Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 89?

The United States does not have any reason to believe that Israel assassinated Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington on Wednesday, as he also clarified that his country had nothing to do with the killing.

“The US was not involved in any way and any suggestion to the contrary is ridiculous,” Miller said. “We have no reason to believe that Israel was involved in this explosion,” he stressed.

Likud MK Danny Danon was interviewed on Monday on 103FM radio and spoke critically about Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza and the efforts to free hostages from Hamas captivity.

"We have two important tasks in the war, we don't need to rank them," Danon stated. "In my eyes, both goals are important, and to promote the return of the hostages, military pressure is necessary. With Gilad Shalit, we spent five years conducting negotiations with that terrorist organization…and we were wrong then.”

"We are not doing everything right, and I express my criticism mainly behind closed doors,” he added. "We need to use more force, be less humanitarian, and talk about our humanitarian needs and those of the hostages. I don't want headlines of failure, things need to be done differently. The way we operated at the beginning of the war, it worked in the north of the Gaza Strip."

The killing of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al Arouri in Beirut is a game changing event and represents the end of an era for Arouri and his Hamas organization. For decades Hamas has enjoyed growing impunity for its crimes.

For instance, its leaders became increasingly active abroad, moving between Doha, Beirut and Ankara. After October 7 Hamas also was successful in getting many countries not to condemn their crimes against humanity. For instance Russia, China, Turkey and other key countries did not condemn the Hamas attack.

Hamas has also enjoyed impunity from international organizations. In Gaza it was able to built up a terror tunnel empire in part because it got funding from abroad and because a plethora of organizations were willing to deal with health care and essential services.

The Palestinian Authority even paid salaries in Gaza, despite the fact Hamas had forced the PA out of the Gaza stirp in 2007. The entire situation was strange. Hamas, a terrorist group, ran Gaza as if it was a government. Its leadership were hosted in Doha in Qatar. Qatar is a major non-NATO ally of the US. By hosting Hamas, Doha actually got increased status as a western ally. Turkey, a member of NATO, also hosted Hamas leaders over the years for meetings.

Now Arouri is gone. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has said that Hamas “will never be defeated" after the assassination of its deputy leader Saleh al Arouri in Lebanon by Israel. "A movement whose leaders and founders fall as martyrs for the dignity of our people and our nation will never be defeated," Haniyah said on Tuesday evening.

Hamas also lost others in Beirut on Tuesday. Samir Findi Abu Amer and Azzam Al-Aqraa Abu Ammar, were also killed in the same blast in Dahiyeh that killed Arouri. Hezbollah is non-plussed. The fact that incident happened in an area it controls and where it feels secure raises eyebrows for Hezbollah. Hezbollah has said the “assassination” will not go “unanswered.”

Hezbollah views the killing as an assault on Lebanon

Hezbollah said the following, “We, Hezbollah, affirm that this crime will not go unanswered or unpunished…We consider the crime of assassinating Sheikh Saleh al Arouri... in the heart of the southern suburb of Beirut to be a serious assault on Lebanon... and a dangerous development in the course of the war.” Turkey has warned in the past against the killing of any Hamas members in Turkey.

It's worth remembering a few details about Arouri. He was born in the village of ‘Arura near Ramallah in 1966. He became involved in terrorist activity and was sentenced to five years in prison in 1992. This was during the Oslo era when Hamas was trying to sabotage the peace deal with Israel.

Let’s start with how it is different.

This is the first conflict since Hamas took over Gaza in 2007, in which the IDF invaded for real.

There was a sort of invasion-lite of the outskirts of northern Gaza in 2014, and there was a somewhat more serious incursion of Gaza in 2008-2009.

But in 2014, the IDF barely entered any critical areas, keeping most ground troops on the edge of urban areas, and mostly depended on airstrikes, tank, and artillery fire.

Though 2008-2009 was more serious, the actual ground invasion part of the war lasted only about two weeks, far from the amount of time needed to substantially harm Hamas long-term, let alone topple the terrorist group.

In 2012 and 2021, the IDF almost entirely relied on air power, and in numerous other exchanges with Gaza since 2007, relied entirely on airpower.

In most earlier rounds, the IDF did not call up all the reserves, or but some tens of thousands soldiers, with most doing very little.

In contrast, this time the IDF called up 360,000 reservists, large numbers of whom served in invasions deep into the heart of Gaza’s most dangerous cities.

