Swords of Iron: What happened on day 10?

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that US President Joe Biden will travel to Israel on Wednesday after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Biden will reaffirm US solidarity with Israel and make clear that Israel has the right and duty to defend its people from Hamas, Blinken said.

The US President will continue to coordinate with Israeli partners to secure the hostages' release from Hamas, the US secretary said, and also noted that the US and Israel agreed on a plan that will allow aid to reach Gazan civilians.

"If Hamas blocks humanitarian aid from reaching civilians, we'll work to prevent it from happening again," the Secretary of State said.

Speaking with the Egyptian President

Biden earlier spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and discussed the need to preserve stability in the Middle East during a phone call on Monday, the White House said.

A billboard in support of US President Joe Biden seen in Israel, October 11, 2023 (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)

Biden and Sisi also discussed ongoing efforts to alleviate the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, the White House said.

A middle-aged woman was moderately injured on Monday when Hamas fired rockets into central Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

One of the rockets made landfall in Holon, resulting in the woman's injury. Magen David Adom (MDA) announced it provided treatment to the woman, who was in moderate condition with injuries to her limbs. MDA subsequently transferred her to the hospital.

Before boarding a ship departing from Israel, Ariela Keshet explained that she has attended three funerals this week — two for soldiers killed in Israel’s war with Hamas, and one for a victim of the terror group’s massacre at an outdoor music festival.

Now, she is welcoming the chance to leave for Cyprus, where the family will take refuge before returning to their home in the Golan Heights, close to Israel’s borders with Syria and Lebanon. 

Fuel and medical equipment were stolen from United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) warehouses in Gaza, the UN Palestinian refugee agency said on Monday, according to Israeli media.

Cutting-edge Saar 6 vessels have been used to attack Gaza for the first time during the current war with Hamas, the IDF revealed on Monday.

Attacks from the Oz and Magan Saar 6 ships struck Hamas infrastructure for assembling weapons as well as positions and lookout posts for the Hamas naval commandos.

The naval vessels have 18 different advanced technological and precision combat systems onboard, much of which was developed in Israel, and three of them have become fully operational over the last six months.

Half of Israeli hotel rooms are being used to house families evacuated from communities near the Gaza Strip, where an Oct. 7 rampage by Hamas terrorists triggered a cross-border war, the head of the Israel Hotel Association said on Monday.

Israel has 56,000 hotel rooms and 28,000 are being provided to evacuees with the state footing the bill, said association chief executive Yael Danieli.

In the aftermath of the devastating terrorist attacks on communities near the Gaza Strip border on October 7, 2023, emergency response teams were immediately mobilized to attend to the calamitous situation. Among them was ZAKA, a well-known volunteer-based organization in Israel that specializes in disaster victim identification, search and rescue, and recovery of human remains.

Yossi Landau, ZAKA's head of operations for the southern region of Israel, found himself at the epicenter of these grim efforts.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is on Monday speaking separately to the leaders of Israel, Iran, Syria and Egypt and to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said.

Putin spoke to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by telephone. He also plans to speak to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On Saturday, October 7, thousands of Israelis were celebrating at a rave near Kibbutz Re'im, and then the unimaginable happened. Hamas terrorists ambushed the party and began to murder, rape, and kidnap the revelers.

Squad commander Cpt. Avichai's team was the first on the scene.

Avichai's Givati squad started their day in their regular base in the West Bank.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi discussed possible steps the countries can take to end the fighting between Israeli and Palestinian forces in a phone call on Monday, the Turkish presidency said.

In a post on social messaging platform X, Erdogan's office said the president had told Raisi that Turkey was working to get humanitarian aid into Gaza and repeated his call to refrain from steps that could exacerbate the situation.