Israel at war: What happened on day 46?

The government approved early Wednesday morning a partial hostage deal that includes a pause in the Gaza war in exchange for a release of up to 80 out of over 239 people seized by terrorists during Hamas’ infiltration of southern Israel on October 7.

“We have a difficult decision before us tonight, but it is a correct decision,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of the meeting.

Opponents of the deal warned that it will harm Israel’s ability to secure the release of all the hostages and complicate Israel’s military campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza. They also warned that it will be difficult to resume the war once it has been temporarily halted.

Netanyahu dismissed those charges explaining that the IDF planned to resume the war once the deal was executed.

“I want to clarify. We are at war and will continue to be at war until we obtain all our objectives, to destroy Hamas and to return all our captives and missing persons,” he said.

“We will also ensure that there won’t be any entity in Gaza that will threaten Israel,” Netanyahu stated.

A supporter of the families of hostages who are being held in the Gaza Strip after they were seized by Hamas gunmen on October 7 prepares missing signs posters depicting hostages, in Tel Aviv, Israel November 21, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)

He recalled how he and the war cabinet had met with the families of the hostages the previous night.

"I told them that the return of the hostages is a sacred and primary mission that I swore to complete,” Netanyahu said.

“This war has phases and so does the return of the hostages,” he said. 

The entire security establishment fully backs this deal, he said. This agreement will allow the IDF to better prepare for the rest of the war, Netanyahu said, adding that neither the lives of the soldiers nor the intelligence gathering apparatus would be harmed in that period.

Netanyahu said he had spoken with US President Joe Biden. As a result of that talk, Biden had intervened and secured better terms for the deal, Netanyahu explained.

The deal, mediated by Qatar, will create the first long-term pause in the fighting since Israel embarked on its military campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza. It comes amid increased international pressure for a ceasefire.

Under the broad contours of the deal, 50 hostages will be released, within the first four days in exchange for a pause in the fighting during those 96 hours. 

Some 40 children and 13 mothers are held hostage. The approved deal includes 30 children, eight mothers, and 12 other women.

The 50 hostages will be freed in smaller groups during those days and not all at once. 

Israel will in exchange release some 150 Palestinian women and minors held in its jails on security related offenses, but none of them would be those directly involved in terror attacks with fatalities.  

There is a possibility for the release of an additional 30 hostages held in Gaza should the pause in the fighting be extended for up to another four days.

All those slated for release are alive and have Israeli citizenship.

Hamas could release Thai citizens

Separately Hamas may unilaterally free those among the hostages who have Thai citizenship. It’s also possible that other governments may work out other deals for their citizens held in Gaza.

During the government meeting, Netanyahu clarified that the deal also included an agreement by which representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross could visit the hostages who would remain in captivity and supply them with medicine.

As part of the deal, fuel can enter Gaza during the pause in the fighting. Israel has objected to the entry of fuel to the enclave out of fear that Hamas would seize it for military use.

There will be a six-hour window each day during which IDF aerial surveillance of Gaza will be halted.

"There are other intelligence-gathering capabilities. We will not be blind in those 6 hours when there are no drones and balloons in the air," an Israeli official told reporters.

Those Palestinians who fled northern Gaza for the south during the last weeks of fighting will not be allowed to return home during the pause, given that the IDF is expected to resume its military campaign once the pause is ended.

The IDF, the Mossad, and the Shin Bet were in favor of the broad outline of the deal.

The deal has sparked sharp debate within the Israeli public and among coalition politicians, even as the government was expected to pass it.

The Religious Zionist party headed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and the Otzma Yehudit party headed by Public Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir stated before the meeting that they planned to oppose the deal, although the Religious Zionist party ultimately voted in favor of the deal early Wednesday morning.

Such an agreement is “bad for Israeli security, bad for the captives, and bad for the IDF soldiers,” the RZP stated before the meeting.

It noted that obviously, its heart went out to the families and that it, like them, wanted to see all the captives safely returned.

“It is precisely for this reason that the deal should not be approved,” the RZP said.

The pressure exerted by the IDF’s military campaign is working or Hamas would not have agreed to this initial proposal, it said.

