Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood

Updated November 14, 2023

Israel finds Hamas base under hospital

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.

November 13, 2023

Hezbollah escalates attacks in the north

Lebanon: Sunday saw the most serious escalation in the north. In a series of attacks 18 Israelis; soldiers and civilians were injured. In a series of attacks, 18 Israelis – soldiers and civilians – were injured.

In Moshav Dolev, four vehicles suffered a direct hit from anti-tank missile fire, and ten civilians were wounded. Of the wounded, six worked for the Electricity Corporation and were there to make repairs. One of the workers is in critical condition and five others in serious condition.
In the area of Manara, seven soldiers were wounded from an anti-tank missile.
Around 15 rockets were fired towards the Western Galilee, including Acco and Kiryat Bialik. Four were intercepted, the rest fell in open areas.
There were also rockets and mortars fired at other areas, including Kiryat Shmone and Gornot Hagalil.
A further two or three attacks on IDF soldiers have not yet been confirmed.
In response to the attacks, the IDF used an array of ground and air to strike a number of Hezbollah targets. At least three launch cells were targeted, along with other military infrastructure inside Lebanon.
For the first time since the war began, more air raid sirens were heard in the north than in southern Israel.
This morning, at least 20 more rockets have been fired from Lebanon into Northern Israel, with no injuries reported yet.

Gaza Strip: On Sunday, the IDF provided 300 litres of fuel for urgent medical purposes for the Shifa Hospital, however Hamas prevented the hospital from receiving the fuel.

The fuel is currently outside the compound in jerry cans. Although the IDF are not yet fully in control of the area, they are said to be guarding the fuel so it is not expropriated by Hamas.
In parallel, the IDF opened an additional passage to assist Gazan civilians to evacuate from the Shifa, Rantisi and Nasser hospitals
The IDF are in direct contact with the Shifa Hospital director to coordinate safe passage allowing civilians to evacuate, on foot and by ambulances.
Last week, there were around 60,000 people in the hospital compound, now down to 1,000.
During the fighting, the IDF continued their impressive tactical successes, revealing how intercepting real time intel and relaying to the troops on the ground allowed infantry soldiers to kill seven terrorists within ten minutes.
The IDF has struck over 15,000 terror targets, destroyed over 100 terror tunnel shafts and more than 6000 weapons while operating within the Gaza Strip.
In the last day, two more soldiers have been killed, taking the total to 44 since the ground operation began.
Israel estimates over 3,000 Hamas fighters have been killed, but neither side has released details. According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, over 10,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Israel is jointly coordinating efforts to bring in Humanitarian Aid, along with the US, Egypt, and the UN. More than 820 trucks containing approximately 13,200 tons of aid have entered into Gaza, including over 3,000 tons of food, 1,720+ tons of medical equipment, 600+ tons of equipment for temporary shelters and over 1.15 million litres of water.

Context: The escalation in the north compounds the strategic dilemmas for Israeli decision makers.

The IDF remains focused on targeting and decommissioning Hamas military infrastructure, whilst pressuring Hamas to release hostages.
In theory, the IDF has capacity to fight a second front simultaneously, with only 10 per cent of the Israeli Air Force committed to the south. However, the preference until now has been to keep the focus on the south and only then to turn to the north.
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.
There are efforts, led by the US and France, to find a diplomatic solution to remove Hezbollah from the south, but there is limited expectation this can succeed.
Israel’s approach until now has been to target cells that launch attacks, either during or after, even sometimes beforehand. In this way that been These efforts have been successful in decommissioning Hezbollah’s capacity and have so far killed 73 Hezbollah operatives.
Part of the calculation is how to respond to every attack in a calibrated manner that causes damage without provoking Hezbollah into a wider conflict.
Following Hezbollah’s leader Nasrallah’s speech on Saturday, there was hope that this signified Hezbollah was deterred from a wider confrontation for three reasons:
- Hezbollah has lost the element of surprise to launch an invasion of their Radwan force. The IDF is heavily deployed in the border, and the closest civilian communities have been evacuated.
- The US military posture serves as a stark warning that an escalation will be met by a US response.
- They see the pictures from Gaza, and hear Defence Minister Gallant’s warning to Beirut.
However, others see Sunday’s attacks as evidence of Hezbollah’s objective to ratchet up the pressure on Israel, occupy their forces, threaten Israeli civilians, all whilst keeping the conflict below the threshold of all-out war.
Meanwhile, there is ongoing speculation over a potential prisoner exchange. The latest formulation suggests 80 hostages; children, women and sick elderly would be released over a three to five day ceasefire which would allow increased aid to enter the Strip, including fuel. Israel would also release women and minors held in Israeli prisons.

Looking ahead: Only once the hospitals have been evacuated can the IDF fully target the terror infrastructure underneath.

There is speculation that Israel is keen for Tony Blair to represent the international community and take the role of humanitarian coordinator for the Gaza Strip.,
The Israeli government understands the need to restore the sense of security to residents of both the north and the south before they are able to return home.

November 12, 2023

IDF Spox: “We won’t let the world forget that Hamas is holding kidnapped babies.”

