Day 91 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Friday, Jan. 5

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah spoke Friday, three days after Hamas' deputy political head Saleh al-Arouri was killed in an apparent Israeli drone strike in the south of Beirut.

Rina Bassist, Ezgi Akin, Beatrice Farhat, Elizabeth Hagedorn, Adam Lucente, Jack Dutton, Jared Szuba and Al-Monitor’s contributors on the ground in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel contributed to this blog.

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Live updates (all times EDT):

Friday, Jan. 5, 2024

4:40 pm: Israeli military causes uproar with plans to investigate its conduct on Oct. 7

Israeli military chief of staff Herzi Halevi has decided that the Israel Defense Forces will investigate its own preparedness and deployment on and before Oct. 7, the day that Hamas breached the Gaza border fence and attacked southern Israeli communities, reported the Israeli public broadcaster Kan on Thursday. Rina Bassist reports.

1:17 pm: 'Battlefield will speak for itself,' Hezbollah chief warns Israel amid retaliation fears

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said the response to the killing of a Hamas leader in Lebanon earlier this week depends on the developments in the battlefield. Beatrice Farhat reports.

10:28 am: Israel uncertain of Hezbollah's intentions, prepares for all options

The day after the Jan. 2 assassination of senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut widely attributed to Israel, former Mossad Director Zvi Zamir died at the age of 98 and was buried in Tel Aviv. In delivering his eulogy at the graveside, current Mossad director David Barnea paraphrased a biblical warning: "Every Arab mother should know: If her son took part in the massacre on Oct. 7, his blood shall be upon his own head."

While Israel does not expect Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah to launch an all-out war, it is preparing for anything to happen, Ben Caspit reports.

9:45 am: Blinken returns to Middle East as escalation concerns grow

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to the Middle East on Friday in a high-stakes trip aimed at preventing Israel’s months of battling Hamas from sliding into a broader regional war that could draw in the United States.

Blinken’s visit to the region — his fourth since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostage — comes days after a suspected Israeli strike killed a top Hamas official in Beirut and twin explosions claimed by the Islamic State killed nearly 100 people in central Iran. Elizabeth Hagedorn reports.

9:21 am: Gaza journalists killed at higher rate than US soldiers in past wars

The Israel-Hamas war has taken a heavy toll on Gaza journalists, with a global journalist organization reporting on Friday that the death toll among media workers in the Palestinian enclave has surpassed the mortality rate among combatants in recent wars.

The International Federation of Journalists has recorded the death of 75 journalists in Gaza since Oct. 7 out of an estimated 1,000 working there before the war began — a mortality rate of 7.5%, which the IFJ has assessed far exceeds the death rate of US soldiers in past wars. Beatrice Farhat reports.

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