Israel should continue to exert that kind of pressure until Hamas agrees to release all the hostages rather than prematurely making a deal, it stated. 

Hamas is “desperate” for a pause in the fighting so that it can restrengthen its forces and be better prepared to battle the IDF, the Religious Zionist Party stated.

This deal also abandoned the majority of the hostages and ensures that Hamas will demand a higher price for their release, the RZP said. It could even allow for Hamas to more successfully hide them within Gaza, it stated.

Then there is the issue of the IDF soldiers in Gaza who will be exposed to potential attacks and kidnapping attempted during the temporary truce, it said.

Such a step increases the risk of additional kidnappings both in Israel and around the globe, the RZP explained.

The party said it planned to stand firm “like a wall” against any attempt to discontinue the military campaign as it insisted that Hamas must be ousted from Gaza and all the hostages returned.

Labor Party leader Merav Michaeli, who is not a member of the government, said she supported the deal.

“My heart goes out to the families of the hostages for the grief that the politicians of the messianic right are causing them, and I stand with all those from the security establishment that support the deal.”

“The opposition of Smotrich and Ben Gvir exposes their long-standing scam: for them, the State of Israel is the Messiah's donkey, which in the end is to be a theological state for which Jewish lives must be sacrificed,” she stated.

“Therefore, they have no problem sacrificing the lives of the hostages; they know that a deal will bring the end of the fighting closer and the return to the Gush Katif settlements will be further away. These are people who need to be distanced from the government and from public life to save not only the hostages but also the State of Israel,” Michaeli said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to visit Israel early next week to meet with Israeli and Palestinian officials about the war in Gaza, Axios reported on Tuesday.

The visit is not completely finalized as of yet.

The Israeli ministers who partook in the cabinet meeting were informed that the first release of hostages may happen as early as Thursday, Hebrew media reported on Tuesday.

This is a developing story.

The government was expected to approve late Tuesday night a partial hostage deal that could include a pause in the Gaza war in exchange for a release of up to 80 out of over 239 people seized by terrorists during Hamas’ infiltration of southern Israel on October 7.

“We have a difficult decision before us tonight, but it is a correct decision,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of the meeting. 

Opponents of the deal have warned that it will harm Israel’s ability to secure the release of all the hostages and complicate Israel’s military campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza. They have also warned that it will be difficult to resume the war once it has been temporarily halted.

Netanyahu dismissed those charges explaining that the IDF planned to resume the war once the deal was executed.

“I want to clarify. We are at war and will continue to be at war until we obtain all our objectives, to destroy Hamas and to return all our captives and missing persons,” he said.

“We will also ensure that there won’t be any entity in Gaza that will threaten Israel,” Netanyahu stated.

A supporter of the families of hostages who are being held in the Gaza Strip after they were seized by Hamas gunmen on October 7 prepares missing signs posters depicting hostages, in Tel Aviv, Israel November 21, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)

He recalled how he and the war cabinet had met with the families of the hostages the previous night.

"I told them that the return of the hostages is a sacred and primary mission that I swore to complete,” Netanyahu said.

“This war has phases and so does the return of the hostages,” he said. 

The entire security establishment fully backs this deal, he said. This agreement will allow the IDF to better prepare for the rest of the war, Netanyahu said, adding that neither the lives of the soldiers nor the intelligence gathering apparatus would be harmed in that period.

Netanyahu said he had spoken with US President Joe Biden. As a result of that talk, Biden had intervened and secured better terms for the deal, Netanyahu explained.

The deal, mediated by Qatar, would create the first long-term pause in the fighting since Israel embarked on its military campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza. It comes amid increased international pressure for a ceasefire.

Under the broad contours of the deal, 50 hostages would be released, within the first four days in exchange for a pause in the fighting during those 96 hours. 

Some 40 children and 13 mothers are held hostage. It’s expected that some, but not all, would be part of that first batch of hostages.

The 50 hostages would be freed in smaller groups during those days and not all at once. 

Israel would in exchange release some 150 Palestinian women and minors held in its jails on security related offenses, but none of them would those directly involved in terror attacks with fatalities.  

