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. 

Rocket sirens were heard in Latrun, Nachshon, Noff Ayalon, and Ness Harim on Friday afternoon.

Rocket sirens were heard in Ein HaBsor near Gaza.

Rocket sirens were heard in Sderot on Friday morning.

Rocket sirens were heard Friday morning near Mefalsim on the Gaza border.

Following recent flair-ups in the North, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced on Friday morning that residents of Kiryat Shmona would be evacuated to state-funded guest houses.

The Northern Command informed the mayor of Kiryat Shmona of the decision; the program will be managed by the local authority, the Tourism Ministry, and the Defense Ministry.

The IDF attacked over one hundred operational targets overnight in the Gaza Strip, leading to the elimination of a terrorist involved with the Hamas naval forces, according to an IDF and Shin Bet spokesperson.

Throughout the night, fighter jets attacked over a hundred operational targets of terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, destroying tunnel shafts, munitions warehouses, and dozens of operational headquarters.

During the attacks, the IDF and Shin Bet eliminated a terrorist who was in the naval force of Hamas, the terrorist had taken part in the terrorist operations in the Gaza Strip.

China is ready to maintain communication and coordination with Russia to cool down the Israel-Palestinian conflict, its Middle East special envoy said after meeting with his Russian counterpart this week, Chinese state media reported.

China and Russia share the same position on the Palestinian issue, Zhai Jun was quoted saying after meeting with Russia's special representative for Middle East and African countries in Doha, Qatar on Thursday.

"The fundamental reason for the current situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is that the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people have not been guaranteed," Zhai said.

He said China is saddened by the number of civilian casualties and the humanitarian crisis, and is ready to play a "positive role in the resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks," as well as the "genuine implementation" of the two-state solution.

Zhai, who met with the Arab League representatives last Saturday and Israel's ambassador to China on Tuesday, has said that China has no "selfish" interests on the Palestinian issue.

Both envoys also exchanged views on Syria during meeting but did not elaborate.

Russia said on Thursday it was closely coordinating its policy in the Middle East and North Africa with China, for the Israel conflict as well as other crises in those regions.

When he heard that Hamas had called for a global day of protest last week to accompany its deadly attack on Israel, Alex Edelman’s mind turned, naturally, to jokes.

Riffing on the traditional Hebrew holiday greeting “chag sameach,” the Jewish comedian wondered aloud to a packed room of Hollywood industry members and Jewish leaders, “Do you say ‘Rage Sameach?’”

Moments later, Edelman struck a more somber tone about the violence in Israel, which his brother A.J. Edelman has represented in the Olympics. “For me, Israel is a sort of home,” Edelman said, tearing up on stage.

Edelman — whose one-man Broadway show about his encounter with white supremacists made him a star last year — was speaking at Variety magazine’s star-studded summit on antisemitism and Hollywood. Edelman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he chose to be part of the event because “I wanted to be with other Jews, and without sounding canned, with non-Jewish allies, who are interested in wrestling with a more nuanced understanding of antisemitism.”

Although the summit was planned months before Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, it was dominated by what is going on in Israel and Gaza. Edelman’s two comments about Israel were indicative of the tenor of the daylong, invite-only event: It flip-flopped between seriousness and humor, as the speakers attempted to process the news while simultaneously sticking to a pre-planned event schedule.

Put on in partnership with several Jewish organizations, the summit featured a series of panel conversations with Jewish A-list stars including Edelman, Julianna Margulies, Tiffany Haddish, Marc Maron, Josh Malina and Josh Peck, plus remarks from leaders of Jewish groups such as the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the USC Shoah Foundation. (A previously planned keynote address by SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher was scrapped due to developments in the actors union’s strike negotiations.)

Families of Israelis held hostage by Hamas militants in Gaza, protest outside the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv. (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/FLASH90)

The event covered a number of topics related to antisemitism and entertainment: representation, social media, comedy, the history of Jews in Hollywood and others. The original event agenda included only one panel about Israel, but much of the day’s conversations revolved around the war.

