Israel at War: What happened on day 15?

The air force chief said he “wouldn’t want to swap places with our enemy and face an IDF division or brigade,” as the army continued with its plans for an invasion of Gaza.

Maj.-Gen. Tomer Bar’s comments were made on Saturday during a briefing of squadron commanders in preparation for the invasion.

At the briefing, Bar also said the Israel Air Force has struck Hamas with thousands of missiles.

“We will come in with full force and strike them as if [it was] the first day of the battle,” Bar said. “Our role is to ‘embrace’ the land forces and say: ‘The enemy you are about to encounter met us before’” – meaning that the air force had worn down Hamas before the ground forces had to enter.

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said, “Gaza is densely populated; the enemy has prepared a lot [for our invasion], but we are also preparing,” during a visit to Golani troops.

Israel Air Force drills with foreign forces in the ''Blue Drill'' exercise in October 2021. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his inner war cabinet, along with National Unity Party leader and war minister Benny Gantz, also met on Saturday. The content of the meeting is classified.

Earlier Saturday, IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari said one-fifth of the rockets fired by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have misfired in the last day, landing inside Gaza and killing civilians.

Over the course of the conflict, 550 rockets have been misfired into Gaza by the terror groups. “They are killing their own people,” he said.

The announcement came only a few days after Hamas accused Israel of firing a rocket that struck Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, killing dozens of people. The accusation was quickly dispelled by the IDF and independent, international investigators who found the rocket emanated from a PIJ misfire.

Weekend rockets with few hits

Over the weekend, Hamas continued its rocket fire on Tel Aviv and the Gaza corridor, but with even less success in hitting Israelis or disturbing daily life as compared to many other days in recent weeks.

Hagari said, however, that Israel is continuing to attack Hamas military targets in the northern Gaza Strip in preparation for an imminent ground invasion. Israel planned to enter Gaza last week, but delayed due to a variety of factors, including evacuating civilians, US pressure on humanitarian issues, tactical concerns about Hezbollah’s intention, and traps that Hamas might be setting. He said 700,000 residents had already moved to the southern Gaza Strip.

Hagari also updated the number of soldiers killed and hostages taken. He said Israel had been in touch with the families of 307 fallen soldiers so far. He also raised the number of hostages to 210, noting that the country constantly gathers intelligence and informs families as soon as they know something new.

“That number will continue to change, and we will update you every time we tell a new family” that their loved one has been kidnapped.

On Thursday, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon said a complex array of factors meant that the IDF had high certainty about a majority of its estimates, but that there were dozens or more cases that still required more examination of evidence, DNA testing, and other issues.

Some 765 civilians murdered by Hamas since the start of the war have so far been identified, the police said on Saturday.

The police, the IDF, and volunteers from ZAKA at the casualty identification station in Camp Shora have been working to identify the victims of Hamas’s massacre in the South for the past two weeks. They said the 765 victims who have been so far identified comprise approximately 75% of the Israeli civilians who were killed in the conflict.

Meanwhile, the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) on Saturday arrested 89 wanted terrorists in Judea and Samaria overnight, including 68 members of the Hamas terrorist organization.

Among those arrested were prominent and close associates of Saleh al-Arouri, who, from outside the area, manages military-terrorist networks in the West Bank. These included al-Arouri’s brother and cousin – both members of Hamas – and Abraham Suleiman from Nablus, a prominent Hamas operative and former prisoner.

In addition, the IDF demolished the home of Hamas terrorist Maher Shalon, who carried out the Almog junction shooting attack in February, which killed Israeli-American Elan Ganeles.

During the operation, several suspects threw stones at the forces and fired explosives, prompting the troops to respond with fire. Injuries were reported.

In addition, the army and Shin Bet said forces located and confiscated materials used for manufacturing weapons in the village of Qusra.

Since the start of the conflict on October 7, there have been 670 wanted individuals arrested throughout the Judea and Samaria region, as well as in the Jordan Valley and the Bekaa region, with over 450 affiliated with Hamas, the army said.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report. 

A total of 758 civilians killed by Hamas since the start of the war have so far been identified, the Israel Police said on Friday.

