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. 

The President of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, will arrive in the country on Saturday evening and will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, Israeli media reported.

The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, will also visit Israel on Saturday evening.
 

Arab leaders at a Cairo summit on Saturday condemned Israeli bombardment of Gaza as Europeans said civilians should be shielded, but with Israel and senior US officials absent there was no agreement towards containing the violence.

Egypt, which called the meeting and hosted it, said it had hoped participants would call for peace and resume efforts to resolve the decades-long Palestinian quest for statehood.

But the meeting ended without leaders and foreign ministers agreeing a joint statement, two weeks into a conflict that has killed thousands and visited a humanitarian catastrophe on the blockaded Gaza enclave of 2.3 million people.

Diplomats attending the talks had not been optimistic of a breakthrough, with Israel preparing a ground invasion of Gaza aimed at wiping out the militant Palestinian terrorist group Hamas that rampaged through its towns on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people.

Hamas's Health Ministry said on Saturday Israel's air and missile strikes had killed at least 4,385 Palestinians since the Hamas attack.

A sign at the entrance of the Cairo Summit for Peace at the St Regis Almasra Hotel is seen in Cairo, Egypt, October 21, 2023. (credit: Hamad Al Kaabi/UAE Presidential Court/Handout via REUTERS)

While Arab and Muslim states called for an immediate end to Israel's offensive, Western countries mostly voiced more modest goals such as humanitarian relief for civilians.

Jordan's King Abdullah denounced what he termed global silence about Israel's attacks, which have killed thousands in Hamas-ruled Gaza and made over a million homeless, and urged an even-handed approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"The message the Arab world is hearing is that Palestinian lives matter less than Israeli ones," he said, adding he was outraged and grieved by acts of violence waged against innocent civilians in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and Israel.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Palestinians would not be displaced or driven off their land.

"We won't leave, we won't leave," he told the summit.

France called for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza that it said could lead to a ceasefire. Britain and Germany both urged Israel's military to show restraint and Italy said it was important to avoid escalation.

The United States, Israel's closest ally and a vital player in all past peace efforts in the region, only sent its Cairo charge d'affaires who did not address the meeting in public.

European Council President Charles Michel said the main goal of the summit was "to listen to each other".

However, "we understand that we need to work more together" on issues including the humanitarian situation, avoiding a regional escalation and a Palestinian-Israeli peace process, he added.

Israel has vowed to wipe the Iranian-backed Hamas militant group "off the face of the earth" over the shock Oct. 7 assault, the deadliest Palestinian militant attack in Israel's 75-year history.

It has said it told Palestinians to move south within Gaza for their own safety, although the coastal strip is only 45 km (28 miles) long and Israeli air strikes have also hit the south.

Sensitivities around a ceasefire 

The meeting was meant to explore how to head off a wider regional war. But diplomats knew public agreement would be hard because of sensitivities around calls for a ceasefire, whether to include mention of Hamas' attack and Israel's right to defend itself.

Arab states fear the offensive could drive Gaza residents permanently from their homes and even into neighbouring states - as happened when Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in the 1948 war following Israel's creation.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said his country opposed what he called the displacement of Palestinians into Egypt's largely desert Sinai region, adding the only solution was an independent Palestinian state.

Egypt fears insecurity near the border with Gaza in northeastern Sinai, where it faced an Islamist insurgency that peaked after 2013 and has now largely been suppressed.

Jordan, home to many Palestinian refugees and their descendants, fears a wider conflagration would give Israel the chance to expel Palestinians en masse from the West Bank.

King Abdullah said forced displacement "is a war crime according to international law, and a red line for all of us."

Shortly before the summit opening, trucks loaded with humanitarian aid began entering the Rafah crossing into Gaza. Egypt has been trying for days to channel humanitarian relief to Gaza through the crossing, the one access point not controlled by Israel.

Shaun King, an anti-Israel social media activist with a large online following, has claimed that he aided in the release of two US citizens that were kidnapped by Hamas. 

Judith and Natalie Raanan, who are citizens of both the United States and Israel, were released by Hamas yesterday evening after being abducted on October 7 and held in Gaza. 

Hamas put out a statement on its Telegram channel ahead of the release:

"In response to Qatari efforts, Al-Qassam Brigades released two American citizens (a mother and her daughter) for humanitarian reasons, and to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by Biden and his fascist administration are false and baseless," Hamas wrote. 

Judith (left) and Natalie Raanan (credit: screenshot)

King’s claims on the released hostages

Shortly after the pair were released, King posted on Instagram a photo on Natalie that was captioned with:

“Hamas has just freed the teenager Natalie Raanan and her mother. I’m grateful. As I said last week, Natalie and her family have been supporters of mine and protested police violence in America alongside us. I am also thankful for the Qatari government for helping to negotiate this. Dozens of us worked frantically behind the scenes to help make this possible. I spoke to Natalie’s family this afternoon and they are anxiously awaiting more updates." 

On October 10, 10 days before the two were released, King wrote on Instagram: 

“🚨 This is Natalie Raanan. She’s a teenager and is believed to have been taken hostage near Gaza border this weekend. She’s an American citizen and just graduated high school in Illinois earlier this year. ➡️ Her dear family has asked that I help them find her and bring her to safety.“

“Natalie and her family are supporters of mine, protested against police brutality in the United States with me, and have spoken out against injustice in Israel. I believe we have confirmed that she was NOT killed in Israel, but we are just asking for proof of life right now. “

"➡️The family wants her to be alive, but if she’s been killed we’d like to know this too."

"If she’s alive, I can confidentially help broker her return. Please send me proof of life or death. Please release her. I’m asking. ➡️Email me with any info: shaun@grassrootslaw.org Your friend and brother, Shaun”

Did King really help free the American-Israeli hostages?