There is media speculation that the possible contours of the deal would involve the release of 50-100 children, women and elderly. Their release would be staggered, through a three to five day ceasefire which would allow increased aid to enter the Strip, possibly also fuel. In addition Israel would release women held in Israeli prisons.
It is estimated that most of the hostages are held in the south part of the strip, at least initially, as the largest proportion were taken from Re’im and Nir Oz.
Some analysts assess with IDF advancements, Hamas is facing more pressure to do a deal, whilst their leaders are still alive to do so. An exchange for a ceasefire will allow Hamas to venture above ground and assess the damage.
On Saturday night thousands of people attended a rally in support of the hostages’ families outside the Tel Aviv Museum Square, which has been informally renamed “Hostages Square.”

Arab Islamic summit: The leaders of 20 states gathered for an emergency summit in Saudi Arabia, where they all condemned the Israeli aggression in Gaza. They all called accused Israel of war crimes and called for the lifting of the siege.

Mohamad bin Salman, the Saudi Crown Prince called for an end to the fighting and for the release of the hostages.
Abbas, the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority (PA) called for elections in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Turkish President Erdogan, called for an investigation into Israeli nuclear bombs and for an evacuation of the wounded to Egypt.
The Egyptian president Sisi called for the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, but rejected opening a humanitarian crossing into Egypt.
However, on more substantive issues the countries were divided. Only 11 states agreed to:
- prevent the US using their military bases in Arab countries to supply Israel with weapons and ammunition.
- freezing Arab diplomatic, economic, security and military relations with Israel.
- threaten to use oil and an Arab boycott to pressure to stop the aggression.
- prevent Israeli civil aviation from flying in Arab airspace.
- send a joint delegation to lobby Washington, Moscow and London.
Another nine did not support those five actions, they were: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, Mauritania, Djibouti, Egypt and Jordan.

Gaza Strip: The IDF continues to expand its operation deep inside Gaza City. IDF Spokesperson Hagari said that Hamas has “lost its grip” on the heart of Gaza City.

He added that as opposed to Hamas lies, the IDF had not attacked or laid siege to Shifa Hospital.
In televised remarks Col. Moshe Tetro, the head of the Gaza CLA (Coordination and Liaison Administration) was personally in contact with the hospital director and reaffirmed that the eastern side of the hospital was open for safe passage for those that want to leave.
Hagari later added that the IDF would provide all necessary assistance to relocate the patients in the paediatric ward to safer hospitals.
Israel continues to take pauses in the fighting to allow Gazan civilians to leave combat zones. On Saturday, tens of thousands left the Jabaliya area to move south. In the last few days around 150,000 – 200,000 have left.
Over the weekend, the IDF took control of another 11 Hamas military posts.
However, five more soldiers were killed, taking the total to 43 since the beginning of the ground operation two weeks ago.
On Friday night the IDF estimated the elimination of about 150 terrorists in Hamas strongholds.
In one strike, the IDF confirmed they killed the terrorist who held hostage approximately 1000 Gazan residents at the Rantisi Hospital.
During operations in the Beit Hanoun area, the IDF revealed they “destroyed weapons, ammunition and explosive devices in a kindergarten…”, adding they “exposed and destroyed dozens of tunnel openings and secured military and civilian structures where large quantities of weapons, maps and intelligence files of the Hamas terrorist organisation were stored.”
Despite the advances Hamas are still launching rockets into Israel.

North: Hezbollah forces continued to attack along the border.

For the first time, the IDF struck a Hezbollah target 40km deep into Lebanon. According to Lebanese media, an Israeli drone attacked a pick-up truck in the Al Baraq area of Zahrani.
Over the weekend, Hezbollah fired a new ‘Barkan’ rocket with a particularly heavy payload of up to 500kg.
Three IDF soldiers were badly injured by an advanced Hezbollah UAV.
Three more UAVs were identified crossing into Israeli territory in northern Israel and intercepted.
Furthermore, two mortar shell launches and anti-tank missiles were identified from Lebanon toward IDF posts in northern Israel. IDF artillery struck the source of the launches alongside a Hezbollah terror infrastructure.
On Saturday afternoon Hezbollah leader Nasrallah once again gave a televised address from his bunker.
- He encouraged more anti-Israel protests in the west as a lever to pressurise their governments.
- He praised those forces supporting Hamas, specifically in the West Bank and Yemen.
- He expressed ‘regret’ that Arab countries (Saudi Arabia) had intercepted missiles and drones fired by the Houthis in Yemen.
Overall the IDF is satisfied with its effectiveness in spotting Hezbollah cells and successfully striking them within minutes. Nasrallah also related to this, admitting every cell that fires rockets is effectively a suicide mission. Nasrallah said this in an effort to defend his commitment to the fight.
Hezbollah has confirmed over 70 of their fighters have been killed.
On Saturday night the IDF struck targets in Syria in response to rockets fired at the Golan Heights earlier in the day.

Context: The IDF understands it is coming under increasing pressure to agree to a temporary cessation of fighting, but will not do so without the release of a significant chunk of the hostages.