There is a possibility for the release of an additional 30 hostages held in Gaza should the pause in the fighting be extended for up to another four days.

All those slated for release are alive and have Israeli citizenship.

Hamas could release Thai citizens

Separately Hamas may unilaterally free those among the hostages who have Thai citizenship. It’s also possible that other governments may work out other deals for their citizens held in Gaza.

During the government meeting, Netanyahu clarified that the deal also included an agreement by which representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross could visit the hostages who would remain in captivity and supply them with medicine.

As part of the deal fuel can enter Gaza during the pause in the fighting. Israel has objected to the entry of fuel to the enclave out of fear that Hamas would seize it for military use.

There will be a six-hour window each day during which IDF aerial surveillance of Gaza will be halted.

"There are other intelligence-gathering capabilities. We will not be blind in those 6 hours when there are no drones and balloons in the air," an Israeli official told reporters.

Those Palestinians who fled northern Gaza for the south during the last weeks of fighting would not be allowed to return home during the pause, given that the IDF is expected to resume its military campaign once the pause is ended.

The IDF, the Mossad, and the Shin Bet are in favor of the broad outline of the deal.

The deal has sparked sharp debate within the Israeli public and among coalition politicians, even as the government was expected to pass it.

The Religious Zionist party headed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Otzma Yehudit party headed by Public Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir stated before the meeting that they planned to opposed the deal. 

Such an agreement is “bad for Israeli security, bad for the captives, and bad for the IDF soldiers,” the RZP stated.

It noted that obviously, its heart went out to the families and that it, like them, wanted to see all the captives safely returned.

“It is precisely for this reason that the deal should not be approved,” the RZP said.

The pressure exerted by the IDF’s military campaign is working or Hamas would not have agreed to this initial agreement, it said.

Israel should continue to exert that kind of pressure until Hamas agrees to release all the hostages rather than prematurely making a deal, it stated. 

Hamas is “desperate” for a pause in the fighting so that it can restrengthen its forces and be better prepared to battle the IDF, the Religious Zionist Party stated.

This deal also abandoned the majority of the hostages and ensures that Hamas will demand a higher price for their release, the RZP said. It could even allow for Hamas to more successfully hide them within Gaza, it stated.

Then there is the issue of the IDF soldiers in Gaza who will be exposed to potential attacks and kidnapping attempted during the temporary truce, it said.

Such a step increases the risk of additional kidnappings both in Israel and around the globe, the RZP explained.

This party plans to stand firm “like a wall” against any attempt to discontinue the military campaign as it insisted that Hamas must be ousted from Gaza and all the hostages returned.

Labor Party leader Merav Michaeli, who is not a member of the government said she supported the deal.

“My heart goes out to the families of the hostages for the grief that the politicians of the messianic right are causing them, and I stand with all those from the  security establishment that support the deal.”

“The opposition of Smotrich and Ben Gvir exposes their long-standing scam: for them, the State of Israel is the Messiah's donkey, which in the end is to be a theological state for which Jewish lives must be sacrificed,” she stated.

“Therefore, they have no problem sacrificing the lives of the hostages; they know that a deal will bring the end of the fighting closer and the return to the Gush Katif settlements will be further away. These are people who need to be distanced from the government and from public life to save not only the hostages but also the State of Israel,” Michaeli said.

The Palestinian group Islamic Jihad announced late on Tuesday the death of one of the Israeli hostages it has held since the October 7 attacks on Israel.

"We previously expressed our willingness to release her for humanitarian reasons, but the enemy was stalling and this led to her death," Al Quds Brigades said on its Telegram channel.

In contrast, many other detainees were less well-trained and, in some cases, spontaneously joined the slaughter when they heard about the success in breaking into Israel as it was happening.

Separately, the Shin Bet and IDF have established both a system that constantly updates information about the October 7 invasion, as well as a new physical apparatus in the South to assist with ongoing targeting and IDF counter-invasion maneuvering operations.

This information is regularly helping with deciding whether to attack specific targets and when to attack those targets, sometimes enabling IDF forces on the front to attack a target within an hour.

