Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 121?

In his first (brief, or at least highly abridged) interview with a Western news outlet since his election to the Israeli government in 2022, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir took a swipe at US President Joe Biden on Sunday, telling Dov Leiber of The Wall Street Journal that “if Trump [were] in power, the US conduct would be completely different.”

The brief profile, which only included a handful of statements by Ben-Gvir alongside two menacing portraits shot by Jordanian-American photographer Tanya Habjouqa, focused on the political leverage the once-fringe politician has accumulated since being shepherded into the mainstream during Netanyahu's year-long campaign to return to Balfour Street following his ouster in 2021.

IDF troops of the Paratroopers Brigade eliminated Hamas terrorists in Western Khani Yunis who were located in the vicinity, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit stated on Sunday.

In addition, the troops raided a compound utilized by the commander of Hamas’s Khan Yunis Brigade, from which he conducted operations. In it,  they found AK-47 rifles and ammunition, along with technological means and military equipment.

Combatants of the Givati Brigade also killed a terrorist who approached them with a knife and hurled two grenades at them. 

The IDF also said forces found RPGs inside a terrorist’s home.

IDF troops are seen operating in the Gaza Strip. February 4, 2024. (credit: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)

In parallel, the fighters also eliminated a terrorist they saw was nearing them.

They subsequently directed an aircraft that targeted and killed two terrorists approaching a building.

Directed by fighters of the 98th Division, an IAF jet eliminated a Palestinian Islamic Jihad sniper, the military noted. 

IDF targets terrorists from land, air, and sea 

In the north of the Strip, fighters of the 401st Brigade eliminated seven Hamas terrorists. 

Furthermore, during raids on numerous buildings, the fighters of the brigade located seven Kalashnikov assault rifles, three guns, and military equipment, in addition to ammunition and grenades.

According to the IDF, in the past day, the IAF conducted strikes against various terror targets, infrastructure, and launch sites. 

The strikes against Hamas targets were assisted by the navy, which continues to support the ground forces with fire cover and observation from the sea. 

A series of important airstrikes on the evening of February 3 targeted the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen. These are one of a series of rounds of airstrikes over the past month that are intended to stop the Houthi attacks on shipping. So far, the Houthis have not been deterred. The new round of strikes comes after the US also carried out strikes against Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria. Those strikes came after the militias killed three US soldiers in Jordan on January 27.

“As part of ongoing international efforts to respond to increased Iranian-backed Houthi destabilizing and illegal activities in the region, on Feb. 3 at approximately 11:30 p.m. (Sanaa time), U.S. Central Command forces, alongside UK Armed Forces and with the support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand conducted strikes against 36 Houthi targets at 13 locations in Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist-controlled areas of Yemen,” US Central Command said on February 4.

Edit: Since this article was written and published, Deputy Mayor Arieh King has sent out a city-wide message to residents that reads as follows: 

"Dear Jerusalemites,

I will not let Jerusalem become Gaza! I have already started promoting the removal of UNRWA from the city. This coming Monday at 7:00 p.m., we will demonstrate outside UNRWA headquarters by Ammunition Hill."

Manhi, the municipal education administration, has no up-to-date information regarding Jerusalem’s private Arab educational institutions. There are said to be four UNRWA schools here, yet despite the known dangers UNRWA poses Safra Square does not have the faintest idea about their existence in the city.

There are 15,380 Arab Jerusalemite students (approximately 13% of all eastern Jerusalem students) registered in institutions operating without a license, which are not budgeted for by the state nor supervised by it. 

Just as in Gaza, they study from textbooks full of hatred and incitement against the State of Israel in general and against Jews in particular, learning the most notorious antisemitic definitions, philosophy, and history.

An example of a math problem in an UNRWA schoolbook is “You have 10 Jews, you killed two, how many Jews do you have left to kill?” 

UNRWA aid packs: There are said to be four schools run by the UN agency in Jerusalem. (credit: ABED RAHIM KHATIB/FLASH90)

Fighting to rid Jerusalem of UNRWA

Against the uproar over the termination of funding to the UN agency due to the participation of its Gaza employees in the October 7 massacre, it is interesting to check what is happening in the capital. Deputy Mayor and United faction head Arieh King requested that the National Fund for Israel, which owns the land where one of the UNRWA schools is located, to order that it be vacated. He was told to apply to the Israel Land Authority “because they manage the lands and their use.”

