Israel and the West Bank
Three soldiers with the Taoz Battalion confessed to taking bribes in exchange for clearing uninspected goods through checkpoints. According to local media reports, the accused worked at at the Sira checkpoint on Highway 443. A IDF spokesman said the case would be referred to the Military Advocate General for prosecution.
An IED exploded during a routine IDF patrol on November 14 near the Palestinian town of el-Khader in the West Bank. No one was injured in the explosion.
A bill to recognize Israeli outposts in the West Bank built without Jerusalem’s permission gained approval for future voting in a Knesset committee on November 13.
Gaza
The Times of Israel reported that Imad al-Alami will soon replace Ismail Haniyeh as the leader of Hamas in Gaza. While little information about al-Alami is publicly available, he was born in Gaza and lived in both Iran and Syria. Al-Alami is also more reclusive than his predecessor, declining to hold press conferences or spread his group’s propaganda via social media. Haniyeh will replace Khaled Meshaal as political head of Hamas.
Former Fatah official Mohammad Dahlan has reportedly begun negotiations between Hamas and the Egyptian government to ease Cairo’s blockade on Gaza. Hamas is said to have already arrested dozens of Salafists in the hope that Egypt will reopen the Rafah crossing. Other proposals in discussion include a free trade zone between the enclave and towns in Sinai.
Coordinator for Government Affairs in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli agency in charge of interfacing with Palestinians in Gaza, announced it would delay a planned expansion of the fishing zone off Gaza from six miles to nine miles. According to government officials, the PA failed to place its own monitor at the border of the expanded zone.
An Israeli court indicted a 22-year-old Gazan fisherman for smuggling for Hamas’s military wing. The Egyptian military caught Mahmoud ibn Said al-Saidi transporting diving equipment and cigarettes for the terrorist group.
Golan Heights
Over 100 troops with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) returned to Camp Faouar on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights this week. The peacekeepers relocated to Israel two years ago after al-Qaeda-linked rebel fighters took a group of Fijians soldiers serving with the mission hostage. UNDOF forces have monitored the area since 1974.
The IDF discovered human remains and clothing after recently renewing the search for Guy Hever, a soldier missing since 1997.
The Israeli military attacked a Syrian artillery battery after a Syrian mortar landed in the Israeli side of the Golan Heights on November 10.
Sinai
The Egyptian announced that a gunman killed Brigadier General Hisham Mohammed Mahmud outside his home in el-Arish earlier this month. The attack marks the second senior military officer killed in as many months.