There is also electronic intelligence the IDF collects, often from aerial surveillance and other sensors, which enables the IDF to attack especially block-to-block targets even faster – sometimes within minutes.

In contrast, the Shin Bet information, while also sometimes used at a smaller tactical level, often involves higher-value targets, such as top Hamas commanders or critical Hamas terror infrastructure.

Blood in houses when Hamas terrorists infiltrated Kibbutz Be'eri, and 30 other nearby communities in Southern Israel on October 7, killing more than 1400 people, and taking more than 200 hostages into Gaza, near the Israeli-Gaza border. (credit: EDI ISRAEL/FLASH90)

One of the targeted killings the Shin Bet facilitated is the assassination on November 11 of Ahmed Siam, a Hamas Naser Radwan company commander who had held about 1,000 Gazan civilians hostage in Gaza’s Rantisi Hospital to use them as human shields. That assassination had a dramatic impact on the broader situation in the field, such as facilitating large numbers of Palestinian civilians escaping from being essentially held hostage by Siam.

Additionally, the Post has learned that some Shin Bet interrogations have led to more fundamental changes in IDF attack plans, sometimes in real-time, after a deeper understanding of Hamas’s defense plans.

Other strategic impacts from Shin Bet interrogations include unmasking Hamas’s systematic use of hospitals, ambulances, mosques, and other sensitive civilian locations for its terror operations.

On November 8, the Shin Bet specifically used interrogations to publicly disclose the full extent of Hamas’s use of the above categories of locations, as well as health clinics and schools, for terror purposes.

Ambulances used for terrorism 

A terrorist interrogated by the Shin Bet admitted that Hamas uses ambulances to transport weapons and terrorists throughout the Gaza Strip.

“I can leave with any ambulance I want,” the terrorist acknowledged.

Moreover, he said, “Al-Qassam [Brigades] has its own ambulances, some of which are also at the military base... the appearance of ambulances is similar to civilian ambulances so that they do not arouse suspicion or be bombed by Israel.

“During combat, ambulances are also used to evacuate fighters and operatives,” he said. “They also transport food, IEDs [improvised explosive devices], and weapons, because that’s the safest way to get there.”

Next, the terrorist confessed, “Most of Hamas’s senior political and military figures are hiding in hospitals, especially Shifa Hospital. They take advantage of the hospitals so they won’t be bombed.”

Despite the terrorist’s statement put out on November 8, while the IDF found extensive proof of Hamas’s terror activities at Shifa Hospital following entering the complex on November 15, the IDF later backed off of claims that Hamas’s highest officials had been there, saying instead it had meant battalion-level Hamas commanders (mid-senior level).

The terrorist then went on to explain how a lot of the Gaza Strip had been booby-trapped with cables connecting explosives to the operating systems in mosques and civilian clinics.

On October 23, the Shin Bet disclosed videos of six separate interrogations of Hamas terrorists captured on October 7.

Each terrorist had a slightly different experience, but the Shin Bet flagged some common themes. All the Hamas agents were given explicit instructions to kill and kidnap civilians including the elderly along with women and children. While they did this, the Shin Bet emphasized that their senior commanders stayed behind in secure areas in Gaza.

One of the terrorists told Israeli forces that they were told: “Whoever brings a hostage back [to Gaza] gets $10,000 and an apartment.”

Indiscriminate killing of civilians 

They said that the plan had been to take over the towns they attacked and to hold positions there once they had finished killing and kidnapping the residents.

The video released by the Shin Bet and the police shows the various Hamas operatives going into extreme detail about their activities on the morning of October 7.

“The instructions were to kidnap women and children,” said one. Another described an encounter with a dead body, saying: “Her body was lying on the floor. I shot her, and my commander yelled at me for wasting bullets on a dead body.”

They made it clear that when it came to murder, they were not to distinguish between civilians and soldiers.

Some Shin Bet interrogators may be working round the clock for weeks to wear down critical detainees or to obtain additional helpful intelligence from them after limited initial success.

In an unusual twist, a large number of Shin Bet retirees have returned to service during the war to better shoulder the full brunt of the wide number of tasks the Shin Bet is handling during wartime.

