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.

The Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt is set to open at 9 a.m. on Monday for the evacuation of foreign nationals out of Gaza and humanitarian aid into the Strip, NBC News reported on Sunday night citing a Palestinian official.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Egypt that the crossing would open to humanitarian aid. "We're putting in place — with the United Nations, with Egypt, with Israel, with others — the mechanism by which to get the assistance in and to get it to the people who need it," said Blinken.

Earlier on Sunday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN that Hamas had been preventing people from leaving Gaza through the Rafah crossing. Three US sources with knowledge of the situation told NBC as well that it remains unclear if Hamas will open their side of the Rafah crossing.

Officials working to open up the Rafah crossing have also claimed that Israel will not commit to not attack trucks entering Gaza, The Washington Post reported on Sunday. One diplomatic official told the Washington Post that negotiations were taking place to allow Israel to inspect aid trucks.

An immediate emergency basket of over NIS 20 million for emergency response teams, emergency equipment, shelters, the purchase of ambulances for the Gaza envelope communities, and the evacuation of residents from the south to accommodations elsewhere in the country.

At this difficult time of war, following the bloody and murderous attack by Hamas terrorists on the communities near the Gaza Strip, KKL-JNF stands together with the communities that were harmed and is acting to help immediately.

The KKL-JNF Board of Directors decided yesterday evening to provide an emergency basket of NIS 9 million to the communities in the Gaza envelope, which will include immediate support for security needs and the rebuilding of the security infrastructure in the community. The emergency basket will consist of shelters in communities, generators, equipment for the community emergency teams, emergency consumable equipment, computer equipment, and equipping emergency response teams in communities up to 4 kilometers from the border.

KKL-JNF has launched a fundraising campaign in cooperation with KKL-JNF organizations worldwide to raise funds for essential needs to strengthen the periphery in the south and will also assist in the purchase of 10 ambulances totaling NIS 10 million. 

KKL-JNF has already begun to help transfer thousands of residents from the south to guest houses in the center of the country, where respite activities are taking place, enabling residents to recover from the difficult events that took place.

KKL-Jewish National Fund mobilizes for the residents of the south (credit: KKL-JNF)

KKL-JNF Chairman Yifat Ovadia-Lusky: “KKL-JNF is mobilizing on behalf of the residents of the south and, as an immediate first response, will provide the communities with an emergency basket to rebuild the security infrastructure in the communities after the severe damage they suffered in the criminal terrorist attack. In addition, we have worked to transfer thousands of residents from the south to a safe place for several days. KKL-JNF works on behalf of the southern region and the Gaza envelope even in routine times, and during this difficult period, this assistance is a national Zionist mission of the first order. Together, we will be victorious!”

Palestinian media affiliated with Hamas reported early Monday morning that Sunday night was "the most violent night" of strikes conducted by the IDF in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war.

The Palestinian reports claimed that airstrikes in the al-Zaytoun and al-Shujaiya neighborhoods of Gaza City continued for hours overnight. Live streams broadcasting from Gaza showed continuous explosions in a number of areas throughout the night.

President Isaac Herzog showed CNN a guide on Sunday found on Hamas terrorists which laid out how the terrorists would torture and kidnap hostages as they stormed southern Israel.

Torture and ISIS style live-streamed executions - just some of the barbaric instructions on how to kidnap and kill listed in the Hamas terror handbook.

Watch my interview this evening on CNN >> pic.twitter.com/yvo9Cm8eqi

— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) October 15, 2023

"We are facing a most cruel, inhuman enemy, whom we must dislodge without mercy," said Herzog to CNN. "This document was found on the body of one of the terrorists, it's a booklet. This booklet is an operating manual, how to enter citizens' yards, kibbutz, city, moshav...And first of all what do you do when you find the citizens? You torture them. This is the booklet that says exactly how to torture them, how to kidnap them."

"So the story is not Israel versus the Palestinians, or Judaism versus Islam - God forbid - the story is about human beings, humanity, are we with the good or the evil, that's where humanity should stand. The battle that we are carrying out now, as a nation rising as a lion, is against evil, and we will uproot evil so that it will be good for the entire region and the world."

Weapons used by Hamas in its assault on southern Israel seized by the IDF. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

"There is no justification. It's simply an ideology from ISIS that wants to eliminate us off the ground, and therefore they need to be eliminated off the ground."

Terrorists instructed to use electrocution, chaos to control hostages 

A copy of the guide was provided to the press. The guide explains in detailed steps how Hamas terrorists should capture and gather hostages, including directions to use shock grenades, electrocution, violence, and gunfire to cause chaos and terrify the hostages.

The guide adds that hostages should be "killed when necessary" and that some of them should be used as human shields. The terrorists were additionally instructed to start killing hostages if they were attacked.

