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Image A photo of Fuad Shukr, from a wanted poster released by the U.S. State Department. Rewards for Justice, via Associated PressIt was not immediately clear whether Mr. Shukr, also known by his nom de guerre al-Hajj Mohsin, survived the Israeli assassination attempt. Assaf Orion, a retired Israeli brigadier general, described Mr. Shukr as “an experienced veteran” who had worked intensively to develop Hezbollah’s precision-guided missile apparatus. Analysts say the munitions are a particular concern for Israeli military planners. “It’s kind of run by committee, but Fuad Shukr is more or less first among equals,” he said, adding that Mr. Shukr reported directly to Mr. Nasrallah.

Persons: Fuad Shukr, Shukr, guerre, Hajj Mohsin, ”, Hassan Nasrallah, Mustafa Badreddine, Assaf, Matthew Levitt, Mohanad Hage Ali, Mr, Levitt, “, Nasrallah, Ronen Bergman Organizations: U.S, U.S . State Department . Credit, Justice, Associated, The State Department, Hezbollah, Washington Institute for Near, Carnegie Middle East, Israel Locations: Beirut, Golan, Syria, American, Israeli, Lebanon

More than a fifth of the remaining hostages being held in Gaza are dead, according to an internal assessment conducted by the Israeli military. The families of the 32 hostages whose deaths are confirmed have been informed, according to four military officials who spoke anonymously in order to discuss a sensitive matter. The four officials said that officers were also assessing unconfirmed intelligence that indicated that at least 20 other hostages may have also been killed. The figure of 32 is higher than any previous number the Israeli authorities have publicly disclosed of hostages who are dead. In an answer to a request for comment, the Israeli military said that most of the dead were killed on Oct. 7.

Organizations: Hamas, The New York Times Locations: Gaza

Israeli officials obtained Hamas’s battle plan for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack more than a year before it happened, documents, emails and interviews show. But Israeli military and intelligence officials dismissed the plan as aspirational, considering it too difficult for Hamas to carry out. The approximately 40-page document, which the Israeli authorities code-named “Jericho Wall,” outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people. Hamas followed the blueprint with shocking precision. The document called for a barrage of rockets at the outset of the attack, drones to knock out the security cameras and automated machine guns along the border, and gunmen to pour into Israel en masse in paragliders, on motorcycles and on foot — all of which happened on Oct. 7.

Organizations: The New York Times, Hamas Locations: Gaza, Israel, paragliders

The Israeli decision on Wednesday to pause the invasion of Gaza to allow Hamas to release some hostages, a move now strongly supported by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was the culmination of a weekslong dispute among Israel’s civilian and military leaders about whether such a deal would strengthen Hamas and endanger the remaining hostages. The first group initially took the upper hand, persuading Mr. Netanyahu to delay a cabinet vote originally planned for Nov. 14, according to three of the officials. They hoped that more military pressure might give Israel more influence at the negotiating table, allowing more hostages to be freed. But the second group eventually won out, leading Mr. Netanyahu to hold the vote early Wednesday, setting the stage for a four-day truce and prisoner exchange that could begin this week. Mr. Netanyahu’s office, the Israeli military and the Mossad all declined to comment.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant, David Barnea, Mr, Netanyahu Locations: Gaza, Israel

That strategy has unfolded over the past three weeks as more than 40,000 Israeli soldiers encircled Gaza City, where Israeli officials say Hamas commanders were concentrated. The soldiers then attacked fighters and bunkers, all while targeting a vast tunnel network that Israeli officials say enables Hamas forces to hide and carry out operations. Israeli officials also assessed that striking so deeply in the heart of Gaza City would pressure Hamas to reach a deal on hostage releases. Al-Shifa became Exhibit A in this narrative, as the Israeli military claimed Hamas used a vast maze of tunnels underneath the hospital as a base. So far it is not clear that the Israeli strategy is working.

Persons: Shifa, Daniel Hagari, Yoav Gallant, Israel Organizations: Shifa, Israel, Hamas Locations: Gaza City, Gaza, Al, Israel

The militants, Israeli security officials say, have spent the better part of 16 years building a vast command complex under the hospital, and setting up similar bases underneath other medical facilities in the enclave. Hamas denies doing anything of the sort, and hospital officials say the facility houses nothing but the sick and injured and the medical professionals dedicated to helping them. In the estimation of most Palestinians, the obsession with Al Shifa is evidence of Israel’s willingness to target even the most helpless civilians without justification. The hospital, Israeli officials said, was spared in past Israeli operations out of concern for civilian life, but at the cost of leaving whatever may be underneath it intact. They say that the complex under Al Shifa is one of the principal Israeli targets of the war and will not be left untouched, despite the growing international outcry to spare Al Shifa and other hospitals.