Maya Zanger-Nadis and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this story.

The government’s expected approval last night of the deal to release dozens of hostages from Hamas captivity in return for a temporary ceasefire, a significant supply of fuel, and the release of female and minor-aged terrorists from Israeli prisons shows what makes Israel special, yet also very vulnerable.

This is a quintessential Israeli moment: placing responsibility for its citizens above everything else, even at the risk of endangering other citizens – soldiers and civilians – somewhere down the road.

It is this feeling of mutual responsibility that makes Israel different. It is doubtful that many other countries would agree to halt a raging war, giving the enemy a much-needed respite to regroup, in order to release a few dozen hostages.

But this is what sets Israel apart. This sense of mutual responsibility is part of the Zionist ethos – that no Jew is left alone, that Israel will go literally to the ends of the Earth to rescue Israelis and other Jews in distress.

This is a fundamental building block of Israeli solidarity. And solidarity is critical for the resilience and unity in a crisis that allows the country to flourish and thrive.

Hostage families meet with congresspeople and senators in Washington. (credit: ZEVI GREEN)

As National Unity Party Minister Benny Gantz said, the return of the hostages “is a moral imperative and part of the resilience that enables us to win wars.”

But there is more to it than that.

We are a small nation, and everyone can identify with the families of those whose relatives are languishing in Hamas captivity.

Israelis see their own relatives in posters of hostages

While in certain corners of the globe, sick people are tearing down posters with pictures of those kidnapped, Israelis see the faces on those posters of babies, children, soldiers, mothers, fathers, and grandparents and see their own relatives. They see those faces and whisper to themselves, “There, but for the grace of God, go my kin.”

As such, they ask themselves, were it my son or daughter, my mother or father, my grandmother or grandfather being held by the Hamas monsters, would I not go to any lengths, be willing to pay any price, for their release? We identify with the victims, and, as such, are willing to take considerable risks.

Israel released 1,027 security prisoners, including 280 terrorists serving life sentences, for the release of soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011. Their number included those who organized, planned, and took part in the October 7 massacre. Then, too, the country closely identified with the Shalit family during his five years of captivity, seeing him as their own son and willing to pay an exorbitant price for his release.

The argument then, as now, is you can’t sacrifice a life because of a concern for what will be. When what will be, comes, then you will deal with it. Which, by the way, is exactly what we are doing now.

It was clear from the very beginning of this war that if there was a possibility for a deal to release the hostages, Israel would take it. Israelis could never bear the thought of simply giving up on 240 people in Hamas’s hands.

Hamas, obviously, knows this. They also surely thought that they could get much more than they are now getting for the hostages. If they got 1,027 terrorists for Shalit, what might they not get for a 10-month-old baby? That they were not able to get a higher price is a direct result of Israel’s military assault on Gaza.

Hamas is in trouble. More than it needs the release of its security prisoners from Israeli jails, it needs a ceasefire. It needs to regroup, to refuel. It needs to stop the IDF’s slow but relentless destruction of its capabilities. It hopes that the world will step in and lengthen this ceasefire.

There is a risk that when the fighting resumes after the ceasefire, Israel will lose more soldiers as a result of Hamas having been able to regroup. There is a risk that the world will, indeed, step in and not allow Israel to continue its offensive. But, even with the lives of babies and children and mothers hanging in the balance, it is a risk that the country is willing to take.

It’s part of what makes Israel, Israel.

An IDF strike killed two journalists working for a Lebanese TV channel, as well as a third person, near the border with Israel on Tuesday, Lebanese state media and the Al Mayadeen network said.

The IDF said late Tuesday that “IDF forces acted to remove an existing threat in an area from which Hezbollah was firing [rockets], near al-Jabin. The claim that IDF fire led to the death of journalists who were in that area is known.
“The area is an active combat zone in which there are regular exchanges of fire and being there is dangerous. The incident is under review,” said the IDF.

In the past, some journalists in Gaza have doubled as terrorists, and the IDF has been aggressive about calling out such journalists.

But the delayed and circumspect IDF response suggested that whoever fired on the area may not have known that journalists were there, a mistake the IDF will likely be careful to correct in the future.

