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Smoke rises after an explosion in north Gaza near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from Israel on Saturday. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)

Israel slowing operations in northern Gaza, IDF says

Updated January 15, 2024 at 9:31 p.m. EST|Published January 15, 2024 at 1:24 a.m. EST
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Israel’s defense minister said Monday that its high-intensity operation in the northern end of the Gaza Strip had ended, a change U.S. officials had urged the Israeli military to adopt by February. In northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said they attacked what they said was an “espionage” site of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency early Tuesday local time, according to state media.

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The strikes in Erbil, Kurdistan, which a U.S. official said did not harm Americans, were condemned by the Kurdistan Regional Security Council. “The Iranian Revolutionary Guard fired several ballistic missiles at several civilian areas in Erbil, killing four civilians and wounding six others,” a council statement reads.
Israel plans to slow its operations in southern Gaza soon and focus on uprooting Hamas leadership, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a news conference Monday. “They are hiding dozens of meters underground,” Gallant said, adding that Israeli forces have “cut off the routes that lead” from the southern city of Khan Younis to the Rafah border area. “Every day that passes, the terrorist city built by [Hamas leader Yehiya] Sinwar in the southern Gaza Strip collapses into the tunnels it has dug for itself.”
In northern Gaza, the Israeli military is “working to eliminate pockets of resistance,” Gallant said. “We will achieve this via raids, airstrikes, Special Operations and additional activities.” In the center of the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces are focused on destroying Hamas’s production facilities that manufacture rockets, explosives and other weapons, Gallant added.
In the Gulf of Aden, Houthi rebels struck an American-owned container ship, heightening tensions between a U.S.-led coalition and the Iran-backed forces that have been attacking ships in the region for more than a month. There were no reported injuries or significant damage to the ship, the Gibraltar Eagle, which is “continuing its journey,” U.S. Central Command said on X.
At least 24,100 people have been killed in Gaza and 60,834 wounded since the war began, the Gaza Health Ministry said Monday. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.
The latest near-total internet blackout in Gaza has been going on for more than 72 hours, cybersecurity group NetBlocks said Monday. This is the ninth such outage in the strip since Oct. 7, it said, and rivals the longest of the war.
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The strikes in Erbil, Kurdistan, which a U.S. official said did not harm Americans, were condemned by the Kurdistan Regional Security Council. “The Iranian Revolutionary Guard fired several ballistic missiles at several civilian areas in Erbil, killing four civilians and wounding six others,” a council statement reads.
Israel plans to slow its operations in southern Gaza soon and focus on uprooting Hamas leadership, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a news conference Monday. “They are hiding dozens of meters underground,” Gallant said, adding that Israeli forces have “cut off the routes that lead” from the southern city of Khan Younis to the Rafah border area. “Every day that passes, the terrorist city built by [Hamas leader Yehiya] Sinwar in the southern Gaza Strip collapses into the tunnels it has dug for itself.”
In northern Gaza, the Israeli military is “working to eliminate pockets of resistance,” Gallant said. “We will achieve this via raids, airstrikes, Special Operations and additional activities.” In the center of the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces are focused on destroying Hamas’s production facilities that manufacture rockets, explosives and other weapons, Gallant added.
In the Gulf of Aden, Houthi rebels struck an American-owned container ship, heightening tensions between a U.S.-led coalition and the Iran-backed forces that have been attacking ships in the region for more than a month. There were no reported injuries or significant damage to the ship, the Gibraltar Eagle, which is “continuing its journey,” U.S. Central Command said on X.
At least 24,100 people have been killed in Gaza and 60,834 wounded since the war began, the Gaza Health Ministry said Monday. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.
The latest near-total internet blackout in Gaza has been going on for more than 72 hours, cybersecurity group NetBlocks said Monday. This is the ninth such outage in the strip since Oct. 7, it said, and rivals the longest of the war.
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Israel-Gaza war

U.S. naval forces launched three additional strikes against Houthi forces in Yemen on Friday morning, targeting anti-ship missiles, according to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. In the Gaza Strip, internet and cellphone communications were gradually restored, ending a week-long outage that kept most of the territory’s 2.1 million people cut off, amid a war and humanitarian crisis.

Pakistan launched retaliatory strikes Thursday on militants in Iran, its Foreign Ministry said, as tensions in the Middle East appeared to be spreading.

Oct. 7 attack: Hamas spent more than a year planning its assault on Israel. A Washington Post video analysis shows how Hamas exploited vulnerabilities created by Israel’s reliance on technology at the “Iron Wall,” the security barrier bordering the Gaza Strip, to carry out the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. Stock traders earned millions of dollars anticipating the Hamas attack, a study found.

Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip has a complicated history. Understand what’s behind the Israel-Gaza war and read about the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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