Persons: Al Shifa, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, ”, Chuck Freilich, “, —, Freilich, “ it’s Organizations: Israel Locations: Gaza, Israel

Ghazi Hamad, one of the top leaders, said the group would carry out further attacks on Israel until the nation was annihilated. On Thursday, Hamas released footage that it said showed its fighters firing a grenade launcher at an Israeli tank. After three consecutive days of Israeli airstrikes in the Jabaliya neighborhood of northern Gaza, rescuers were searching for survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings. The troops have cut the main north-south roads to Gaza City, depriving Hamas of equipment, vehicles and other reinforcements carried above ground. It also helped prevent them from broadcasting images of the assault to the world, which could have raised pressure on Israel to stop.

Persons: Ghazi Hamad, Blinken, Biden’s Organizations: United Nations, Hamas, West Bank Locations: Israel, Jabaliya, Gaza, Gaza City, Lebanon, Israel’s, Lebanese

When Israeli ground forces advanced en masse into the Gaza Strip on Friday evening, just after the Jewish Sabbath began, they did it so secretly that it was hours before the outside world understood what had happened. In the three days since the long-anticipated invasion began, Israel’s military has operated with a similar ambiguity, defying expectations by carrying out a more incremental ground operation than was initially anticipated. While it has continued to decimate Gaza and its people with aerial bombardments, much of the ground force appears to have hung back from Gaza City, Hamas’s stronghold in northern Gaza, and stayed instead in the countryside on the city’s fringes. Under U.S. pressure to temper their response to the Hamas killing of more than 1,400 people on Israeli soil, Israel has even avoided describing the operation as an invasion. The loss of life, though, in Gaza continues to rise, with the Palestinian death toll so far over 8,000, according to Hamas officials.

Persons: ”, Andreas Krieg Organizations: U.S, King’s College, London Locations: Gaza, Gaza City, Hamas’s, Israel

But Hamas’s attack exposed the fragility of that technology. The group used explosive drones that damaged the cellular antennas and the remote firing systems that protected the fence between Gaza and Israel. To get around Israel’s powerful surveillance technology, Hamas fighters also appeared to enforce strict discipline among the group’s ranks to not discuss its activities on mobile phones. This allowed them to pull off the attack without detection, one European official said. The group most likely divided its fighters into smaller cells, each probably only trained for a specific objective.

Persons: — Locations: Israel, Gaza

The shock of the attack has shaken Israelis’ sense of invincibility and raised doubts and debate about how their country should best respond. Immediately afterward, the government called up around 360,000 reservists and deployed many of them at the border with Gaza. Senior officials soon spoke of removing Hamas from power in the enclave, raising expectations of an imminent ground operation there. When asked what the military objectives of the operation are, an Israeli military spokesman said the goal was to “dismantle Hamas.” How would the army know it had achieved that goal? The Israeli government wants to allow more time for those talks to make headway, perhaps to secure the release of captured women and children.

Persons: Netanyahu, Richard Hecht Organizations: United Locations: Israel, Gaza, United States, Qatar

The Biden administration has advised Israel to delay a ground invasion of Gaza, hoping to buy time for hostage negotiations and to allow more humanitarian aid to reach Palestinians in the sealed-off enclave, according to several U.S. officials. American officials also want more time to prepare for attacks on U.S. interests in the region from Iran-backed groups, which officials said are likely to intensify once Israel moves its forces fully into Gaza. Mr. Biden also spoke to the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Britain. When Mr. Biden met with the Israeli war cabinet during his trip to Tel Aviv last week, he avoided making requests of Mr. Netanyahu, officials said. Instead, the president offered a series of questions that should be answered before a ground invasion starts.

Persons: Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu, Lloyd J, Austin III, Austin, Yoav Gallant, Gallant, ”, Antony J, Blinken, “, Mr, Netanyahu Organizations: Sunday, U.S, Defense, Pentagon, Embassy, Hamas, CBS, Biden, Press, State Department, Consulate Locations: Israel, Gaza, Iran, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Britain, U.S, Washington, Qatar, United States, Baghdad, Erbil, Iraq, ”, Tel Aviv

President Biden and his top aides have been urging Israeli leaders against carrying out any major strike against Hezbollah, the powerful militia in Lebanon, that could draw it into the Israel-Hamas war, American and Israeli officials say. The Americans are conveying to the Israelis the difficulties of battling both Hamas in the south and a much more powerful Hezbollah force in the north. U.S. officials believe Israel would struggle in a two-front war and that such a conflict could draw in both the United States and Iran, the militia’s main supporter. American officials want to rein in Hezbollah too. U.S. officials feared that Mr. Netanyahu might approve a pre-emptive strike on Hezbollah in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, which killed more than 1,400 people.

Persons: Biden, Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr, Netanyahu Organizations: U.S, Hamas Locations: Lebanon, Israel, U.S, United States, Iran, East, Gaza

In the dense warrens of Gaza, Hamas is believed to hold at least 199 people hostage, guarded by gunmen and booby traps, likely scattered and hidden from any would-be rescuers as Israel readies a ground invasion. Israeli and U.S. commandos have pulled off extraordinary hostage rescues before. That has left desperate, complex diplomacy — led by the United States and Qatar, a tiny nation with extensive ties to militant groups — as the best option to save hostages in the eyes of many current and former officials. In the talks so far, Qatar is acting as a mediator between Hamas and officials from the United States, which like Israel and the European Union considers Hamas a terrorist group. Adding even more complexity to the talks, there are people from more than 30 countries among the hostages.