According to the IDF, “Since the beginning of the war, the IDF has struck over 15,000 terror targets in the Gaza Strip and located 6000 weapons, including anti-tank missile launchers, anti-aircraft missiles, rockets and mortars, explosives, ammunition, and more.”
The IDF emphasises the impressive coordination between aerial, naval, and ground forces. Since the beginning of ground operations in Gaza, the Air Force, with the assistance and direction of the ground forces, has “struck approximately 5,000 targets in the Gaza Strip to eliminate threats in real time. Approximately 3,300 strikes were carried out by fighter jets, 860 strikes were carried out by combat helicopters and over 570 strikes were carried out by UAVs.”
However, analysts note that bombs dropped and terrorists killed are not the measure of success, as all the while Hamas retains it chain of command and terror infrastructure.
According to estimates, around 10 per cent of the Israeli Air Force is committed to Gaza, leaving the bulk of their capacity ready to face threats in other sectors.
Regarding the north, there are three reasons to suggest Hezbollah are deterred from a wider confrontation:
- Hezbollah has lost the element of surprise to launch an invasion of their Radwan force. The IDF is heavily deployed in the border, and the closest civilian communities have been evacuated.
- The US military posture serves as a stark warning, that an escalation will be met by a US response.
- They see the pictures from Gaza, and hear Defence Minister Gallant’s warning to Beirut.
On Saturday night the three leaders prosecuting the war, Netanyahu, Gallant and Gantz, held another joint press conference. Prime Minister Netanyahu said, in the future Israel would retain overriding security control over the Gaza Strip and appeared to rule out handing over control to the PA. Netanyahu said, “Overall security control, with the ability to go in whenever we want in order to kill terrorists who could reappear. There will be no Hamas. There will be no civilian authority that educates their children to hate Israel, to kill Israelis, to destroy the State of Israel. There can’t be an authority there that pays the families of murderers. There needs to be something else there.”
Netanyahu’s position appears to be at odds with the US vision and could cause tension in the future. Some have speculated that this is part of Netanyahu’s future positioning at the next election. Though others note that due to his current unpopularity he may not be the one to decide on the day after.

Looking ahead: In the short term, the IDF will increase pressure on hospitals to evacuate the patients in order to target Hamas infrastructure underneath.

The IDF will also be advancing to control Hamas government sites and destroy the tunnels.
Longer term objectives could include expanding the military operation to the southern part of the Strip and kill the Hamas senior leaders.
Israel will seek to place a new regime in Gaza that is not connected to Iran.

November 10, 2023

Arrow 3 achieves first success

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.

November 9, 2023

US and Israel strike Iranian proxies in Syria

Regional: Israeli and American forces reportedly carried out separate airstrikes on Iranian proxies in Syria killing 12 fighters.

US officials said that two F-15 fighter jets dropped multiple bombs on a weapons storage facility near Maysulun in Deir el-Zour in eastern Syria that was known to be used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
A senior US defence official said the strike was aimed at “disrupting and degrading the capabilities of groups directly responsible for attacking US forces in the region” by specifically targeting facilities associated with the Revolutionary Guard.
The Pentagon says 45 American troops have been injured in Iraq and Syria in attacks by Iranian-backed militia during the past month. Of those, 32 were at al-Tanf garrison in southeastern Syria, with a mix of minor injuries and traumatic brain injuries, and 13 were at al-Asad air base in western Iraq.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said attacks against US troops must stop. “The President has no higher priority than the safety of US personnel, and he directed today’s action to make clear that the United States will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests”.
“If attacks by Iran’s proxies against US forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people,” Austin added.
The US has 900 troops in Syria, and 2,500 more in neighbouring Iraq. Since October 7, the US has sent warships and fighter aircraft to the region, including two aircraft carriers.
On 26 October, US forces attacked two facilities used by the IRGC and groups it backs.
Also Wednesday, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they shot down an American drone. “Our air defences were able to down an American MQ-9 while it was carrying out hostile surveillance and espionage activities in Yemeni territorial waters as part of American military support” for Israel.
In separate news, Syrian official news agency SANA said Israeli air strikes hit military sites in southern Syria, causing material damage.
Also yesterday, the IDF said jets struck a number of Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon in response to recent rocket and missile attacks on the border. Separately, the IDF says it struck a cell in southern Lebanon preparing to carry out an attack near the Biranit camp.

Gaza: IDF infantry, tank and special-ops units continued to operate in and around Gaza City.

IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said, “Hamas has lost control in the north. The Hamas leadership is cut off. They are sitting in bunkers, cut off. Cut off from the public, cut off from their terrorists who are fighting on the ground against our forces and being killed.”
The IDF announced that two soldiers from the Nahal Brigade’s 931st Battalion were killed yesterday, taking the number of soldiers killed in action during the ground campaign to 35.
The IDF says it has found and destroyed some 130 tunnel shafts in the Gaza Strip since the ground operation began last month, including one yesterday adjacent to a UNRWA school in the northern Gaza Strip.
Despite Hamas efforts to prevent them doing so, yesterday some 50,000 Gazans moved south as Israel extended the 10 am to 2 pm window to travel along the humanitarian corridor by an hour.
Speaking to the New York Times, Khalil al-Hayya, a member of Hamas’ politburo in Qatar dismissed the idea the group wanted to govern Gaza, and expressed support for endless conflict.
“Hamas’s goal is not to run Gaza and to bring it water and electricity and such,” says al-Hayya. “This battle was not because we wanted fuel or laborers,” he adds. “It did not seek to improve the situation in Gaza. This battle is to completely overthrow the situation.”
Hamas media consultant Taher El-Nounou told the paper. “I hope that the state of war with Israel will become permanent on all the borders, and that the Arab world will stand with us.”
A Hamas terrorist captured after the massacre on October 7 admitted that the group uses ambulances to evacuate fighters. “Al-Qassam have their own ambulances, some of which are located on military bases. The ambulances look like civilian ambulances so they don’t arouse suspicions and are not attacked by Israel,” said one of the captives during his interrogation. “During the fighting, the ambulances are used for things including evacuated wounded fighters. They are also used to deliver food, IEDs and weapons because it is a secure way to transfer those things.”

