Alexandra Braverman, Kelly Campa, Carolyn Moorman, and Brian Carter

Information Cutoff: 2:00pm ET

At least two Palestinian fighters attempted to carry out two coordinated car bombing attacks in the Gush Etzion area of the West Bank on August 30. No militia has claimed responsibility for the attack at the time of writing, though the attack targeting IDF settlements is consistent with recent Hamas threats to target Israeli settlers in the West Bank. According to an initial IDF probe, the two militants set out together from the Hebron area towards Gush Etzion–a cluster of Israeli settlements south of Jerusalem–to carry out coordinated attacks in two locations. One fighter set off a car bomb at a gas station at the Gush Etzion junction. The fighter shot at IDF forces who arrived at the scene. IDF forces shot and killed the fighter. The second fighter breached the entrance to the Israeli Karmei Tzur settlement, located within the Gush Etzion area, approximately twenty minutes later. The second fighter tried to run over the security guard at the Karmei Tzur settlement entrance, resulting in a car chase with Israeli security guards. The IDF stated that an explosive device in the attacker‘s vehicle detonated during the exchange of fire. IDF forces shot and killed the second fighter. Israeli media reported that the two car bombs were packed with ”makeshift explosive devices” and packed with nails and screws. An initial IDF probe into the attacks found that the two explosives came from the same bomb-making lab in Hebron. The IDF located and destroyed an explosives laboratory in Hebron on August 31. The IDF discovered the lab as part of the operation following the identification of the suspects. Three Israelis were inadvertently hurt during the attacks.

An Israeli military correspondent reported that the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry said that two Hebron residents were responsible for the attack. Israeli forces detained six Palestinians who are suspected to have been involved in the Gush Etzion attack. Various Palestinian militias in the West Bank and Gaza Strip praised the attack. The IDF and Shin Bet are investigating whether the attack was carried out by ”foreign threats.” Israeli security officials believe a terrorist cell operating in Hebron intends to carry out additional attacks using similar tactics, which would be consistent with recent Hamas threats to conduct attacks targeting Israeli settlers and troops in the West Bank. No militia has claimed responsibility for the attack at the time of writing, however. These attempted bombings follow four consecutive days of significant IDF military operations in the West Bank. Palestinian militias, including Hamas, have repeatedly called on Palestinians in the West Bank to attack Israelis.

Humanitarian aid groups will begin a mass polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip on September 1. The head of the UN World Health Organization operations in the Palestinian territories Rik Peeperkorn said that the campaign will begin in central Gaza. Humanitarian aid groups will administer the vaccines to Gazan children over three days during nine-hour humanitarian pauses in the area. The IDF agreed on August 29 to pause military operations in designated areas from 0600 to 1500 local time. The campaign will then move to the southern Gaza Strip and vaccinate children over another three-day period before moving to the northern Gaza Strip. Peeperkorn said that the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) agreed to extend the humanitarian pauses by one day or longer in each zone, if necessary. Healthcare workers administered the first polio vaccines to a small number of Gazan infants at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on August 31 to officially mark the beginning of the campaign.

Key Takeaways:

• West Bank: At least two Palestinian fighters attempted to carry out two coordinated car bombing attacks in the Gush Etzion area of the West Bank on August 30. No militia has claimed responsibility for the attack at the time of writing, though the attack targeting IDF settlements is consistent with recent Hamas threats to target Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

• Gaza Strip: The IDF Air Force targeted and killed PIJ's Central Camps Brigade commander Muhammad Qatrawi in the central Gaza Strip on August 30.

• Northern Israel: Lebanese Hezbollah conducted at least six attacks into northern Israel since CTP-ISW's last data cutoff on August 30.

• Red Sea: The Houthis claimed an attack targeting Liberian-flagged container ship M/V GROTON in the Gulf of Aden on August 31.

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ISW–CTP has launched an interactive map of Israeli ground operations to accompany our daily campaign assessments of the Israel–Hamas war. This product complements the daily static maps that ISW-CTP produces with high-fidelity and, where possible, street-level assessments of the war in Israel.

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