Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 104?

Turkish soccer club Basaksehir fined Israeli player Eden Kartsev for a social media post in support of Israeli hostages in Gaza, and decided to send the player on loan to a club in Israel, a spokesperson said.

Kartsev had shared on Instagram the slogan calling to "Bring them home now," referring to Israeli citizens held hostage by Hamas since October.

The club said his post had "violated the sensitive values of our country."

CNN anchor Jake Tapper shared a clip on X on Wednesday showing Hamas beheading Israelis and engaging in other ISIS-like tactics.

Tapper shared a clip from his show The Lead, where Hamas's tactics were shown to mirror ISIS's tactics.

pic.twitter.com/MpHk47P44j

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 17, 2024

The clip showed still images from a security camera in Kibbutz Nir Oz, where a Hamas terrorist can be seen wielding a knife and "sawing" at the necks of the victims of the attack.

"Evidence of beheadings, cementing an Israeli view that Hamas is now akin to jihadi groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS," says Matthew Chance reporting for CNN.

Chance goes on to describe the similarities between Hamas's tactics and those of ISIS saying "[ISIS] which also used beheadings, torture, and sexual violence against their captives."

"While the two groups use similar brutal tactics, their goals remain different."

While Israel is progressing in its goal to dismantle Hamas' fighting capabilities, but is not doing enough to dismantle Hamas' civilian wing, National Unity MK Ze'ev Elkin, who is Chairman of the Knesset's Subcommittee for Foreign Policy and Public Diplomacy and a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (FADC), said in an interview on Thursday.

According to Elkin, one of the war's goals, as formulated by the National Security Cabinet (NSC), is not only to defeat Hamas militarily, but also to take apart its capability to rule the Strip. However, if Israel does not focus on removing civil governing officials from their positions, Hamas will continue de-facto to control the populace - and eventually will seek to rebuild its armed wing, Elkin argues.

UN facilities facilitating Hamas

This civilian wing includes government and other officials, but also members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Elkin argues.

He gives the example of shelters in the Strip, many of which are located in UNRWA-run schools. Although officially under the auspices of UNRWA, many of these shelters are run by members of Hamas, Elkin claims. These Hamas members have complete control over the food, water, and services in the shelters, and therefore civilian dependence on Hamas has actually grown, not shrunk, he says. Asked how Israel should solve this problem, Elkin said that Israeli troops should enter the shelters themselves and remove all Hamas members from administrative positions – and should have done so in northern Gaza before most of its troops there were removed.

MK Mansour Abbas, the head of the Ra'am party, stated on Thursday that the Israeli government will not be able to achieve a breakthrough in the release of hostages held in Hamas captivity unless a Palestinian-civilian government is formed, according to Kan Reshet Bet.

"In order to achieve a breakthrough in the release of the hostages held in Hamas captivity, we need to change the current concept and find an overall solution to this war. Eliminating Hamas is not a realistic objective. The alternative must be a Palestinian-civilian government," Abbas said.

"International forces must be mobilized from trusted countries," he added.

MK Mansour Abbas, the head of the Ra'am party, stated on Thursday that the Israeli government will not be able to achieve a breakthrough in the release of hostages held in Hamas captivity unless a Palestinian-civilian government is formed, according to Kan Reshet Bet.

"In order to achieve a breakthrough in the release of the hostages held in Hamas captivity, we need to change the current concept and find an overall solution to this war. Eliminating Hamas is not a realistic objective. The alternative must be a Palestinian-civilian government," Abbas said.

"International forces must be mobilized from trusted countries," he added.

Arab states are collectively working to secure a ceasefire in the IDF's war on Gaza, which would see the release of Israeli hostages, further normalization of ties with Israel, and the creation of a Palestinian state, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

An Arab official told the source that the plans could entail Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel, which has been a goal of both the United States and Israel for some time. 

“Given the Israeli body politics today, normalization is maybe what can bring Israelis off the cliff,” the official said.

A condition of the deal would be that the US and European governments would formally agree to recognize a Palestinian state. The state would then be allowed full membership in the United Nations. 

“The real issue is you need hope for Palestinians, it can’t just be economic benefits or removal of symbols of occupation,” the senior official told the Times.  

Israel-Saudi normalization goals

The plans come only days after Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told the World Economic Forum, “We agree that regional peace includes peace for Israel, but that could only happen through peace for the Palestinians through a Palestinian state.”

Saudi-Israeli normalization had been progressing before October 7, when Hamas launched a mass terror attack on Israel which took the lives of over 1200 people. 

US and Saudi officials had been discussing Palestinian concessions to the deal, which would include a freeze in settlement expansions in the West Bank and boosting support for the West Bank's governing Palestinian Authority.