After that incident, Hezbollah launched rocket launches into Israel, stating their recent attacks on Tuesday afternoon on Israel’s North was an “initial response to the killing of journalists.”

Al Mayadeen said the strike, near the town of Tir Harfa, about a kilometer from the Israeli frontier, had deliberately targeted the TV crew because the channel was known to be pro-Palestinian and pro-Iran’s regional military alliance.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati also blamed Israel, saying the strike was an Israeli attempt to silence the media.

A damaged and blood-stained kindergarten is seen following a deadly infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in Kibbutz Beeri in southern Israel October 22, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)

A second IDF strike on a car about 10 km. from the border and near Tyre killed four people later in the day, the state news agency reported. It did not give details.

Al Mayadeen named its killed journalists as Farah Omar, a correspondent, and Rabie al-Memari, a camera operator.
The third person killed in the strike was Hussein Aqil, who was at the site where the crew was filming. Al Mayadeen told Reuters he was not working with the channel.

Violence at the border

Late Tuesday, Hezbollah sent suspicious flying objects, likely drones, to attack Israel, with the IDF firing on them. The IDF did not say what happened exactly, but that the incident had passed in terms of presenting any danger.
Additionally, the IDF said it followed this Hezbollah attack with yet another counterattack.

Some observers are speculating that the IDF might even use a war pause with Hamas to hit Hezbollah harder in the coming days.

The fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is the worst violence at the border since the 2006 war and has so far killed more than 70 Hezbollah fighters, 13 Lebanese civilians, seven Israeli troops, and three Israeli civilians.

Despite the impending hostage deal and war pause, the fight against Hamas will continue, IDF Spokesman R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday.

“This is a long war, with many rounds,” he said. “It has set goals and it will take a long time to get to them. We will get ready for the next stages,” emphasizing that any pause would be temporary and not a real long-term ceasefire.

He said the goals set for the IDF by the government were destroying Hamas, establishing more defensible borders than before the war, and deterring all of Israel’s enemies in the region.

While no officials have gone on record, a number have talked about the ground invasion of Gaza lasting somewhere between at least a few more weeks to the end of January.

The next stage after that, combating an anticipated insurgency and trying to establish a basis for new governance in Gaza, could take much longer, with estimates running to at least another six months or much longer past the formal end of large-scale military operations.

Israeli military spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari shows what he says is the house of a senior Hamas naval commander located next to a school at a location given as Gaza, in this still image taken from video released November 13, 2023 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

All of this could be adjusted based on how long the impending pause runs.

Hagari also said the IDF will ensure that its soldiers remain safe, that any invasion achievements are maintained, and that violations of the pause are deterred, should the pause go through.

The spokesperson also showed off new photos of IDF soldiers having broken through doors blocking their progress in inspecting a large tunnel in the Shifa Hospital area.

IDF sources said more findings of Hamas’s operation in the Shifa area may still come to light as inspections continue.

Gallant's assessment at the Gaza Division

Earlier Tuesday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant arrived at the Gaza Division and held a situational assessment with Southern Commander Maj.-Gen. Yaron Finkelman and Brig.-Gen. Avi Rosenfeld.

“We will have to make difficult decisions in the coming days – to defeat Hamas step by step and to bring back the hostages,” Gallant said.

Likewise, Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi spoke about the hostages in a conversation with reserve soldiers inside the Gaza Strip.

“Our maneuver creates better conditions for the return of the hostages, and we will continue with this pressure,” he said.

“You’re doing an excellent job, you came in here strong and there’s very serious damage done to Hamas. There’s still a long road ahead, but we are determined to follow this road and bring our achievements to the maximum. That means also to dismantle Hamas – both military and governmental, to create security around the region, and also to return the hostages. All of these things fall in together.”

As of Tuesday morning, soldiers in the Maglan unit had executed precision missile strikes and successfully confronted a number of terrorist threats in Gaza.

Soldiers employed cutting-edge weaponry, including the Gil missile and the “Steel Trap” guided missile, marking its inaugural use in combat.

