Australia/Israel Review

ROCKET AND TERROR REPORT

Since the Gaza ceasefire came into effect on Jan. 19, one rocket was launched from Gaza on Feb. 14, falling inside Gaza and allegedly killing a 14-year-old Palestinian. 

On Jan. 21, four Israelis were injured in a stabbing in Tel Aviv by an Arab tourist. Two IDF reservists were killed and eight wounded on Feb. 4 in a shooting in the West Bank. 

According to Shin Bet data, there were 6,828 attacks in the West Bank and Israel in 2024, double the number for 2023. However, there was a 44% decrease in “significant” attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem, with 231 in 2024 versus 414 in 2023. Forty-six Israelis were killed and 337 wounded in terror attacks in 2024.

REVELATIONS ABOUT HAMAS’ TORTURE OF HOSTAGES

Disturbing new details about how Israeli hostages Ohad Ben-Ami, Or Levy, and Eli Sharabi were tortured, physically and psychologically, by Hamas terrorists in Gaza have been revealed following their release on Feb. 8. This included being chained to chairs, choked, starved, hung upside down, gagged to the point of almost being suffocated, and burned. They were also refused water for several days and only allowed to bathe every few months. One of the men said, “I was shackled inside a dark tunnel, with no air or light. I couldn’t walk or stand, and only before my release did my captors remove the chains, forcing me to learn to walk again.” The three men spent 491 days in captivity and appeared extremely gaunt and frail when finally released. 

Fellow hostage Keith Siegal, released on Feb. 1, similarly reported being tortured and starved, and barely seeing sunlight. British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari, who was freed on Jan. 19 needing surgery for gunshot wounds, has confirmed that she was confined for a time inside UNRWA facilities in Gaza.

ISRAEL’S WEST BANK OPERATIONS

Since Israel launched a major military operation in the West Bank called “Iron Wall” on Jan. 21, dozens of terrorists have been killed, including some senior local commanders affiliated with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and more than 100 detained, with many weapons and explosive devices captured or neutralised. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled the fighting from areas around Jenin, Tulkarm, Tamun and Tubas. Several Palestinian civilians were also accidentally killed. 

PA RESTRUCTURES PAY FOR SLAY

The Palestinian Authority (PA) announced on Feb. 10 that it was restructuring its “pay-for-slay” policy by transferring financial responsibility for families of Palestinians jailed or killed committing terrorism from the Social Development Ministry to the Palestinian National Institution for Economic Empowerment. The PA claimed this would make the families subject to the same eligibility criteria as other families on welfare, thus meeting repeated demands from the US and other international interlocutors. However, many analysts expressed scepticism, suggesting the reforms would amount to making the same payments to convicted terrorists and their families under a different mechanism. 

HEZBOLLAH INCLUDED IN NEW LEBANESE GOVERNMENT

Four members of Hezbollah and its Shi’ite ally Amal have been included in the new Lebanese Government’s 26-member cabinet – including as Finance Minister – despite warnings against Hezbollah participation from the US. 

Led by Prime Minster Nawaf Salam, the new Lebanese Government formed on Feb. 7 replaces the caretaker government that had been running the country for the past three years. Hezbollah reportedly received the cabinet positions in return for agreeing that its camp would not be given a “blocking third” that can veto government initiatives – a two-thirds majority of the cabinet is required to pass major decisions. Experts hope Salam will lay the foundation for essential reforms concerning security and the economy, including fully implementing the ceasefire agreement reached with Israel in late November and disarming Hezbollah in the south as per UN Security Council Resolutions 1701 and 1559. The new Government’s term of office will expire in May 2026.

INCIDENTS CONTINUE DURING LEBANON CEASEFIRE

The IDF continued to destroy Hezbollah facilities, infrastructure, and weapons caches, and eliminate terrorists in southern Lebanon, before withdrawing from most of southern Lebanon on Feb. 18 under the terms of the US-brokered ceasefire. 

Weapons discovered included missiles, rockets, mortars, grenades, firearms, plus multi-barrel rocket launchers aimed at Israel. 

On Feb. 15, an Israeli airstrike on a car in southern Lebanon killed a Hezbollah drone commander who had been responsible for a ceasefire violation. On Feb. 16, Israeli warplanes struck military sites in the Bekaa Valley where Hezbollah activity had been detected in breach of the ceasefire. Another strike, on Feb. 17, killed the Hamas operations chief in Lebanon. 

