Logo

This live blog has ended.

Follow the New York Post’s live coverage of Israel’s war against Hamas here.

A senior Hamas commander was killed in an overnight airstrike as Israel vows more attacks in the Gaza Strip.

The deputy chief of Hamas’ rocket force was hit in the overnight attacks along with a dozen members of the terrorist organization.

“We are not stopping our attacks on the Strip,” IDF Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said during his daily briefing on Sunday.

“We are increasing the attacks in the Gaza Strip in order to reduce the threats to our forces in preparation for the next phase of the war,” he said, alluding to the impending ground attack from Israeli forces.

Israeli airstrikes early Sunday targeted the airports of the Syrian capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, Syrian state media reported.

“We will go to the next stage under the best conditions for the IDF and in accordance with the decision of the political echelon,” he added.

Hagari also updated the number of people being held hostage in Gaza to 212.

What to know:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sends warning to Hezbollah: 'We will cripple it with a force'

By Richard Pollina

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops stationed near the border with Lebanon as increasing hostility and attacks by Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists have been causing a stir in the north since the outbreak of the Hamas-Israel war.

“If Hezbollah decides to enter the war, it will miss the Second Lebanon War. It will make the mistake of its life,” Netanyahu told troops on Sunday.

“We will cripple it with a force it cannot even imagine and the consequences for it and the Lebanese state are devastating.”

On Saturday, a top official with Iran Hezbollah warned that Israel would pay a high price when they launch their ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, saying that the terrorist organization is already “in the heart of the battle.”

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari shared on Monday that the military has eliminated 20 Hezbollah cells in southern Lebanon since the war began.

With Post Wires

Families of 222 hostages notified about loved ones being held by Hamas, IDF says

By Richard Pollina

The Israeli Defense Force says it has notified the families of 222 hostages that were taken from Israel to the Gaza Strip by Hamas terrorists during the group’s Oct. 7 attack, according to The Times of Israel.

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari shared that they’ve also contacted a significant number of the families of foreign nationals being held by Hamas.

The number does not include Americans Judith and Natalie Raanan, who were released by Hamas Friday night.

Hagari said Israel is “working in all ways to free the hostages and bring them home” when asked if a ground invasion of Gaza was being delayed in hopes more hostages would be released.

Israeli forces show off ‘Iron Sting’ mortar bomb taking out rocket launcher in first operational use

By Fox News
iron sting
Israeli forces released footage of the "Iron Sting" system launching a mortar bomb to take out a rocket launcher in its first-ever use in an operation on Sunday.

Israeli forces released footage of the “Iron Sting” system launching a mortar bomb to take out a rocket launcher in its first-ever use in an operation on Sunday.

The Iron Sting, described as “an innovative and accurate mortar bomb,” is one of a variety of weapons being used to thwart dozens of terrorists, the Israeli Air Force posted on X, along with video it said showed the 120mm mortar decimating an enemy rocket launcher.

The Israeli army used the weapons system in conjunction with the Israeli Air Force.

The weapons system uses a “precise, laser and GPS guided mortar munition” to engage targets in dense, urban environments while “reducing the possibility of collateral damage and preventing injury to non-combatants,” Elbit Systems, which developed the system, said in a 2021 news release. 

“Its operational use will revolutionize ground warfare and equip battalions with organic, accurate and effective firepower,” the release said.

Read more.

Hamas booby traps included bomb planted in child’s backpack: Israel

By Ronny Reyes

Booby traps planted by Hamas terrorists in Israel included a bomb disguised in a child’s pink backpack in the hopes it would kill an innocent victim, the Israeli military said Sunday.

Haunting footage posted online by the Israeli Defense Forces showed a soldier unpacking a child’s seemingly innocuous, colorful, heart-and-star-adorned school bag found laying in a field.

Inside were explosives set to go off if someone tried to pick it up.

“The bag was booby-trapped, containing a remote-activated explosive device—weighing 7 kg,” the IDF wrote.

“Hamas purposefully chose to booby-trap a child’s backpack with the hope a well-intentioned civilian would pick it up.”

Read more.

Lindsey Graham warns Iran if Israel-Hamas war grows, ‘it’s coming to your backyard’

By Ryan King

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday accused Iran of involvement in Hamas’ deadly surprise attack on Israel – and warned Tehran that any escalation of the war would have consequences.

“We’re here today to tell Iran: ‘We’re watching you. If this war grows, it’s coming to your backyard,’” Graham said from Tel Aviv while joining a delegation of 10 senators on a trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia.

“There won’t be two fronts, there’ll be three,” he continued, without elaborating on the fiery threat.

“The idea that this happened without Iranian involvement is laughable,” Graham added.

Since Hamas’ sneak invasion on Israel on Oct. 7, there have been heightened fears about Hezbollah – the Lebanese terrorist group backed by Tehran – opening up a second front on the north.

Read more.

New elite Israeli unit to hunt down every Hamas terrorist involved in sneak slaughter

By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon

An elite unit of Israeli agents has been formed to hunt down every Hamas terrorist involved in the heinous Oct. 7 sneak attack on the Jewish state, according to reports.

The specially selected members of Shin Bet, Israel’s version of the FBI, will function independently from other units targeting high-ranking terrorists, the Jerusalem Post said.

The new unit will specifically target members of the special Hamas commando group called Nukhba, which is believed to have pulled off the attack that slaughtered hundreds of innocent Israelis along the country’s border with the Gaza Strip.

The unit is being named after the World War I-era Jewish underground organization “Nili,” an acronym in Hebrew for “the Eternal One of Israel will not lie,” said the Times of Israel.

Shin Bet and the Israeli Defense Forces were chided in the aftermath of the massacre for being caught off guard.

Read more.

