Photo credit: IDF

Gaza Strip: The IDF struck approximately 250 Hamas targets over the last day, as it continues its advance through northern Gaza, with focus now heavily directed towards the Zaytun and Jabalia areas.

• Soldiers from the Combat Engineering, Infantry and Armoured Corps of the 36th Division are now well established in Zaytun and have been engaged in heavy fighting with Hamas local battalion.
• IDF troops destroyed Hamas military targets and a Palestinian Islamic Jihad weapons production post, where heavy and long-range rockets were located.
• The soldiers also destroyed tunnel shafts, took control of Hamas command centres, confiscated intelligence material used by the organisation to learn about IDF soldiers, and struck additional buildings from which terrorists fired at IDF soldiers.
• Commanding Officer of the 36th Division, Brigadier General Dado Bar Kalifa said: “During the last days of the fighting of the 36th Division in Zaytun, we constantly encountered an enemy hiding behind children, women and civilian infrastructure. The soldiers of the division… operated in a complex war zone in an urban area, exposed terrorists who were hiding in civilian areas and eliminated many terrorists.”
• Ground forces also located a significant weapons stockpile in the residence of a senior Nukhba (Hamas’s elite unit) terrorist. In one raid, troops reported an anti-tank missile found hidden under a baby’s crib.
• In Jabalia, the IDF says it has completed its encirclement of the area this morning, after striking multiple terror targets in preparation for further ground advances. Targets included three tunnel shafts in which terrorists were hiding.
• Yesterday, the IDF helped facilitate the safe evacuation of newborn Gazan babies from the Shifa Hospital to Egypt to receive medical treatment.
• The evacuations were carried out by UN teams, with the assistance of the IDF and at the request of Egypt and the hospital’s director. Israeli incubators were used to protect the babies in transit.
• In parallel, following the discovery of a 55-metre long tunnel underneath Shifa Hospital, IDF combat engineers successfully breached a blast-proof door and are beginning to explore the interior.
• Israel’s elite 504 Unit of military intelligence has also revealed the extent of its operation to encourage northern Gazans to move south to avoid the fighting during the war so far.
• It has made 30,000 phone calls, sent over ten million text messages, over nine million voice messages, and distributed about four million leaflets from the air and land.

Hostages: Prime Minister Netanyahu and the rest of Israel’s war cabinet met with family members of some of the 240 hostages in the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv last night.

• The start of the meeting was delayed when the room booked to hold it in was found to be too small to accommodate the full list of family members, leaving dozens stuck outside.
• Some families accused Netanyahu of giving mixed messages regarding the priority being placed on securing the hostages’ safe return.
• “A few days ago, we met with Gantz and Eisenkot,” said one relative. “We heard from them in an unmistakable way that the overarching goal of the war is the return of the hostages.” This time, however, their sense was that “taking down Hamas and bringing the hostages [home] are … equally important. This is incredibly disappointing because … we know that taking down Hamas, we keep hearing from them [it] is going to take months or years and it’s going to take a long time.”
• There was also a stormy Knesset meeting yesterday between hostage families and parliamentarians from the Religious Zionism faction. The families made clear their opposition to proposed legislation to institute the death penalty for terrorists as endangering the lives of the hostages.

The north: Hezbollah claimed responsibility for eight attacks on Israel yesterday, as the IDF struck a cell attempting to launch anti-tank missiles in the area of Marwahin in Lebanon yesterday afternoon.

• IDF tanks, a fighter jet, and a helicopter also struck Hezbollah terror infrastructure in Lebanon.
• A further 25 launches were attempted from southern Lebanon towards Israel – Israel’s aerial defences intercepted a number with the remainder falling in open areas. The IDF struck the sources of these launches, too.
• The IDF also struck a terror cell operating in the Metula area of northern Israel.
• Hezbollah has so far confirmed 77 of its fighters killed since the start of the war.

Context: Israel continues to prosecute the war in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip, with the objective of targeting all remaining Hamas strongholds.

