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.

A kamikaze drone hit an open area in the southern Golan Heights on Wednesday night, with the Iran-backed militias in Iraq claiming responsibility for the attack.

No injuries were reported in the incident, although damage was caused to a building.

The Iran-backed militias in Iraq said that they launched the drone toward a site near the town of Eliad in the Golan Heights "in support of Gaza."

This is the first case of an explosive drone falling in the Golan Heights during the war.

Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim men from the Iranian-backed group Kataib Hezbollah wave the party's flags as they walk along a street painted in the colours of the Israeli flag during a parade marking the annual Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, on the last Friday of Ramadan, in Baghdad. July 25, 2014 (credit: THAIER AL-SUDANI/REUTERS)

The Iran-backed militias in Iraq also claimed responsibility for an attack near the Erbil International Airport earlier on Wednesday. The militias said that they targeted a site belonging to the US-led coalition.

Iraqi militias involvement in the Israel-Hamas war

The Iraqi militias have also claimed several times since the war began that they launched drones toward Eilat.

Jordan’s King Abdullah discussed the importance of ending the Gaza war and preventing violence from igniting the region when he met on Wednesday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at Al Ittihadiya Palace in Cairo.

“The King and President El Sisi stressed the need for the entire world to push towards an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and the delivery of sufficient and sustainable humanitarian aid to alleviate” Palestinian suffering the Royal Hashemite Court said after the meeting.

The two men warned the war “could plunge the entire region into a catastrophe whose price everyone will pay” and stressed “the need to prevent the spillover of the conflict that threatens regional and international security and stability,” the court explained.

King Abdullah warned that the “continued expansion of Israeli operations in southern Gaza will have catastrophic humanitarian and security repercussions, especially in light of the dangerous humanitarian situation,” the court added.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Wednesday evening with French President Emmanuel Macron, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

Netanyahu thanked Macron for France's involvement in protecting freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and for its willingness to help restore security on Israel's border with Lebanon, the statement said.

The prime minister updated Macron on developments in the war in Gaza, as well as efforts to bring about the release of Israel's hostages, and asked the French president to continue working for their release. 

"Netanyahu made it clear that the people and the government of Israel are determined to work to return the residents in the North and South to their homes, by any means," the statement concluded. 

The US military's airstrikes on Monday in Iraq aimed to deter Iran and Iran-backed terror groups from conducting or supporting attacks on United States personnel and facilities, President Joe Biden said on Wednesday.

The US military carried out retaliatory air strikes on Monday in Iraq after a drone attack earlier in the day by Iran-aligned terrorists that left one US service member in critical condition and wounded two other US personnel.

The back-and-forth clash was the latest demonstration of how the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas risks rippling across the Middle East.

"The strikes were intended to degrade and disrupt the ongoing series of attacks against the United States and our partners, and to deter Iran and Iran-backed militia groups from conducting or supporting further attacks on United States personnel and facilities," Biden said in a letter on Wednesday to the top leaders of the US Congress.

"The United States stands ready to take further action, as necessary and appropriate, to address further threats or attacks."

Hezbollah on Wednesday unleashed multiple rounds of rocket attacks and multiple drone strikes reaching approximately three dozen total attacks on Israel, reportedly the most the group has launched in one day since October 7.

While the attacks did not cause injuries, they caused significant damage in Kiryat Shmona and were also directed at Rosh Hanikra and Mount Dov.

The spike in attacks came after IDF strikes allegedly killed a Lebanese-Australian man, the man’s wife, the man’s brother who is a member of Hezbollah all in Lebanon, killed Sayyed Reza Mousavi, a senior commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and as the IDF’s increased attacks have pushed back around half of Hezbollah’s forces from the border.

The IDF did not confirm the number of attacks by Hezbollah, but confirmed multiple rounds of rocket launches.

The IDF had been attacking Hezbollah overnight and continued to attack the terror group Wednesday morning and afternoon, both in response to the sources of the fire, but also in what appears to be a gradual effort to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure south of Lebanon’s Litani River.

“Tell God, ‘Enough already!’ How many more orphans and widows are yet to exist here? It’s impossible,” Aviya Luber said Wednesday in her eulogy for her husband, St.-Sgt. (res.) Elisha Yehonatan Luber, 24, who was killed in battle in southern Gaza on Monday.

“Yehonatan, pray that we succeed,” she said during his funeral at Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem. “Your connection to God was so important; now you’re close to Him. See what is happening here...

“My Yehonatan, my life, my beloved. How much you loved this land; how often you spoke about it. You never saw anything outside of Israel with your own eyes. You weren’t willing to return home until you had done everything, even arguing with your commander to be the first to volunteer for duty in Gaza.

“When we got engaged, I begged you not to die before me, but you didn’t even agree when I lost my temper with you. You told me, ‘You’re my heroine,’ and I replied that I’m not. You called me last Saturday night and said nothing was hard for you there, but you missed home and [our son] Nachman. When you came back home, he wouldn’t leave you. What a father you were; how proud and in love with him.”

Hagai Luber, Yehonatan’s father, shared his son’s final words to him: “Before Yehonatan left for Gaza, he called me. He told me, ‘Dad, I’m ready to go, but please promise me you’ll take care of my wife and son. They are my world.’”

Yehonatan, a member of Battalion 8104, had been serving in the southern Gaza Strip when he was killed in battle. His wife and 10-month-old son were left with a void that can never be filled, but the memory of his courage and commitment will forever live on.

תיעוד חדש שהגיע לידי ישראל: כך נראה היום מוחמד דף @Doron_Kadosh pic.twitter.com/BglRclaeNk

— גלצ (@GLZRadio) December 27, 2023

Israel continues to consider a strategy shift in Gaza, according to several different reports this week in Israeli media. The focus is on the transition to “low intensity” conflict or some kind of new phase in Gaza.

Israel has already churned through several phases, such as the initial response to the Hamas attack, the air campaign in October, and the ground operations in November. There was also a pause in fighting and then the December campaign in southern Gaza and attempts to consolidate control in northern Gaza.

However, despite all the different phases, and Israel’s ability to dominate operational tempo in Gaza, there are a lot of questions about what low-intensity conflict would look like in Gaza. This discussion has gone on for weeks. Reports in mid-December also suggested there was US pressure on transitioning to some other kind of phase in Gaza.

The problem with these discussions is that they hinge on a lot of questions about the past. First of all, there is a lot of focus abroad on the issue of civilian casualties in Gaza. Israel’s campaign primarily sought to move civilians south, out of the line of fire in the north.

Gantz on Wednesday evening slammed Israeli politicians for "returning to October 6" by attacking IDF generals and dealing with political hires. Speaking on calls for his faction to resign from the emergency government, Gantz stressed that he joined Netanyahu's government to emerge victorious in Gaza rather than for any political gain.

"We are not in the government to stay, we are here to win," Gantz told reporters.