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Key Takeaways:

• Hamas and other Palestinian militias are exploiting the Israeli hostages they are holding to ensure that Hamas and its partners are involved in any negotiations about the future of the Gaza Strip. Hamas having a role in the future of the strip is incompatible with Israel’s stated war objectives of destroying Hamas, demilitarizing Gaza, and deradicalizing “Palestinian society.”
• Hamas fighters attacked Israeli forces conducting holding operations in Beit Hanoun. CTP-ISW assessed on December 20 that the IDF transitioned to a hold phase in Beit Hanoun.
• Hamas and its militia allies continued to defend against Israeli clearing operations in Jabalia. The IDF reported that one of Hamas’ battalions used Indonesian Hospital in Jabalia as a headquarters.
• The IDF continued clearing operations in Daraj wal Tuffah, Gaza City. Palestinian militias continued to defend against Israeli clearing operations in Daraj wal Tuffah.
• Palestinian militias continued to try to defend against Israeli clearing operations in Khan Younis. Palestinian militias used mortars, small arms fire, and anti-tank rockets to defend against the Israeli advances.
• A Hamas security official shot and killed a fifteen-year-old Palestinian boy at an aid distribution site in Rafah, demonstrating the continued breakdown of governance and social order across the Gaza Strip.
• Palestinian militias conducted at least two mortar attacks from the Gaza Strip targeting southern Israel on December 25 and five rocket attacks on December 26.
• Israeli forces clashed with Palestinian fighters across the West Bank in nine locations on December 25 and in four locations on December 26.
• Iranian-backed militias, including Lebanese Hezbollah, conducted from southern Lebanon into northern Israel 10 attacks on December 25 and nine attacks on December 26.
• Israeli media reported that LH began withdrawing many of its forces, including Radwan special operations forces, from the Israel-Lebanon border.
• The United States conducted airstrikes targeting three Kataib Hezbollah drone facilities in Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, in response to a KH drone attack that wounded three US military personnel at Erbil International Airport earlier that day.
• The Islamic Resistance in Iraq—a coalition of Iranian-backed Iraqi militias—claimed responsibility for three attacks targeting US positions in Iraq and Syria.
• Iranian Supreme National Defense University President IRGC Brigadier General Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam discussed security and counterterrorism cooperation with Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces Chairman Faleh al Fayyadh in Baghdad.
• Israel was likely responsible for an airstrike on the IRGC military headquarters near Sayyidah Zainab, Syria, killing senior IRGC officer Brigadier General Razi Mousavi. The IRGC and senior Iranian officials vowed that Iran would retaliate against Israel for Mousavi’s death.
• The Houthis attacked two vessels in the Red Sea as part of the ongoing anti-shipping attack campaign that they and Iran have conducted around the Bab al Mandeb in recent weeks. The IDF intercepted at least one Houthi drone targeting southern Israel.

President Joe Biden ordered the U.S. military to carry out retaliatory airstrikes against Iranian-backed militia groups after three U.S. servicemembers were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq.

National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said one of the U.S. troops suffered critical injuries in the attack that occurred earlier Monday. The Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups, under an umbrella of Iranian-backed militants, claimed credit for the attack that utilized a one-way attack drone

An Israeli air strike in Syria killed a top commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), prompting Tehran to threaten that Israeli will “certainly pay” for its actions.

Iranian state media on December 25 identified the commander as Razi Mousavi, a senior adviser of the IRGC Quds Force, saying he had been killed in an air strike near the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Established In: 2012

Established By: Fadi al-Mellah; Abu Ali Badran; Munir Abboud (Badr Brigades commander)

Also Known As: Quwat al-Jalil; Galilee Forces – Lone Wolves;

Country Of Origin: Syria

Leaders: Fadi al-Mellah; Munir Abboud;

Operational Area: Syria, Lebanon, Gaza Strip;

Number Of Members: 4,800

There should be no doubt about there being a grand scheme of a renewed military showdown in the Middle-East. Neither should there be doubt about who planned, coordinated and funded such a major clash, that could get out of hand and turn into a regional war. The only one playing the cards is Iran. Iran met with Hamas, PIJ and Hezbollah. Iran smuggled in the weapons, Iran organized the training of Hamas operatives in Malasia and Lebanon. Iran organized the back-up and the next steps to be taken. This took over two years of planning and organizing – so the only question is, what is the strategic goal of Iran?

Latest Developments

Hezbollah launched rockets at northern Israel amidst ongoing tensions at the Lebanese border. The Iranian-backed terrorist group fired approximately 20 rockets at northern Israel in the morning of December 22, according to reports. Hezbollah also targeted the Shomera area in northern Israel. Israel returned fire into Lebanon with artillery and struck the sources of the launches, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. “IDF fighter jets struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, including military sites where Hezbollah terrorists operated, as well as terrorist infrastructure,” the IDF added.

Iran’s regime has secretly executed political prisoner Ali Saber Motlaq in Lakan Prison, Rasht, according to information received from the families of prisoners in this facility. Motlaq, 62, was a longtime supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). He was once arrested an imprisoned in the 1980s due to his support for the PMOI. He was arrested again in 2020 and remained in prison until his execution.

If the Biden administration thought that by rescuing Iran’s economy, which had hit bottom, and removing the Houthis from the list of Foreign Terror Organizations would make both Iran into an ally, the generosity appears to have backfired.

If the Iranian regime is allowed to advance to nuclear weapons capability, it will be on course finally to drive the US out of the region; threaten its oil-rich neighbors; destabilize Europe; deploy military assets in Venezuela and Cuba, and, at last, come for the “Great Satan,” the United States.

Un blog militaire russe publié jeudi 21 décembre à 11h33, heure de Moscou, a révélé les positions jusqu’ici secrètes de tous les navires de guerre dans la zone annoncée par le Pentagone pour son OPERATION PROSPERITY GUARDIAN.

Les données récentes et la carte ouverte (ci-dessous) n’étaient pas disponibles hier à 09h32, heure de Moscou, sur la stratégie «à deux voies» de la Russie pour s’opposer aux États-Unis et à l’OTAN, et pour protéger les expéditions de pétrole russes tandis que le drone houthi et des opérations de missiles sont en cours contre Israël.