Cell phones used by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

The guide additionally explains that the terrorists should use car bombs, snipers, suicide bombings, and ambushes to control the areas captured.

The terrorists were instructed to take the IDs of the hostages and to record their personal details. The guide additionally details that they should be ready to broadcast the situation in a live stream.

The guide also includes a chart explaining the ranks of the IDF and the weapons and electric warfare tools used by the IDF.

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit also reported on Sunday that the IDF's Intelligence Directorate had found operating manuals and plans, satellite phones, contact methods, and encrypted numbers used by Hamas during its storming of southern Israel.

On Saturday, reservists opened a complex at the headquarters of Unit 8200 to conduct research, analysis, and investigations of the evidence found on Hamas terrorists killed and captured during the attack on Israel.

One of the documents found detailed which Hamas forces took part in the storming of southern Israel. IDF soldiers also found a document on the body of a Hamas terrorist which detailed the plan to attack Kibbutz Alumim.

The IDF has also collected and is examining the weapons captured from the Hamas terrorists who were captured or killed by the IDF during the attack on southern Israel.

The IDF has shared footage of a member of Hamas invading an Israeli community on a motorbike and attacking the community with, what appears to be, a rocket launcher.

The footage shows the terrorists firing at civilians before shooting an Israeli in their home. It is unclear if the Israeli survived the attack.

Following the attack on the home, the terrorist fired bullets into the wheels of an ambulance parked outside.

Invading homes, brutalizing civilians

In an attack on another home, the terrorist can be seen slicing open the mosquito netting of a home before entering. The terrorists then begin searching the home for residents; a search that seems to have been unsuccessful.

Terrorists killed after attacking Israeli homes. (credit: screenshot)

As the terrorists approached another home, they were shot.

The IDF wrote that “The filmed terrorist was neutralized by Israeli security forces.”

⚠️Trigger Warning ⚠️

RAW FOOTAGE: Hamas jihadists squad invasion and killing spree of an innocent Israeli community.

The filmed terrorist was neutralized by Israeli security forces. pic.twitter.com/4sKuxl9uRq

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 15, 2023

The IDF did not disclose the location or date that the footage was recovered from.

US President Joe Biden agreed that "Hamas must be eliminated," but stressed that there must be a path to Palestinian statehood as well in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" on Sunday night.

President Biden says Hamas must be eliminated, but he supports Palestinian statehood. This has been the U.S. policy for decades. https://t.co/NASVaY1Z4T pic.twitter.com/eFbZDh1IBy

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 15, 2023

"There needs to be a Palestinian authority. There needs to be a path to a Palestinian state," said Biden.

When asked if he thought Israel would pursue that path after Hamas's recent assault on southern Israel, the president responded "Not now. Not now. Not now, but I think Israel understands that a significant portion of Palestinian people do not share the views of Hamas and Hezbollah."

Biden rejected the idea of Israel occupying the Gaza Strip, saying "I think it'd be a big mistake."

"Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don't represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that...It would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza again...but taking out the extremists, Hezbollah up north and Hamas down south is a necessary requirement."

Palestinians gather near the rubble in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 14, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

"60 Minutes" host Scott Pelley referenced rising casualties in the conflict, asking "about 1,200 Israeli civilians were killed in the initial attack, but now Hamas fighters and Palestinian civilians are being killed in the counterattack. Is it time for a ceasefire?"

Biden responded that "there's a fundamental difference. Israel is going after a group of people who have engaged in barbarism that is as consequential as the Holocaust. And so I think Israel has to respond. They have to go after Hamas. Hamas is a bunch of cowards. They're hiding behind the civilians. They put their headquarters where civilians are and buildings and the like. But...the Israelis are gonna do everything in their power to avoid the killing of innocent civilians."

When asked if he believed US troops might enter combat in the Middle East if the war escalates, Biden answered "I don't think that's necessary. Israel has one of the finest fighting forces in the country. I guarantee we're gonna provide them everything they need."

Biden referenced the unknown number of American citizens being held hostage in Gaza, saying "we're gonna do everything in our power to find those who are still alive and set them free. Everything in our power. And I'm not gonna go into the detail of that, but...we're workin' like hell on it."

Biden also expressed confidence that Israel would act according to the rules of war. "There standards that democratic institutions and countries go by. And so I'm confident that there's gonna be an ability for the innocents in Gaza to be able to have access to medicine and food and water. 

The president also addressed questions about if Iran was behind Hamas's assault, telling "60 Minutes" that "there is no clear evidence of that."

"Iran constantly supports Hamas and Hezbollah. I don't mean that. But in terms of did they have foreknowledge; did they help plan the attack, there's no evidence of that at this point."