The Israel Police, the IDF, and volunteers from ZAKA at the casualty identification station in Camp Shora have been working to identify the victims of Hamas's campaign of slaughter in Israel's south.

The 758 victims who have been thus far identified comprise approximately 75% of the Israeli civilians who were killed in the conflict.

So far, 655 casualties have been transferred for burial.

Once the identification process is completed for each victim, the information is subsequently conveyed to the bereavement notification teams, who, in turn, inform the families of the victims. 
 

Hundreds of supporters of Iranian-backed Iraqi paramilitary groups gathered on Friday at Iraq's main border crossing with Jordan to express solidarity with Gaza and call for an end to the blockade imposed by Israel.

Some 800 supporters of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), an umbrella group of mainly Shi'ite militia, departed from Baghdad late on Thursday in buses and arrived at the Iraqi-Jordanian border crossing in the early hours of Friday in the western Anbar province, which is the closest access point from Iraq to the West Bank.

Amid heavy security presence at the crossing, protesters set up tents and staged a sit-in, demanding Israel lift its blockade on Gaza and allow aid to flow in. “No to Israel and normalization,” protesters chanted while waving Palestinian flags.

Israel returns fire against Hamas

Israel has vowed to wipe out the Hamas terrorist group that rules Gaza, after its gunmen burst through the barrier fence surrounding the enclave on Oct. 7 and rampaged through Israeli towns and kibbutzes, killing 1,400 people, mainly civilians.

People take part in a pro-Palestinian protest, after hundreds of Palestinians were killed in a blast at Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza that Israeli and Palestinian officials blamed on each other, in Amman, Jordan, October 18, 2023 (credit: REUTERS/ALAA AL SUKHNI)

Israel has pounded Gaza with air strikes and put the enclave's 2.3 million people under a total siege.

Since Oct. 7, at least 4,137 Palestinians have been killed and 13,000 wounded in Gaza in Israeli strikes since Oct.7, the Hamas-run health ministry said.

“We are going to support our people in Palestine,” said 26-year-old Hussein Samir, as he sat in a bus just before leaving Baghdad late on Thursday.“We condemn them, and we will give them a period of time; if they don’t lift the blockade, the resistance will begin, God willing, and the war against them (Israel) will begin,” he added.

On Thursday influential Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for a peaceful sit-in at the Palestinian borders in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan until Israel lifts the blockade on the enclave and aid is delivered to people in Gaza. Sadr said protesters should only carry shrouds and not arms.

Egypt is not to blame for the closure of the Rafah crossing between it and the Gaza strip "despite Israeli targeted attacks and the refusal of the entry of aid," Egyptian foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid wrote on the X social media platform on Friday.

"Rafah crossing is open and Egypt is not responsible of obstructing third-country nationals exit," he added.

الرئيس المصري: نزوح المدنيين من غزة إلى سيناء أمر شديد الخطورة وقد ينهي القضية الفلسطينية #العربية_عاجل

— العربية عاجل (@AlArabiya_Brk) October 20, 2023

الخارجية المصرية: معبر رفح مفتوح ولسنا مسؤولين عن عرقلة خروج رعايا الدول الثالثة من غزة #العربية_عاجل

— العربية عاجل (@AlArabiya_Brk) October 20, 2023

Russia is in contact with Hamas to free hostages seized by the Palestinian militant group during its attack on Israel and now being held in the Gaza Strip, the Russian ambassador to Israel said.

Izvestia newspaper quoted envoy Anatoly Viktorov as saying: "Of course, we have contacts with representatives of Hamas, and first of all they are aimed at rescuing the hostages from the places where they are now, captured by Hamas militants on the first day of the - frankly speaking - terrorist attack on Israeli civilians."

"I was just able to speak with families of French hostages held by Hamas," French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday. "I say it here to everyone: France is not abandoning its own people. We are doing everything possible to obtain the release and return of our compatriots. The Nation stands with them."

J'ai pu échanger à l’instant avec des familles d’otages français retenus par le Hamas.

Je le dis ici à tous : la France n'abandonne pas les siens. Nous faisons tout notre possible pour obtenir la libération et le retour de nos compatriotes.

La Nation se tient à leurs côtés.