Many social media users have been quick to reject King’s claims that he was responsible for the hostages' release.

One user wrote that “One of the biggest antisemites [Shaun King] in the United States, who calls IDF soldiers murderers, wrote on October 10 a post that he is doing everything he can according to the request of the family of these hostages to release them.

He also mentions in a post that the kidnapped support him and his opinions, and that they are in Israel to criticize Israel for the 'injustice' that she is doing. Yesterday he thanked Hamas for the release and took credit for it. Every prisoner that's released is a great joy. But these are circumstances you should know. Terror organization runs a negotiation with its supporters and opponents of Israel in the world.”

King’s history of antisemitism

King, in 2022, condemned Kanye West while maintaining the antisemitic position that Jews run the music industry, the Jerusalem Post reported at the time.  

"Having a thoughtful, mature, and even difficult conversation about who owns and controls the music industry is COMPLETELY POSSIBLE without it devolving in hate against Jewish people that is so ugly that it causes Neo-Nazis to come out of the woodwork," King posted on Instagram. "In the midst of dangerous stupidity, bigotry, and misogyny he [Kanye West] might drop a nugget of truth." 

King also claimed that “The only reason why people celebrate ‘Christopher Columbus Day’ and never ‘Adolf Hitler Day’ is because Columbus massacred non-Europeans,” [sic], the Algemeiner reported.

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

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 massacre in Israel's south for the past two weeks. They said that the 765 victims who have been thus far identified comprise approximately 75% of the Israeli civilians who were killed in the conflict.

This is seven more individuals so far identified since The Jerusalem Post reported these figures on Friday.

Bloody stretchers. (credit: POLICE SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

So far, 668 casualties have been transferred for burial.

This figure is up from 655 that had been buried by Friday evening.

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.  

The IDF has targeted a terrorist cell in Lebanon after they attempted to launch an anti-tank guided missile in the Har Dov area, the IDF said on Saturday.

The IDF used an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to strike at the terrorists.

Israel's Army Radio said that the IDF has struck terrorists in Lebanon three times on Saturday so far.

Police are present at a number of scenes in Tel Aviv where fragments of rockets fired from Gaza have landed, the police spokesperson said on Monday.

No injuries have been reported and police sappers are working alongside local police to isolate the area and search for additional fragments.

"We call on the residents to stay in the protected areas, to avoid coming to the areas, and not to approach or touch the remains of rockets that may contain explosive material but to report it without delay to the 100 hotline of the Israel Police," the spokesperson said.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah met in Cairo this weekend to condemn Israel and its operations in the wake of the October 7 massacre of 1,400 people in Israel by Hamas.

The meeting in Cairo comes two weeks after the attack. What is clear from the meeting is that despite Israel’s work toward regional integration via peace deals such as the Abraham Accords and initiatives such as the Negev Summit, today Israel is not being invited to discuss peace.  

According to Arab News, “Arab leaders condemned Israel’s two-week-old bombardment of Gaza on Saturday and demanded renewed efforts to reach a Middle East peace settlement to end a decades-long cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians. However, the absence of Israel and senior US officials at the meeting undermined any prospect for halting an escalating war.”

Al-Ain media in the Gulf covered the meeting in detail. It covered speeches by the King of Jordan, Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas and the President of Egypt. In the coverage there did not appear to be much mention that Hamas massacred civilians on October 7 and kidnapped 200 people, many of them children and civilians.  

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan attended the meeting and said the Kingdom rejects any “forced displacement” of Palestinians. It comes as the first aid convoy entered Gaza via the Egyptian Rafah crossing. “We categorically reject violations of international humanitarian law by any party amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza,” Prince Faisal said. 

US SECRETARY of State Antony Blinken walks with Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan during a visit to Riyadh, in June. (credit: Ahmed Yosri/Reuters)

Jordan claimed that the world does not view Palestinian lives as important as Israeli lives. He also said he was outraged by violence in Gaza. “The Israeli leadership must realize once and for all that a state can never thrive if it is built on a foundation of injustice ... Our message to the Israelis should be that we want a future of peace and security for you and the Palestinians,” the Jordanian king said.  

Abraham Accord country criticises Israel

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed also posted on social media and said the UAE “stands unwavering in its calls for the utmost protection of civilian lives, unimpeded access for humanitarian aid, and an immediate end to hostilities in the Gaza Strip.” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna also told the meeting in Cairo that a humanitarian corridor was necessary for Gaza.  

The meeting in Cairo showcases the absence of the US and Israel at these meetings. This is despite the sense in the last few years that Israel was integrating more in the region and that the US was supportive of this integration. Now, after the Hamas massacre, it is evidence how any conflict in Gaza or the West Bank can result in Israel being isolated.

When US President Joe Biden came to Israel his meetings with the Jordanians, Egyptians and the Palestinian Authority were cancelled after Hamas falsely claimed a hospital in Gaza was attacked. The article at Arab News noted that “the absence of a top official from Israel’s main ally the United States and some other major Western leaders has cooled expectations for what the event can achieve.

The US, which has no ambassador currently assigned to Egypt, is represented by its embassy Charge d’Affaires. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron did not attend.” 

Terrorists launched an anti-tank missile at a position near the Gaza border a short time ago, the IDF said.

IDF forces are responding with fire towards the sources of the shooting

Palestinian terrorist faction Hamas said on Saturday it won't discuss the fate of Israeli army captives until Israel ends its "aggression" on the Gaza strip.

"Our stance with regards to Israeli army captives is clear: it's related to a (possible) exchange of prisoners, and we will not discuss it until Israel ends its aggression on Gaza and Palestinians," Hamas official Osama Hamdan, speaking from Lebanon, told a televised presser.