• 10 of Hamas’s 14 northern battalions are thought to have been significantly disabled, with fighting currently focussed on the remaining four.
• There are thought to be around 300 combatants who have been arrested. It is hoped that through their questioning further vital intelligence will be gleaned about Hamas’s infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.
• Combat engineers are carefully exploring the tunnels underneath Shifa Hospital. Intelligence suggests neither Hamas commanders nor hostages remain in the tunnel network under the hospital, and there is concern that the network might be booby-trapped. There is thus a dilemma in whether to risk the lives of soldiers in an effort to prove to the world the extent of Hamas’s use of the hospital.
• There remains an active debate amongst the decision makers over whether to prioritise the hostage deal now – which would include a pause in fighting – or to maintain pressure on Hamas by continuing the military campaign.
• The latest potential deal talks about a four day pause. Hamas claims that it does not yet know the location of all child hostages and needs that time to find them and to release them in a staged process. If it succeeds in finding all of the children, there is said to be scope to lengthen the pause further.
• Two more IDF soldiers were killed in action in Gaza yesterday, bringing the total number killed in the ground incursion to 68. Gazan sources suggest that over 13,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza, with Israeli sources strongly believing that several thousand combatants have been killed.
• Though the Israeli advance through northern Gaza has slowed the rate of rocket launches on Israel considerably, Hamas and other terrorist organisations still retain the ability to fire from the southern Strip. Tel Aviv last night came under heavy rocket barrage.
• It is estimated that Hamas now has left only 15 percent of its pre-war rocket arsenal.
• From the hostage families’ perspective, anything which endangers the lives of the hostages – such as, they argue, the death penalty legislation – should be off the table. Its proponents argue that it would provide further leverage against Hamas to extract further concessions on the hostages.
• Legislation is not actually required to institute the death penalty for terrorists. Such a move would be at the discretion of the defence minister.

Looking ahead: Military officials said they expected the full takeover of Zaytun to be completed within a week.

• Israel awaits Hamas’s final terms for a hostage deal before it can be put to the full Israeli cabinet for a vote, with Hamas official Izat al-Rashak saying “there is real progress in the negotiations. We are very close to announcing the Hudna agreement in the next few hours.”
• The cabinet is aware of two conflicting timelines: how long it will take to complete the takeover of the northern strip and a pause in fighting included in a hostage deal.

Gaza Strip: IDF troops entered the hospital compound in Gaza City early this morning.

• IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the IDF’s military activity is taking place according to operational needs, “in a specified complex for which there is intelligence information indicating terrorist activity.”
• Before entering the hospital, IDF forces encountered explosives and terrorist squads and a fight ensued during which terrorists were eliminated.
• As part of a humanitarian effort, the IDF confirmed this morning that incubators, baby food and medical supplies have now reached the hospital. Hagari added that “medical teams of the IDF, together with Arabic speaking soldiers, are present in the field to make sure that the medical equipment reaches those who need it.”
• Earlier yesterday, IDF officials said that a search of the basement of Rantisi Hospital had turned up several suicide vests, rockets, and anti-tank missiles, in addition to potential signs that hostages had been there.
• The IDF has also assumed operational control of the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City and has and continued to seize other Hamas governmental and military assets in Gaza City.
• Defence Minister Gallant said, “Hamas has lost control, and we control the entire area of the northern Gaza Strip, and in particular in Gaza City. The entire city is in practice a single terrorist fortress. We haven’t the moral right to stop the fighting as long as the hostages are held.”
• In addition, IDF ground troops yesterday located a Hamas training camp containing terror tunnel shafts, classrooms, intelligence material, and weapons including rockets and loaded RPGs.
• Despite the IDF’s control over northern Gaza, sporadic rockets continued to be launched from southern Gaza.  A 20-year-old man was seriously wounded and a woman in her forties was slightly wounded by shrapnel from a rocket that fell in Tel Aviv.

