Australia/Israel Review

ROCKET AND TERROR REPORT

In the eight days following the March 18 resumption of hostilities in Gaza, at least ten rockets were launched at Israel from Gaza, all of which were intercepted or fell in open areas. Israel’s renewed strikes in Gaza killed several senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad officials and commanders, and the IDF began to re-engage in ground operations. 

Fourteen people were injured in a car ramming at the Karkur Junction on Feb. 27. On March 4, one Israeli was killed and four were injured in a stabbing attack in Haifa. On March 25, one elderly civilian was killed and a soldier badly wounded in a ramming, stabbing and shooting attack in northern Israel. 

An ongoing Israeli counterterrorism operation throughout the cities of the northern West Bank continues to result in the killing or capture of numerous terrorists and suspects.

ISRAEL REPORTEDLY PREPARING TO CONTROL ALL GAZA AID 

In the last week of February, Israeli authorities briefed aid agencies that Israel planned to take direct control of all humanitarian aid to Gaza, with all items screened and organised through several new logistics hubs, to prevent Hamas from stealing it. However, several agencies said they would likely not cooperate with such a plan. 

With the support of the US Government, Israel then halted humanitarian aid entering Gaza on March 1 due to Hamas’ refusal to negotiate a continued ceasefire, and its stockpiling and selling aid rather than allowing it to be distributed for free as intended. Israeli authorities believe sufficient aid has entered Gaza since January to last about five months.

HAMAS’ OCTOBER 7 ATTACKS AIMED TO DESTROY ISRAEL

A new analysis of Hamas documents captured in Gaza reveals more details about the beliefs of its leaders and the goals of the campaign launched on October 7, 2023.

They show that terrorist leader Yahya Sinwar and others in Hamas wholeheartedly believed that the destruction of Israel was possible, especially after the 2021 Israel-Hamas conflict (“Operation Guardian of the Walls”). Soon after that conflict, Hamas began working on practical plans to that end, which were shared with Iran (disproving Iranian denials of involvement in planning the attacks) and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, involving a “unification of the fronts” to simultaneously attack Israel at the right moment – with a Jewish holiday specifically mentioned. 

ISRAEL AIDS SYRIAN DRUZE

On March 1, Israel’s Government instructed the IDF to prepare plans to defend the Druze-majority city of Jaramana, on the outskirts of Damascus in Syria, following reports of clashes between Druze locals and the new Syrian interim Government. 

During February and March, Israel also sent 10,000 food packages to Syrian Druze communities. 

In mid-March, a delegation of more than 150 Syrian Druze dignitaries visited Israel, the first such visit since 1974. They visited holy sites, including the Tomb of Jethro (Nabi Shu’ayb) and met with their Israeli brethren. 

ISRAELI RAIDS IN SYRIA

In early March, the IDF conducted several targeted raids in southern Syria, seizing and destroying weapons, including rifles, ammunition and rockets. The IDF also launched airstrikes on former Syrian regime sites, including a military site in Qardaha, where weapons belonging to the previous regime were stored. On March 13, Israel targeted a Palestinian Islamic Jihad command centre in Damascus that, according to the IDF, had been used to orchestrate terrorist attacks against Israel. 

Israel says it aims to demilitarise southern Syria near the Israeli border.

Meanwhile, on March 16, violence erupted on the Lebanon-Syria border after Syria accused Hezbollah of kidnapping and killing three Syrian soldiers near the border. Hezbollah denied involvement. Tensions escalated further when Syrian rockets struck Lebanon’s Qasr village. 

AS US STRIKES, HOUTHIS RESUME FIRING ON ISRAEL

The US began an ongoing wave of intensive strikes against the Houthis in Yemen on March 16 to restore freedom of navigation in the Red Sea. The Trump Administration redesignated the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation on March 4. 

Meanwhile, between the end of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and March 25, the Houthis fired at least six missiles at Israel – most occurring in the middle of the night, with some allegedly targeting Ben Gurion International Airport. All were intercepted or disintegrated. 