Biden dismissed concerns that the US could not handle supporting both Israel and Ukraine, saying "We're the United States of America for God's sake, the most powerful nation in the history-- not in the world, in the history of the world. The history of the world. We can take care of both of these and still maintain our overall international defense."

Biden: Supporting Israel is about decency, respect, honor

When Pelley asked the president "Why do you feel so strongly? What does Israel mean to you?" Biden responded "The Jews have been subject to abuse, prejudice, and attempts to wipe them out for, oh, God, over a thousand years. For me, it's about decency, respect, honor. it's just simply wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It violates every religious principle I have and every single principle my father taught me."

Nazis machined gunned down 35 of his relatives, including his great-grandmother, on the porch of their western Ukrainian home during World War II, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) recalled in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

So, he said, “I had an obligation to be here” and to assure Israelis, “you are not alone.”

He recalled his family’s tragedy and referenced his Jewish background during a press conference to discuss Hamas's assault on southern Israel on October 7, in which over 1,300 civilians and soldiers were killed.

“There are no words for the horror that happened last Saturday [October 7], it shook me to my core, I think about it all the time,” he said.

“As the first Jewish majority leader and the highest-ranking Jewish elected official ever in America, I felt I had to be here. I wanted to be here,” he said.

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other American representatives on a visit to Israel, October 15, 2023 (credit: PUBLIC DOMAIN)

Bipartisan delegation meets with victims of Hamas attack, Israeli leaders

Schumer and the four-member bipartisan delegation to Israel met with victims of the attack as well as with top Israeli officials such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog. 

“The viciousness of this attack, it was just wrenching,” Schumer emphasized. “Young women raped and murdered side by side, babies throats slit in front of their parents and then they shoot the parents,” he said.

“I see the pictures of the little children and I think what if this happened to my four-year-old grandson,” Schumer recalled.

“It was the most Jews killed in a single day since the Holocaust,” Schumer said, adding that Hamas killed more Jews on October 7, than the Nazis killed during Kristallnacht when rioters looted and and attacked Jews in Germany in 1938.

Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) introduced herself as the “only Jewish woman in the Senate, the only Jewish mother in the Senate. A former Synagogue President, and a steadfast supporter of Israel,” Rosen said.

“Israel lives in the hearts of all Jewish people” and after the events of October 7th, “our hearts have been shattered,” she said. 

The IDF and Hezbollah on Sunday had one of the most tense days in the North of the nine-day-old war which to date has still mostly been focused on Gaza.

At the same time, the IDF continued to move closer to the point at which it will invade Gaza, though there were bouts of rain during the day and ongoing negotiations internally within Israel about the war's aims as well as external negotiations about evacuating Palestinian civilians and humanitarian issues.

Sirens were heard in western Galilee on Sunday afternoon close to the Lebanon border in the towns of Nahariya, Rosh Hanikra, Hanita, Gesher HaZiv, Betzet, and Shlomi.

Confusingly, Hamas in Lebanon took responsibility for the rocket fire.

A spokesperson for the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya announced they received eight people who had been wounded by the rocket fire.

IDF Armored forces at a staging area in Upper Galilee, near the northern Israeli border with Lebanon, October 11, 2023. (credit: Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

Two were taken to the trauma center, they are in a serious but stable condition, both suffering from shrapnel wounds to their limbs, with one more suffering similar injuries but being in a moderate condition.

The remaining five wounded people were in a light condition and were undergoing tests in the emergency room mainly for smoke inhalation and head injuries at press time.

IDF takes action in Lebanon

The IDF responded by attacking military infrastructure in southern Lebanon with helicopters.

Besides Hamas in Lebanon, there were also reports of Hezbollah firing systematically to destroy IDF border surveillance equipment to blind its early warning invasion capabilities, much as Hamas made sure to eliminate many IDF border surveillance capabilities on October 7 as it was invading Israel's Gaza corridor. The IDF returned fire, but Hezbollah has been claiming publicly that it is hitting Israel harder than the hits it is receiving in return.

Hezbollah claims attack on IDF

Further, Hezbollah took responsibility for the firing of anti-tank missiles at IDF outposts near the Lebanon border, killing one man and wounding four others.

On Sunday night, it was released for publication that Lt. Amitai Granot, the son of Rabbi Tamir Granot, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Orot Shaul in Tel Aviv, was killed by an anti-tank missile fired by Hezbollah earlier in the day.

As a result, the IDF announced on Sunday the creation of a four-kilometer "security zone" on the border to prevent any non-residents from entering the area.

Later on Sunday night, the IDF said it had struck additional Hezbollah infrastructure near the border in response to the earlier incidents.

כוחות צה"ל תקפו תשתיות צבאיות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בלבנון לפני זמן קצר, זאת בתגובה לירי שבוצע אתמול לעבר שטח ישראל pic.twitter.com/egfAeGIG0J

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 15, 2023

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned Hezbollah to start lowering the temperature and that Israel's patience with its ongoing keeping the northern border tense could run out, but that Israel also did not want to get into a war in the North.

