Tensions remain high in Israel, according to local media in Haifa containers of dangerous materials have been emptied. According to Channel 13: “The Israeli cabinet meeting was held in secrecy, not only as a security exercise, but to indicate that there is an intention to hit a significant Hamas figure”. The meeting was supposed to be held at 10:00 p.m. on August 8.
It is noted that among the Hamas leaders still alive there is Yahya Sinwar, newly elected head of the Hamas Politburo, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Israeli military expert Yossi Melman, in the columns of the daily newspaper Haaretz, stated: “If there had been a different leadership in Israel, a courageous and bold leadership, it would have used the two assassinations to end the war in Gaza and Lebanon and to reach an agreement on a prisoner exchange. But Netanyahu has other plans, as he and his ministers speak of a ‘resounding victory,’ even though they know that this slogan is an illusion and complete nonsense.”
On August 9, according to the daily newspaper Haaretz: “the roads leading to Tel Aviv were empty of cars, as the week draws to a close. The reason seems clear: the Israeli public is taking seriously the threats of Iran and Hezbollah to carry out a missile and drone attack on the domestic front in response to the recent assassinations in Beirut and Tehran.” So Tehran achieved a victory using psychological warfare. The former head of the Israeli army’s military intelligence said that “the Iranians like to create tension and anxiety in Israel, to the point of panic, because they have a strategic impact without firing a shot.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated: “Our goal is to completely destroy the capabilities of Hamas. After Hamas, I want to attract Arab countries to help create an entity that does not threaten Israel.” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir signs an extension of the decision to ban visits to Palestinian prisoners.
On the night of August 8, Israeli air strikes struck near the Shayrat air base in Homs province. Heavy Hezbollah losses were reported following Israeli air strikes in Syria.
Satellite photos of the US base in the region where carrier-based F/A-18E/F fighters were flying have appeared online, it is Azraq in Jordan to strengthen the air defense to intercept any missiles or drones launched by Iran towards Israel.
Lebanese journalist Khalil Nasrallah wrote: “Let’s put aside the response to the assassination of Sayyed Mohsen; the level of bold and daring operations on the Lebanese front is high. The resistance maintains its courage and manages the situation with precision, in a way that serves the objectives of opening the front. The situation of the settlers in northern Palestine is worsening. The assassination did not change the course of the front, and here we speak in terms of precise decisions and a balance as subtle as gold”.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkiyan: “If America wants to prevent war, it must force the Zionist regime to stop the genocide in Gaza”. Echoing his words are those of Ismail Qaani, commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in a letter to Yahya Sinwar on the occasion of his appointment as leader of Hamas: “We consider it our duty to avenge the death of the martyr Haniyeh in an attack on Iranian soil”.
Online, Hezbollah posted a video of the 300 attacks on the Israeli regime’s military intelligence bases in the last 300 days. This demonstrates that the offensive power is also with Hezbollah and not only on the part of Israel.
A plane owned by the Iranian company Pouya Air, linked to the Revolutionary Guards, landed at the Khmeimim air base in Syria after taking off from Tehran. During the flight, the plane’s attitude sensors were disabled. Most likely it was to supply weapons to Hezbollah.
Houthi attacks are also back. The British maritime authority reports that the ship attacked with an RPG 45 nautical miles south of Mokha, Yemen, was subjected to a second attack by a missile. Other social media sources report that a “commercial” ship was attacked by a kamikaze aircraft about 58 nautical miles southwest of Hodeidah, Yemen.
According to AP: On the night of August 8-9, the Houthis carried out three separate attacks on a ship in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. During one of the attacks, armed guards aboard the ship managed to destroy an unmanned vessel that was approaching the ship. On the afternoon of August 9, the British Maritime Trade Centre reported the fourth Houthi attack in as many hours on the same ship in the Red Sea. No destruction or casualties.
On the morning of the 9th, the United States and Great Britain launched another series of attacks against the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah. This was reported by the Houthi-owned Al Masirah TV channel. Attacks by the US-British coalition were also recorded on the night of August 8th.
And now a look at the situation between Israel – Hamas – Hezbollah updated at 16:00 on August 9th.
Intense bombing recorded by Israel against settlements in southern Lebanon and by Hezbollah against northern Israel. Hezbollah claimed a direct hit on an Israeli military target in the settlement “Yiftah”; attack against the Shebaa farms; Al-Samaqah in the Lebanese hills of Kfar Shuba was targeted by rockets. Rockets fell in “Metula” and “Kfar Yuval” near the border with Lebanon; rockets in Kiryat Shmona; according to Al Mayadeen, Hezbollah hit the site Bayad Blida and the settlement “Avivim”. The area near the site “Al-Baghdadi” was hit.
The Islamic resistance claimed the following attacks on August 9: an airstrike with a swarm of drones on the headquarters of the Coastal Battalion of the newly formed Western Brigade in Liman. It bombed the headquarters of the 769th Brigade in the Kiryat Shmona barracks with Falaq missiles. A building used by Israeli soldiers in the settlement of Al-Manara was hit. The site of Al-Samaqa in the territories in the Lebanese hills of Kafr Shuba was hit with missile weapons.
Israeli warplanes carry out two airstrikes on Hanaway, Tyre district, southern Lebanon. The target of the Israeli airstrikes was a house. On August 9, an Israeli drone flew over the town of Bint Jbeil with a loudspeaker that read, “This (destruction) is because of Nasrallah and Hezbollah.” The IDF said in a statement that: “The IAF struck a Hezbollah command center in the Hanaouay area and terrorist infrastructure in the Ayta ash Shab area in southern Lebanon. In addition, the IAF struck a Hezbollah launcher in the Ayta ash Shab area from which rockets were fired toward the Biranit area in the Upper Galilee yesterday. No injuries were reported.”
The IDF launched another raid on Khan Yunis late on August 8, just two weeks after the 98th Division withdrew there after a week-long operation. IDF ground forces again raided Mizrakh Khan Yunis and began fighting there for the third time since the start of the war. An IDF spokesperson in Arabic called on Palestinian residents of East Khan Yunis to leave the area, to the west, in the humanitarian space.
The IDF also said: “The Southern Command’s engineering unit and the Yahalom unit investigated and dismantled a multi-story underground tunnel approximately 3 kilometers long that consisted of multiple branches. Inside the tunnel, several rooms, weapons and long-term accommodation facilities used by terrorist operatives were located.”
Finally, the IDF also said in a statement: “On August 8, an IDF officer from the Nahal reconnaissance unit was seriously injured during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip. The officer was evacuated to a hospital for medical treatment. His family has been notified.”
Antonio Albanese e Graziella Giangiulio
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