The Maglan unit’s primary mission involves the identification and elimination of enemy targets, coupled with seamless coordination between air, sea, and ground forces.

The fighters have located and destroyed over 70 targets, encompassing enemy observation posts, terrorist hideouts often embedded within civilian areas, rocket launchers, and terrorist cells. They have also successfully neutralized a number of terrorists.

In a recent ground operation within the Shati region of the northern Gaza Strip, Maglan fighters conducted a raid on a terrorist’s residence, revealing an extensive cache of weapons. The unit also searched a nearby school, uncovering two tunnel shafts.

The IDF also updated the public on Tuesday that two more soldiers had fallen in battle in Gaza: Capt. (res.) Arnon Moshe Avraham Benvenisti Vaspi, 26 from Yisod Hamaalah, and St.-Sgt. Ilya Senkin, 20 from Nof Hagalil.

Late Tuesday night, a rocket fired by Hamas from Gaza as part of a salvo of rocket attacks, impacted Highway 431 near Rishon Lezion, KAN reported.

There were no reported casualties at press time.

A ceasefire in Gaza could provide both Israel and Hamas an opportunity to pause fighting and size up the situation. Israel has been fighting on the ground for three weeks. Israel’s soldiers have made major progress. They have degraded 10 Hamas battalions of terrorists.

Hamas cannot replace the terrorists it lost easily. It doesn’t have a pool to recruit from in northern Gaza, because most Palestinians have fled Gaza City to the south.

Hamas is also surrounded in Gaza City. The IDF 36th division is pressing in from south of the city, moving into the Zaytun neighborhood.

IDF troops from the north are also pushing into Jabalya and moving in from the coast. Hamas has much less room to maneuver. A pause in fighting will give Hamas units a chance to regroup.

Hamas has short internal lines now, because it is surrounded. It can reposition its forces, move what weapons stocks it has to the front and prepare ambushes and also potentially try to exploit the calm to enter tunnels and try to infiltrate the IDF lines.

Hamas will also have time in the south to reposition forces. While it can’t bring forces north, it could move them toward staging areas such as Bureij or Nuseirat, near the frontline with the IDF controlling an area across Gaza north of these areas.

Hamas could also begin to restock its rocket arsenal and set up new rocket barrages. Over the last week its ability to fire rockets has been reduced. Hamas could also use the time to set up explosives along roads where the IDF might advance.

Israeli forces operate across the Gaza Strip on November 20, 2023 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

These types of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) might adopt Iranian practice, such as in making EFPs (explosively formed penetrators) a special type of shaped charge designed to penetrate armor.  

Overall, Hamas appears to be running low on missiles. In addition, the IDF has overrun many rocket-firing positions.

Hamas also suffered losses in its anti-tank forces and air defense array. It has lost numerous battalion commanders. It can’t easily replace them, but it could try to recruit a few thousand more volunteers and use an extended ceasefire to train some recruits.

Hamas could use allied terror groups against Israel

Hamas has no shortage of small arms, such as AK-47s. Hamas could also use this time to move hostages around and work with other terrorist groups, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as well as Gaza civilians who participated in the massacre and kidnappings, to try to exploit the ceasefire. It goes without saying that Hamas would continue exploiting the opportunity for propaganda, putting out videos.

The Iranians may also use the ceasefire to increase attacks from Iran-backed Hezbollah and the Houthis, or from Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq. In addition, the focus will shift to the humanitarian situation.

Hamas uses human shields, so it could try to infiltrate areas that are supposed to be safe zones. It might even try to exploit the field hospitals that are now being supported by various Arab states. Hamas will want to use this time to do outreach to Iran, Qatar, Turkey, Russia, and China.

At the same time, the IDF can utilize the break to rotate troops around, dig in, and get to know the areas it has taken from Hamas. This can improve situational awareness. An army can’t maneuver all the time. The IDF can repair vehicles, improve defense positions and shelters, and increase the efficiency of logistics.

In addition, troops will be able to rest while Israel prepares its own next steps. Hamas doesn’t have the initiative.

The IDF now chooses when and where to fight and how Israel’s technological superiority will be employed during the ceasefire to prepare for the next phase.