Day 535 - IDF strikes Hamas leadership, preps for larger operation
The Times of Israel Daily Briefing
The Times of Israel
4.4 • 864 Ratings
🗓️ 24 March 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
Military reporter Emanuel Fabian joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's Daily Briefing.
A 85-year-old man has been shot dead in a terror attack near the northern town of Yokne’am. Another person, later identified as a 20-year-old soldier, was seriously injured. Fabian updates us with initial accounts of the attack.
A string of senior Hamas officials have been targeted by the IDF in the past week. We learn about the uptick in their assassinations and who several of these figures are.
On Sunday morning, the IDF announced that it had restarted ground operations in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun a day earlier. With the former humanitarian zone no longer in use, the IDF said that it was enabling Palestinian civilians to evacuate the “combat zone for their safety.” We learn where the IDF is currently operating.
Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said on Friday, that he instructed the IDF to seize additional areas of the Gaza Strip if Hamas refused to release hostages, stating, “As long as Hamas continues its refusal, it will lose more and more land that will be added to Israel.” Also this week, we learned that during a visit to Washington DC this week, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer will discuss with senior US officials a plan for Israeli military control over the Gaza Strip. We ask Fabian: With its current manpower shortages, is the IDF capable of controlling the Strip?
Days after six rockets were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel, which drew dozens of Israeli airstrikes against Hezbollah in return, the terror group has denied any involvement in the Saturday rocket attack on Metula, and called Israel’s accusations “pretexts for its continued attacks on Lebanon.” So, if not Hezbollah, who could it have been?
Even as there still isn’t a governmental commission to probe the failures leading to the October 7 massacre, the new Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Saturday announced that he had appointed an external panel of former senior officers to evaluate the military’s probes into Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught. What is the end game of this new commission?
Please see today's ongoing liveblog for more updates.
For further reading:
Elderly man killed as terrorist rams bus stop, opens fire on cars in north
Senior Hamas official killed in targeted strike on Gaza hospital as IDF widens offensive
IDF strike in south Gaza kills senior Hamas official; ground ops restart in Beit Hanoun
Israel to discuss taking full military control of Gaza with senior US officials: source
IDF strike kills Hezbollah operative in Lebanon, day after rocket fire at Metula
New IDF chief appoints external panel to evaluate army’s Oct. 7 probes, implement findings
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IMAGE: Armored vehicles of the 36th Division are seen at a staging ground in southern Israel, in a handout photo issued by the military on March 23, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Times of Israel's daily briefing. |
| 0:06.3 | Today is Monday, March 24th, day 535 of the war. |
| 0:11.8 | Amanda Borchelle Dan here with our military reporter, Immanuel Fabian. |
| 0:15.5 | Hi, Manny. |
| 0:16.0 | Thanks for joining me today. |
| 0:17.7 | Hi, Amanda. |
| 0:18.3 | Just prior to recording, a man was shot dead in a suspected terror attack in the |
| 0:23.8 | north. Manny will update us on what we know so far. We're also going to learn about a series of |
| 0:30.0 | strikes in the past week on senior Hamas officials, as the IDF appears to be expanding its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. |
| 0:39.5 | So we'll hear what is happening on the ground so far. |
| 0:43.3 | And over the weekend, Israel's border with Lebanon, again heated up, and what do we know |
| 0:48.6 | about these rockets that were shot into Israel and Israel's response? |
| 0:53.3 | All this and more when we're back. |
| 1:01.5 | Do you have more questions than answers about what it means to be Jewish today? |
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| 1:40.2 | around faith, like why bad things happen to good people and grappling with faith during |
... |
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