Israel-Hamas War: What happened on Day 118?

Sderot is the largest of the cities that Israel evacuated in the wake of the Hamas attack on October 7. For two decades, the city was a symbol of Israel’s steadfastness and resilience in the face of terrorism. However, after October 7, there is a lot of uncertainty about what comes next.

Nevertheless, residents are returning. Noam Ivri Adanani is one of those residents. Along with his wife and her family, he left Sderot for hotels at the Dead Sea, where Israel evacuated people from Sderot on the fifth day of the war.

“Now there is a stronger sense of security, and the rocket fire has radically decreased. Northern Gaza has been taken over by the IDF. Hamas and the other terrorist groups have been degraded there,” Ivri Adanani says. It has been a difficult experience. During the first days of the war in Sderot, the residents stayed indoors because of the terrorist threat.

They emerged after three days and then found themselves being evacuated. Dozens of Hamas terrorists attacked Sderot and killed numerous people in the city. The terrorists also attacked the Sderot police station, killing police and leading to an all-night battle. Eventually, the police station was destroyed to defeat the terrorists. Sixty-one Israeli police died fighting the wave of Hamas terror on October 7, some of them in Sderot.

A sense of losing the war among residents in Sderot

 Before the war, Sderot had weathered previous rounds of fighting. The Chabad house in the city even has a Menorah made from pieces of rockets that fell on the city. Armored shelters are everywhere. It’s a city that knew how to live with rocket fire, but Hamas infiltrating the city and a war stretching into its fifth month was not something the city had calculated.

Israeli police explosive experts survey the remains of a private house after it was hit by a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel, in Sderot, southern Israel October 15, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)

“There was a sense in the community of Sderot evacuees that Israel had lost to Hamas, at least temporarily. In previous conflicts, we had a few days of a mostly air-based war and rockets fired at Israel, and authorities might evacuate a few elderly, or give a stipend to some people whose businesses or livelihoods were affected by the war; but people leaving their homes for an indefinite period – months or a maybe even a year – that was frustrating and rejecting,” Ivri Adanani says.

 When the people of Sderot were evacuated, they joined 100 other communities around the border of Gaza and in northern Israel. The evacuations are a new policy for Israel, essentially admitting that communities on the borders cannot be defended against the kind of genocidal attack Hamas carried out and which Hezbollah might attempt.

The Ministry of Defense discussed its project, Northern Horizon, on February 1. “Currently, the directorate has identified 427 damaged houses, including 80 directly affected,” in the north. The damage in the south is much more significant. In Sderot, though, the issue is not damage but returning a city to its normal, thriving life.

 Ivri Adanani recalls leaving Sderot in October and passing the farm of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. It brought up memories of Disengagement from Gaza. “There was a sentiment about this, even before Oct. 7, that Disengagement was a mistake, and Sderot bore the brunt of it, and other Gaza border communities,” he says.

Ivri Adanani evacuated with his wife and members of her family. He brought only a small amount of stuff with him. One thing he brought was his army gear, and within days, he was called to reserve duty and packing to go to Hebron, where he served.

 Israel’s policy during the war has been to house the evacuees at hotels. For small communities that often have only a few hundred residents, the government tried to house them in the same hotel. For Sderot, a city of 30,000, this required numerous hotels. It was chaotic. The Ivri Adananis went to one hotel and then another.

They ended up at the Herber Samuel Milos. “It was me, my wife, mother-in-law, and wife’s sister, and several aunts and uncles and their kids – all in all, we were about fifteen. About half of them would later leave the Dead Sea, going to Eilat or Jerusalem to rent an apartment and live more organically in a functioning city rather than a hotel resort area not intended for long-term stays as refugees in their own country,” he recalls.

At the hotel, the people ate in shifts because there were so many. Eventually, some community services were provided, such as medical needs or meetings with therapists. There was some positives to the hotels, the trauma of becoming a refugee in one’s own country could be temporarily addressed by some hotel benefits, such as the pool or spa. “I wasn’t in the mood for any fun or leisure activities, and preferred to watch the news and spot any traces of hope that the government would pursue the necessary mission to destroy Hamas,” says Ivri Adanani.

 The Dead Sea was safe from attack, more than Eilat, where some evacuees had to experience sirens due to the Houthi threat. However, there were apprehensions about attacks from other fronts and the fact Israel was entering a long war. There also wasn’t much to do at the Dead Sea. Ein Bokek doesn’t have a lot of restaurants or places to go, unlike Eilat. Children had to attend school remotely.

“The hotels, to their credit, did set up a lot of activities for kids, such as daycares. But I think a lot of kids got anxious. They built a makeshift playground for the kids near the hotel. Then Bnai Akiva and other youth groups began reconstituting their activities for displaced kids.

