Israel at war: What happened on day 44?

President Isaac Herzog has delivered a heartfelt message of hope and unity to Jewish communities worldwide in response to the ongoing challenges facing Israel and a concerning surge in antisemitic attacks.

The President's message on Sunday came following his special address during the March for Israel demonstration in Washington DC last week.

Addressing hundreds of thousands of participants, President Herzog emphasized that the current conflict is not merely a battle between Israel and Hamas.

He stated firmly, "This is not only a war between Israel and Hamas. Israel may be fighting on the ground, but it is fighting the battle of the entire civilized world. We are determined to stand up to this evil."

Herzog's message also touched on the resilience and unity of Israel and Jewish communities worldwide in the face of adversity.

Israeli Americans and supporters of Israel gather in solidarity with Israel and protest against antisemitism, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, during a rally on the National Mall in Washington, U.S, November 14, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/LEAH MILLIS)

A mutual relationship

He highlighted the strength displayed by Israelis and the outpouring of support from global Jewish communities. "Israel is here for you, and you are here for Israel," he affirmed.

Herzog expressed deep concern. He underscored the disturbing connection between antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment, stating, "In the wake of the massacres, we have seen a terrifying surge of antisemitism throughout the world: Stars of David painted on homes in France. Families in London removing Mezuzas for fear of attack. Hateful demonstrations. An elderly Jewish protester killed in Los Angeles."

In closing, Herzog called for unwavering commitment to values and truth in the face of these challenges. He reassured the global Jewish community, saying, "We will emerge stronger, I’m sure of it," and ended his message with the powerful declaration, "Am Yisrael Chai" (The people of Israel live).

Tehran has increased its aggression against Israel and the free world, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after Yemen’s Houthis, an Iranian proxy group, had seized a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo ship in the southern Red Sea.

Netanyahu immediately blamed Iran.

“We strongly condemn the Iranian attack against an international ship,” Netanyahu said. “This is another act of Iranian terrorism which expresses a leap forward in Iran’s aggression against the citizens of the free world, and creates international implications regarding the security of global shipping lanes.”

Some 25 crew members of different nationalities, including Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Filipinos, and Mexicans were onboard the ship. No Israelis were present on it.

The attack came as the US and other Western powers have worked to prevent the regionalization of the Gaza war between Israel and the Iranian proxy group Hamas.

The Bahamas-flagged Galaxy Leader cargo ship (credit: SCREENSHOT/VESSELFINDER)

Iranian proxies threaten regional stability

At issue is the fear of a second front between the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah in Lebanon, and a wider and more direct conflict with Iran.

The Houthis said they had seized a ship in that area, but described it as Israeli. “We are treating the ship’s crew by Islamic principles and values,” a spokesperson for the group said, not referring to the Israeli account. Its armed forces said on Sunday they would continue to attack Israeli ships.

The Houthis, allies of Tehran, have been launching long-range missile and drone salvos at Israel in solidarity with the Hamas terrorists fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Last week, the Houthis’s leader said his forces would make further attacks on Israel, and they could target Israeli ships in the Red Sea and the Bab-el-Mandeb strait.

A US defense official said, “We’re aware of the situation and are closely monitoring it.”

On Saturday, before the attack, US presidential adviser Brett McGurk told the International Institute for Strategic Studies during its Manama conference that the US was prepared for all contingencies in the region, noting that it had, for this reason, moved a carrier strike group into the eastern Mediterranean.

“We did not deploy a carrier strike group because of the threat coming from Hamas,” he stated, but rather with an eye toward Iran and many of its proxy groups, he explained.

“We had a cruiser deployed in the Red Sea, not by happenstance,” McGurk stressed.

“When the Houthis launched almost 30 ballistic missiles and UAVs we believe at Israel… our cruiser destroyed, shot them down,” he said

“That is why we deployed our military assets here, and they are going to stay here as we work our way out of this crisis,” he said.

Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to the US president and a senior adviser for energy and investment, also spoke of US efforts to contain the Gaza war when he addressed the Manama conference on Sunday.

At the end of the day, the US and Gulf governments and the global community have been very clear that shutting down this shipping route is a “unacceptable.”

