Israel-Hamas War: What happened on Day 101?

The Hamas terror organization announced on Monday that hostages Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itai Svirsky, 38, had been killed in captivity. Noa Argamani, 26, is reportedly still alive.

The update from the Gaza-based Islamist terror organization comes in a video featuring Argamani, where the 26-year-old reported the death of her fellow hostages.

Hamas has been teasing the announcement

The video followed Hamas's sequence of teased announcements, where they claimed that they would announce the fate of the three Israelis.

"I was located in a building," Argamani said in the Hamas video. "It was bombed by an IDF airstrike, an F16 fighter jet. Three rockets were fired. Two of the rockets exploded, and the other didn't. We were in the building with Al Qassam soldiers and three hostages: Myself, Noa Argamani, Itai Svirsky, and Yossef Sharabi.

"After the building we were in was hit, we were all buried under rubble. Al Qassam soldiers saved my life, and Itai's, unfortunately, we were not able to save Yossi's.

Noa Argamani (credit: Courtesy)

"After many days...two nights, Itai and I were relocated to another place. While we were being transported, Itai was hit by an IDF airstrike. He did not survive."

Hamas has a track record of engaging in psychological warfare. 

"Itai Svirsky and Yossi Sharabi," Argamani added in the video. "They died because of our own IDF airstrikes. Stop this madness and bring us home to our families. While we are still alive, bring us home."

Svirsky's parents were killed the day he was kidnapped

Svirsky was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be'eri on October 7 during Hamas's rampage through the souther Israeli community. The 38-year-old had been staying with his mother, Orit, 70, at the time.

He and his mother had been hiding under blankets in the safe room when the terrorists stormed in and sprayed the room with bullets, killing Orit.

Itai’s father, Rafi, 71, was also murdered, along with his three golden retrievers.

Sharabi and his son, Oren, 13, had also been kidnapped from the Kibbutz. Oren was returned during a round of hostage/prisoner exchanges

A sticker on the front door declares the house contains no dead bodies or body parts. On the walls, months-old spray paint confirms no gunmen or explosives are present.

Three months on, signs of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks remain everywhere in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, but the markings recorded on their house, and the harrowing memories they evoke, have not deterred Ayelet Khon and Shar Shnurman from coming back home.

The couple are among the first to return to their house in the traumatized community just a few km (miles) from the Gaza Strip. It was one of the hardest hit by the Hamas assault that sparked the devastating war in Gaza, now in its 100th day.

Tens of thousands of Israelis were forced to leave their homes when the fighting erupted. After weeks living in central Israel, the couple insisted on coming back.

The arm of Shar Shnurman with a tattoo of the date 07.10.2023, January 13, 2024 (credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)

'Worse to be a refugee than at home'

"For us, it was worse to be a refugee than to be at home," said 55-year-old Khon.

For nearly everyone else, it is still too dangerous. Fighting across the border is audible and when rocket sirens go off, there is just around 10 seconds to take cover.

The government is paying for displaced residents to stay at otherwise vacant hotels and guest houses.

Holding hands, the couple, who have no children, walk along a pathway past destroyed houses and makeshift memorials where neighbors were killed in the massacre.

"Kids shouldn't be here right now," Khon said.

Once water and electricity were turned back on, the couple broke ranks and returned to Kfar Aza. Now they are busy organizing their house, folding laundry, and sit together on the front porch despite the frequent explosions in the background.

They survived the Hamas rampage by hiding for hours in their safe room, the sounds of non-stop shooting, grenades, and RPG fire just outside their door.

"I still remember that our neighbor in this house, in this house, in this house, got killed," said Shnurman, 62, referring to a row of houses where residents were killed.

There is a sense, he said, that if they don't return to Kfar Aza, then very soon Israel will also give up on trying to restore normal life in larger cities farther north.

Khon said coming back brings some closure.

"I'm still here, the people that died here are people that loved this place," she said. "Our neighbor especially, she couldn't understand how come people don't want to live in Kfar Aza. She was very much in love with this kibbutz."

"Coming back to live here is doing something, the way I see, is doing something for her. Not forgetting that she was killed here."