In the Arab sector in eastern Jerusalem, out of some 119,000 students, in addition to the 15,380 Arab students who attend unsupervised institutions, 58,080 study at “unofficially recognized” institutions, and 45,040 in official educational institutions. 

Recently, Education Committee chairman MK Yosef Tayeb (Shas) called on the Education Ministry to exercise closer supervision of all educational institutions in the sector. The Education Ministry responded in general terms that “The schools operate without a license, in violation of the law. The ministry’s enforcement division has begun investigating the matter, and intends to involve investigative bodies and other authorities if necessary.”

The Jerusalem Municipality had no data on how many UNRWA schools were operating in the city and in which neighborhoods, but King seems to know more than the municipality’s administration, as he says that there are four UNRWA schools in Jerusalem. They are located in the City of David in the Old City; in the Shuafat refugee camp (north of Jerusalem); and in the Kalandiya refugee camp. 

Moreover, UNRWA’s regional headquarters are in the city’s Ma’alot Dafna neighborhood. 

“There is no difference between UNRWA workers in Gaza and UNRWA workers in Jerusalem,” insists King. “We have to expel UNRWA from Jerusalem now. ■

BBC Director-General Tim Davie has been conducting meetings in recent weeks aimed at giving employees space to voice their concerns about the corporation’s coverage of Palestinians throughout the Israel-Hamas war, which they claim is biased, sources in the BBC told news site Deadline last week.

In one memorable meeting on January 12, employees blamed the Broadcasting Corporation for using “dehumanizing” language with regard to the Palestinians in Gaza, while others accused the BBC of omitting specific stories that other networks, such as Al Jazeera and Channel 4, reported. 

IDF Sgt.-Maj. (res.) Shimon Yehoshua Asulin, 24, from Beit Shemesh, fell in battle in southern Gaza on Saturday, the IDF announced on Sunday morning.

Asulin served in the 924th Combat Engineer Battalion in the 10th "Harel" Brigade.

He was posthumously promoted from the rank of sergeant to the rank of sergeant-major.

Asulin's death brings the number of IDF servicemen and women to have lost their lives since the October 7 Hamas attacks to 562.

IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip. February 3, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Noam Dan, a relative of Israeli hostage Ofer Kalderon, who has spent more than 120 days in Hamas captivity, caused a stir on Saturday night when she was interviewed on Channel 12 News. During the conversation, interviewer Arad Nir asked her, "Do you think this is a frustrating situation where we are faced with someone devoid of emotions and humanity, making it difficult to reach [hostage] agreements with them?" 

Noam Dan replied, "Are you referring to [Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya] Sinwar or Bibi [Netanyahu]?"

When Arad confirmed he was indeed referring to the Hamas leader responsible for the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, Dan responded, "Oh, I didn't understand, because Bibi Netanyahu also meets all these definitions."

ערד ניר מראיין ב-12 את נעם דן, בת דודתו של עופר קלדרון שנחטף לעזה

ערד: את חושבת שמדובר פשוט במצב מתסכל שבו ניצב מולנו אדם נטול רגשות, נטול ערכים, נטול אנושיות, שקשה להגיע איתו להסכמות?

נעם: אנחנו מדברים עכשיו על סינואר או על ביבי נתניהו?

ערד: דיברתי על סינואר

נעם: אה, לא… pic.twitter.com/eBIZNw720i

— Sagi Bin Nun שגיא בן נון (@sagibi) February 3, 2024

Noam Dan's words stirred up a storm on social media: many Netanyahu supporters attacked Dan's words, though they also received a great deal of support, with many saying Dan was "amazing and correct." Noam Dan herself tweeted about the storm: "What could I say? It's a painful truth. Two politicians who only think about their political survival."

PROTESTERS CARRY banners at a recent demonstration calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s removal from office. (credit: AYAL MARGOLIN/FLASH90)

Hostages' relatives take action against govt's lack of action

A group of relatives of Israelis held hostage stormed a Knesset Finance Committee session in Jerusalem in late January, demanding that the lawmakers do more to try to free their loved ones.

At the committee meeting, one woman held up pictures of three family members. "Just one I'd like to get back alive, one out of three!" the protester cried after pushing into the Knesset Finance Committee discussion. Other protesters, clad in black T-shirts, held up signs reading: "You will not sit here while they die there."

