Southern Command significantly tightened its fire policy in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, restricting future airstrikes exclusively to cases of immediate operational threats or exceptional scenarios requiring individual authorization. Military officials confirmed that the directive follows direct diplomatic pressure from the Peace Council, alongside coordinated appeals by Arab states to U.S. President Donald Trump urging intervention.
The operational adjustment comes despite IDF military data showing a sharp increase in targeted eliminations across Gaza in recent weeks.
Those operations, led jointly by Southern Command, the Shin Bet, and the Military Intelligence Directorate, were driven by intelligence breakthroughs and operational directives from Major General Yaniv Asor.
Defense officials operated on the working assumption that targeted strikes maintained critical pressure on senior Hamas leaders and security personnel. Security sources noted that Hamas leaders avoided direct counterfire to prevent large scale Israeli ground maneuvers deep into Gaza territory.
Tensions escalated on Monday night when Israeli forces executed an airstrike in Gaza City despite explicit demands from Nikolay Mladenov, Director-General of the Peace Council.
Following the strike, mediating nations Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey issued a joint statement condemning the military actions.
"We, the mediating nations, condemn and denounce the ongoing Israeli violations in the Gaza Strip," the joint statement declared.
The mediating nations urged international authorities to step in and enforce existing agreements to protect civilians and critical infrastructure across the region.
"We call on Israel to protect civilians, medical facilities, and humanitarian aid workers, and to ensure the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip. We call on the international community to exert pressure on Israel to abide by the ceasefire agreement," the mediating nations added in their statement.
According to reporting by Walla, Israeli security personnel will continue to evaluate localized threats on a case by case basis under the newly restricted guidelines.