Minister of Intelligence Gila Gamliel laid out her plan for the day after the war at a conference organized by the Sovereignty Movement, headed by Land of Israel activists Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katsover, in collaboration with the Yesha Council.

The conference, titled “Lessons from Gaza – an end to the idea of two states,” held at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem last Thursday, focused mainly on opposition to the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Over 1,000 people attended the event, and roughly another 5,000 participated online. According to a poll presented at the conference, in the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre, an overwhelming majority (74%) also said they were against a two-state solution; 20% were in favor, and 6% had no opinion.

The poll, conducted by Direct Polls Ltd. for the Sovereignty Movement a day ahead of the conference, also asked: “Are you for or against voluntary transfer emigration of the residents of the Gaza Strip to other countries?” A clear majority – 76% - responded in favor; 16% were against, and 8% had no opinion.

Surprisingly, center-left voters from the Yesh Atid and National Unity parties, headed by Opposition leader Yair Lapid and Minister Benny Gantz respectively, responded similarly regarding the issue.  Among the Yesh Atid voters, 61% were in favor of the emigration, 24% were against, and 15% had no opinion. Among those who voted for Gantz’s party, 71% were in favor, 18% were against, and 11% had no opinion.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R)) and Gila Gamliel (L) at a weekly cabinet meeting, March 10th, 2019 (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

As for a return to the Israeli Gush Katif communities that were destroyed in 2005 during the disengagement from Gaza, the poll showed that 86% of voters for the right -wing Religious Zionist and Otzma Yehudit were in favor, as were 63% who voted for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and 83% of ultra-Orthodox Shas voters.

Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel, a longtime supporter of sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria, addressed the conference on the issue of voluntary emigration. Indeed, she had already announced her plan for “the day after” on on Oct 13, less than a week after Hamas’s barbaric massacre of 1,200 Israelis in southern Israel and the kidnapping of 240 others.

“Now is the time that we must try new solutions,” she told the audience. “It is clear that much has to change if any conceptions were proven wrong on the day of the pogrom of October 7.

“Every time Israel retreated from territory, it became a base for terror and bloodshed,” she said, stressing that Iran – through its proxies, including Hamas – is responsible for all the terrorism and conflicts in the Middle East, “from Gaza to Lebanon to the Red Sea” and the suffering of tens of millions of people throughout the region, not only Israelis.

“Gaza has long been thought of as a problem without an answer. The greatest failure was the disengagement from Gaza,” she said.  The State of Israel tried many solutions – enrichment, conflict management, and building high walls – in the hope of keeping the monsters of Hamas out of Israel. These have all failed.

“One of the issues on which my office has been working diligently is how to proceed the day after Hamas has been defeated and annihilated. We will still have about two million people, many of whom voted for Hamas and celebrated the massacre of innocent for men, women, and children. Gaza is a breeding ground for extremism... Gaza is a place devoid of hope, stolen by the genocidal terrorists of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups.”

‘Open the door’

Gamliel then referred to a recent article in the Guardian (UK) that described the hopelessness of the Palestinians in Gaza. “These people are desperate, and the international community, which claims to care about the Palestinians, sits by idly and watches. This is an opportunity,” she declared.

“Unfortunately, for the last 75 years, UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) has done zero to help the Palestinian people even though it has an annual budget of well over one billion dollars,” she continued. “Instead of funneling money to rebuild Gaza or to the failed UNWRA, the international community can assist in the cost of humanitarian voluntary resettlement, helping the people of Gaza build new lives in their new host countries.

“I will make it simple by stating it in three simple words: Open the door.

“I say to the international community: No one is pushing or forcing anybody out, but surely you can’t be indifferent to their suffering. Just open the door and let those who wish it to join the hundreds of thousands of Gazans who have already left voluntarily in the last few years...

“It is an obligation of leadership to propose solutions and not just circle back to the same tired ideas and cliches,” she concluded. 

A day earlier, in a video statement, Netanyahu said he wanted to “make a few points very clear.” First and foremost, “Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population.”

Matar told the Post that the need to make such a statement “shows that we are making a difference,” as Israelis are increasingly interested in voluntary emigration as a reasonable and humanitarian solution.

