Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 194?

Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Palestinian Islamist terror group Hamas, will visit Turkey on Friday to hold talks with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish national television news channel NTV said on Wednesday.

"I will host the leader of the Palestinian cause at the weekend. We will discuss a number of issues," Erdogan earlier told lawmakers from his AK Party in parliament, once again calling Hamas a "liberation movement."

Three days after the Iranian missile attack on Israel and the successful interception of the vast majority of them, the defense establishment and the defense industry are now engaged in investigating the incident and learning from the events.

Although Israel has been successfully intercepting rockets launched from Gaza since the Iron Dome’s conception in 2011, and the Rafael system has recorded thousands of successful interceptions, the attack in the early hours of last Sunday was on a scale that no country has faced to date, and with Iranian missiles, some of which were used operationally for the first time.

"This was the first time that precision Iranian missiles were us against Israel in an operation, in the largest ballistic and cruise missile attack ever recorded," says Tal Inbar, an expert on the Iranian missile program. "Not even the Russian missile barrage against Ukraine reached these dimensions. By intercepting the missiles through cooperation with foreign countries, we saw the implementation of capabilities and joint operational language developed in the Iron Shield Operation conducted by Israel and the US, with a most impressive success."

Alongside the rocket barrages launched by Hamas from Lebanon and intercepted by Iron Dome, Iran used three types of advanced missiles it developed.

Types of missiles Iran used for the attack

Following the sirens that sounded in the western Galilee, several missiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory, the IDF reported Wednesday morning.

 No injuries were reported, and the IDF shortly struck the sources of the launches in return.

 Overnight, Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck a series of Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon, including military sites and compounds in the areas of El-Khiam, Mansouri, Aalma El Chaeb, and Yater in southern Lebanon. 

Six rockets struck the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona during the barrage there Tuesday night, and two fell in open areas nearby. There were no casualties.

Some damage was done to infrastructure and property, including several vehicles damaged by shrapnel.

The combat teams of the 401st Brigade, Nahal, the 215th Fire Brigade, and other units under the command of the 162nd Division, in cooperation with IDF aircraft, killed Hamas terrorists and destroyed Hamas infrastructure during continued operations in the center of the Gaza Strip, the IDF announced on Wednesday.

In one of the attacks, an aircraft attacked a terrorist squad that was operating an armed drone that was targeting IDF soldiers operating in the area.

In additional attacks, Air Force aircraft, in cooperation with the 215th Fire Brigade, attacked a number of rocket launchers ready to be launched into Israel

Over the last day, Nahal Brigade fighters eliminated a terrorist who was detected operating an additional drone near the soldiers. In addition, Nahal snipers killed a terrorist who was detected moving toward them.

The IDF has decided how it will counter-strike Iran and its proxies but has not yet settled on the timing; multiple sources told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

Because the timing is still variable and because of all the necessary complex preparations, the current decision could change.

However, the very development of a decision shows the severity and determination of Israel’s leadership to strike back, though all indications are that Jerusalem still seeks to tamp down the attack to avoid spiraling into a regional war.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi hinted that the timing of the attack was not very imminent during a visit to the Arrow air defense battery of Battalion 136.

He said, “We are enabling a home front policy to at least give citizens this Passover week to live almost like normal because we completely trust you and your readiness.”

IRAN’S SUPREME Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves during a prayer marking the end of Ramadan, in Tehran, in April. (credit: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/West Asia News Agency/Reuters)

It is also possible that Halevi, Home Front command policies, and other officials keeping their regular schedules are part of a clever fake-out to get Iran and its proxies to lower their guard.

But at least the plain reading of the relevant signals suggests that a major attack is not imminent in the coming days and could even be postponed for longer.

An IDF soldier from the Shaldag unit was seriously wounded in a battle in the north of the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported early Wednesday morning.

The soldier was taken to a hospital for medical treatment, and his family has been informed.
 

The US State Department will ask Israel for more information about the January death of 6-year-old Palestinian Hind Rajab in Gaza, spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday, calling for a full investigation into the matter after a Washington Post report cast doubt on Israel's earlier explanation.

The terrified girl trapped in a car in Gaza with her dead family had begged for help in a phone call to rescuers, in which gunfire could be heard as she described Israeli forces drawing near.

Relatives found her body 12 days later along with those of her aunt, uncle and their three children in their car near an ambulance and two dead ambulance workers who had tried to save her.

Israeli ambulance service Magen David Adom (MDA) has established community-based emergency response teams that will provide medical treatment to wounded individuals when terrorists block access to hospitals, they announced on Tuesday. 

The initiative, known as the Magen Project, was designed to address future military-style terror attacks.  

The emergency response teams were developed in the wake of both the mass Iranian aerial attack and Hamas’s October 7 attack – in which terrorists murdered over 1200 people and kidnapped over 250 more.  

The Israel Air Force attacked a three-story building in Rafah on Tuesday night, killing seven and wounding several others, Israeli media reported early Wednesday morning.