Iran and its proxies know that this is “a red line.”

 About the Lebanese border, he said “We cannot afford the escalation of this conflict into another front. It’s of utmost importance to ensure that the Gaza war does not spread to Lebanon.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

A senior Israeli source rejected a reported claim by a source from Hamas that an agreement to start a ceasefire on Monday and release a number of hostages had been reached on Sunday.

The Jordanian al-Ghad newspaper reported that a source from Hamas had said that a five-day ceasefire would start at 11 am on Monday and that 50 hostages held by Hamas would be released in exchange for 50 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. A senior Israeli source stated that "there is nothing as of now."

The Israeli government is considering the closure of several ministries, including the Diaspora Affairs and Combatting Antisemitism Ministry, as reported by Hebrew economic media.

This move is part of a broader plan proposed by the Finance Ministry to reallocate funds amid ongoing military engagements.

The Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry, known for its crucial role in maintaining and strengthening the connections between Israel and Jewish communities worldwide, is among the six ministries earmarked for closure.

The Palestinian Authority's Finance Ministry put out a statement on Sunday, denying terror group Hamas was responsible for at least 350 partygoers slain at the Re'im music festival massacre.

The statement says that "preliminary Israeli police investigations" showed that Israeli claims in the media were false, followed up by saying that this was then used by "the occupation to justify its aggression against Gaza." 

PA President Abbas denies 10/7 massacre & blames Israel for atrocities.

Weeks ago - he repeated traditional Holocaust denial, blaming Jews/Zionists for it; peddled systematic severing of Jewish indigeneity & connection to ancestral home Israel & ME.

Not moderate. Antisemitic. pic.twitter.com/WUN0Meorp4

— מיכל קוטלר-וונש | Michal Cotler-Wunsh (@CotlerWunsh) November 19, 2023

War is fluid.

For that reason, those leading the war effort -- both politicians and generals -- need to weigh their pronouncements carefully since what may be true one day may not hold the next after circumstances change.

Or, as it says in the book of Ecclesiastes (5:4), “It is better not to vow at all than to vow and not to fulfill.”

The government’s decision over the weekend to allow some 70,000 liters of fuel into Gaza a day is a case in point. While this amount of fuel, amounting to 490,000 liters a week, is just a fraction of the 6.8 million liters of fuel entering Gaza on a weekly basis before the war, it is much more than Israel said it would allow into the area up until two weeks ago.

On October 9, just two days after the worst atrocities committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant -- justifiably full of tremendous rage -- said he ordered a complete siege of the Gaza Strip. “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.”

IDF R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari revealed on Sunday that intelligence has shown that Israeli hostage, Noa Marciano, was murdered in Shifa. 

This is in contrast to Hamas's narrative that she was killed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.

Hagari said that Marciano had been wounded at some point, but that a pathology report said she was later dealt deadly blows by Hamas in the hospital.

Israeli fighter jets attacked terrorist targets of Hezbollah in Lebanese territory on Sunday in response to the attacks from Lebanon earlier in the day.

Among the targets attacked were a Hezbollah military compound where the terrorists operated, a military position, and other terror infrastructure.

The Shin Bet and the IDF on Sunday night disclosed a video showing Hamas bringing back two foreign hostages, a Thai man and a Nepalese man, to Al-Shifa Hospital on October 7.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday said that the defense establishment has noted a growing trend of "Iran pushing for militia attacks against Israel using its proxies in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

Although Yemen and Syrian proxies of the Islamic Republic have both attacked the Jewish state several times since Operation Swords of Iron began, to date Iraq has gone under the radar, and most proxy attacks have been against the US.

Gallant warns Iran: We are following trends

"We are following these trends, and will know the right time, place, and intensity with which to act," said Gallant.

Besides discussing the multifront war against Israel which Gallant blamed on Tehran, he noted that to date, Hezbollah has fired on Israel more than 1,000 times since October 7, counting essentially daily rockets, mortars, and anti-tank missiles.

The defense minister said that Hezbollah has been punished by Israel for its actions by many orders of magnitude worse, though Jerusalem has kept a low profile on the full extent of the impact of its attacks.