US fighter aircraft shot down an anti-ship cruise missile fired from Houthi terrorist areas of Yemen toward a US destroyer operating in the Southern Red Sea, the US military said on Sunday.

The midair interception is the latest incident in the Red Sea where the Houthis have been attacking international shipping in what they say is a campaign to support Palestinians under seige from Israeli forces in Gaza.

It follows a series of American and British airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen that have drawn threats of a "strong" response from the Iranian-backed militia.

There were no injuries or damage reported in the latest incident, according to the US Central Command (CENTCOM), which released the news in a statement posted on the social media platform X.

Responses from the Houthis

CENTCOM said the missile was shot down near Yemen's port city of Hodeidah.

An RAF Typhoon aircraft takes off to join the U.S.-led coalition from RAF Akrotiri to conduct air strikes against military targets in Yemen, aimed at the Iran-backed Houthi militia that has been targeting international shipping in the Red Sea, January 12, 2024. (credit: VIA REUTERS)

Earlier on Sunday, the Houthis complained that US aircraft were observed flying close to Yemeni airspace and coastal areas.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam described the activity by "enemy" aircraft as a blatant violation of national sovereignty.

Reuters could not immediately determine whether the incidents were one and the same. CENTCOM did not immediately respond to an email seeking further details about the interception.

The Red Sea crisis has added to anxieties over a wider conflict in the Middle East beyond Gaza, which Israel is reducing to rubble in what it says is a campaign to annihilate the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which rules the strip and, like the Houthis, is backed by Tehran.

Also on Sunday, pro-Palestinian activists protested at the gates of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, angry that the British base was used as a launch pad for strikes against the Houthis.

"We are here because we condemn the complicity of the UK government and using Cypriot land for their agenda to support Israel in their onslaught of Gaza," said Natalia Olivia of the Cyprus-based United for Palestine organization.

Most of Hamas's military leaders based in Beirut escaped the Lebanese capital due to fears of being targets of assassinations, KAN News reported Sunday night, citing a source within Hamas.

As per the source in the Gaza-based terrorist group, Hamas has taken significant measures to ensure their leaders' security following the targeted killing of Saleh al-Arouri, widely attributed to Israel.

Arouri was killed along with at least five other people in an alleged Israeli drone strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Arouri was not only viewed as one of the master planners of Hamas’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel but was also one of the main reasons for Hamas to Lebanon and to Iran.  

According to the KAN report, Hamas officials left Lebanon and soon were deported to Syria and Turkey. In addition, senior leader Ghazi Hamad had reportedly fled to Qatar and has not returned to Lebanon since Arouri's assassination.

Ghazi Hamad, member of Hamas Political Office delivers remarks on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, during a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, October 30, 2023. (credit: ALAA AL-MARJANI/REUTERS)

Sisters of former Hamas leader arrested in West Bank

Earlier on Sunday, Israeli forces arrested Dalal and Fatima al-Arouri, the sisters of former Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri, from their homes in al-Bireh and Aroura in the West Bank, according to Palestinian reports.

The two are suspected of spreading incitement, according to Army Radio.

The United States urged Israel to tone down its military campaign in Gaza as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged that the IDF would continue its war until Hamas was defeated.

“We are not saying let your foot up off the gas completely and don’t keep going after Hamas,” US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday when pressed on tensions between the two allies about Gaza.

Hamas “is still a viable threat,” and Israel has "every right and responsibility to go after that,” Kirby said, adding, “We believe the time is coming here very soon for a transition to a low-intensity phase.”

100 days 

He spoke as Israel marked its 100th day since the Hamas-led October 7 infiltration into southern Israel in which over 1,200 people were killed and some 250 were seized as hostages.

The Biden administration has strongly supported Israel’s military campaign to destroy Hamas sparked by the war, but it's a backing that has been fraught with tensions over the high Palestinian casualty count, the delivery of humanitarian aid, and plans for Gaza once the war is completed.

John Kirby, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, answers questions during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, US, February 17, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/EVELYN HOCKSTEIN)

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that the army is “not going to withdraw from Khan Yunis or anywhere else” in Gaza, adding that “military action takes time.”

No clear timeline

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that “one of the things that has become clear beyond all doubt is that we must conduct this war and it will yet take many months.”

