Israel SitRep: January 3, 2025

Today’s Issue: | IDF International Spokesman: Precision-Missile Factory in Syria Destroyed by IDF Was ‘Imminent and Active Threat’ | In IDF Operation in Beit Hanoun, Soldiers Eliminate Terrorists, Find Weapons, Destroy Terror Infrastructure | IAF Strikes Some 40 Hamas Command and Control Centers and Terrorist Concentrations | COGAT: 189 Aid Trucks Entered Gaza Yesterday; UN Aid Organizations Could Collect and Distribute More Aid | Latest FDD Analysis  

IDF International Spokesman: Precision-Missile Factory in Syria Destroyed by IDF Was ‘Imminent and Active Threat’: In a piece published Friday, military analyst Yaakov Lappin discussed the IDF’s operation at the Scientific Studies and Research Center in Masyaf, Syria, on September 8, which the IDF has just revealed. In the operation, soldiers from Israel’s elite Shaldag Unit, with support from the Israeli Navy and Israeli Air Force, destroyed an Iranian-built facility for producing precision-guides missiles, which “neutralized a critical Iranian-led project intended to arm Hezbollah and other terror proxies with advanced, game-changing long-range weapons,” says Lappin.  For years, Aman military intelligence had been monitoring the facility, which was fully operational for a month before the operation. According to IDF international spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, the facility, which was able to produce missiles with ranges up to about 300 kilometers (186 miles), “posed an imminent and active threat” to Israel. During the raid, more than 100 commandos surrounded the facility and entered it, dismantling machinery and gathering intelligence documents, and then destroyed it. Helicopters, fighter jets, and UAVs also participated, along with naval vessels. According to Shoshani, “We will not allow Hezbollah or any other terror organization on our borders to have these strategic weapons that can harm and kill our civilians.”

In IDF Operation in Beit Hanoun, Soldiers Eliminate Terrorists, Find Weapons, Destroy Terror Infrastructure: The IDF reported on Friday on operations conducted over the past week in the Beit Hanoun area in northern Gaza, where the army began a new operation last weekend. Nahal Brigade troops, under the command of the Gaza Division, operated against terror squads and “enemy infrastructures,” conducting raids and searches, eliminating cells of armed men, destroying terrorist infrastructure and tunnels, and finding a large number of weapons, including explosive devices, mortars, RPGs, and rocket launchers, as well as a booby-trapped tunnel shaft. In one attack, an Israeli Air Force drone struck a rocket launcher that terrorists had used to fire at Israel. The report includes footage of Nahal Brigade soldiers operating in Beit Hanoun as well as footage of a drone search in a building that located a tunnel shaft.

IAF Strikes Some 40 Hamas Command-and-Control Centers and Terrorist Concentrations: In a joint operation of the Israeli Air Force and the IDF’s Southern Command, IAF fighter jets, with intelligence guidance from Aman military intelligence and the Shin Bet, struck some 40 Hamas command and control centers and terrorist concentrations in the past day throughout the Gaza Strip. Dozens of Hamas terrorists operated from these compounds, planning and executing terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops. Some of the compounds struck had been established in buildings that previously served as schools. The IAF says that prior to the airstrikes, many steps were taken to reduce the chances of hurting civilians, including aerial surveillance and the use of precision weapons.

COGAT: 189 Aid Trucks Entered Gaza Yesterday; UN Aid Organizations Could Collect and Distribute More Aid: On Friday, COGAT, the Israeli entity coordinating humanitarian aid for Gaza, gave its update for Thursday, when 189 aid trucks entered Gaza, 152 through Kerem Shalom, and 37 through Erez. International organizations collected the contents of 147 trucks from the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom, and some 800 truckloads are still awaiting collection. In addition, six gas tankers and four fuel tankers entered Gaza; an aid truck and an ambulance went to northern Gaza; 3,000 plasma units entered Gaza; and 1,200 blood units went to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. On Thursday, COGAT pointed out how many truckloads are still awaiting collection and said that the issue is UN organizations’ ability to collect aid from Kerem Shalom and distribute it. COGAT noted that “other organizations collect and distribute aid constantly” adding: “So should – and could – the UN aid organizations.” COGAT also addressed other problems with the United Nations on Thursday, stating that “recent claims about denied humanitarian coordination requests are misleading,” and adding that the United Nations often “submits the same request over and over again, knowing they pertain to areas of active military activity, where coordinations are denied for the safety of humanitarian teams.” This, says COGAT, inflates the number of denied coordinations.

Latest FDD Analysis:

“Xi Jinping’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good Year,” Craig Singleton, Foreign Policy

“Critical and opportune: Time to take out the Houthis,” Aaron Goren and Enia Krivine, Jewish News Syndicate

“Struggling with Inflation, Egypt to Get Infusion of Funds from IMF,” Mariam Wahba and Marina Chernin, FDD Policy Brief

“Islamic State release highlights the foreign-fighter nature of its recent assault in Somalia,” Caleb Weiss, FDD’s Long War Journal

“Profiles of new Syrian military leadership,” Ahmad Sharawi, FDD’s Long War Journal

“China Arming Houthi Rebels in Yemen in Exchange For Unimpeded Red Sea Passage,” FDD Experts, FDD Flash Brief

“Ignoring Ethiopian Concerns, Egypt Supplies Troops for African Union Mission in Somalia,” FDD Experts, FDD Flash Brief

“‘Sought to Divide the American People’: U.S. Sanctions Iranian and Russian Entities Pushing Disinformation,” FDD Experts, FDD Flash Brief