The North: In a relatively quieter day in the northern section, there were four instances of anti-tank four directed towards northern Israel, with no injuries reported. The IDF targeted an additional four cells before they were able to launch attacks.

• A senior member of Hamas in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said it still intends to continue attacking Israel. “We are telling the occupation that the battle is still at the beginning,” Hamdan said at a press conference, “What is coming is bigger.”

Hostages: Israel’s War Cabinet received an update on the negotiations for a potential hostage deal.

• Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar was in Egypt for talks with with Director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate Abbas Kamel in an attempt to advance a deal.
• Families of the hostages set off on a march from the Tel Aviv square dubbed ‘Hostages Plaza’ to PM Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem, demanding a full deal to release all captives.

Context: Israeli forces now exercise effective control over northern Gaza, including over Hamas’s parliament building in Gaza City.

• Israel continues to try and advance its two primary objectives – toppling the Hamas regime in Gaza and badly damaging its military capabilities, as well as freeing the hostages.
• Israeli forces now exercise effective control over northern Gaza, including over Hamas’s parliament building in Gaza City.
• It has, for several weeks, urged Gazan civilians to move south away from fighting and hospitals in conflict areas to begin evacuation processes.
• The IDF assesses it has mapped out 95 per cent of the underground city beneath Shati, considered one of Hamas’ main infrastructure centres, 30 per cent of which has already been destroyed.
• Hamas’ Security Square and the parliament building, which originally belonged to the Palestinian Authority and which Hamas took by force in 2007, has also been taken.
• Two brigades deployed by Hamas in northern Gaza and Gaza City have been critically harmed and their chain of command is only partially functioning. Yet three other brigades in the refugee camps in the centre of Gaza and in Khan Yunis and Rafah, have sustained little damage and are still maintaining a chain of command and control. Hamas does not seem to be in any rush to surrender.
• A possible deal is being discussed which would include the release of dozens of kidnapped civilians in exchange for dozens of Palestinian female prisoners, teenagers or sick prisoners, a humanitarian truce and the introduction of fuel and additional aid to the Strip.
• US President Joe Biden said he believes the release of hostages held by Hamas is “going to happen, but I don’t want to get into any details.” Israel continues to rate the chances of reaching a deal as “moderate.”
• Disagreement remains over the number of hostages to be released, and humanitarian relief measures that Israel would have to permit in exchange. Israeli officials have said that they doubt that Hamas will agree to release all the children and women in the deal, believing that Hamas will try to hold onto as many means of pressure as possible on the hostages’ families and, through them, on the broader public and the government.
• Palestinian Islamic Jihad has said it may wait for “better conditions” to release the 34 hostages it holds and may opt out of any deal between Israel and Hamas.
• The IDF believes Hamas held hostages beneath Al-Shifa Hospital. About 700 patients along with another 800 staff and others remain in the hospital. By sending in medical teams, the IDF is making a clear distinction between Gazan civilians and Hamas fighters.
• Beyond the southern and northern front, Israel continues to contend with threats from Yemen. A surface-to-surface missile, believed to have been launched from Yemen at Eilat was intercepted over the Red Sea by the Arrow air defence system.
• Senior US official Brett McGurk arrived in Israel today for the start of a regional visit.
• McGurk’s agenda is the expansion of humanitarian assistance to Gaza, application of economic pressure on Hamas, to demand the immediate release of the hostages, and to consult on a viable pathway to a Palestinian state.

Looking ahead: Israel will allow UNRWA fuel trucks to enter the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing to facilitate the agency’s ongoing humanitarian work in southern Gaza.

• After its impressive achievements in the northern Gaza Strip, Israel will soon likely have to contend with the south, in which Hamas retains control and into which approximately 1 million northern Gazans have now fled.
• The leader of the Houthis says the group will continue attacks on Israel, and that they are “looking for Israeli ships in the Red Sea.”

Gaza Strip: Israel last night presented evidence that Hamas has used the basement of Gaza City’s Rantisi Hospital as a significant base of operations.