It’s a stance that has concerned the US, given the absence of an end date and concern that it might not be possible to totally defeat Hamas. The tensions with the US have been accompanied by public outrage over the absence of a second hostage deal for the release of some 136 captives. One hundred and five captives were freed in an initial deal in November. Another four were released separately and one was freed by the IDF.

Hamas has insisted that any deal must include an end to the war, while Israel has said that only military pressure will secure their release, a strategy that seemed to lead to the first release but which has failed to secure a second one.

The US has sworn to do everything in its power to return the captives but has preferred to seek their freedom through diplomacy, as it urges Israel to transition faster from a high to a low-intensity campaign.

The Biden administration has been particularly concerned by Hamas assertions that close to 24,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza war-related violence. Israel has claimed that over 8,000 of those fatalities are Hamas combatants.

“We are certainly not walking away from the need to reduce civilian casualties,” Kirby said.

He stressed that the Biden administration has been speaking with Israel “intensely about a transition to low-intensity operations. We believe it is the right time for that transition, and we are talking to them about doing that.”

Israel has taken “some precursory steps to try to get to that point. They are pulling some troops out, they are relying a little less on airstrike.”

What needs to happen next, Kirby said, is “more targeted more precise raids” and “less airstrikes.”

During a visit to the IDF’s Judea and Samaria Division, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the the army “will not stop until we dismantle the capabilities of this organization, all over Gaza. 

“We have declared war on Hamas in Judea and Samaria, in Lebanon - wherever it may be necessary.” He stressed that when it comes to the West Bank, “I would like to emphasize: a strong Palestinian Authority is an Israeli security interest.”

Hamas on Sunday night published videos of Gaza hostages Noa Argamani, 26, Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itai Svirsky, 38, showing the first signs of life of all three hostages.

The video shows them introducing themselves and asking the Israeli government to return them home.

Hamas said the fate of the three would be revealed on Monday.

Background on the hostages

Noa Argamani was kidnapped from the Nova music festival at Kibbutz Re'im. A video of her riding off on the back of a motorcycle with Hamas terrorists on October 7 went viral.

Noa's mother, Liroa has terminal cancer and has been pleading for her daughter to be released so she can see her before the disease takes her life.

Noa Argamani (credit: Courtesy)

Yossi Sharabi was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be'eri. His wife and three children survived the massacre, after hiding for eight hours. Yossi offered himself as a hostage and to spare the rest.

His brother's fate is unknown, while his brother's wife and daughters were murdered. 

Itai Svirsky was also taken hostage from Kibbutz Be'eri, while he was visiting for the weekend. While hiding with his mother, Orit, the terrorists found them, and killed Orit right in front of him.

Itai's father, who lived in another house, was also murdered with his three golden retrievers. 

This is a developing story.

The IDF on Sunday published an extensive update on war statistics to date. These include some 9,000 Hamas terrorists killed; two of Hamas’s five brigade-level commanders eliminated; 19 battalion-level commanders killed of 24 battalions.

Despite those successes, Hamas’s top leadership in Gaza remains at large.

Previously, the IDF has said it killed around 1,500 Hamas terrorists in the South during the early days of the war to counter Hamas’s invasion. The estimated total number of Hamas forces has varied wildly from 40,000 pre-war to 25,000.

The IDF estimates Hamas wounded to be at least in the several thousand range.

Depending on the estimated total and some other factors, the IDF has killed, wounded, or arrested somewhere between one-third to more than 50% of Hamas’s forces.

Israeli, terror casualties in the North

Around 170 Hezbollah and Hamas-affiliated terrorists have been killed in the North. The IDF has also arrested 2,300, who have been interrogated by Unit 504. There have also been a total of 30,000 IDF attacks on Gaza and around 750 on Hezbollah or other terrorists in the North.

Israeli forces operate in the Gaza Strip on January 14, 2024 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Since October 7, a total of 522 IDF soldiers have been killed in action, 188 of them since the ground invasion started.

A total of 2,536 IDF soldiers have been wounded, 1,476 lightly, 672 moderately, and 388 seriously.

The IDF said that Hamas has fired some 9,000 rockets into Israeli airspace from Gaza, while some 2,000 rockets fell short.