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) October 20, 2023

Russia is urging its citizens to refrain from traveling to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon or Jordan, the foreign ministry said on its website on Friday.

"We continue to work closely with the Egyptian and Israeli authorities to ensure the exit from the Gaza Strip of Russian citizens who have asked for assistance in evacuating," it added in a statement.

One Israeli objective of its military campaign in the Gaza Strip is to end Israel's responsibility over the Palestinian coastal enclave, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Friday.

Gaza has no access to the outside world except through Israel, which controls 90% of its land and sea boundaries, and Egypt, which has a narrow land border to the south.

Israel has enforced a rigid blockade on the enclave since Hamas Islamists took control of the territory in 2007, imposing comprehensive curbs on exports and imports, and severely restricting who could enter or leave.

Egypt has largely supported the blockade, viewing Hamas as a threat to its own stability.

The Israeli defense minister, briefing parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said the Gaza campaign that was launched after a deadly Hamas rampage on Israeli towns on Oct. 7, would have three phases.

Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli forces during a protest at the Israel-Gaza border, east of Gaza City, on August 21, 2021. (credit: ABED RAHIM KHATIB/FLASH90)

A multi-step operation

The first stage was the current military operation meant to destroy Hamas's infrastructure, Gallant said, adding that the intermediate phase would include "operations at lower intensity" eliminating "pockets of resistance."

"The third phase will require the removal of Israel’s responsibility for life in the Gaza strip, and the establishment of a new security reality for the citizens of Israel," the minister said, according to a statement from his office.

Israel has traditionally supplied Gaza with most of its energy needs, but it turned off the taps after Oct. 7, and also refused to let water or medicines enter the territory.

Israel has previously looked to oversee imports into Gaza to prevent military materials from reaching Hamas.

The IDF reported multiple launches from Lebanon towards the Mount Dov area in Israeli territory on Friday.

The IDF responded with artillery fire directed at the source of the launches.

Additionally, following the fall of a mortar near Kibbutz Dan in northern Israel on Friday, Highway 99 was closed to traffic from the She'ar Yeshuv junction to the east, the Upper Galilee Regional Council said.

IDF Logistics Commander Maj.-Gen. Mishel Yanko said on Friday that the IDF's forces are "readier than ever" for the impending ground invasion of Gaza and are continuing to increase that readiness.

He said, "the spirit of the combat fighters is so high. We have the best commanders and fighters. They understand the challenges and the significance," of the war and the invasion.

In addition, he said that the IDF still needs "to be ready for a multi-front fight," in reference to Hezbollah's ongoing attacks on Israel in the North.

Yanko vowed that every IDF soldier who went into Gaza would have a ceramic vest and other critical items to protect themselves.

Next, he acknowledged that currently not all soldiers in the IDF have these items, but that there would be an order of priority to make sure those going into battle sooner would get the needed items earlier than those who might only go into battle at a later date.

The Defense Ministry received shipments of defective protective vests. (credit: MINISTRY OF DEFENSE SPOKESPERSON'S OFFICE)

Further, he said, "War could take time, we are building significant inventory, including for a long war in Gaza and elsewhere."

Briefly, Yanko alluded to the fact that the IDF has far more armored troop personnel carriers, including with advanced technological active defense capabilities.

He did not want to get into details, but hinted that this could have an impact on the Gaza invasion.

On the spot training

IDF Medical Commander Brig. Gen. Professor Alon Glazberg said that we are responding to every medical request and need.

He expressed concern that his forces have had to take in many IDF personnel without medical backgrounds, gave them hyper-fast training, and then tossed them into hard medical situations simply because they needed more personnel to keep up with the huge number of injuries.

Glazberg said there have still been many errors and that there have been instances where 60 career and reservists showed up, and there were only 15 vests for that unit.

Last week, Yanko said that broadly speaking soldiers were getting the weapons, food, equipment, and other supplies they needed.

But rank-and-file soldiers at many locations back then were talking about missing lots of items and thanked civilians for filling in some of the gaps.

They said there was even internal competition among disparate IDF units to obtain certain items.

Yanko did admit last week that there were temporary holes in the distribution of needed items which is natural when the IDF has suddenly to mobilize around 300,000 additional reservists on zero notice.