Israel SitRep: Feb. 23, 2024

Today’s Issue: Two Hezbollah Operatives Killed in Apparent Israeli Drone Strike | IDF Makes Arrests in Overnight West Bank Raids | IDF Intercepts ‘Suspicious Aerial Target,’ Carries Out Air Strikes Against Hezbollah | IDF Eliminates Palestinian Islamic Jihad Operative in West Bank Drone Strike | Latest FDD Analysis

Two Hezbollah Operatives Killed in Apparent Israeli Drone Strike: On Thursday, Hezbollah announced the deaths of two of its members who were killed in an apparent Israeli drone strike in Kfar Remen, near Nabatieh in southern Lebanon. The attack came after two anti-tank missiles were shot from Lebanon, one of which hit an Israeli home in the village of Yuval in the Upper Galilee. The first operative killed, Hassan Mahmoud Saleh, was a senior commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan unit and an expert in operating anti-tank missiles. The second man killed in the drone strike was identified as Hisham Abdullah. According to Hezbollah, 208 of its operatives have been killed since the beginning of the war in Gaza.

IDF Makes Arrests in Overnight West Bank Raids: IDF troops, working with the Shin Bet and the Border Police, arrested a number of wanted persons in overnight West Bank raids. In the village of Za’atara, east of Bethlehem, from which the perpetrators of Thursday morning’s terrorist attack at a checkpoint on the highway near Ma’aleh Adumim set out, troops arrested two wanted persons. The attack killed one Israeli and wounded 11, and Ahmed al-Wahsh, 31, one of the three men accused of carrying it out, was a resident of Za’atara. The other two, brothers Muhammad Zawahra, 26, and Kathem Zawahra, 31, are from the nearby village of Ta’amra. In Tulkarem, troops arrested two wanted men, while in the Dheisheh refugee camp, they arrested another three. Since the start of the war, some 3,200 wanted individuals have been arrested in the West Bank, around 1,350 of them with connections to Hamas.

IDF Intercepts ‘Suspicious Aerial Target,’ Carries Out Air Strikes Against Hezbollah: On Friday, the IDF said that a “suspicious aerial target” was intercepted in the north of Israel after sirens sounded in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona. Also on Friday, the IDF carried out air strikes against several Hezbollah terrorist infrastructures in the area of Labbouneh and a military building in the Kafr Kila area used by Hezbollah operatives. In Aytash-Shab, the IDF used tank fire to remove a threat. Last night, fighter jets attacked a Hezbollah military building in the Blida area in addition to other areas in Lebanon.

IDF Eliminates Palestinian Islamic Jihad Operative in West Bank Drone Strike: In a Thursday night drone strike in Jenin in the northern West Bank, the IDF killed a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative who the army said was on his way to carrying out an attack. Yasser Hanoun, who lived in Jenin, had served time in an Israeli jail for terrorist activities. According to the IDF and the Shin Bet, Hanoun in recent months had been involved in numerous attacks, shooting at IDF troops, army bases, and Israeli communities, including Kibbutz Merav in northern Israel and Mevo Dotan in the West Bank. Hanoun, whose brother Amar and cousins Wiam and Wissam Hanoun were also terror operatives killed by the IDF, posted last week on Facebook an Arabic-language message reading, “We are nothing but a postponed funeral, so the soul should stand tall, perhaps we’ll leave soon.”

Latest FDD Analysis:

Today at 8:30am (ET): “FDD Morning Brief,” featuring Jonathan Schanzer and MG (Ret.) Amos Yadlin, FDD Event

“Hezbollah increases attacks on northern Israel,” Seth J. Frantzman, FDD’s Long War Journal

“Iran Has Already Sent Missiles to Russia, Report Says,” FDD Experts, FDD Flash Brief

“Hezbollah Rocket and Anti-Tank Missiles Target Northern Israel,” FDD Experts, FDD Flash Brief

“Israel Arrests Eight UNRWA Employees Over Ties to Hamas,” FDD Experts, FDD Flash Brief

“Israeli Airstrike Kills Two Hezbollah Terrorists, Including Senior Radwan Commander,” FDD Experts, FDD Flash Brief

“Palestinian Terrorist Attack Near Jerusalem Kills One,” FDD Experts, FDD Flash Brief

“U.S. Defends Israel at International Court of Justice,” FDD Experts, FDD Flash Brief

“Evacuated Israelis May Return to Homes Near Gaza,” FDD Experts, FDD Flash Brief