Podcast Episode Details

Israel Today: Ongoing War Report - Update from 2025-10-24 at 17:09

---

---

HEADLINES
Kiryat Gat to oversee Gaza ceasefire
Hezbollah logistics chief killed in Lebanon
UNICEF warns Gaza risks a lost generation

The time is now 1:01 PM in New York, I'm Noa Levi and this is the latest Israel Today: Ongoing War Report.

Good afternoon. This is the 1:00 p.m. update on the Middle East and related regional developments. We assess a moment when diplomacy, security concerns, and humanitarian realities intersect across Gaza, southern Lebanon, and Jerusalem, with the United States leaning into a carefully choreographed ceasefire framework while regional actors press for influence and accountability.

First, the Gaza ceasefire and the road to the second phase. Washington is asserting that there is no Plan B for Gaza’s peace process and that Israel has met its commitments in the first phase of the ceasefire arrangement. The focus now is on the second phase, which envisions a Stabilization Force and a broader international role to address governance, security, and humanitarian needs in Gaza. A civilian-led center in Kiryat Gat will oversee civilian-military coordination to monitor the ceasefire’s implementation and ensure steady humanitarian access. Steven Fagin will serve as the civilian lead of that center alongside the US military’s central command counterpart, a reflection of the combined civilian and security framework being built to manage the transition. In public remarks at the coordination center, US officials emphasized keeping the ceasefire intact, preventing looting or diversion of aid, and laying the groundwork for stabilization efforts that would enable the second phase to begin. On the political track, US officials have pressed for Hamas to disarm, release the remains of hostages, and refrain from involvement in Gaza’s future governance. They have also signaled that UNRWA should not play a role in humanitarian delivery under the agreed plan, a line that reflects broader US and Israeli concerns about the agency’s ties to Hamas. At the same time, Washington has underscored that any future governance of Gaza must be agreeable to Israel and its partners and cannot allow Gaza to become a launch point for attacks. In parallel, US lawmakers have stressed that progress on peace purposes could open doors to broader regional normalization under the Abraham Accords, even as they insist that Hamas cannot govern Gaza.

On the security front along the borders, Israeli and allied forces have continued operational activity in Lebanon, where the fighting and the fragility of the ceasefire remain a persistent concern. In a drone strike attributed to the Israeli military, Abbas Hassan Karaki, the head of Hezbollah’s logistics for the organization’s southern front, was killed in a vehicle in the south of Lebanon. Lebanese health authorities reported several fatalities in the strike round that followed, including a number of civilians. The Israeli military described Karaki’s leadership as having coordinated rebuilding and weapon transfer efforts in southern Lebanon, and it said his presence or actions violated the ceasefire understandings reached after the 2023 escalation and the ensuing ceasefire two months later. Israel has since carried out additional strikes across Lebanon, including on Hezbollah sites, arms caches, and training camps, with Lebanese authorities reporting deaths in those operations. Israeli officials note that, since the ceasefire, operations against Hezbollah have continued as part of a broader objective to degrade the group’s wartime capabilities, while Lebanese authorities and international observers watch for the ceasefire to hold and for Hezbollah to diverge from any renewed hostilities. The broader context remains that Hezbollah’s actions and Israel’s responses are set against the longer arc of a conflict that began with the Gaza war and shifted into a northern front, with regional and international mediation trying to maintain a balance bet

---

Published on 1 week, 4 days ago