Several speakers echoed the sentiment that the violence in Israel had only made the summit more important and timely because of the online conversation and wave of antisemitic incidents around the world tied to peoples’ responses to the war. The program began with a prayer for peace and with the message, shared by Variety’s chief production officer Claudia Eller and others throughout the afternoon, that the magazine “stands in solidarity with Israel.”

CNN commentator Van Jones said he had attended because of the current pain of many in the Jewish community.

“People are hurting,” he told JTA. “I know as a Black person, we look to see who understands our pain. This is a group of people who is grieving, and nobody should grieve alone.”

During one particularly poignant moment during the talk that was specifically intended to focus on Israel, Israeli actress Swell Ariel Or shared that seven of her childhood friends had been killed.

Or, the star of Netflix’s “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem,” moved to the United States two weeks ago, right before Hamas’ attack, and said she feels a degree of guilt that she’s not in her home country.

Israel and the Entertainment Industry

The panel, titled “Israel and the Entertainment Industry,” focused on the idea that Hollywood ought to create more content that shares the real-life, everyday stories of Israel and Israeli culture. The Tony-winning play “The Band’s Visit,” which was also adapted into a film, was given as an example of such a story.

During an earlier panel, producer Matti Leshem, whose production company made the 2021 HBO film “The Survivor,” commended U.S. President Joe Biden for his administration’s response to the war, eliciting a full round of applause from the audience.

Some panels alluded to other trends that had inspired the summit in the first place — such as the rise in antisemitic incidents in the United States and recent high-profile scandals like the one surrounding Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.

“We’re very proud to be able to do this,” Variety CEO Michelle Sobrino-Stearns told JTA. She pointed out that her magazine has also published a special section of 28 articles on antisemitism, penned by Jewish influencers, celebrities and others, some of whom participated in the summit.

In the first celebrity conversation of the day, award-winning actor Julianna Margulies said “it is shocking” how few members of her industry have spoken out against antisemitism.

“The last thing I thought in my life is that I would be the one actress speaking up for Jews,” she told Eller during their chat. “But I’m proud to be here and I hope to inspire other people to speak up.”

Margulies shared her personal Jewish story, talked about her efforts to expand Holocaust education in New York City public schools and gave her take on the debates over Jewish representation in Hollywood.

The Golden Globe and Emmy award-winning actor said she “came to my Judaism quite late in life.” She said she is raising her son Jewish and enjoys celebrating Shabbat every week. “It’s about being together,” she said. “And that’s what I love about Judaism – it’s about community.”

When it comes to the debate on “Jewface” — whether non-Jews should play Jewish characters on screen — Margulies said, “It’s a slippery slope.” She added that while she would never play a character of a different race, she said actors should be allowed to act.

On the other hand, Margulies also advocated for more casual depictions of Jewishness on screen — characters who happen to be Jewish, whether or not that identity is relevant to the plot.

She recalled that the costume department for the Apple TV+ hit “The Morning Show” had given her a cross necklace to wear for her character Laura Peterson. Margulies said she didn’t think much of it at first, since her character’s faith was not prominent in the show. But as she returned for a second season, Margulies said her mentality changed. “What if Laura Peterson was wearing a Star of David, or a chai?” she said, suggesting that subtle Christianity shouldn’t always be the default.

Comedy as a response to tragedy

On one panel about comedy, which featured perhaps the most famous speakers of the day, Edelman, Ike Barinholtz, Maron and Haddish discussed the role of comedy as a response to tragedy.

Maron, who has infused Jewishness and jokes about antisemitism into much of his comedy over a decades-long standup and TV career, said his father still warns him to be careful when he’s touring — especially because of how vocally Jewish he is in his stand-up.

Haddish shared her experience discovering her Jewish heritage and noted the importance of recognizing the various different ethnicities Jewish people can represent.

“I thought it was important to be here so that the narrative can be heard that we do care, that we are sticking together, that comedy is important for the soul and can heal,” she told JTA after the panel.