Hostages: Talks are reportedly underway for the release of a dozen hostages held by Hamas, including six Americans, in return for a three-day ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

A source close to Hamas said that “Talks revolve around the release of 12 hostages, half of them Americans, in exchange for a three-day humanitarian pause, to enable Hamas to release the hostages and to enable Egypt an extended [period of time] to deliver Humanitarian Aid,” the source claims.
Other reports suggest that Qatar is mediating negotiations between Israel and Hamas for the potential release of 10-15 hostages held in Gaza in exchange for a short ceasefire.
Families of the hostages said in response that “We will welcome the return of every hostage who is in Gaza. However, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum adheres to its position that any movement towards a ceasefire has to include the release of all of the hostages from Gaza.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “I’d like to put to rest all kinds of false rumors we’re hearing from all kinds of directions, and reiterate one clear thing: there will be no ceasefire without the release of our hostages.”

November 8, 2023

Israeli forces extended deeper into the Gaza Strip

What happened: As Israel’s ground manoeuvre enters its twelfth day today, the IDF continues to close in on Shati, in the central Gaza Strip, as well as on Shifa Hospital.

PM Netanyahu said yesterday that the IDF has reached deeper into Gaza than Hamas ever imagined. “In the south, the war is moving forward with force that Hamas has never seen… Gaza City is surrounded. We are operating within it, we are deepening the pressure on Hamas every hour, every day… Hamas is discovering that we are reaching places they thought we would never reach.”
As Israel continued its advance, thousands of Palestinian civilians moved southward in a convoy yesterday waving white flags – heeding multiple IDF calls to do so.
Humanitarian Aid also continued to enter Gaza. Yesterday, 96 trucks carrying international Humanitarian Aid were transferred to Gaza via the Rafah crossing. These included 15 carrying medical supplies, 31 carrying food, eight carrying water, and 19 carrying supplies for shelters.
As of yesterday, 665 trucks have entered Gaza, with deliveries of vital Humanitarian Aid. This includes over 3,000 tons of food, over 1,720 tons of medical equipment, over 600 tons of equipment for temporary shelters, and over 1.15 million litres of water.
An IDF soldier was killed in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday, taking the total number of soldiers killed since the start of the ground offensive to 32.
During the fighting, IDF troops spotted a Hamas squad hiding in a mosque. They were killed with air support as soon as they left the mosque and headed for tunnel shafts. Hamas has fired anti-tank missiles at IDF troops from several civilian locations, including a hospital.
The IDF also reported that in the course of a raid on a school that had served as a base for rocket fire and other terrorist activity, troops from the 402nd Brigade killed a number of terrorists, and found several rocket launchers and a large trove of other weapons on school grounds.
The IDF this morning announced that an airstrike overnight killed Muhsin Abu Zina, “one of the leaders of weapons production” for Hamas who specialised in manufacturing “strategic weapons and rockets.”
In the north, more than 20 rockets were fired yesterday from Lebanon into Israel, as US diplomats continue to try to remove Hezbollah from the spiraling fight.
IAF jets demolished Hezbollah sites including a weapons warehouse, rocket fire installations, infrastructure for directing terror attacks and more.
Netanyahu warned Lebanon’s Hezbollah that it would be making the “greatest mistake of its life” if it opens a new full-on war front.
During a press conference in Beirut after meeting Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, US envoy Amos Hochstein said that “the United States does not want to see conflict in Gaza escalating and expanding into Lebanon. Restoring calm along the southern border is of utmost importance to the United States and it should be the highest priority for both Lebanon and Israel.”

Context: President Biden has reportedly urged Netanyahu to agree to a three-day pause in the fighting in Gaza to facilitate progress in releasing some of the hostages being held by Hamas.

According to the proposal on the table, Hamas will release 10-15 hostages and will use the three-day pause to verify the identity of all the hostages it and other groups in the Gaza Strip are holding, and will provide a list of their names.
Hamas issued a statement on Tuesday announcing that it had been prepared to release 12 foreign nationals who are being held hostage, but Israel stymied that.
Netanyahu does not trust Hamas to keep its word. In 2014, Hamas attacked IDF troops in Rafah during a 2014 humanitarian ceasefire, killing several soldiers and kidnapping Hadar Goldin. Netanyahu is also reportedly worried that Israel won’t be able to renew its war efforts after a significant lull in the fighting.
Israeli officials believe that Hamas holds roughly 180 hostages, Palestinian Islamic Jihad holds roughly 40 hostages, and another 20 hostages are being held by crime organisations, mainly in the southern Gaza Strip.
While Hamas’s ability to launch rockets on Israel has gradually diminished alongside the Israeli advance, sirens sounded yesterday in the Tel Aviv area and in Rishon Lezion, while today saw a rocket attack on the Kissufim area, adjacent to central Gaza.
The US continues to clarify its position on the ‘Day After’ the war.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said that the United States agrees “there is no returning to the October 6 status quo,” adding “generally speaking, we do not support the reoccupation of Gaza and neither does Israel…our viewpoint is that Palestinians must be at the forefront of these decisions and Gaza is Palestinian land and it will remain Palestinian land.”
She added “Israel and the region must be secure and Gaza should and can no longer be a base from which to launch terror attacks against the people of Israel or anyone else.”

