Day 598 - How the IDF plans to seize 75% of Gaza in 2 months

The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

The Times of Israel

News

4.4 • 864 Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

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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 episode.

Currently, the IDF holds about 40% of the Gaza Strip. In a briefing yesterday, Fabian learned that the new plan is to almost double those holdings within two months. As of yet, the groundwork is still being laid ahead of a massive ground operation with over 200 airstrikes carried out in the past 48 hours. Fabian explains the procedure the IDF uses to order civilian evacuations ahead of the planned influx of IDF soldiers on the ground.

The first distribution point operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation begins operations in the Strip today. This comes as its CEO Jake Wood resigned suddenly last night, saying it was “clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence.” We hear how the mechanism is being implemented.

Israeli troops stationed at an army post near the Gaza border community of Kissufim on the morning of October 7, 2023, rushed to defend the kibbutz as Hamas terrorists began their terror onslaught. The forces, along with the kibbutz’s civil defense squad, managed to fight back against many of the terrorists, preventing them from rampaging throughout the entire community. Fabian takes us through the timeline of the battles from October 7-12, when the final terrorist was eliminated at the kibbutz.

Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.

For further reading:

Israel says Gaza aid starting distribution through controversial new mechanism

IDF aims to capture 75% of Gaza Strip in 2 months in new offensive against Hamas

IDF rushed to Kibbutz Kissufim as Hamas invaded, but some attackers stayed for days

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: Troops of the Givati Brigade operate in the northern Gaza Strip, in a handout photo published May 26, 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. Today is Monday, May 26th, Jerusalem Day, Day 598 of the war.
0:11.4	I'm Ahmed Aborchal Dan here with our military correspondent Emmanuel Fabian. Hi, Manny. Thanks for joining me today.
0:17.0	Hi, Amanda. We learned last night that the IDF intends to seize and hold some 75% of the Gaza Strip within two months.
0:26.4	Mani will explain how this operation is planned to be carried out. We'll also hear about
0:31.7	humanitarian aid efforts that are meant to begin today and where the population is meant to go as the fighting is
0:39.1	intensified. We'll also learn about the results of the IDF's probe into the failures leading up to
0:45.6	and on October 7th in Kibbutz Kisufim. All of this and more when we're back.
0:57.5	Tolkien's trilogy was a perfect book to send to a POW.
1:03.2	Very well-defined good and evil.
1:06.4	And it was a great escape from the physical environment that we were in. It's November 16, 1973,
1:14.0	and we're at the military section of the Lode Airport. A red and white, DC-6 passenger plane
1:19.1	lands, and out of it comes a stream of young men. Ten men known collectively as Shvuei
1:25.5	Milchemitat Asha, the POWs of the War of Attrition. All of them had been
1:30.3	held, most of the time together, in an Egyptian prison for more than three and a half years.
1:35.5	So it was very much a kibbutz. I want to draw your attention to a small, tattered bag
1:42.0	Menachem Eini is holding. That brown knapsack actually held a treasure.
1:46.7	A manuscript that would make these men in their unlikely story momentarily famous.
1:51.7	It was the fruit of their communal work during the years in which they were held in one of
1:55.9	Egypt's most notorious dungeons.
1:58.9	The Hebrew Translation of the Hobbit. Check out the Israel Story episode,
2:04.6	The Hebrew Hobbit. Find Israel Story wherever you get your podcasts.
2:15.9	And we're back. I'm Amanda Borselle Dan here with our military correspondent Emmanuel Fabian.
	...

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