The IDF has stated that it plans to maintain a continued presence at five key defence posts in southern Lebanon beyond the Feb. 18 deadline until the Lebanese Armed Forces can fully fulfil their obligations to disarm and remove Hezbollah south of the Litani River. Lebanese authorities strongly oppose this.

PLANES CARRYING IRANIAN FUNDS BLOCKED FROM BEIRUT

On Feb. 13 and 14, planes from Teheran were refused landing rights at Beirut airport after Israel warned it would act against flights from Iran that were carrying funds for Hezbollah. Violent protests from pro-Hezbollah forces ensued.

On Feb. 15, Lebanese authorities said they had arrested 25 people after Hezbollah supporters attacked a UN convoy, injuring two peacekeepers. 

MAXIMUM US PRESSURE ON IRAN RESUMED

On Feb. 4, US President Donald Trump signed orders resuming the “maximum pressure” policy on Iran that he implemented during his first term of office. The policy includes tough economic sanctions on Teheran targeting its illegal oil exports (mostly to China), while also strengthening mechanisms to ensure the sanctions are not circumvented.

Responding to this news, the value of the Iranian currency nosedived to more than 850,000 rials per US dollar. Since January 2024, the Rial has lost more than 55% of its worth compared to the greenback.

IRANIAN LEADERS URGE BUILDING NUKES

With Trump’s return to office, and fears in Teheran of an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, several top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders have reportedly approached Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei asking him to repeal an Islamic decree (fatwa) that allegedly forbids developing weapons of mass destruction, so that Iran can swiftly produce nuclear weapons at will. Iran can create enough highly enriched uranium to build several nuclear bomb cores within about two weeks. Full weaponisation would still take at least several months – but newly published US intelligence assessments point to Iranian efforts to find shortcuts to speed up the weaponisation process.

Meanwhile, according to an Iranian opposition group, IRGC experts are using two civil satellite launch sites (near Shahrud and close to Semnan) to mask the expedited development of atomic warheads that can be mounted on Iranian ballistic missiles capable of reaching Europe. 

NETHERLAND AND FIJI GIVE ISRAEL DIPLOMATIC WINS

On Jan. 28, the Dutch Parliament passed a resolution requiring Palestinian NGOs to recognise Israel’s right to exist to receive funding. This follows revelations after the October 7 attack that European aid to Palestinians was often diverted to bodies affiliated with Hamas and other terror groups. 

In further positive diplomatic news for Israel, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on Feb. 17 that Fiji had decided to move its Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Sa’ar had met with Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka in Munich the previous week.

Stranger than Fiction

Forget logic, think of the children!

We often hear and read claims that the majority of people killed in the war in Gaza have been women and children, even as Israel’s estimates that it killed around 21,000 fighters are often ignored. Also ignored is a study by the Henry Jackson Society that found that the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry includes as women and children numerous casualties who were actually adult men. (The study also found that it includes among the casualties anyone who died during the war, regardless of their cause of death, and even some who died before the war started.)

However, the Turkish news agency Anadolu took this phenomenon of ignoring facts that don’t fit the anti-Israel narrative to an extreme. A Jan. 23 article by Hosni Nadim claimed that more than 38,000 children in Gaza had been “orphaned by Israel’s genocidal war.” The article then cited Gaza Health Ministry official Zaher al-Wahidi, who “explained that some 32,151 children lost their fathers, 4,417 lost their mothers, and 1,918 lost both parents.” 

Even allowing for the fact that Palestinians have large families, and thus the number of parents killed would be considerably less than the number of orphans, these facts would seem pretty obvious proof that the overwhelming majority of those killed in the war have been men (which may be why these numbers haven’t been reported more widely).

However, a mere two paragraphs later, Nadim referred to “Israel’s genocidal war that has killed nearly 47,200 Palestinians, mostly women and children.” Apparently, being so focused on emphasising the “extent of the pain that the people of Gaza have suffered,” as al-Wahidi put it, made Nadim overlook this complete failure of logic.

Probably not surprising, as the article also absurdly referred to the situation in Gaza as “one of the worst global humanitarian disasters ever.”