Israel-Hamas war: What happened on day 82?

The IDF on Wednesday utilized explosives to destroy a network of strategic tunnels multiple kilometers long beneath and around Rantisi Hospital and the nearby Ramaz Fahrah School in northern Gaza.

Some of the tunnel shafts descended dozens of meters, with the tunnel under the school descending 20 meters, including an elevator and significant electrical connections and capabilities for use as a command center. 

On November 13, IDF Spokesman R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari revealed Hamas's underground command center under the Rantisi Hospital, which not only contained suicide vests, rocket-propelled grenades, and a variety of weapons but also signs, such as baby bottles, that Hamas had held Israeli hostages there.

How elite IDF intelligence units uncovered the Rantisi tunnel network

At some later date, intelligence collected by interrogations of Hamas forces performed by IDF Unit 504 led to the military discovering the tunnel under the school, which hooked up with the tunnel network under Rantisi.

Further, tunnels led between the school and another nearby school, and tunnels from Rantisi hooked up with other parts of Gaza City, including with the hidden headquarters of Hamas's naval commander.

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)

The IDF's Yahalom and Unit 14 Engineering units worked on exposing the full extent of the tunnel network as well as planning its destruction.

In order to take over the Rantisi area, Brigades 401 and 460, along with navy seals Shayetet 13, had previously killed dozens of Hamas terrorists.

IDF claims evidence of Rantisi Hospital's use on October 7

Back in mid-November, Hagari said there was evidence and independent separate intelligence that Hamas terrorists had returned directly to Rantisi Hospital after their attacks and mass murders of Israelis on October 7.

He also noted that an IDF robot found additional terror tunnels, including electricity being siphoned off from the hospital for use by the terrorists underground.

A video showed the basement of the hospital, which showed a location disconnected from the rest of the hospital where the significant terror explosives and armaments were kept.

An Israeli military reservist has been killed in the Gaza Strip just weeks after he successfully auditioned on a TV show that picks the country's submission for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Shaul Greenglick, 26, performed on "Israel's Rising Star" on Dec. 3 while on furlough from his mobilization in the war against Hamas. Dressed in army fatigues and lieutenant's stripes, he sang a popular ballad and was green-lit for the next round in the selection process.

One of the judges, Keren Peles, told Greenglick on the stage: "I'm happy to see you wearing a uniform, because it's reassuring that someone like you is in uniform. I would be happy to see you representing Israel at Eurovision."

But Peles, writing after Greenglick's death in northern Gaza clashes on Tuesday was published, said he had dropped out of the show because of his duties in the infantry reserves.

"I imagined this year differently, as a year of aspiration and of living my dreams," Greenglick said in a Dec. 14 post on Facebook, which listed his job as a travel health adviser.

"Now I'm living an old dream of fighting for the country...A new, different dream will have to wait a bit."

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen led foreign ambassadors on a tour of Israel’s northern border today, telling the diplomats that unless Hezbollah withdraws its forces north of the Litani River, in compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1701, Israel will be forced to remove Hezbollah from the border by force. 

During the tour, ambassadors were briefed by security and civilian officials about Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel since October 7 and the impact this security situation has had on the residents of Israel’s north.

Israelis who live near the border with Lebanon are among the 125,000 citizens from the north and the south who have been evacuated from their homes since the war’s start. 

The tour was part of a sustained campaign by the foreign ministry to put pressure on the international community to implement Resolution 1701. Among other efforts, France and Israel have, in recent weeks, established a working group to this end. 

Hamas may be holding hostages in central Gaza, IDF sources have said, as the military raises its campaign in the lower profile area.

If the focus of the war from late October until early December was in northern Gaza, and most of the focus shifted for this whole month to southern Gaza, central Gaza is not thought of as having as critical a role for Hamas.

Gaza City in northern Gaza was Hamas's most important place for its rule, and Khan Yunis in southern Gaza was the second most important, but few Israelis are fluent with central Gaza areas, which IDF Division 36 has only started to work on clearing in recent days.