• Having taken control of the hospital, IDF troops from the Navy’s elite Shayetet 13 commando unit and the 401st Armoured Brigade discovered a weapons trove in the basement, including suicide-bomb vests, grenades, AK-47 assault rifles, explosive devices, and RPGs.
• In announcing the discovery, IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that there was also evidence that the subterranean site had been used to hold some of the hostages.
• “The Hamas terrorists returned from the October 7 attack after slaughtering Israelis and burning babies and women alive and came back to hide out under Rantisi Hospital and other hospitals around the Strip,” he said.
• “This is a war crime, this is a crime against humanity,” he added.
• The news came as troops continue to surround Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.
• Israel has made repeated efforts to evacuate patients from hospitals in northern Gaza, and says it continues to work with doctors to move patients and hospital staff to adjacent safe routes.
• Officials in Israel and in Gaza have been trying to make arrangements for acute patients to be moved to hospital wards in the southern Gaza Strip.
• Doctors at Shifa are also preparing to transfer 37 premature babies currently in the hospital. Israel has organised incubators that will be delivered to the hospital this morning
• “Our war is against Hamas, not against the people in Gaza. Especially not the sick, the women, or the children,” Hagari said. “Our war is against Hamas who uses them as human shields.”
• Israeli Defence Minister Gallant spoke publicly yesterday, and said that “The IDF is advancing at every location. The Hamas organisation has lost control in Gaza: Terrorists are fleeing south, civilians are looting Hamas bases. They have no confidence in the government.”
• “Our troops are advancing, he added, and “are completing their missions according to plan. Every day we kill more Hamas commanders, [and] tens and sometimes hundreds of terrorists, and the IDF has reached the centre of Gaza City and is operating according to its own needs.”
• Images have circulated on social media appearing to show the IDF’s Golani Brigade inside Hamas’s military police headquarters, having apparently captured it.
• Two more IDF troops were killed in the Gaza Strip yesterday, taking the total to 46 since the start of the ground incursion.
• Israel has also confirmed that Vivian Silver, the renowned 74-year-old peace activist declared missing on October 7^th, died in the Hamas attacks.

The north: Following the weekend’s intensified clashes with Hezbollah on the northern border, two IDF soldiers were wounded yesterday by a Hezbollah anti-tank guided missile attack in the Netu’a area.

• The Israel Electric Corporation also confirmed that one of its staff injured on Sunday by a Hezbollah-claimed anti-tank missile has died.
• Yesterday, the IDF carried out a number of strikes against Hezbollah infrastructure, an anti-tank missile cell, launch sites, compounds with weapons depots, and a command centre.
• This morning, air defences downed a “suspicious target” off the coast of Acre.

The West Bank: the IDF operated overnight in the West Bank Tulkarem refugee camp. Weapons were found in searches and the IDF confirmed it had targeted a drone strike at Palestinians throwing explosives at troops.

• The Palestinian Authority health ministry said at least six Palestinians were killed during the operation.

Context: Rantisi Hospital is used primarily as a facility for child patients, and the discoveries give credence to Israel’s long-held view that Hamas uses medical facilities as operations bases and their patients as human shields.