Relatives of hostages also joined Israeli protestors, and IDF reservists spent several days at the end of January blocking the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip to demonstrate against humanitarian aid trucks crossing the border into Gaza. The group's actions drew international criticism from human rights groups at a time when Israel has faced accusations of war crimes. 

IDF Sgt.-Maj. (res.) Shimon Yehoshua Asulin, 24, from Beit Shemesh, fell in battle in southern Gaza on Saturday, the IDF announced on Sunday morning.

Asulin served in the 924th Battalion in the 10th Brigade.

A Jewish student ended up in the hospital after he was beaten by a fellow student over a dispute about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Mitte borough of Berlin on Friday night, Berlin Police said on Saturday.

The Jewish student was walking with an acquaintance when they met a fellow student and a dispute developed between the two, as the Jewish student is pro-Israel and the other student is pro-Palestinian.

During the argument, the other student suddenly hit the Jewish student several times in the face, causing him to fall. He then kicked the Jewish student who was lying on the ground and fled the scene.

The Jewish student was evacuated to the hospital while suffering from fractures on his face.

People attend the rally ''Against terror and antisemitism! Solidarity with Israel'' organised by Germany's Central Council of Jews, political parties, unions and civil society, at Brandenburg Gate, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Berlin, Germany. (credit: REUTERS/ANNEGRET HILSE)

The student suspected of beating up the Jewish student was located by police at his home in Schöneberg. During a court-ordered search of his home, emergency services confiscated evidence, including the student's smartphone.

The investigation is ongoing and has been taken over by a commissioner from the state security police of the State Criminal Police Office.

Jewish Student Union VP expresses outrage at wave of antisemitism

Noam Petri, vice president of the Jewish Student Union of Germany, expressed outrage at the attack in a post on X, writing that the students were both from the Freie Universität Berlin.

"Enough, @FU_Berlin!" wrote Petri. "To this day, antisemitic groups spread their hatred. To date, no restraining order has been issued. We continue to fight ✡️".

Nearly four months into the Israel-Hamas war, known as “Swords of Iron” in Israel, the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) and the evangelical Christian Friends of Zion (FOZ) heritage center hosted an event in Jerusalem for the international press. The event, titled “Israel and the Foreign Media in the October 7th War,” aimed to encourage responsible reporting, combat fake news and misinformation, and potentially shift the narrative surrounding the war. 

Featured speakers included members of the Israeli government, the international press, and families of hostages kidnapped by Hamas 115 days prior, who shared their experiences and concerns.

The event’s primary message focused on three key themes. Firstly, it emphasized that the war is not just a local conflict between Israelis and Palestinians but a regional, if not global, conflict involving Western powers against Iran, Russia, and China. Dr. Mike Evans, founder and chairman of the FOZ Heritage Center, pointed to over 160 attacks on US forces by Iran and its proxies since October 7, characterizing Hamas’ actions as a “preemptive attack by Iran’s proxy.” Evans raised concerns about Iran becoming a nuclear state by the time of the US elections.

“Why would they [Iran] fund and time this attack so significantly?” asked Evans rhetorically. “Because by the time we have US elections in November, Iran will be an atomic state. And Iran will have a nuclear umbrella shortly thereafter [with] Russian planes flying over Iranian airspace. They know this, the state of Israel knows this. So they’re trying to exhaust Israel and distract Israel from the biggest, gravest existential threat, in light of a presidential election in which the president needs the progressives and their support.”

Evans expressed explicit support for former President Donald Trump, calling him the best president for Israel in its history. He also urged support for the bombing of Kharg Island, which he alleges houses approximately 90% of Iran’s crude oil.

(L-R) Gideon Bayer, Malki Shem-Tov, Yoni Asher, Ofri Bibas, Sigi Cohen, panelists whose family members were taken hostage or killed by Hamas speaking at the GPO-FOZ event, Jan. 29, 2024. (credit: Aaron Poris/The Media Line)

The second key theme—closely related to the first—highlights the conflict as an existential war between “good and evil.” Evans asserted that “the liberal left has convinced the world that the war on terror cannot be won with military action” and “appeasement has been the offshoot of self-loathing rather than believing that those who waged war against Israel on Oct. 7 are evil, they see Israel as evil for retaliating.”

Driving this point home for the audience, a panel of hostages’ families and bereaved parents shared their traumatic and ongoing experiences. Among them, Malki Shem-Tov and Sigalit “Sigi” Cohen, whose sons Omer and Elia respectively, were both kidnapped from the Nova music festival and still remain in Hamas’ captivity.