So there was a little bit of trying to make it seem like a more organic community,” Ivri Adanani says. Meanwhile he got to play an important role in reserve duty in the West Bank. “Summarizing reserve duty, I felt a point of pride representing my people in these times of darkness and using Arabic and English to the best that I could to make Israel safer.

It was a multifaceted ordeal, trying to help the West Bank Palestinians who are not pro-terrorism and want to go on with their lives without incidents, and trying to lower the tensions,” he recalls.

After more than a month in the Dead Sea, his family did get to briefly return to Sderot during the pause in fighting in late November. “We saw that our home, thankfully, was undamaged by rockets, and there were no leaks or power outages. We had our first Shabbat there in late December, a family get together with a lot of relatives returning to their homes in Sderot,” he says.

Now they are back in the city. However, he estimates only thirty to forty percent of residents have returned. Many who have children have not. In addition, many businesses are still not open. There is a sense of security but there is much more to do. He estimates only half the synagogues, for instance, have a minyan, or the traditional ten men needed to conduct Jewish communal prayer.

The city feels more secure, and there are soldiers at the entrances to Sderot. “This will make people feel more comfortable even years into the future when, God-willing, there is no more Hamas in Gaza,” he says. Government subsidies remain for some, but they are dismally small.

Some of the people may not return to their communities in the future. However, many people in Sderot are resolute, Ivri Adanani says. “And you will have new families from central Israel that might feel a sense of patriotic duty or cheap apartments, people seeking to get out of the crowded Tel Aviv metro area.

There are reservists deployed in Sderot with whom I spoke, who had never been to the city prior to the war, and when they saw the city was intact and had wide boulevards and modern schools, they were impressed with what a great place to live it could be, especially if postwar not next to a hostile terror entity.”

There are also other changes in the city. Whereas Palestinian workers once came to work in these areas, now there are foreign workers, such as Chinese, doing construction. “There are a lot of very dynamic changes already showcasing Sderot’s vitality during the war and hinting at how it could look the day after,’” Ivri Adanani concludes.

US President Joe Biden's special envoy, Amos Hochstein, will visit Israel early next week, KAN News reported on Thursday evening.

The IDF announced on Thursday that schools can now reopen in southern Israel close to the Gaza Corridor due to the improved security situation achieved by the IDF achieving operational control in key parts of Gaza and a major reduction in rocket fire.

The change is expected to transform the return to southern Israel of massive numbers of civilians who fled when the war started in October.

On January 1, the IDF announced that residents of six Gaza border towns, which were between four to seven kilometers from the border, would start returning home for the first time since October 7.

The first towns that the IDF had cleared to go back were three in the Ashkelon corridor, followed by three in the Sha'ar Hanegev region.

Since then, thousands of residents returned to their homes, but have had no schooling for their children, and many others held off going back because of the lack of schooling.

Despite the change, each town is being addressed individually, and there are towns in the Shaar Hanegev and Eshkol regions that still are not yet permitted to open schooling.

Part of the schooling issue relates to how many people are allowed to gather together.

With the IDF dropping the danger level from Level 2 to Level 3, now 100 people are allowed to congregate indoors together and up to 300 outdoors, whereas before, the limits were 50 indoors and only 100 outdoors, which made running schools difficult or impossible.

Generally, the IDF has been first allowing town residents to return to areas that are closer to northern Gaza, where the IDF already has had stronger control for longer, whereas Israeli towns that are closer to southern Gaza will need to wait longer, according to new gains the IDF expects to make.

Next, towns that are zero to four kilometers from Gaza are expected to need to wait longer to return.

Regarding a much larger number of towns which were zero to four kilometers from Gaza, Hamas managed to destroy a more significant amount of houses and infrastructure, which will take longer to rebuild before residents can return.

No expectation for Israeli northern schools to reopen before summer break

At the same time, the IDF said that there is no expectation of an opportunity to reopen schools for northern border residents.

An armed man took staff hostage at a Procter & Gamble PG.N factory in northwestern Turkey on Thursday in an apparent protest against Israel's war in Gaza, Demiroren News Agency reported.

The unidentified man entered the factory in Gebze industrial zone in Kocaeli province around 3:00 p.m. local time, Demiroren said, adding that police rushed to the scene and were trying to persuade him to give himself up.

The Kocaeli governor was on his way to the scene, according to private NTV.

Turkish authorities have not issued any statement on the incident.

People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with Palestinian children in Gaza Strip, December 23, 2023 (credit: REUTERS/DILARA SENKAYA)

Suspect seen wearing potential explosive device

A photo released by local media showed a man inside the factory whose face was covered with a Palestinian scarf and who was wearing what looked possibly like an explosive device.

