Israel-Hamas war: What happened on day 81?

IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi on Tuesday said that it could even take months to arrest or kill Hamas's top leaders and "many months" to finish fighting Hamas.

Halevi implied that he recognized the broader diplomatic and political context will not allow a full all-out war for that long and said that the IDF would adjust itself to different intensity levels of fighting as needed.

Iran vowed that Israel would "pay" for the killing of Sayyed Reza Mousavi, a senior commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in an alleged Israeli airstrike in the vicinity of the Syrian capital of Damascus on Monday.

"Undoubtedly, the usurper and savage Zionist regime will pay for this crime," Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said in a statement read on state TV. "This action is another sign of frustration, helplessness, and inability of the occupying Zionist regime."

Local media outlets reported that explosions were heard in the area of Set Zaynab in the Damascus countryside.

Footage shared on social media showed a cloud of smoke near the Damascus International Airport, a site targeted frequently due to its use by Iranian proxies in the region.

#عاجل | قصـ ـف "إسرائيلي" استهدف منطقة الأهداف في محيط #دمشق على طريق مطار دمشق في #سوريا pic.twitter.com/DZ3ve1Qonx

— قناة القدس (@livequds) December 25, 2023

The Iranian Foreign Ministry released a statement on Monday evening, warning that Tehran "reserves the right to respond at the appropriate time and place to the assassination" of Mousavi.

Tehran added that the suspected assassination "is a sinful and cowardly act and a sign of the terrorist nature of the Zionist regime." Hezbollah released a statement on Monday night mourning the death of the IRGC official, whom the Lebanese terrorist organization called "one of the best brothers who worked to support the Islamic resistance in Lebanon for decades."

Funeral of members of Iran's IRGC who were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Syria, in Tehran (credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)

Top Iranian commander killed identified as Sayyed Razi Mousavi

Iranian state-owned media confirmed the death of IRGC commander Sayyed Razi Mousavi, identified as "a senior advisor" in Syria.

According to unconfirmed reports from Iranian opposition media, Mousavi was responsible for coordinating the of financing and transfer of logistics from Tehran to Iranian proxies in Syria.

🚨🚨🚨 The Israeli Air Force eliminated an Iranian commander who was identified as Seyed Razi Mousavi, Iranian state media confirmed.

Mousavi was considered one of the closest IRGC commanders to Qassem Soleimani and the commander of Iranian forces in Syria. pic.twitter.com/0UhyqZuGIC

— Charles Weber (@CWBOCA) December 25, 2023

Mousavi was considered to have been close to Qassem Soleimani, the former head of the Quds Force who was killed by a US drone in January 2020, according to Iranian media. Israeli media referenced Mousavi as the highest-profile targeted killing since Solemani.

No other casualties were reported in the alleged airstrike.

This is a developing story.

An International Committee of the Red Cross representative refused to bring a box of life-saving medicine to Israelis taken hostage in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed in a Monday address to the Knesset plenum.

"I met with the Red Cross; I handed them a box of medicine for some of the hostages shown here. Some of them really need it...I told a representative to take this box to Rafah; she said no. It was a difficult conversation," he told a special Knesset session attended by families of hostages, who were heard shouting "Now!" at the prime minister as he explained the return of all hostages would take time.

"We are sparing no effort, both seen and hidden, to bring all of the hostages home," Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu: IDF fighters in Gaza told me to keep going

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Gaza Strip on Monday, he told fellow Likud members in a faction meeting at the Knesset.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets IDF reservists in the Gaza Strip on December 25, 2023 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

"I just returned from Gaza; I met a division of reservists on the field," he told his faction. "All of them asked me for one thing only: We must not stop; we must keep going until the end," he said, in reference to the IDF's war on Hamas in Gaza.

"The papers and television studios said we are stopping; They also said we would stop after the first hostage deal - and we kept going," Netanyahu continued. "We do not stop; we keep fighting, and we will be deepening the fighting over the coming days; this will be a long battle, and it is not close to being over."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked China to help secure the release of hostage Noa Argamani, whose mother, Liora, is from China and is dying of cancer.

Netanyahu described how he had recently requested the intervention of Chinese President Xi Jinping through the country’s Ambassador Cai Run during a speech he delivered to the Knesset on Monday describing his efforts to free the hostages.

Netanyahu told Cai to send a message directly to Xi.

Ofir Tamir holds up a picture of his friend Noa Argamani, who was taken hostage on October 7 by Hamas, as he speaks during a press conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, October 30, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/Tom Little)

“There is a daughter of a Chinese mother and I am personally asking for your interference in the matter of Noa Argamani."

 Netanyahu explained to Cai that there is also the issue here of her mother who just wants to see her daughter one last time before she dies.

The ambassador “assured me,” Netanyahu said, that the message had been delivered.

Argamani's story strikes cord

Argamani is one of some 250 hostages kidnapped during Hamas’ infiltration of southern Israel on October 7, an attack during which 1,200 people were killed.

Some 110 of those hostages have been released through a limited deal. It’s presumed that some 129 captives are still in Gaza, while the bodies of some 11 captives have also been retrieved.

Netanyahu has been under pressure to find a way to secure the release of the remaining hostages.

The story of Argamani, 26, who is a student at Ben Gurion University, has struck a particular emotional cord because she was among those filmed on October 7, as she was taken into Gaza on a motorcycle, begging her captors not to kill her.

She had been at the Nova music festival together with her boyfriend Avinatan Or. She was also featured in a second video published soon after she was taken captive, in which she was seen drinking water.

NBC reported this month that it was possible that an armed group, which is not Hamas, had seized her and was holding her.

In the Knesset Netanyahu spoke of his appeal to China, as he attempted to draw a picture of a premier who had left no stone unturned when it came to securing the release of the captives.

Relatives of the hostages sat in front of him in the plenum’s gallery as he spoke, holding up signs and shouting, “Now, now.”

Netanyahu said that he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking that he work to help free all the hostages. Russia has tight ties with Iran, a country that helps fund Hamas. Moscow has worked in the past to help Israel with hostage situations.

During that call, Netanyahu recalled, Putin said, he would try to act on the issue.

*The next day Russia's deputy foreign minister called for the immediate and unconditional release of all the captives,* Netanyahu said.

He described conversations he also had with US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as he sought a way to free the hostages, some of whom are dual citizens with passports from those countries..

*I recount this for you to illustrate one thing - we, my friends and I, spare no effort, both from actions that are known and those that are not known, to bring all our captives home,* Netanyahu said.

His wife Sara, Netanyahu explained, sent a letter to Pope Francis on Sunday asking him to intervene on behalf of the hostages.

Netanyahu described how he had spoken with International Committee of the Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric when she was in Israel earlier this month. He recalled that he had presented her with medication needed by the hostages and asked that she deliver it or at the very least hand it to Hamas at the Rafah Crossing.

She did not agree to take the box, Netanyahu said, adding that he had a very difficult conversation with her.

*We will continue to invest all efforts to bring them home.” Netanyahu stressed.