#ISRAELHAMASWAR. Halevi: operations ready in the West Bank. Israel attacks in several areas of Lebanon, other areas of the Mays Al-Jabal area razed

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Ceasefire in Gaza starting from 11:15 local time, January 19 after some problems between the International Red Cross and the Israeli army, a truce that however did not prevent attacks by Israel in Lebanon and the West Bank, while between Lebanon and Syria there are clashes between the Lebanese army and men of the new Syrian government HTS.

According to Channel 12: Trump reportedly said during his inauguration: “The Gaza deal is the beginning of a series of good things that will happen during my term.” The US State Department: Antony Blinken spoke with Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister and thanked him for his decisive role in mediating efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

Israel will release 1,890 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 33 hostages held by Hamas, Egypt’s foreign ministry also confirmed. Al Arabiya TV added: “The first group of released life-sentenced prisoners will arrive in Egypt, their first stop next Saturday.” “The number of released life-sentenced prisoners will depend on the number of female soldiers the resistance releases.”

Ninety Palestinian women prisoners returned to Palestine in exchange for the release of three Israeli hostages by Hamas, Egypt’s state news service reported. The three Israeli women returned to their families.

Israeli political science professor Eran Halperin: “The main reason why Smotrich, Amit Segal and their ilk oppose the transition to the second phase of the agreement and the return of all prisoners is because ending the war without reaching a clear resolution represents a deep fracture in the founding idea of ​​the Israeli right, which is “the belief that the use of rigorous military force and political rigidity are the only means to ensure the security of Israel.” This is confirmed by the words of Ben Gvir who commented: “The return of the remaining prisoners must be by force and not by surrender.” Smotrich on his opposition to the agreement: “I am not willing to risk 200 or 2,000 people to return 20. The Israeli people will be the first to pay the price for the agreement.”

Israeli opposition leader and Knesset member Yair Lapid commented on the agreement this way: “It is good that the war is over. After two difficult years, it must end and calm must return to our lives.”

Israel Today in the voice of Yoav Limor, a veteran and military analyst: “Yesterday I heard government ministers describe the agreement that returned the prisoners as ‘shameful.’ It is a difficult agreement and I think there was no way out, but that is not the point. The shame falls on those during whose tenure the greatest failure in the history of the state occurred and on those who for 15 months failed to provide a decision or a solution and who were willing to sacrifice the blood of the Israelis they had abandoned, in exchange for impractical illusions.”

As of January 19, Hamas has handed over to mediators the list of hostages that should be released, Kan radio reports. The spokesman for Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obaidah, thanked four countries in his speech: “Ansarallah in Yemen, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, Hezbollah. We thank our brothers in the Islamic Republic of Iran, for their eternal and continuous support, and we thank them for their unprecedented involvement in this historic battle, during the “True Promise” operations, as well as for their long-lasting help in all aspects. And finally, we pay tribute to the heroic brothers of the tenacious Islamic Resistance in Iraq. The heroes of the drones”.

On January 18, the Yemeni armed forces announced that they had attacked the Israeli Ministry of Defense in Jaffa (Tel Aviv) with a Dhu al-Fiqar ballistic missile. “The missile reached its target with high accuracy and the interception systems were unable to intercept it”.

The International Red Cross, after the first difficult approaches, went out to carry out the release of prisoners, reported: “Our teams are ready to continue implementing the agreement until more hostages and detainees are released and families are reunited”.

Already on January 19th more than 2,000 trucks were piled up at the Rafah border crossing in the meantime since the ceasefire there has been a mass return to the north of the Gaza Strip.

And now a look at the military situation updated at 15:00 on January 20th.