Looking ahead: The coming days could prove to be decisive regarding the fight against Hamas and the American-Qatari effort to secure a hostage deal.

Some believe that beyond that point, Israel is unlikely to be able to withstand American pressure for a ceasefire, especially if a hostage deal is on the table.
Foreign Minister Cohen will head to Brussels tomorrow, along with families of Israeli hostages, where he will speak in front of the European parliament.

November 7, 2023

Netanyahu: No ceasefire without the release of hostages

Prime Minister Netanyahu told US network ABC News that Israel would remain in control “for an indefinite period [Israel] will have the overall security responsibility [of the Strip] because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it,” Netanyahu explained, “When we don’t have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine.”
Asked whether Israel will accede to US pressure to implement humanitarian pauses to allow the delivery of additional aid and for civilians to flee, Netanyahu said “there’ll be no cease-fire, general cease-fire, in Gaza without the release of our hostages.”
“As far as tactical little pauses, an hour here, an hour there. We’ve had them before, I suppose, will check the circumstances in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods to come in, or our hostages, individual hostages to leave. But I don’t think there’s going to be a general cease-fire.”
He added, “I think it will hamper the war effort. It’ll hamper our effort to get our hostages out because the only thing that works on these criminals in Hamas is the military pressure that we’re exerting.”
When asked if would take responsibility for the failures on October 7 Netanyahu replied, “of course” but that was “going to be resolved after the war.” Adding, “The first task of government is to protect the people and, clearly, we didn’t live up to that.”

Gaza Strip: IDF forces continue to advance into more neighbourhoods within Gaza City.

As they advanced troops documented a children’s scouts clubhouse also housed rocket launchers.
In a second location troops exposed a rocket launching site within the compound of a mosque which included an electricity cable running inside the mosque and more than 50 rockets that were ready for firing.
The IDF confirmed they killed another senior field commander, Wael Asefa, the head of Hamas’s Deir al-Balah Battalion. Asefa was one of the commanders responsible for sending Hamas “Nukhba” terrorists into Israeli on October 7th.
The IDF also confirmed they have taken control of another Hamas military stronghold in the northern Gaza Strip. The post was found to contain anti-tank missile launchers, weapons and intelligence materials.
Israel again opened a safe passage to allowing Gazan civilians to leave the north for the south. IDF soldiers checked IDs and made some arrests of known fighters among the civilians.
Defence Minister Gallant taunted the Hamas leader saying, “Sinwar is hiding in a bunker and is letting the field commanders die on the ground.”

The north: Around 30 rockets were fired from southern Lebanon at Israel’s northern communities in the space of an hour yesterday.

No Israeli injuries were reported, as sirens sounded in Nahariya, Acre, and several nearby towns in the Western Galilee and the Krayot areas.
Responsibility for 16 of the rockets was claimed by Hamas in southern Lebanon, who said it had fired at Nahariya, Haifa, and other towns.
The IDF responded with artillery fire on the sources of the rocket launches, later also targeting airstrikes on Hezbollah positions, including a site housing “technological assets,” a weapons depot, rocket launch positions and other infrastructure.
With the majority of the 20,000 residents of Kiryat Shmona already having fled south following previous rocket fire from Lebanon, Israeli authorities urged the remaining approximately 3,000 to evacuate.

West Bank: In a joint operation the Israeli security establishment carried out a targeted strike in Tulkarem against a vehicle with four terror suspects inside.

Among the four were both the local head of the Hamas military and the Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, (Fatah’s military wing).
According to the Shin Bet, they were responsible for dozens of past shooting attacks and had also been planning additional attacks, including planting explosives.
In the last month more than 1,350 wanted men have been arrested, over half were affiliated with Hamas.

Context: As the IDF advance inside the Gaza Strip the military echelon continue to ask for patience to carry out their mission.