A Hezbollah spokesperson said: "There are incidents on the border, this does not mean that Hezbollah has decided to fully enter the war."

United Nations peacekeeping force UNIFIL said on Sunday its headquarters in south Lebanon had been hit by a rocket.

"Our headquarters in Naqoura was hit by a rocket and we are working to verify from where. Our peacekeepers were not in shelters at the time. Fortunately, no one was hurt," UNIFIL said in a statement.

There have been repeated periodic incidents where Hezbollah or its supporters have attacked UNIFIL personnel with the peacekeeping group nearly always turning the other cheek and trying to downplay incidents.

UNIFIL has been deterred from conflict with Hezbollah since the early years of its mandate after the 2006 Second Lebanon War when the terror group was extremely aggressive against UNIFIL if and when it tried to disarm any Hebzollah forces. 

Meanwhile, IDF Chief-of-Staff (Lt.-Gen.) Herzi Halevi told troops in the South, "our role is to go into Gaza, to go to the places where Hamas is stationed, acting, planning, and firing, and to strike them very hard, in every place, every officer, every low ranking functionary, to destroy infrastructure."

"In one word: to win," he told them.

Halevi said he knew that the troops would succeed in fundamentally altering Gaza's reality to make Israel safer.

Earlier on Sunday, IDF Chief Spokesman Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari said that "the IDF is ready to crush Hamas' rule" as it prepares for likely the largest land invasion of Gaza since the 2005 withdrawal.

At the same time, Hagari said that Hamas had failed to launch any new even small invasions into the Gaza corridor from Saturday afternoon until Sunday morning and failed to launch rockets for half a day. However, by Sunday night Hamas had launched more rockets both on the Gaza corridor as well as on the Tel Aviv and central Israel areas.

Hagari had warned Israeli citizens not to become complacent, noting that Hamas still "has significant capabilities" even after overwhelming IDF air strikes.

In addition, the IDF killed a senior official in Islamic Jihad's rocket firing apparatus.

Once again, Hagari complained that Hamas is systematically preventing many Palestinian civilians from leaving the North, from which the IDF warned them to leave over the weekend.

He said he hoped more Palestinian civilians would join the hundreds of thousands already moving south of Nahal Aza, but that Hamas was trying to prop up its failing rule and to use the civilians as human shields.

Further, he said that the US had sent a second naval strike force, the Dwight D. Eisenhower group, to the region to back Israel versus any adventurism from Iran or Hezbollah, along with the Gaerald Force naval strike group which was already sent to the region several days ago.

Moreover, he said that some parts of the country might start to gradually return to physical school from zoom school, depending on ongoing security developments.

He said the North was still a dangerous front, but that the IDF was responding to all provocations to keep it off the major war playing field.

Likewise he said IDF efforts in the West Bank had kept the area relatively quiet, though IDF raids for terror arrests and extra guard troops are working hard all of the time.

Hagari put the IDF's total dead updated as 286, and total missing or kidnapped at 126.

He declined to say how many of the more than 300,000 reservists are posted in the South for the invasion versus on other borders, saying strategic ambiguity was important to "confuse the enemy."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with representatives of the families of kidnapped and missing Israelis for the first time on Sunday evening.

During the meeting, the representatives underscored their demand that the government work to free the hostages taken by Hamas immediately and by any means possible.

They told the prime minister that they were aware of the complexity of the issue as well as the opportunities presented to Israel in past days to negotiate the release of the hostages.

Netanyahu, in turn, told the representatives that he was committed to making the hostages' return one of the primary objectives in the war.

There are also ongoing negotiations between the US, other Middle Eastern countries, Israel and Hamas about humanitarian issues, including creating a corridor for evacuations and for sending humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Reportedly on Sunday night, Israel ended its shutting off of water in Gaza at the request of the US and under some rising criticism.

It appeared that Gaza's electricity was still being kept shut off by Israel.

Earlier, Netanyahu convened Israel's expanded emergency cabinet for the first time, saying the national unity on display sent a message at home and abroad as the country gears up to "demolish Hamas" in Gaza.

The meeting, held in military headquarters in Tel Aviv, began with ministers standing for a moment's silence in memory of the 1,300 Israelis killed in Hamas' shocking October 7 onslaught, a video released by Netanyahu's office showed.

Welcoming former opposition lawmaker Benny Gantz, who joined the government along with several members of his party last week, Netanyahu said all ministers were "working around the clock, with a united front."

"Hamas thought we would be demolished. It is we who will demolish Hamas," Netanyahu said, adding that the show of unity "sends a clear message to the nation, the enemy and the world."

Reuters contributed to this story.