“I do think Jews are able to find comedy in horrible things, in horrible moments,” said Barinholtz, who has starred in “The Mindy Project” and more recently in  “History of The World: Part II.” “And I don’t think we’re there yet with [Israel], I don’t know if we ever will be.”

US President Joe Biden addressed the American people concerning the US's response to Hamas's terrorist attacks against Israel and the Ukraine-Russia war early Friday morning.

"I know these conflicts can seem far away and it's natural to ask 'why does this matter to America?' So let me share with you why making sure Israel and Ukraine succeed is vital to America's national security," said Biden. "History has taught us that when terrorists don't pay a price for their terror, when dictators don't pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction. They keep going and the cost and the threats to America keep rising. So if we don't stop Putin's appetite for power and control in Ukraine, he won't limit himself just to Ukraine. Putin's already threatened to 'remind' Poland that their western land was a 'gift' from Russia."

"If we walk away and let Putin erase Ukraine's independence, the risk of conflict and chaos could spread in other parts of the world. Iran is supporting Russia in Ukraine and it's supporting Hamas and other terrorists in the region. We'll continue to hold them accountable. The US and our partners across the region are working to build a better future for the Middle East. One where the Middle East is more stable, better connected to its neighbors."

US President Joe Biden attends a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as he visits Israel amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, October 18, 2023 (credit: MIRIAM ALSTER/FLASH90)

"American leadership is what holds the world together. American alliances are what keep us safe. American values are what make us a partner that other nations want to work with. To put all that at risk if we walk away from Ukraine, if we turn our backs on Israel, is just not worth it," stressed the president.

Biden stated that he would send an urgent budget request to Congress on Friday to fund security needs and support Israel and Ukraine. 

"In Israel, we must make sure that they have what they need to protect their people today and always," said Biden, calling the budget request he intends to send to Congress an "unprecedented commitment to Israel's security that will sharpen Israel's qualitative military edge."

Biden referred to an agreement he reached with Israeli and Egyptian officials to allow a first shipment of UN aid into Gaza, stressing that "if Hamas does not divert or steal these shipments, we're going to provide an opening for sustained delivery of lifesaving, humanitarian assistance for the Palestinians."

"As hard as it is, we cannot give up on peace, we cannot give up on a two-state solution."

Biden referred to a spike in antisemitism and Islamophobia in the US since the conflict broke out, "we must without equivocation denounce antisemitism and Islamophobia. To all you hurting, I want you know: I see you, you belong. In moments like these when fear and suspicion, anger and rage run hard, we have to work harder than ever to hold on to the values that make us who we are. We're a nation of religious freedom, freedom of expression. See each other not as enemies, but as fellow Americans."

Biden's second Oval Office address since becoming president

His televised remarks followed a Middle East trip upended by a hospital blast in the Gaza Strip. It is only the second prime-time Oval Office address in the Democratic president's nearly three years in office; in June he cheered the end of a debt ceiling standoff.

The US president spoke against a backdrop of political chaos in Washington, as Republicans who control the House of Representatives have struggled to settle on who will lead them as speaker after ousting Kevin McCarthy from that job.

Directing his remarks squarely at squabbling Republicans, Biden said: "You can't let petty, partisan, angry politics get in the way of our responsibilities as a great nation."

Biden requested emergency spending that US officials say will total roughly $100 billion over the next year for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan and security along the porous US border with Mexico.

It may include $60 billion for Ukraine and $10 billion for Israel, sources said beforehand, as well as billions for Asia and US border security.

By lumping the priorities together in one package, Biden is testing whether Republican lawmakers can be persuaded to set aside their opposition and go along with spending on Ukraine, whose 20-month-old war with Russia has absorbed billions of dollars already in US weapons with no end in sight.

Any funding measure must pass both the Democratic-led US Senate, where additional aid has bipartisan support, and the Republican-led House, which has not had a speaker for 17 days.

Conservative Jim Jordan, an ally of former President Donald Trump, vowed to continue his bid for House speaker after failing to win majority support among Republicans.

House Republican lawmakers in recent weeks nearly brought government to a halt over chronic budget deficits and $31.4 trillion in debt, threatening to slash government spending across the board.