• Under international law, hospitals are offered protective status. However, they can lose that status if a party to the conflict opts to use them for military purposes.
• The US has reaffirmed its wish that fighting not take place in hospitals, President Biden saying yesterday that “I have not been reluctant expressing my concerns with what’s going on. My hope and expectation is that there will be less intrusive action” in hospitals.
• On Sunday, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan made similar remarks, while recognising the difficulty Israel faces when “Hamas is operating in a way that is outside the bounds of any civilized concept of how you would think about using a hospital, using human shields.”
• The UN today estimated that at least 200,000 northern Gazans had heeded Israel’s repeated warnings to move south over the last ten days.
• In a press briefing yesterday, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said that Israel recognised that international pressure to cease its operation in the Gaza Strip would begin increase in the coming weeks.
• Cohen said, “In the talks I’ve held with foreign leaders, they’ve placed emphasis on the humanitarian issue in the Gaza Strip, whereas the proportion of solidarity and shock from the October 7 massacre is decreasing. In political terms, we are seeing that pressure on Israel has begun. That pressure isn’t very high, but it is trending upward… We will continue in any event according to plan.”
• Cohen also revealed that he was working with European states to create a “maritime humanitarian corridor” to the Strip, to aid the transfer of vital equipment and supplies to the population.
• The IDF’s advances are having a material impact on the threat to Israel from Hamas rockets. Data from the week November 5^th to 12^th showed the lowest number of Israeli rocket alerts (455) in any period since October 7^th.
• In total, over 10,000 rockets have been fired on Israel since October 7^th, with the IDF assessing that Hamas retains a significant rocket arsenal which it is keeping in reserve for a long war.
• This morning, sirens sounded in Nirim, near the border with the central Gaza Strip.
• Despite some Israeli voices recommending a front-foot approach to a potential war with Hezbollah, the policy remains to contain the conflict on the northern front.
• Hezbollah, too, has hitherto shown little evidence of an inclination to escalate, though its aggression over the weekend indicated a new posture.
• There is a consensus in Israel that the northern border communities that have already been evacuated will not return to their homes unless the Hezbollah threat, and specifically their elite Radwan fighters remain poised on the border, is neutralised.
• The IDF’s objective is therefore to remove that immediate threat and push Hezbollah north, beyond the Litani River.

Looking ahead: Speculation continues regarding a potential deal to free some of the hostages. The most cited contours of an agreement would see Israeli women and children released in groups, alongside Palestinian women and young people held in Israeli prisons.

• A pause to the fighting in Gaza to allow for the safe release of hostages and the transfer of further aid would likely be another component.
• The families of the hostages are planning public demonstrations over the next five days to maintain the pressure on the government to prioritise a deal.

What happened: Israel’s most advanced missile interception system, the long-range “Arrow 3”, marked its first successful interception last night, of a surface-to-surface missile over the Red Sea launched toward Eilat.

• The interception came as Iran’s Yemeni proxy the Houthis fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at the Eilat area of southern Israel.
• In the Gaza Strip, as Israel deepens its control of Gaza City and the surrounding areas, the IDF announced it has killed two senior members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force in operations executed following information from the Shin Bet.
• Ahmed Musa, a Nukhba company commander, and Amr Alhandi, a Nukhba platoon commander, were both killed while hiding in the city of Jabaliya, just north of Gaza City.
• According to the IDF, Musa led the October 7th attack on the Zikim military bases and the nearby kibbutz. Also, “In recent days Ahmed Musa led offensive activity against IDF forces in the west Jabaliya area.”
• Elsewhere, the IDF also confirmed the killing of Muhammed Kahlout, head of the sniper array in Hamas’s northern Gaza brigade.
• In a separate mission, troops from the IDF’s 252nd Division killed 19 Hamas operatives who were planning to attack soldiers.
• An Israeli soldier was killed in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday.
• In an interview with US Fox News, Prime Minister Netanyahu affirmed that Israel is seeking neither to displace Gazans nor to rule the Strip once Hamas is defeated.
• “We don’t seek to conquer Gaza. We don’t seek to occupy Gaza. And we don’t seek to govern Gaza,” he said. “What we have to see is Gaza demilitarised, deradicalised and rebuilt. All of that can be achieved.”
• On Israel’s much-repeated calls for Gazans to move south, Netanyahu said “we don’t seek to displace anyone… What we’re trying to do is get the Gazans in the northern part of the Gaza Strip where the fighting has taken place to move one to four miles south where we have established a safe zone.”
• “We want to see field hospitals,” Netanyahu added. “We’re encouraging and enabling humanitarian help to go there. That’s how we’re fighting this war.”
• CIA Director William Burns, Mossad Director David Barnea and Qatari Prime Minister Al Thani met yesterday in Doha to discuss the potential release of hostages, with Israeli officials saying after that “we are not close to finalising a deal, but the deal has not collapsed, and we are making slow progress. We need patience. There is no deal in the works for the release of all the hostages.”
• With speculation ongoing regarding a potential pause in the fighting designed to secure the release of some of the hostages held by Hamas and other terrorist organisations in Gaza, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) yesterday announced that it would consider releasing two of its hostages.
• In parallel, PIJ released a video showing two of its hostages, 77-year-old Hannah Katzir and 13-year-old Yagil Yaakov from Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Both suffer from medical conditions.
• In the north, the IDF conducted strikes in Syria in response to yesterday’s drone attack on a school in the southern Israeli city of Eilat.
• The IDF did not publicly identify which Syria-based group was responsible for the drone attack, but said that “the Syrian regime is fully responsible for all terror activity that is carried out from Syrian territory. The IDF will respond severely to any attempt to harm the territory of the State of Israel.”
• Clashes between the IDF and Hezbollah on the northern border continued yesterday. Last night Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile at the western Galilee, to which the IDF responded with artillery fire at the source of the attack. Earlier, the IAF hit terrorist infrastructure and Hezbollah targets in response to rocket fire.
• In the West Bank, 14 Palestinians were killed and more than 20 injured in clashes with the IDF in the Jenin refugee camp yesterday.
• The IDF carried out a drone strike against a group of armed Palestinians who were shooting at Israeli forces in the morning.
• In searches of the camp, the IDF discovered weapons and explosives.
• Palestinian media also reported four Palestinians killed in clashes with the IDF in the West Bank town of Beit Fajjar, near Bethlehem, in Dura, near Hebron, in Nablus, and near Ramallah.