Diplomat conducted ‘first Gaza paragliding flight,’ shouted, ‘Free Palestine!’ three months before terror attack

By Ronny Reyes
Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, the former European Union envoy to Gaza, flew the "first Gaza paragliding flight" in July as he shouted, "free Palestine."
Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, the former European Union envoy to Gaza, flew the “first Gaza paragliding flight” in July as he shouted, “Free Palestine!” @BenCaspit / X

A former European Union envoy to Gaza is being slammed for allegedly empowering Hamas to use paragliders, the very devices employed by the Palestinian terrorists to invade Israel and kill more than 1,400.

Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, a German diplomat, crowed on video in July that he was conducting “the first Gaza paragliding flight in history” as he soared over Gaza’s coast while shouting, “Free Palestine!”

The giddy then-EU envoy told Palestinians in the footage that once they’re free, “You can do exactly the same thing.”

But rather than seeing Palestinians enjoy recreational paragliding as he advocated, such gliders were instead used by Hamas to kill Israelis on Oct. 7.

Israel has since declared war on Hamas and launched devastating airstrikes on Gaza, prompting von Burgsdorff to condemn the Jewish state, claiming it “doesn’t matter what Hamas did,” Israel Hayom reported.

Read more.

At least 19 people arrested during massive NYC anti-Israel protest, clashes with NYPD

By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon

Police on Sunday said 19 people were busted during the massive anti-Israel rally in Brooklyn where thousands of rowdy demonstrators clashed with cops.

According to the NYPD, 16 protesters were arrested and issued criminal court summonses, while three others were taken into custody and released on desk appearance tickets.

The “Flood Brooklyn for Palestine” protest on Saturday shut down traffic in Bay Ridge for hours as the NYPD struggled to contain the mob, which lobbed eggs at cops and lit fires in the street while waving Palestinian flags.

One young protester was seen trying to keep cops from pulling away a woman holding a “Zionism is Genocide” sign.

A law enforcement source described it as “pretty heated.”

Read more.

Hamas fugitive buys UK-funded home in most Jewish part of Britain

By Isabel Keane
Muhammad Qassem Sawalha
Muhammad Qassem Sawalha reportedly ran Hamas operations in the West Bank from London. Getty Images

A Hamas leader who allegedly ran the terrorist group’s operations in the West Bank has been hiding out in a state-funded home in a borough of London that has the highest Jewish population in all of Britain, according to a report on Sunday.

Muhammad Qassem Sawalha was recently given a £112,300 discount (about $136,500) on a £320,700 (nearly $390,000) two-story home with a garden and garage located less than 10 minutes from two synagogues in Barnet in the UK capital, the Sunday Times reported.

The 62-year-old fugitive fled to the UK in the 1990s using a passport of a relative and later claimed British citizenship, the newspaper reported.

While living in the UK, Sawalha was still allegedly able to continue his work for Hamas remotely and would hold secret meetings about “revitalizing” terrorist acts in Israel, according to the Times.

He also helped the terror organization launder money, according to a 2004 US Department of Justice indictment.

Read more.

US frantically tries to stall Israeli invasion of Gaza to allow more hostage negotiations

By Kate Sheehy

The Biden administration is frantically trying to stall Israel’s invasion of Gaza in hopes of furthering negotiations over the more than 200 hostages still held by Hamas, a report said Sunday.

The development came as Israel ramped up its bombardment in Gaza ahead of its planned all-out invasion and clashes along the Israel-Lebanon border grew — with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning Sunday that if the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah “decides to enter the war … it will be the mistake of its life.”

Israel is mobilizing its tanks for an imminent invasion of Gaza, with one unit stationed at the border Sunday.
Israel is mobilizing its tanks for an imminent invasion of Gaza, with one unit stationed at the border Sunday. HANNIBAL HANSCHKE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

President Biden and other US officials remained in frantic talks to delay the Gaza invasion of Israel Defense Forces so that more hostages might be freed before the Palestinian territory dissolves further into a war zone, sources briefed on the talks told CNN.

READ MORE

21 Israeli children orphaned, 200,000 displaced by war

By David Spector

21 children from 13 different families have become orphans after Hamas launched their surprise October 7th Terrorist attack, which saw the single largest killing of Jews since the Holocaust, The Jerusalem Post reports.

Most of the children's parents were murdered, two of the orphans -- one of which is a four-year-old girl -- are currently held hostage by the terror group in Gaza.

"The fact that so many children are victims of the brutal attack by Hamas turns my stomach," said Israeli Minister of Welfare Yaakov Mergi.

Mergi went on to say he is speeding up the process of providing resources to the orphans and the families taking care of them.

"The Welfare Ministry is prepared to provide long-term and trauma-focused care to every boy and girl affected by this criminal attack," the welfare minister added.

Meanwhile, around 200,000 Israelis have been displaced from their homes since the outbreak of the war, The Times of Israel reports.

Half of the displaced individuals were ordered to flee their homes in the border areas with Lebanon in the north, and Gaza in the south, the rest left on their own

Israel strikes Hamas terror cell hidden in West Bank mosque: report

By David Spector

The IDF destroyed a Hamas terror cell hidden beneath the al-Ansar Mosque in Jenin, Fox News reports.

Israeli intelligence warned of an "imminent terror attack" originating from the compound, the IDF said.

Al-Ansar Mosque
Israel destroyed a terrorist cell operating out of the Al-Ansar Mosque in Jenin. ZUMAPRESS.com

The Israeli military says that the terrorists, who belonged to both Hamas and Islamic Jihad were "neutralized" in the strike.

Comments
anonymous profile image
Powered by RoundtableBuilt on infrastructure designed for real-time media. Learn more at RTB.io.© Roundtable 2026. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy