Israel-Hamas war: What happened on day 79?

The IDF on Sunday night disclosed the full background behind its finding of five bodies of hostages held by Hamas in an underground strategic-size tunnel near Jabalya in northern Gaza.

Around December 12, the IDF found two bodies, and around three days later, it found three more bodies in another area nearby. At the time, it only announced the finding of the first two bodies.

IDF fighter jets struck Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon in response to rocket fire on northern Israeli border towns earlier on Sunday, the Israeli military stated.

Israeli artillery forces struck the source of the rocket fire, the IDF said. In addition, the military carried out several preemptive strikes to remove threats along the northern border.

This time, going into Gaza, I brought earplugs and a face mask.

When I last visited northern Gaza, including Shifa Hospital, I learned the hard way how thunderingly loud it was inside a “Namer” armored personnel carrier (APC) and decided that on the trip to Khan Yunis, being able to hear myself think was a priority.

Two Israelis were indicted on Sunday for their involvement in the theft of five vehicles owned by victims of the October 7 massacre and southern Israel families forced to evacuate from their homes, Israeli media reported.

The two, residents of Holon and the central moshav of Bareket, operated under the guise of being volunteers aiding soldiers and displaced civilians. According to the indictment, the two partook in a volunteering program that included transferring equipment from the evacuated border towns.

Thousands of protesters staged one of the largest pro-Palestinian marches in Rabat on Sunday since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, demanding an end to Morocco's ties with Israel.

Protests against the Israel-Hamas War have repeatedly drawn thousands of people in Morocco since the conflict began more than two months ago, mostly led by pan-Arab and Islamist groups.

Hamas chose to attack Israel on October 7, carrying out an unprecedented massacre directed at civilians. Now, two and a half months later, Christian minorities in the Middle East have been affected by the Hamas attack, as Christmas festivities are toned down or canceled in Bethlehem, Syria, and other places.

While this is ostensibly in solidarity with suffering in Gaza, it is unclear where the pressure came from to coordinate this cancellation.

According to CNN, “local leaders [in Bethlehem] made the decision last month to scale back festivities in solidarity with the Palestinian population, as heavy fighting raged between Israel and Hamas in the devastated Gaza Strip.”

The report notes that “decorations that once adorned neighborhoods have been removed. The parades and religious celebrations have been canceled. In the city center, Manger Square's traditional enormous Christmas tree is conspicuously absent.”

Where is the holiday cheer?

Arab News also reported that in Syria, “Christmas cheer has deserted the streets of Syria’s cities, where the main churches have limited celebrations to prayers in solidarity with Palestinians suffering war in Gaza.” According to the report in Aleppo, an annual Christian market is now empty.

“This year, the main square is almost empty, and no Christmas decorations are in sight.” Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo, Mor Dionysius Antoine Shahda, told the AFP that “in Syria, we canceled all official celebrations and receptions in our churches in solidarity with the victims of the bombing on Gaza.” 

A Palestinian dressed as Santa gestures during a celebration in Bethlehem, in the West Bank, December 2, 2021. Picture taken December 2, 2021. (credit: REUTERS/MUSSA QAWASMA)

It should be noted not all Christians in the Middle East celebrate Christmas on the same day. Christmas is celebrated in early January by Orthodox and Armenian Christians. 

According to the report, the canceling of Christmas festivities is also being done by other churches, the Greek Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, and Melkite Greek Catholics. The local Patriarchs of the churches said that “given the current circumstances, especially in Gaza, the patriarchs apologize for not receiving Christmas and New Year greetings,” according to the report.

 The same report in Damascus says there is only one Christmas market, and the Greek Orthodox Mariamite Cathedral in Damascus “has put up modest decorations and a small tree in its courtyard.”

Is Christmas cancelled?

 The decision to cancel Christmas or pressure Christians to tone down celebrations is not universal across the region. In Turkey, various media spotlighted how Christmas would be festive this year.

Daily Sabah wrote that Turkey is a “wonder place to be for the holiday season.” Hurriyet said, "Istanbul clinched the second position among Europe's most brilliantly illuminated Christmas cities in the month of December, according to research conducted by a U.K.-based company that focused on the utilization of outdoor artificial lights during nighttime.” In the Gulf, there are plenty of signs of Christmas as well. Articles about Dubai, for instance, emphasize how malls and other areas have decorations up for the holiday.

 Lebanon is also celebrating Christmas. There are plenty of decorations up in Beirut, according to reports. In southern Lebanon, Christians have been affected by the ongoing Hezbollah attacks on Israel.

As with the Hamas attacks, causing Christmas to be canceled in Bethlehem and parts of Syria, due to Israel defending itself, Iranian-backed Hezbollah has also harmed Christians in southern Lebanon. There will be subdued Christian festivities in southern Lebanon.

 It also appears Christmas is going ahead as usual in Iran, even as Iran backed the Hamas and Hezbollah attacks that harmed Christmas in Bethlehem, southern Lebanon, and Syria. A report described Christmas cheer and shopping on Mirzaye Shirazi Street in northern Tehran.

In Erbil in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region, Christmas is also going ahead as expected. Kurdistan24 noted that “the Kurdistan Region’s capital Erbil has officially inaugurated the Christmas Festival, which hosts various food brands, concerts, and dances.

The Erbil International Fair (EIF) officially inaugurated the festival on Tuesday night in the presence of the Erbil governor and head of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Board of Investment.”

 However, the Chaldean Patriarchate also put out a notice canceling many events linked to Christmas. This was not solely linked to the Gaza war.

Instead, the announcement was due to the Iraqi central government's removal of Patriarch Raphael Louis Sako from his role as patriarch. Sako relocated to Erbil. The celebrations were also canceled due to a massive fire at a wedding in Bakhdida (Hamdaniya) this year, where most victims were Christian.

“In addition, the statement cited the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict in the Holy Land, currently resulting in the deaths of over 19,000 people on both sides, as another reason for the cancellations,” Kurdistan24 said.

“There will be no Christmas and New Year celebrations except for prayers for peace and stability in Iraq, the Holy Land, and the region. We apologize that we will not receive any congratulations from government officials during these holidays," the Patriarch read. According to the report, Christmas was also canceled in Iraq in 2014 during the ISIS war and in 2019.

Christmas events have also been hijacked in the West to try to tie them to Gaza. A Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting in New York was disrupted by activists seeking to “flood” the tree lighting. The term “flood” is taken from the Hamas name for its attack on Israel and massacre of civilians.

Iran has backed Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea over the last two months. The Houthis have escalated their attacks, first targeting Israel’s southern city of Eilat and then targeting commercial ships. The Houthis claim they are backing Hamas in Gaza.

Iran backs the Houthis and Hamas, and it now appears to have joined the Houthi attacks on ships by carrying out a long-range drone attack on a chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean. As such, Iran has created an arc of drone threats that stretch from Yemen to Chabahar in Iran, near the border with Pakistan.

According to BBC, “A chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean was hit by a drone launched from Iran on Saturday, the US military says. A fire on board the Chem Pluto was extinguished. There were no casualties.”

It is important to understand the context here. The attack on the ship in the Indian Ocean took place on December 23. The day before, the US had accused Iran of being involved with Houthi threats to shipping in the Red Sea. “The White House publicly released US intelligence as the Iranian-linked Yemeni insurgents persist with ship strikes they say are in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is battling Hamas militants,” CBS reported. “The White House said that Tehran's clerical state has provided drones and missiles to the Houthis as well as tactical intelligence.” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said “we know that Iran was deeply involved in planning the operations against commercial vessels in the Red Sea.”

Meanwhile, US Central Command said that “between 3 and 8 p.m. (Sanaa time), the USS Laboon (DDG 58) was patrolling in the Southern Red Sea as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG) and shot down four unmanned aerial drones originating from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen that were inbound to the USS Laboon. There were no injuries or damage in this incident.” Prosperity Guardian is a group of countries that have agreed to help provide security in the Red Sea after numerous attacks.