This time, the IDF has already taken operational control over Gaza City, Jabalia, Shejaia, and most other areas of northern Gaza around two weeks ago (Daraj – Tuffah remains unconquered, but is expected to be finished soon). Also, this time the IDF is deep into the heart of Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city.

Next, if in the past the IDF neutralized some tunnel shafts, this time it is spending extensive time and munitions to completely destroy tunnels which it discovers.

If in 2008-2009, fewer than 1,500 Palestinians were killed and in 2014 around 2,100 (about half of whom were fighters), this time the IDF is probably close to having killed 9,000 Hamas terrorists, plus wounding thousands, and arresting reportedly well over 1,000.

IDF Sgt.-Maj. Miron Moshe Gersh was killed in battles in Northern Gaza, the IDF announced.

Gersh, 21 years old, was from Petach Tikva and was a fighter in the Combat Engineering Corps' Yahalom Unit.

In the North, two soldiers were seriously wounded from anti-tank fire on Tuesday, the IDF confirmed. 

Iranian anti-government activist ​​Vahid Behashti visited Israel to speak at a Knesset event held by Knesset members Ohad Tal and Evgeny Sova regarding Israel’s post-war plans for the Gaza Strip.

The forum event, hosted in cooperation with the Israeli Victory Project, saw guest speakers from Israel and overseas discuss the situation in Gaza amid Israel’s war against Hamas – including Behashti, who grew up in Iran and now lives in London.

“Soon you will have to deal with the elephant in the room, which is the Iranian government. We should not be afraid of attacking Iranian bases in Iran. Do not be afraid to attack the heads of the Iranian leadership in Iran, this is the only language they understand,” Behashti said.

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A post shared by Vahid Beheshti (@vahid1beheshti)

“The good news is that you have an army of 80 million Iranians who are thirsty for freedom and democracy. They have been trying to overthrow the government since 2009 but have not yet succeeded due to the barbaric violence of the Iranian government,” continued Behashti.

“The Iranian government is at its greatest weakness in 44 years. They were aware of the attack on the seventh of October in advance and estimated that after the terrible attack, they would achieve a total ceasefire within two months – but this did not happen,” Behashti declared.

The State of Israel plans to contest charges of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza at a hearing likely to be scheduled for next week before the International Court of Justice at The Hague.

The hearing was triggered by South Africa, which charged that Israel was in violation of the United Nations 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.

“The State of Israel will appear before the ICJ at The Hague to dispel South Africa’s absurd blood libel,” government spokesman Eylon Levy told reporters in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

“How tragic that the rainbow nation that prides itself on fighting racism will be fighting pro-bono for anti-Jewish racists,” he said.

South African Foreign Ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela said the ICJ had scheduled a hearing for January 11 and 12. “Our lawyers are currently preparing for this,” he wrote in a post on X.

Hamas froze talks for a second deal to release additional hostages held in Gaza after Israel assassinated deputy Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut, according to the Al Arabiya news outlet.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said the assassination was a “terrorist act,” a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty, and an expansion of Israel’s hostility against Palestinians.

Before the assassination, Israel had been hopeful that Hamas had slightly softened its stance and that a middle ground could be found that would allow for a deal to move forward to secure the release of some of the 129 captives remaining in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Tuesday with representatives for the hostage families. In a statement after the meeting, he said, “The effort [for a deal] is continuing. The contacts are being held; they have not been cut off.

“There was an ultimatum from Hamas; now it has been softened. These contacts are being held now,” Netanyahu said.

The assassination also distracted Israel from focusing on conversations regarding plans for the day after Hamas is eliminated and reportedly caused US Secretary Antony Blinken to push off until next week his trip to Israel.

Hamas’s deputy leader outside of Gaza, Saleh al-Arouri, was killed along with at least five other people in an alleged Israeli drone strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Hamas confirmed Tuesday evening.

Israel was on extra high alert not only for a potentially more extreme response by Hamas, but also from Hezbollah, The Jerusalem Post confirmed from multiple sources.

An anonymous US defense official also confirmed to the Washington Post that Israel killed al-Arouri.

The death of Arouri came at a critical moment when Israel has been trying to convince Hamas to cut another hostage release deal in exchange for a second temporary ceasefire, but to no avail.

BREAKING: Senior Hamas leader, Saleh al-Arouri, was eliminated in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh - a stronghold of Hezbollah.

He had the blood of many innocent civilians on his hands.

Today justice was served. Terrorists are not safe. pic.twitter.com/1BSR1xcQAc

— Hananya Naftali (@HananyaNaftali) January 2, 2024