Reports in Turkey: An armed man took at least 7 hostages at an American company's factory “in protest of Gaza”

Pro Palestinians are the weirdest Nazis in the world. pic.twitter.com/TbcWgjccp2

— Adam Albilya - אדם אלביליה (@AdamAlbilya) February 1, 2024

Another photo showed the man holding a gun in one hand and making a 'V' sign with his other hand in front of a wall on which Turkish and Palestinian flags were painted with a script that reads: "Gates will open. Either coffin rest or death for Gaza."

This is a developing story.

Some staff at a Procter & Gamble factory in northwestern Turkey have been taken hostage by an armed man apparently protesting against Israel's operation in Gaza, Demiroren News Agency reported on Thursday.

An unidentified man carrying a gun entered the factory in Gebze industrial zone in Kocaeli province around 3 p.m. (1200 GMT), Demiroren said, adding that police rushed to the scene and were trying to persuade him to stand down.

The Kocaeli governor is on his way to the scene, according to private NTV. Turkish authorities have not issued any statement on the incident.

Israel's State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman requested government documents on the transfer of funds to Hamas as part of his office's investigation into the October 7 massacre, Israeli media reported Thursday.  

As per reports, Englman sent a letter to the Prime Minister's Office director-general Yossi Shelley, as well as to Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and National Security Council head Tzachi Hangebi, demanding documents relating to 27 items under investigation by the comptroller's office.

These 27 items include, along with the transfer of funds to Hamas, documents pertaining to the construction of the Gaza border fence as well as cabinet discussions on efforts made to stifle terror tunnels from the Strip.

Englman's office had already begun the investigation process upon procurement of Shin Bet computers and documents, reports noted.

According to Israeli media, sources within the government criticized Englman's conduct and urgency to investigate the October 7 massacre. Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs was reportedly denied a request to delay the state comptroller's probe by six months.

STATE COMPTROLLER Matanyahu Englman attends a conference of the Besheva media group in Jerusalem, earlier this year. Last year, a state comptroller report found there were 18,500 vacant positions in the nation’s hi-tech industry. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

IDF chief, state comptroller to meet on Israeli military's cooperation

Englman was also set to meet with IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi "soon" after the two exchanged verbal jabs over the comptroller's insistence to launch the probe before the IDF ends its war on Hamas in Gaza.

Halevi claimed last week that although the military was undertaking its probe independently and the IDF was supportive of a postwar state commission of inquiry, distracting the IDF mid-war with comptroller inquiries would be dangerous.

Englman then dismissed the IDF chief's objections, demanding that Halevi meet with him one-on-one in the near future to finalize the details of how the IDF will cooperate with the comptroller’s probe.

This is a developing story.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to "fight" for fallen IDF soldiers in Gaza while visiting wounded troops at Sheba Medical Center in central Israel on Thursday afternoon.

"I see your strength, and I see your support of each other," Netanyahu told the hospitalized soldiers. "You are our heroes," the prime minister added, saying that the fall of the soldiers' friends was "not in vain."

US President Joe Biden is expected to issue an executive order targeting Jewish settlers who attack Palestinians in the West Bank, Politico reported, citing documents, a US official and a congressional aide.

The order was set to be released later Thursday, according to the documents and the US official, and is expected to include sanctions against the settlers, the news outlet reported.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

Warning Israel to act on settler violence

Biden and other senior US officials have warned repeatedly that Israel must act to stop violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. Attacks there have surged in recent months as Jewish settlements have expanded, and then spiked again since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

In December, the United States began imposing visa bans on people involved in violence in the West Bank.

Since the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel has been present in the West Bank of the Jordan River, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state. It has built Jewish settlements there that most countries deem illegal. Israel disputes this and cites historical and biblical ties to the land.

The United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) said on Thursday that it will most likely be forced to shut down its operations in the Middle East, including in Gaza, by the end of the month if funding does not resume.

A string of countries including the United States, Germany and Britain have paused their funding to the aid agency in the wake of allegations that some UNRWA staff were involved in Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel.

"The agency remains the largest aid organization in one of the most severe and complex humanitarian crises in the world," UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement.

"If the funding remains suspended, we will most likely be forced to shut down our operations by end of February not only in Gaza but also across the region."

The Israeli offensive launched in the wake of the attacks, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 253 taken hostage, has displaced most of Gaza's population, left many homes and civilian infrastructure in ruins, and caused acute shortages of food, water and medicine.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told Reuters on Thursday he was "reasonably optimistic" some countries that had paused funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) would resume payments.

UNRWA on Thursday said its entire operations in the Middle East, not only in Gaza, will most likely be forced to shut down by the end of February if its funding remains suspended.