Israel SitRep: March 11, 2024

Today’s Issue: Israel Police Uncover Terror Plot, Make Arrests in Northern Israel | IDF Holds Multi-Branch Supply-Delivery Exercise to Prepare for Ground Maneuvers in the North | IDF Making Plans for Mass Shelters in Israel’s North if War Breaks Out with Hezbollah | Israel Confirms Targeted Assassination Attempt Against Hamas Official Marwan Issa | Latest FDD Analysis

Israel Police Uncover Terror Plot, Make Arrests in Northern Israel: The Israel Police on Sunday announced that the Shin Bet and the Israel Police Northern District uncovered a plot to carry out terror attacks in Israel. Over the past few months, a number of suspects have been arrested in northern Israel in connection with the case, and 13 will be charged. Most of the suspects are residents of the Arab city of Sakhnin in the Lower Galilee. In addition, a West Bank resident has been arrested on suspicion of weapons trafficking. Four weapons were found, along with ammunition and bullet-proof vests that the suspects intended to use. Muhammed Khaled Khalaila and Muhammed Yousuf Khalaila recruited others from Sakhnin, and squad members purchased weapons from the West Bank. One of the suspects received instructions from Hamas operatives in Gaza on preparing explosives and on recruitment. Police believe that some of the suspects were also involved in throwing Molotov cocktails at Kibbutz Eshbal during Operation Guardian of the Walls, the Gaza-Israel conflict in May 2021.

IDF Holds Multi-Branch Supply-Delivery Exercise to Prepare for Ground Maneuvers in the North: Last week the IDF Technology and Logistics Division, in collaboration with the Northern Command, the Israeli Air Force, and ground force units, held an aerial and ground logistical supply exercise in which troops practiced delivering fuel, water, equipment, and ammunition to forces fighting in Lebanon. The exercise included loading and unloading equipment from Israeli Air Force aircraft and transporting the equipment on vehicles in the field. Since the start of the war, the Marom Brigade’s aerial supply unit has carried out seven aerial supply operations, delivering some 110 tons of supplies to troops in Gaza. Thousands of logistical supply operations were also carried out by convoys on the ground. The IDF is preparing to carry out the same type of operations in the northern sector, under fire if necessary.

IDF Making Plans for Mass Shelters in Israel’s North if War Breaks Out with Hezbollah: With the northern border heating up — including 80 rockets fired at Israel by Hezbollah on Sunday — the Israeli news website Ynet reported that the Home Front Command has formulated an emergency plan to set up shelters for people in the north of Israel who live in buildings that lack a shelter and who would not have time to reach a public shelter during a missile attack — about a minute after an air raid siren is sounded. Dubbed Operation Steady Anchor, the plan involves the use of dozens of mass shelters, most of them in underground parking lots, where those who need them are expected to stay for several hours to several days. If war breaks out with Hezbollah, the Home Front Command will also be responsible for transporting people, including the elderly. Because many hotels have been at full occupancy since October, when civilians from the Western Negev and the Galilee were evacuated to hotels, the idea of using them to house people lacking shelters was rejected. According to a military official, some 80,000 food packages have been purchased as part of the plan.

Israel Confirms Targeted Assassination Attempt Against Hamas Official Marwan Issa: Israeli defense establishment sources on Monday confirmed that the IDF carried out a Saturday night airstrike in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp in central Gaza targeting senior Hamas official Marwan Issa, deputy head of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing. Issa, who was named by the U.S. State Department in 2019 as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist,” is deputy to Muhammad Deif, who heads Hamas’s military wing. On October 8, 2023, the European Union added both Issa and Deif to its list of terrorists in response to Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel. According to Middle East expert Col. (Res.) Moshe Elad, Issa “over the years carried out a series of deadly attacks in the Israeli homeland” and “was known among intelligence personnel in the world as a ‘man of the shadows’ who was rarely revealed or appeared in public events, but was a wanted man in many countries around the world.” Another high-ranking member of Hamas’s military wing was believed to be with Issa at the time of the airstrike. Defense officials say that they were in an underground structure and thus it is not yet clear if they survived the attack.

Latest FDD Analysis:

Today at 8:30am (ET): “FDD Morning Brief,” featuring Jonathan Schanzer and Abdulaziz Alkhamis, FDD Event

Video and audio: “Turkey: A Sanctuary for Terrorist Entities & Illicit Finance,” Gallia Lindenstrauss, Michael Rubin, Tugce Varol, Sinan Ciddi, FDD Event

“Iran has upped its cyberattacks: It’s time for Biden to strike back,” Annie Fixler and RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, New York Post

“The two-state solution is a dangerous pipedream,” Enia Krivine, Jewish News Syndicate

“Welcome to Port Gaza?” David Daoud and Bill Roggio, Generation Jihad (by FDD’s Long War Journal)

“South Africa Again Attacks Israel at the International Court of Justice,” FDD Experts, FDD Flash Brief

“Gaza Airdrop Kills Five, Highlighting Distribution Challenges,” FDD Experts, FDD Flash Brief

“Mossad, CIA Chiefs Meet About Stalled Hostage Talks,” FDD Experts, FDD Flash Brief

“Israel SitRep: March 8, 2024,” FDD Experts, FDD Israel at War Situation Report