Persons: — Organizations: U.S, Hamas, European Union Locations: Gaza, Israel, United States, Qatar

Israel Ziv, a former general, reached a nearby battle in his Audi. “We are brought up to run as fast as possible toward the fire,” said General Goldfus. The camera mounted on the Hamas commander’s head captured the moment he was shot and killed. By the time the video stops, the commander can be seen slumped on the ground, revealing his long beard and thinning hairline. In other parts of southern Israel, the first formal reinforcements came from an Israeli commando unit that arrived in helicopters, according to the senior Israeli officer.

Persons: Israel Ziv, Yair Golan, ”, Goldfus Organizations: Audi, Hamas Locations: Gaza, Israel

The United States government has seized nearly one million barrels of Iranian crude oil that it says was being smuggled to China in violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran, after it raised the threat of prosecution to get the tanker brought to American waters, newly unsealed court papers show. The seizure of the oil from the vessel, the M/T Suez Rajan, is part of a larger and shadowy conflict with Iran. After the tanker began to steam toward the United States last spring, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps seized two oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, prompting the U.S. military to increase patrols and deploy additional assets to protect shipping lanes. In July, Iranian state news media said the Guards’ navy commander had warned that Tehran would hold Washington responsible if the tanker’s oil was unloaded, without giving further details. On Wednesday, a high-ranking Israeli defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the seizure raised new fears that Iran could hijack more tankers in an effort to deter the United States from repeating the move.

Persons: Suez Rajan Organizations: United, Iran, Revolutionary Guards Corps, U.S, Guards Locations: United States, China, Iran, Strait, Hormuz, Tehran, Washington

Several miles away, more police officers stopped another bus of students, used tear gas to get them off, then snatched them away. One of the police commanders asked him “who he should hand over the ‘packages’” to, referring to the hostages. A cartel assassin also called, asking who was bringing him “the packages,” according to his sworn statement. According to one cartel member whose testimony has become key to the case, some of the students were taken to a house, killed and dismembered. Machete hacks left gashes in the floor, the witness said, and the students’ remains were later burned in the crematory owned by the coroner’s family.

Persons: “, Machete Locations: Mexican

U.S. officials have repeatedly denied that they reached any nuclear “deal” with Iran after indirect talks held in Oman earlier this year. Two senior Israeli defense officials said the deal involving the prisoners and the frozen funds is part of the broader understandings reached in Oman. Mr. Rome said the Biden administration likely hopes that formal nuclear talks organized by the European Union could restart later this year. The negotiations, aimed at restoring the 2015 Iran nuclear deal from which President Donald J. Trump withdrew in 2018, collapsed last summer amid what U.S. officials called unacceptable Iranian demands. But Mr. Rome added the Biden administration was unlikely to want a new nuclear agreement ahead of the 2024 election, given the issue’s political volatility.

Persons: Rome, Biden, Donald J, Trump, renege Organizations: U.S, European Union Locations: Iran, United States, Iraq, Syria, Oman, Russia, Ukraine, Moscow, European

uncovered at least part of the answer: It was the F.B.I. The deal for the surveillance tool between the contractor, Riva Networks, and NSO was completed in November 2021. This particular tool, known as Landmark, allowed government officials to track people in Mexico without their knowledge or consent. now says that it used the tool unwittingly and that Riva Networks misled the bureau. Once the agency discovered in late April that Riva had used the spying tool on its behalf, Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I.

Persons: Biden, Riva, Christopher A, Wray Organizations: New York Times, NSO, U.S ., White, Riva Networks, Commerce Department Locations: Mexico

More than 10,000 reserve pilots, intelligence officers, commandos, military instructors, army medics and infantrymen had threatened to resign from volunteer duty if the government pressed ahead with the judicial overhaul bill that was approved by Parliament on Monday. It is too soon to tell how many will make good on their promises, like Mr. Herzel, because reservists are called up on a rolling basis. But estimates provided by reservists prominent in the protest movement suggest that at least 1,000 have so far made the wrenching decision to resign. The turmoil surrounding the reservists’ resignations casts doubt on that sense of common mission. For now, the worries center mostly on the air force, given its reliance on reservist pilots who are often more experienced than those in the active military.

Persons: Herzel

An Israeli researcher missing for months in Iraq is being held by a Shiite militia, according to a statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. She holds both Israeli and Russian passports and entered the country using her Russian passport, according to the Israeli government. Israel and Iraq do not have diplomatic relations, so she would not have been allowed to enter with an Israeli passport. Ms. Tsurkov went to Iraq in January to do academic research. As well as studying at Princeton, she is a fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a Washington-based research group.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, Elizabeth Tsurkov, Tsurkov Organizations: Princeton University, Hezbollah, Princeton, New Lines Institute, Strategy Locations: Iraq, Iran, Baghdad, Israel, Washington

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