse any decisions made via improper avenues and to discuss them anew “after the completion of the required professional and legal work.”o

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange shares dip after Moody’s lowers Israel’s credit rating

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, December 25, 2018. (Adam Shuldman/Flash90)

Israeli shares dip on Sunday, led by bank and insurance stocks, after Moody’s cut the country’s sovereign credit rating and changed its outlook to “negative.”

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s benchmark TA-125 index and the TA-35 index of blue-chip companies fall more than 1% in morning trading in Tel Aviv. The TA index of the five largest banks drops 1.9% and the TA-Insurance & Financial Services slides 1.5%.

Late on Friday, Moody’s lowered Israel’s credit rating by one notch from A1 to A2, citing the impact of the ongoing war with the Hamas terror group in Gaza on the government’s debt burden.

“The local financial market anticipated a rating downgrade but what it did not foresee is the accompanying negative outlook,” says Yaniv Pagot, head of trading at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. “The yellow card that Israel received as part of the downgrade obliges the government to take urgent steps to prevent a snowball effect of further downgrades in the future.”

Two Israelis indicted for working with Hamas, planning further attacks after Oct. 7

Two residents of the northern Israel town of Ein Mahil have been indicted for conspiracy to commit acts of terror and contact with foreign terror operatives, the Israel Police and Shin Bet announce in a statement at the end of a joint investigation.

On January 1, Ein Mahil resident Rami Habibullah, 43, was arrested on suspicion of making contact with Hamas operatives abroad and providing them with information about a security plant close to his home with the hope that they would fire rockets at it, the police and Shin Bet say.

He then worked with the foreign terror operatives to recruit more Arabs inside Israel to his cause.

As part of the investigation, 35-year-old Khaled Saleh was also arrested and found to have agreed to carry out terror activities with Habibullah and to provide the necessary weapons to do so.

“This is a serious activity by Israeli citizens who hatched a malicious plan with Hamas operatives while the State of Israel is in the middle of fighting against that terrorist organization,” the two security agencies say, adding that the plans were thwarted in their initial stages before any harm could be done to Israel’s security.

The police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit says it has opened an investigation into a 40-year-old resident of Beersheba on suspicion of “serious incitement to murder” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on TikTok, the video-sharing social media platform.

The man was detained this morning and has been taken for questioning by the top-tier police investigations department.

He will later be brought for a hearing on extending his detention, the police statement adds.

IDF: Troops located, killed Hamas operatives who fired anti-tank missiles at them in central Gaza

IDF troops operate inside the Gaza Strip in this undated handout photo release on February 11, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Troops of the IDF’s 98th Division continue to battle Hamas in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, while the 162nd Division carries out smaller raids in central and northern Gaza, the military says.

Simultaneously, the IDF says the Israeli Air Force and Navy carried out strikes on various Hamas targets across the Strip.

In a morning update, the IDF says the Nahal Brigade spotted and killed a Hamas operative who had been observing the forces and fired an anti-tank missile at them in central Gaza.

Moments later, more missiles were fired toward the soldiers. The IDF says the Nahal troops spotted two operatives coming out of the building from which the missiles were fired, and directed an aircraft to strike and kill the pair.

The Nahal Brigade also directed several more airstrikes on Hamas sites in central Gaza, including a weapons depot, the IDF says.

Meanwhile, in the western Khan Younis, the IDF says the Paratroopers Brigade and Egoz commando unit raided several Hamas sites, killing a number of operatives and locating weapons.

In another area of Khan Younis, the 7th Armored Brigade killed several more Hamas gunmen and the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade located weapons, the IDF says.

Also in Khan Younis, airstrikes were carried out against three weapons depots and a Hamas cell that had fired at troops, the IDF adds.