Rescuing the remaining hostages

While the general IDF view is still that the vast majority of the hostages are in southern Gaza, possibly in Khan Yunis along with Hamas's leadership, there is also a view that some smaller number may remain in central Gaza, just as there were a few groups of hostages remaining in northern Gaza through mid-December.

In light of the December 15 incident when IDF soldiers accidentally killed three Israeli hostages who had escaped their Hamas captors (who themselves had been killed by the IDF five days earlier), the IDF is working very carefully in central Gaza anytime there is any hint of potential hostages.

The IDF would also say that this could slow down aspects of progress, but that trying to bring back the remaining approximately 130 hostages is a top priority, and that going slower does not mean they will let Hamas escape.

Deir al-Balah, Maghazi, and Bureij are three central Gaza areas where the IDF will focus initially in central Gaza, and where Hamas has four full battalions of around 1,000 terrorist fighters.

Mourners chanted "Death to America, Death to Israel" during the funeral service on Wednesday for a senior adviser in Iran's Revolutionary Guards who was killed in an air strike in Syria.

Three security sources and Iranian state media said an Israeli air strike outside Damascus on Monday killed Sayyed Razi Mousavi. The sources said he was responsible for coordinating the military alliance between Syria and Iran.

The coffin of Mousavi was passed over the heads of members of the Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces, a heavily armed state paramilitary grouping that contains dozens of Iran-backed factions, during the funeral in Iraq's holy city of Najaf.

Following the funeral at Iraq's most revered Shi'ite Muslim shrine, his coffin will be flown to Iran for burial.

Jordan's King Abdullah and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said after a summit in Cairo on Wednesday that they rejected any Israeli move to expel Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, state media reported.

In a statement, both leaders also said the international community should pressure Israel to agree to an immediate ceasefire and allow enough aid into war-torn Gaza to ease the "tragic plight" of over 2 million people under siege there.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "is no different than" Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed in a Wednesday speech.

Erdogan said that Netanyahu was no different from Hitler and likened Israel's attacks on Gaza to the treatment of Jewish people by the Nazis.

Speaking at an event in Ankara, Erdogan also repeated his criticism of Western support for Israel, adding that Turkey was ready to welcome academics and scientists who faced persecution due to their views on the conflict in Gaza.

'The butcher of Gaza'

Earlier in December, the Turkish president said that Netanyahu would be tried as a war criminal over Israel's ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip, referring to the Likud party leader as the "butcher of Gaza."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan looks on as he delivers statements, in Budapest, Hungary, December 18, 2023 (credit: REUTERS/BERNADETT SZABO)

In a speech at a meeting of an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) committee in Istanbul, Erdogan said that Gaza is Palestinian land and will always belong to the Palestinians.

"Israel is not only a murderer but also a thief," Erdogan said, according to Turkish state media, adding, "We cannot let Israel occupy Gaza once again."

Erdogan charged that "those who invade Gaza will seek other places tomorrow. Gaza butcher Netanyahu revealed he has expansionist ideals."

Muhammad Hassan Yaghi, executive assistant to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, died “after a long illness,” according to a report in the Lebanese news outlet Elnashra. Yaghi, also known as Abu Salim, was one of the founders of the party in 1982 and previously served in the Lebanese Parliament, the site said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to travel to the Middle East late next week to discuss the war in Gaza, Axios reported on Wednesday, citing five US, Israeli and Arab officials.

Axios reported that Blinken is planning to visit Israel, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Soldiers in the IDF's Egoz, Maglan, and Duvdevan commando units have destroyed dozens of Hamas tunnel shafts and hundreds of pieces of terrorist infrastructure since the beginning of December, according to a Wednesday press release from the IDF.

These units have been active in Khan Yunis since the beginning of the month, killing Hamas operatives and destroying tunnel shafts used by Hamas terrorists. They have worked closely with the air force as well as military engineers and armored vehicle units to carry out targeted strikes.