LEBANON UPDATE

On March 22, six rockets were launched from southern Lebanon toward Metula, Israel, with some intercepted and others landing in Lebanon. This was the third such attack since the November 2024 Israel-Lebanon ceasefire. In response, the IDF conducted airstrikes on terror infrastructure in Hezbollah-controlled areas in southern Lebanon and the Beqa’a region. 

The IDF continues operations to enforce the ceasefire by curbing Hezbollah’s military buildup, while Lebanon’s Government has called for international pressure on Israel to withdraw from five strategic border points it still holds inside Lebanon. Israel continues to occupy the border sites pending the completion of the Lebanese Army’s deployment to southern Lebanon as promised under the ceasefire agreement.

On March 15, the IDF eliminated two Hezbollah operatives in a drone strike on their vehicle in southern Lebanon. 

SPIKE IN IRAN’S HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM

Analysis of the February 2025 report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) shows Iran now stocks enough enriched uranium in various purities to produce a single atomic warhead’s worth of weapons-grade uranium in about a week, seven warheads worth in three weeks and 17 in four months. Teheran’s stockpile of 60% enriched uranium increased to 275kg, almost 50% more than what it had in November 2024.

Following the report, IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi warned that “Iran is the only non-nuclear weapon state enriching to this level [60%], causing me serious concern.”

BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY REPORT DOCUMENTS OCTOBER 7 ATROCITIES

A new 318-page report prepared by a committee of the British Parliament and presented on March 18 documents Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The report says around 6,000 terrorists, including Hamas’ elite Nukhba forces, invaded southern Israel, killing 1,182 people, wounding more than 4,000 and taking 251 hostages. The report documents in detail mass executions, mutilations and sexual violence, calling the attack the deadliest massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust.

Meanwhile, the US Justice Department launched a Joint Task Force October 7 (JTF 10-7) to use legal methods to pursue justice for victims and combat Hamas’ threats. 

BRITISH REVIEW DEBUNKS GAZA FAMINE CLAIMS

A detailed review conducted by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) in February found that UN claims of actual or imminent famine in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war last year were inaccurate, and based on flawed data and methodology. Reports from famine monitoring organisations, including the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) and Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), were used as evidence in legal cases against Israel, influencing the International Criminal Court’s decision to charge Israeli leaders with war crimes. However, using these bodies’ own data, UKFLI found that famine was never close to occurring, and malnutrition levels were only slightly higher than pre-war levels. 

The study highlighted various methodological errors by the UN bodies, such as reliance on incomplete data, misclassification, failure to update projections, failure to include all available food sources and inflated population estimates. 

Stranger than Fiction

THERE’S SNOW ROLE FOR ISRAELIS

Snow White co-stars Rachel Zegler (left) and Gal Gadot (Image: X)

The obsessiveness with which Israel’s haters seek to boycott and cancel any Israeli was epitomised by a reaction to the new Disney movie “Snow White”, starring Israeli actress Gal Gadot as the evil Queen, opposite Rachel Zegler’s Snow White.

While Gadot proudly supports her home country, Zegler is outspokenly anti-Israel. But this did not stop the “Campaign to boycott Israel’s supporters in Lebanon” demanding on March 18 that the movie not be shown in that country. We would have thought a movie where an evil villain played by an Israeli is vanquished by a sweet heroine played by a strong critic of Israel would lend itself to anti-Israel propaganda and have been enjoyed by the Jewish state’s detractors. However, it was apparently more important to limit “the efforts to penetrate the Zionist narrative into our culture” by excluding any Israeli actors than to support the pro-Palestinian Zegler, even when the movie matches the Palestinian narrative far better than the Zionist one.

The Feb. 11 premiere of the Marvel movie “Captain America: Brave New World” similarly attracted several dozen protestors calling for a boycott of the film because of the character Ruth Bat-Seraph and her superhero alter-ego Sabra, played by Israeli actress Shira Haas.

In the original comics, Bat-Seraph was a Mossad agent, but in the movie, she’s a US government employee. However, just the fact that she’s Israeli was enough to set off the haters. And of course, a ceremony to unveil a star for Gadot on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame was also disrupted by protesters. 

Apparently for some, Israelis should only be allowed to appear in movies as real-life villains in depictions of the Palestinian narrative. However, such movies would have about as much relationship with the truth as those about superheroes or fairy tales.