The political leadership is inclined to support the military, but wary that international pressure will also increase.
Precise Palestinian casualty figures are difficult to reliably report, given that information on them comes from the Hamas-run Health Ministry. According to the ministry’s figures, over 10,000 Gazans have died since October 7^th
Unlike Hezbollah, Hamas have not announced how many of their fighters have been killed, but Israeli estimates that over 3,000 fighters have been killed.
Compounding the issue, yesterday new footage emerged of combatants launching rockets in civilian clothes, another violation of international law.
It is estimated the IDF has killed around 15 battalion commanders, but targeting Hamas’ most senior leaders remains a high priority.
There is concern that some senior commanders could have fled south among the civilian population. There is also concern that there may still be underground tunnels running north to south underneath the bisected strip.
The IDF civilian crossing is the first time the Gazan civilian population have directly encountered IDF troops since Israel’s withdrawal in 2005.
In a further effort to rehabilitate the image of the Israeli military, yesterday Lt Gen. Halevi the IDF Chief of Staff spoke of unprecedented coordination between fighter jets and troops on the ground. In direct communication the fighter jets operated within 200 metres of ground forces striking a terror cell preparing an ambush in adjacent building 130 metres from ground troops.
Monday’s rocket fire from Lebanon came a day after an Israeli civilian was killed by an anti-tank guided missile, the second civilian killed on Israel’s side of the border in attacks by Hezbollah and Palestinian Lebanon-based terrorists since October 7. Six IDF soldiers have also been killed in the north.
Hezbollah targets are struck in response to rocket fire, regardless of whether they came from their sites or those of Palestinian terror groups operating in southern Lebanon. As the de facto ruling authority in the area, Hezbollah is considered responsible.
According to AFP calculations, at least 81 people on the Lebanese side of the border have been killed, including at least 63 Hezbollah members, eight Palestinian terrorists, a number of civilians, and one journalist.
In a speech last Friday, Hezbollah leader Nasrallah made clear that the October 7^th attacks were planned entirely by Hamas.
Israeli military and intelligence continue to estimate that Nasrallah does not seek a major escalation on the northern border, but is planning for the worst-case scenario. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said Sunday that the military was “ready at any moment to go on the offence in the north.”
For the last month, at least 240 Israelis have remained hostages inside Gaza.

Looking ahead: Shifa Hospital in Gaza City remains a significant target, as it is considered to be one of Hamas’s major headquarters. Israel is anticipating a PR success when it can prove this decade-old claim.

There are plans to remove civilian patients from the hospital. One option is to evacuate them to a French naval hospital off the coast.
The UAE is also planning to set up a field hospital in southern Gaza.
Though no official policy on a post-Hamas Gaza has been declared, various scenarios have been speculated, including the Palestinian Authority assuming control with the support of regional and international actors.

November 6, 2023

Gaza City encircled by IDF ground forces

What’s happened: On the 31st day of the war, IDF troops in the Gaza Strip are now surrounding Gaza City.

IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Hagari said, “IDF troops… have reached as far as the beach in the southern part of Gaza City and they have encircled Gaza City. Essentially, today there is north Gaza and south Gaza.”
The IDF also confirmed it has struck 450 military targets belonging to Hamas in the last 24 hours.
Hagari also presented IDF video evidence of Hamas using an underground shaft in the grounds of Sheikh Hamad hospital. In a second clip, gunmen are seen shooting from the hospital.
As the IDF increases the pressure on Hamas, Hagari revealed the extensive efforts Israel has made to warn Gazan civilians to leave the combat zone via safe passage to the south.
- The IDF dropped over 1.5 million leaflets over Gaza, over time colour coded to emphasise the immediacy of military ground operations.
- They made over 19,500 phone calls warning of approaching battle.
- Over 4.3 million text messages and almost 6 million voice recordings.
Relating to the hostages, Hagari emphasised they remain Israel’s top national priority. He said, “we, in the IDF and in the Shin Bet and in all the security agencies, haven’t forgotten. We are making efforts around the clock. We collect every piece of information, we seize every operational opportunity.”
Last night Hamas were still able to launch several rockets towards Tel Aviv and the centre of Israel.
In the north, Hezbollah fired two heavy waves of rocket fire towards the northern town of Kiryat Shmona. In the first wave one Israeli civilian was killed. In the second wave a house took a direct hit, but the man inside made it into his safe room and was unhurt.
Hezbollah claims the strikes on Kirya Shmona were in response to Israel striking a civilian vehicle in southern Lebanon. The IDF was targeting a terror cell, but are checking the details of the strike.
US Secretary of State Blinken continued his shuttle diplomacy and was in Baghdad yesterday, where he met with the Iraqi prime minister. Later the same day Prime Minster al-Sudani travelled to Tehran and met Iranian President Raisi, presumably to pass on a message from the US.
In parallel, the US has continued to augment its military deployment and last night sent a nuclear submarine to the region.

Context: It has taken just over a week for the IDF to surround Gaza City, which includes Hamas military strongholds and presumably the most senior commanders.

The operation is going to plan, though commanders stress they will need time to complete their objectives.
They now need to enter slowly and cautiously and target Hamas’s command and operational structure, much of which is underground.
The Sheikh Hamad hospital was built by Qatar. The release of the incriminating footage serves to prepare the international community for the next stage of fighting. It exposes how Hamas uses its own citizens as a human shield and why it will be necessary for Israeli forces to target the area. Thirdly, it is meant to highlight for Qatar how they have been manipulated by Hamas.
Hagari also presented IDF recordings of an intercepted phone call between Hamas officials discussing the appropriation of fuel reserves designated for another hospital.
Israel maintains that there will be no humanitarian ceasefire until progress is made regarding the hostages. This includes no supply of fuel, which would be usurped by Hamas and used to further their war effort.
However, it is possible they will agree to a pause, but will hope to make it conditional on progress for the release of hostages.
Sieges are not prohibited under international humanitarian law, though their conduct is subject to the obligation to protect the civilian population. The UK’s “Joint Service Manual of the Law of Armed conflict”, for example, notes that: “Siege is a legitimate method of warfare as long as it is directed against enemy armed forces,” while also noting that “the normal rules on precautions in attack apply.”
According to COGAT (Coordinator of Government Activity of the Territories), international organisations continue to bring food to the Strip through the Rafah crossing. So far, the entry of 201 trucks of food has been coordinated.
- Today, 75 trucks carrying international Humanitarian Aid were inspected and transferred to Gaza via the Rafah crossing. The aid is intended for the population in the southern part of the Strip.
- So far, 526 trucks carrying Humanitarian Aid have been inspected at Nitzana crossing, and transferred to Gaza via the Rafah crossing.
- On Sunday during the declared humanitarian corridor published by the IDF, Hamas fired towards IDF forces securing the corridor. This was a deliberate act done in order to try and prevent the people from moving south. Hamas continues to endanger the population and tries to prevent their movement.
- Today, the corridor was opened at 10 am enabling hundreds of residents to cross and move south.