Israeli security forces arrested 15 terror suspects and killed eight more in a 35-hour raid of Tulkarm in the West Bank, the IDF said in a Thursday statement.

Reservist forces, along with Shin Bet, YAMAS, and Border Police, uncovered dozens of explosive devices hidden underneath roads across the West Bank.

As part of the 35-hour raid, which continued into Thursday evening, Israeli forces scanned through hundreds of buildings in Tulkarm and located countless weaponry and other military equipment, the IDF said. 

During the operation, IDF troops encountered and clashed with armed terrorists, who hurled explosives at the forces, the Israeli military said. 

Some of the armed terrorists were killed by targeted aerial strikes conducted by the forces.

In addition, a further 21 suspects were arrested in various operations across the West Bank overnight. Furthermore, in Hebron, Israeli forces found and confiscated more weapons and Hamas flags.

The Israeli military on Thursday sounded sirens in the southern port city of Eilat and a local radio station said an explosion had been heard as the result of the interception of an incoming aerial threat.

Eilat, on the Red Sea, has been the target of past long-distance launches by Iranian-aligned Yemeni Houthis, in solidarity with Palestinian militants fighting Israel in Gaza.

The family of Alon Shamriz, who was accidentally killed by IDF friendly fire, responded to the announcement that the IDF will form a committee on the topic of recognition of the status of killed hostages in Gaza in an interview on Thursday.

The family members of Alon, who was abducted to the Gaza Strip and accidentally killed by the army in Shejaiya, are calling for him and other hostages who were killed to be recognized as fallen soldiers. Yonatan, his brother, protested the establishment of the committee to investigate the matter - and clarified: "Not only should Alon receive recognition as a fallen soldier, he should also receive a medal of service."

In an interview with Ynet, Yonatan describes that the family's request to retroactively enlist Alon and recognize him as a fallen soldier was refused and that the announcement of the establishment of a committee to examine the issue is, according to him, an attempt by the IDF to push off the issue. "In the IDF, nothing takes a few months,' it will take years," he said.

Other cases haven't been as complicated

"I don't understand why a committee needs to be established," he continued, "I know of many, many cases of civilians who retroactively served on October 7 after being murdered and thus were recognized as fallen soldiers. I think that the establishment of such a committee does a disservice to the truth, and it is intended to smear us. The attempt is to deflect the subject."

When asked about these previous cases with simpler conclusions, he responded with a few examples.

"Unfortunately, I know of several cases. One example is that of a good friend of mine, who was murdered on October 7 in his apartment. He was not a reservist and was one of the first to be murdered in the kibbutz. He enlisted retrospectively and was recognized as an IDF soldier." 

Yonatan, brother of Alon Lulu Shamriz, one of three Israeli hostages who were mistakenly killed by the Israeli military while being held hostage in Gaza by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, receives medical assistance at the funeral in Shefayim, Israel, December 17, 2023 (credit: REUTERS/VIOLETA SANTOS MOURA)

He continued, "There is another case of a boy from Nahal Oz who was hit by friendly fire. He was also not in reserve service, and he was also a soldier in retrospect. That is why it is very strange to me that Alon's case was refused. His whole company was drafted, and he just couldn't answer the phone because the Nukhba terrorists took him to the tunnel. These are not practical stories."

According to Shamriz, the family did not hesitate to battle with the IDF. "Our request was refused without any reason being given. So we filed an appeal against the decision," he recalled.

"We received no document and no explanation, so we will move forward with all the steps at our disposal and demand answers."

Other hostage deaths are close to home

Yonatan was then asked about the announcement of the deaths of Itai Svirsky and Yossi Sharabi, also captives of Hamas. He responded with the following:

"I know Kibbutz Bari closely, and I share in the grief of the families. I have said in the past that the Israeli government did not prioritize the return of the hostages. After the women and children were returned, for them to return more hostages is not an obligation, it is simply a nice to have, and that's how it seems," he said.

His concluding statement was as follows: "This is delusional and painful, and it's unimaginable. I can't understand this idiot continuing to endanger the lives of the hostages and actually betraying them for the second and third time. The state should do everything to bring the hostages back alive as soon as possible, and after they do what they want with Hamas. Without the return of the kidnapped, there is no resurrection for the country."

The Israeli Air Force jets attacked infrastructures used by Hezbollah in the Al Adisa area of southern Lebanon on Thursday.

The IDF also attacked the Kafr Kila and Marjaayoun in southern Lebanon earlier.

This was after two launches fell in open areas from Lebanon towards the village Arab al-Aramshe in northern Israel.