Besides Hamas, Hezbollah has fired some 2,000 rockets or anti-tank missiles into Israel from Lebanon and another 30 or so from Syria.

Some pre-war estimates said Hamas had around 15,000 rockets, but Palestinian Islamic Jihad also had several thousand rockets. It is hard to estimate how many rockets Hamas still has since the IDF has destroyed both rockets and launchers, making some rockets unusable. But IDF sources do not deny that Hamas may still possess thousands more rockets.

The IDF did not provide numbers for Israelis evacuated from their homes in the North and the South, but these numbers have varied between the low 100,000 range to 250,000.

The IDF has conducted 79,000 direct evacuation phone calls to Palestinians who did not evacuate when it had already dropped approximately 7.2 million leaflets warning them to evacuate, sent 13.7 evacuation warning text messages, and also 15 million recorded evacuation messages.

The IDF has facilitated the transfer of 7,653 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza which were inspected at the Nitzana and Rafiah crossings carrying 137,920 tons of cargo. The cargo has included: 3,950 food trucks with 82,330 tons of food and 1,151 trucks of shelter supplies with 16,630 tons of  supplies.

The cargo has also included 1,007 trucks with 11,510 tons of medical supplies, 863 trucks of water carrying 17,320 tons, and another 682 miscellaneous trucks carrying 10,130 tons of unspecified cargo.

The IDF Home Front website has been visited 188 million times and has received 552,000 telephone calls.

Some 17,000 rocket alert sirens have sounded, leading to shelter in 450 new, fully protected spaces that have been erected, 1,000 makeshift medium protected areas that have been built, and 840 existing bomb shelters that have been renovated.

More than 25,000 people braved freezing temperatures in London for the biggest pro-Israel demonstration of the year to commemorate 100 days since the October 7 massacre.

Gathering in Trafalgar Square, a day after a pro-Palestinian demonstration marred by violence and antisemitism, with at least six arrests, the mood was by turn proud, joyous, defiant, and sad.

The demonstration was the first overtly pro-Israel one – others have been vigils for the dead and the hostages – and it came as the amount of antisemitism being felt by British Jews surpassed record levels long ago. Union Jacks, Israeli flags, and many from Iran all flew together at the heart of the capital city.

With a media that is often accused of having a pro-Palestine bias and a Diaspora crowd that was generally anti-Netanyahu, the mood was best summed up by Brit-Israeli Ali Lipman, 50, who said: “We are here to support the amazing people and army of Israel who have a right to defend themselves against evil terrorists. But I hope Bibi and his dire self-serving extreme government don’t think we are here for them – because we are not.”

Support for Israelis and hostages, condemnation of international organizations

The focus was both on the hostages and the rightness of standing with Israel.

Israel supporters at rally in Trafalgar Square in London, Britain, January 14, 2024 (credit: REUTERS/Belinda Jiao)

There were boos and cries of ‘shame’ when Eylon Keshet, a relative of the Bibas family – including the only hostage children left in Gaza – mentioned the way Israel had been let down by international organizations. “One hundred – that’s more than little Ariel can even count,” he said of the four-year-old child taken hostage with his parents and brother Kfir who is due to turn one-year-old on Thursday.

“That’s 100 days of evidence of the failed global organizations like the Red Cross and UNICEF. They have turned a blind eye to these atrocities and still haven’t visited our kidnapped children and loved ones. You only had one job – a sacred one – and you have failed that miserably.”

The event was heavily manned by police and the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity that safeguards the Jewish community. There were two arrests – one from a pro-Palestinian who had a loudspeaker and tried to interrupt and a second of a man who pulled down the “stop Israeli Gaza Genocide” banner of the anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox sect Neturei Karta, which has been ubiquitous on pro-Palestinian marches.

There was a performance from Israeli singer Gali Atari while Israeli President Isaac Herzog sent a video message saying: “This fight isn’t only between Israel and Hamas; it is between those who choose life and liberty and those who sanctify and glorify death and destruction.”

He thanked King Charles, the British government, and the leader of the opposition Keir Starmer for standing with Israel adding: “When I see the strength and diversity of this human chain of support and of love I know that we will never be broken.”