A HOUTHI TERRORIST guards the deck of the ‘Galaxy Leader’ cargo ship in the Red Sea last month. (credit: Houthis/via Reuters)

Sign of Iran's growing confidence

Iran has developed long-range kamikaze drones over the last decade. It began basing some of them in Yemen in at least late 2020. In 2021, a report in Newsweek claimed Shahed 136 drones had been seen in Yemen in satellite photos. Iran later exported these types of drones to Russia in 2022. In addition, in November 2022, Iran used a kamikaze drone to attack a ship off the coast of Oman. The drone was reportedly flown from Chabahar in Iran. At the time, US Central Command said that an examination of the “debris that hit the vessel reveals that it was a Shahed-series one-way attack drown.”

The shipping lanes now threatened in the Red Sea, off the coast of Oman, Yemen, and Iran, and now also off the coast of India, are vast. However, Iran has been able to make this large area of open water smaller by basing drones in Yemen and in Iran.

The November 2022 attack on the Pacific Zircon occurred around 240km off the coast of Oman. Another attack on the Mercer Street ship in July 2021 killed two people. That ship was off the coast of Oman. Iran appears to have shown that it can expand the range of the drones to strike ships further out to sea.

The attacks pose a growing risk to international shipping. The attacks in the Red Sea, for instance, caused the US to deploy more naval assets to the area. If Iran expands the attacks to the Indian Ocean, it will create a second crisis. This appears to be its opening salvo, building on the incidents in 2021 and 2022. Iran has not faced retaliation in the past and likely won’t face retaliation now.

In the past, Iran also mined ships off the coast of the UAE and attacked ships in June 2019. Each time, Iran seeks to cause a crisis at a time and place of its choosing, forcing the US and other partners to spread their resources thin in a vast area of ocean. This is now the case regarding the Red Sea and the new attack in the Indian Ocean. 

Nine IDF soldiers fell in battle in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit announced on Sunday morning.

Five were regular soldiers, the other four were reservists.

Four fighters were killed in the southern Strip after an anti-tank missile hit the vehicle they were in:

• Staff.-Sgt. David Bogdanovskyi, 19, from Haifa, a soldier in the Combat Engineering 603rd Battalion in the 7th Armored Brigade;

• Staff.-Sgt. Orel Bashan, 20, from Haifa, a soldier in the 603rd Battalion;

• Staff.-Sgt. Gal Hershko, 20, from Yiftah, a squad commander in the 603rd Battalion; and

• Staff.-Sgt. Itamar Shemen, 21, from Lapid, a paramedic in the 36th Division "Ga'ash" who was fighting as part of the 77th Battalion of the 7th Brigade, fell in battle in the southern Gaza Strip.

Two other soldiers were seriously wounded in the attack.

Four others, all reservists, fell in battle in central Gaza:

• Master-Sgt. (res.) Nadav Issachar Farhi, 30, from Herzliya, a medic in the 7810 Battalion in the 11th Brigade;

• Master-Sgt. (res.) Eliyahu Meir Ohana, 28, from Haifa, a soldier in the 7810 Battalion;

• Sgt.-1st Class (res.) Elyassaf Shoshan, 23, from Jerusalem, a soldier in the 6646 Battalion of the 646th Brigade; and

• Sgt.-1st Class (res.) Ohad Ashur, 23, from Kfar Yona, a soldier in the 6646 Battalion.

People gather and light candles to remember the Israeli victims of the October 7 massacre at Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, October 12, 2023. (credit: Dor Pazuelo/Flash90)

Farhi and Ohana were killed by an explosive device; another reserve soldier was seriously wounded in the incident. Shoshan and Ashur were also killed by an explosive device, and three other soldiers were seriously wounded, during a firefight with terrorists.

Additionally, the IDF announced later on Sunday that St.-Sgt. Roy Elias, 21, from Tzofar, died in battle in Gaza.

Elias, who served in the 603rd Combat Engineering Battalion, was killed on Saturday in the southern Gaza Strip.

Since the beginning of the war, 486 soldiers have fallen, many during the October 7 surprise infiltration and others in subsequent battles.

St.-Sgt. Roy Elias, 21, from Tzofar in southern Israel, was announced as fallen in battle in Gaza, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit announced on Sunday.

Elias, who served in the 603rd Combat Engineering Battalion was killed on Saturday in the southern Gaza Strip.