Looking ahead: Entering into Gaza City could be the most dangerous phase of the mission. With narrow allies, Israeli armour will not be able to enter, so troops may need to enter on foot.

Israel is encouraging Egypt to facilitate Palestinian patients to cross over and receive treatment in a field hospital on the Egyptian side of the border.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt Gen Halevi visited the Northern Command yesterday, and related to concerns saying, “we have heard a great deal about the feelings of the residents in the north. We are ready at any moment to switch to an offensive in the north.”

November 5, 2023

IDF establishes strongholds inside Gaza

Gaza Strip: Fighting continues at various points inside the northern Gaza Strip.

According to the IDF, “troops are continuing to eliminate terrorists in close quarter combat and direct aircraft to strike Hamas terrorist infrastructure, weapons depots, observation posts, and command and control centres”.
“During the combined activities of ground, air and naval forces in the Gaza Strip, over 2,500 terror targets have been struck.”
Palestinians sources have also reported significant attacks, including in the Zeytun neighbourhood, close to the centre of Gaza City.
The IDF reportedly struck an ambulance following their assessment that it was being used to transport Hamas fighters.
Similarly, the New York Times reported Hamas tried to take advantage of the evacuation of the wounded to Egypt to smuggle out its military operatives.
There were also reports suggesting Hamas had killed Gazan civilians attempting to flee to the safe zone in the south.
Yesterday, the IDF opened a humanitarian crossing to enable Gaza residents to move south. Hamas attacked the forces at the crossing.
Again today, the IDF will open the road for four hours to allow traffic from Gaza City to travel the south on the Salah al-Din road.
On Saturday night, a barrage of rockets was directed towards the greater Tel Aviv area. Overnight there was a lull, but rocket fire resumed again this morning, directed at the Gaza periphery.

Lebanon: Hezbollah leader Nasrallah gave a speech on Friday. Significantly, he gave full credit to Hamas for the October 7 attack and claimed this was not coordinated with Hezbollah or Iran. In doing so, he did not commit Hezbollah to all-out war.

Instead it has been assessed that Hezbollah will continue to attack along the border, as it has done, without an escalation at this point.
Defence Minister Gallant warned Nasrallah, “Yahya Sinwar made a mistake and sealed the fate of Hamas and the fate of Gaza. If Nasrallah makes a mistake, he will seal the fate of Lebanon.”
Despite the warning, attacks along the northern border have continued. Rockets were launched from Lebanon towards border communities and anti-tank missiles were fired towards Metula.
In each instance, the IDF returned fire to the sources. They also targeted a Hezbollah military infrastructure

Context: Despite the progress, senior officials continue to warn that it will take weeks and months to complete the mission.

The advances made on the ground allowed Israeli and foreign defence correspondents to embed themselves and enter into Gaza to see the fighting for themselves.
Although the IDF has established static positions and now surrounds Gaza City, their positions remain vulnerable to attack by terror cells exiting from tunnel shafts with anti-tank missiles, mortars, armed drones and sniper fire.
In order to complete the mission, they will need to target the underground tunnels network.
On Saturday night Defence Minister Gallant said he was pleased with the progress of the ground campaign so far and added that 12 Hamas battalion commanders have been killed.
There were four more confirmed IDF casualties from fighting inside Gaza, taking the total since the ground incursion to at least 27. Overall, the IDF confirmed 345 soldiers have been killed since October 7.
The number of confirmed hostages inside Gaza also rose to 241.
In parallel to the military campaign, Israel hosted US Secretary of State Blinken on Friday, before he then proceeded to Jordan for talks with a number of Arab counterparts.
On his Israel stop, Blinken reinforced the US’s ironclad support of Israel, but also referred to US concerns over the conduct of the war. “We need to be doing more to protect Palestinian civilians,” he said.
He reiterated US support for humanitarian pauses to the fighting to allow for the entry of aid to the Gaza Strip, including fuel.
The US recommendations are grounded in its view that Israel has a limited time before international support for the war begins to wane. The Biden administration is also facing domestic pressure for its support of Israel from the left wing of the Democrat Party.
However, a senior Israeli official reassured Yediot Ahronot that “the Americans have told us explicitly they expect Hamas to no longer exist at the end of the war.”
From Israel, Blinken proceeded to Amman, where he met with Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi, Qatari, and Emirati diplomats and a senior official from the Palestinian Authority.
Blinken pushed back on pressure to implement a ceasefire, saying that “a ceasefire would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did.”

Looking ahead: The two main military objectives remain destroying the tunnel network and targeting the most senior Hamas commanders.