Context: The Arrow 3 system complements its Arrow 2 predecessor, which has also succeeded in downing a Houthi ballistic missile from Yemen and a long-range rocket from Gaza in recent weeks.

• The IDF has made significant progress establishing itself deep into Gaza City, but the military commanders are still asking for more time to reach their objective of destroying Hamas’s military infrastructure.
• The IDF has taken control of numerous Hamas strongholds and has destroyed 150 tunnel shafts, but hundred more could still remain.
• The IDF has encircled the most condensed Hamas military zone which will require extreme caution.
• Hamas fighters have for the most part remained underground, in general only coming to the surface to fire anti-tank missiles.
• However, they remain a cohesive fighting unit and Israel has not yet managed to disrupt and destroy Hamas’s command structure.
• Israel is conscious that along with the military’s desire to complete their objectives, diplomatic pressure continues to push for a cessation of fighting.
• So far, the IDF has exposed Hamas operating out of mosques, schools and hospitals.
• With the understanding that the centre of Hamas operations are underneath Shifa hospital, the IDF is making provisions to evacuate and remove patients to alternative medical facilities, either in the south, over the border into Egypt, or even off shore.
• So far 38 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground incursion began, with Hamas affiliated deaths estimated to be 100 times larger, at over 3,000.
• Israel has implemented localised pauses to allow streams of Palestinian civilians continue to head south.
• Yesterday, some 50,000 northern Gazans headed south through humanitarian corridors set up by Israel.
• At some point the IDF will also need to turn their attention to the military infrastructure in the southern Gaza Strip. This will be further complicated due to the influx in the civilians from the north.
• Despite ongoing talks rumoured to include the idea of releasing hostages in return for a temporary ceasefire, Israel insists that no pause in the fighting is in the offing.
• It is thought that of the hostages, Hamas is holding 180, PIJ 40, and criminal clans in southern Gaza 20.
• Since October 7th, the IDF has arrested 1,430 terror suspects in the West Bank, including more than 900 affiliated with Hamas.
• The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry has said that in that time more than 176 West Bank Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, and in some cases by settlers. President Biden has publicly indicated his concern over the rise in settler violence since October 7th.

Looking ahead: The UN Security council will meet today. No resolution is expected, with the US pledging to veto any calls for a ceasefire.