News from Syria that the new government of Ahmed al Sharaa /Mohammed al Jawlani has promised to completely cut off Hezbollah’s weapons supply route through Damascus. Photos of an Israeli tank stationed near the court and governorate building in the town of Salam (formerly Al-Baath) in Quneitra governorate, southwest Syria, have appeared online. On January 19, HTS attacked the Lebanese town of Qasr a Hermel. According to a statement: “While an army patrol was carrying out a security mission in the Qasr-Hermel area on the Lebanese-Syrian border, unknown gunmen from the Syrian side opened fire on the patrol. Its members responded to the fire and a clash ensued during which one of the soldiers was slightly injured and taken to hospital for treatment.” On January 20, explosions were reported in Quneitra governorate in the south of the country following Israeli army activity that detonated landmines in the village of Ain Ziwan.

Israeli forces have been moving from Houla towards Wadi Slouki since January 18, demolishing and searching the area. This area, according to Lebanese accounts, is several kilometers inside Lebanon and violates the ceasefire. On January 19, an Israeli force, including a Merkava tank and a Namer armored personnel carrier, raided homes on the western outskirts of the city of Houla amid heavy artillery fire before retreating to the eastern outskirts adjacent to the border. Israelis have been entering the Al-Dabesh neighborhood in Bint Jbeil since January 18, an area they were unable to enter during the war. Photos of tanks inside Bint Jbeil have been posted online.

On January 19, Lebanese Army personnel prevented an Israeli force consisting of Humvees from passing through their checkpoint on the Hamams-Khiam road. The Lebanese Army refused to open the way for the IDF, who were forced to return to the town of KfarKila.

On January 20, a Lebanese Army force heading towards the town of Taloussa was surprised by the presence of three Merkava tanks behind an earthen embankment at the Bani Hayyan intersection in Wadi al-Saluqi, leading to the postponement of the mission. On January 20, an Israeli force consisting of a number of bulldozers and Merkava tanks entered the Al-Dabash neighborhood in the town of Mays Al-Jabal and fired heavy machine guns at homes; bomb attacks were also reported. Israeli tanks and bulldozers cut off the Wadi Al-Saluqi road between the Bani Hayyan and Qabrikha intersections with earth barriers. One of the tanks is stationed in the town of Taloussa. Israeli forces conducted a clearing operation in Wadi Al-Saluqi on January 20. UNIFIL forces later approached an Israeli tank stationed in Wadi al-Saluqi.

Also on January 20, Lebanese sources reported that Israeli tanks advanced towards the northern entrance to the town of Maroun al-Ras. Israeli artillery targets the outskirts of the city of Kfarshouba with two shells.

Also Lebanese sources report that Israeli forces are blowing up houses in the city of Mays al-Jabal.

On January 20, the Ministry of Health in Gaza: reports that 122 people have arrived at hospitals in the Strip, 62 of whom have been discharged and 341 have been injured as a result of the Israeli aggression in the last 24 hours. Many attacks were recorded on January 19 by Israel in different areas of the Gaza Strip.

The total number of trucks of humanitarian aid that have entered the Gaza Strip, amounts to 634, since the beginning of the ceasefire. Injured in Rafah and Kan Yunis southern Gaza and Al-Bureij in the Gaza Strip. In southern Gaza an explosive device killed two people and injured a child.

In Al-Bureij camp in Al-Mayadeen: Israel destroyed residential blocks a day before the start of the truce and booby-trapped dozens of homes and canned food. Heavy gunfire from Israeli military towers east of the towns of Al-Fakhari, Khuza’a and Abasan east of the city of Khan Yunis.

Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi: “We must be prepared for major operations in the West Bank in the coming days.” Israeli forces fired tear gas at residents who are stranded due to the closure of the Jaba checkpoint north of Jerusalem since yesterday evening. Israeli forces invaded the Al-Bustan neighborhood in the city of Silwan, south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and surrounded the home of the Ayed family.

Israeli warnings online to halt construction and demolish structures and buildings in Silwan, Issawiya and Bir al-Maskoub, east of Jerusalem.

Gunfire in Ramallah overnight. According to Israeli media: 4 soldiers injured, one seriously, following a bomb explosion in a military vehicle in the town of Tamoun in Tubas.

Antonio Albanese e Graziella Giangiulio

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