The Israeli government is under pressure from within to do more to secure the release of the hostages.
Externally, pressure is expected to grow for at least a pause to allow more humanitarian relief, however IDF commanders are wary that such a pause will be exploited by Hamas.

November 3, 2023

IDF encircles Gaza City as calls for a ceasefire grow

What happened: The IDF has advanced another stage in its war against Hamas, expanding its ground activity further into the northern Gaza Strip.

IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that “The IDF soldiers completed the encirclement of Gaza City, the hub of the Hamas terrorist group.”
He added that the troops have “been eliminating terrorists in face-to-face battles, and everywhere where there is combat, even if it’s hard, the IDF and its soldiers have the upper hand. We are constantly working and aiming fire from the air and sea.”
The IDF said that around 130 Hamas terrorists were killed in gun battles Thursday afternoon and early evening.
This morning, the IDF said it has killed the commander of Hamas’s Sabra-Tel al-Hawa battalion, Mustafa Dalloul, in an overnight airstrike.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel possessed advanced technology to destroy Hamas’s tunnels. “We have unique solutions to get to all the tunnels and dismantle them from underground. We’re ready to do so. The terrorists will have two choices: they can die in the tunnels or on the surface from our troops’ gunfire, or they can surrender unconditionally. There is no third option.”
Four soldiers were killed fighting in the Gaza Strip yesterday, bringing the death toll since Israel began its ground offensive against Hamas to 23.
Missile barrages were fired yesterday setting sirens off in Rishon Lezion, Lod, Ramle, Rosh Ha’ayin and Beersheva. No further rocket fire on Israel has been reported since 9.00pm last night.
The US is reportedly flying drones over Gaza to help gather intelligence on the locations of hostages.
As Israel comes under increasing international pressure for a humanitarian pause, Hagari said “the term ‘ceasefire’ is not at all on the table at the moment.”
Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said that Israel would allow fuel to enter Gaza via the Rafah crossing should it determine that hospitals have run out. “We check the situation in the Strip every day. For over a week, they tell us that the fuel in the hospitals will run out, and it hasn’t. We’ll see when that day comes. Fuel will be transferred, with oversight, to the hospitals, and we will do everything to ensure that it doesn’t reach Hamas infrastructure and won’t serve [Hamas’s] war aims.”
In the north, last night the military attacked Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanese territory in retaliation for attack on Israel in which two soldiers were injured in the Mount Dov area on the Lebanon border.
Separately, an Israeli tank shelled a Hezbollah anti-tank guided squad in southern Lebanon overnight.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said that the army was well prepared in every sector. “We are employing less than half the Air Force’s power in the Gaza Strip. Most of its strength is prepared and ready, with bombs attached to the wings, to depart and attack in other sectors as well as soon as it’s needed,”
In the West Bank, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that seven Palestinians were killed overnight by Israeli army fire in Jenin and the al-Fawwar refugee camp near Hebron.

Context: Pressure is building on Israel to agree to a temporary humanitarian truce in Gaza to enable a supply of aid and to evacuate the civilian population as well as to potentially facilitate an exchange deal involving the hostages.

Yesterday, the New York Times wrote that Secretary of State Blinken will pressure Israel to agree to short lulls to enable the safe passage of Humanitarian Aid and for the hostages’ release. White House sources said that Blinken will relay this message to Netanyahu and other officials.
However, in remarks delivered on a trip to London, US Vice-President Harris said “we are going to continue to stand with Israel’s right to defend itself,” and that “we are not going to create any conditions on the support that we are giving Israel…”
The UAE is also trying to make intense efforts to achieve a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Noura al Kaabi said at a Abu Dhabi conference “As we continue working to stop this war we cannot ignore the wider context and the necessity to turn down the regional temperature that is approaching a boiling point.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu is reportedly considering accepting the US demand for a temporary cease-fire, but Israeli officials said that it would depend on the circumstances.
NBC reported yesterday that American and Israeli officials believe that Hamas has more than 750,000 litres of fuel, which it is holding onto to use to fire rockets and operate generators in the tunnels. Last week the IDF released images last week of half a million liters of diesel it said the terror group was holding in the Strip.
While the assessment remains that Hezbollah does not currently seek all out war with Israel, the military and security establishments are proceeding with caution.

Looking ahead: Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah is giving a speech this afternoon as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken lands in Israel.

In clashes on the northern border, more than 60 Hezbollah terrorists have been killed. The commander of the Iranian Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, the successor to Qassem Soleimani, has been in Beirut since October 8 to potentially coordinate a wider war with Israel.
Blinken landed in Israel today, his third visit since October 7. He is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Herzog and to attend a meeting of the war cabinet. Before departing, Blinken said Washington is focused on the two-state solution.

LATEST

Key background

Israel finds Hamas base under hospital

Hezbollah escalates attacks in the north

IDF Spox: “We won’t let the world forget that Hamas is holding kidnapped babies.”

Arrow 3 achieves first success

US and Israel strike Iranian proxies in Syria

Israeli forces extended deeper into the Gaza Strip

Netanyahu: No ceasefire without the release of hostages

Gaza City encircled by IDF ground forces

IDF establishes strongholds inside Gaza

IDF encircles Gaza City as calls for a ceasefire grow

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