Also on the panel were Yoni Asher, whose wife and two young daughters were released from Hamas’ captivity in the November prisoner exchanges after nearly two months in Gaza; Gideon Bayer, an evangelical Christian man whose son, Sgt 1st Class Urija Bayer was killed fighting for the IDF; and Ofri Bibas, whose brother Yarden, Sister-in-Law Shiri, and two nephews (4 year-old Ariel and 1-year-old Kfir) have captivated global attention as one of the few whole families to be kidnapped by Hamas on October 7.

Kfir—who was just 9 months old at the time of his kidnapping—is also the youngest hostage to have been taken by the Palestinian terror organization.

As the panelists spoke, moderator Joel Rosenberg of The Rosenberg Report, and several members of the audience broke down into tears—the speakers’ stories highlighting a fraction of the personal devastation of the war.

Meanwhile, journalists on another panel at the event—moderated by Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman, deputy CEO of strategy and innovation at the Jerusalem Post Group—lamented what they considered to be an all-too-often uncritical and amoral acceptance of Hamas’ narrative in the media.

Bureau Chief of CBN News in Israel and the Middle East, Chris Mitchell, described covering regional wars since the 2006 second Lebanon war, expressing surprise that the obvious narrative isn’t universally accepted.

Having covered the last 20 years of conflict, Mitchell says, “You get an idea of who’s the good guys and who’s the bad guys, and it seems pretty obvious because we’ve seen this before. This movie [October 7] is the most egregious, the worst, most horrific—but we’ve seen scenarios like this time and again. Hamas will attack, [Palestinian] Islamic Jihad will attack, Israel will respond, and they [Hamas & PIJ] will use their human shields and the people that die tragically as propaganda.”

“And yet,” Mitchell concludes, “it seems like some in the foreign media just play along with what Hamas or other terror groups have done.”

Eylon Levy, spokesperson for the Israeli National Public Diplomacy Directorate, recounted a moment when Sky News anchor Kay Burley asked him if Israel values Palestinian lives less than Israeli lives, which went viral. Levy expressed shock at implicit and explicit allegations that Israel wants the war or is needlessly prolonging it.

One of the major challenges Levy says he contends with when speaking to the foreign media is “how much we don’t want this war, but how much we nevertheless have to fight and win this war. Because otherwise, there’s simply no future for this country.”

In a follow-up question, Levy, a former journalist, outlined three key points to keep in mind when interviewing: That October 7 was the opening act of war, to focus on the hostages, and highlight how Hamas has brought ruin and misery to Palestinians in Gaza.

“The world is right to be outraged and deeply hurt, and traumatized by the suffering taking place in Gaza,” Levy says. “We don’t mean to downplay it for a moment. But that suffering has an address. And that address is the brutal terror organization [Hamas] that declared a totally needless war on October 7, and which has chosen to wage that war from underneath and behind civilians.”

As for the third, and arguably most journalistically relevant theme at the GPO event—it’s that the war is a battle for truth and ethical reporting in a world of deep-fakes, fake news, and social media algorithms controlling public discourse.

IDF spox. emphasizes importance of ensuring press has access to information

IDF Foreign Media Spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht emphasized the importance of ensuring the press has unprecedented access to information about the war to counter potential distortions. Inspired by US President Eisenhower in the days after liberating Jews from the Nazi concentration camps, Hecht invited the press to Gaza border communities just three days after October 7 to witness the atrocities firsthand.

In his opening remarks, GPO Director Nitzan Chen quoted Mark Twain, highlighting the challenge of lies spreading faster than the truth. Speakers emphasized the need for caution in reporting. In one example, Hecht brought up the Al-Ahli hospital bombing incident, where Hamas falsely accused Israel. Despite presenting evidence that a PIJ rocket caused minimal damage, the lie persists.

Hamas has repeatedly spread false information as part of psychological operations, hoping to divide the Israeli public and gain support for ‘the resistance.’ The press hasn’t always fallen for the lies, and Israeli government coordinator for hostages and missing IDF Brig. Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsh thanked the media for their cooperation. He cited examples of requests to avoid publishing sensitive material to prevent misinformation that burdens hostage families.

More importantly, misinformation and fake news threaten global order. In a prerecorded speech, Israeli President Isaac Herzog thanked the media for shedding light on the stories of hostages and Hamas’ crimes. He emphasized the need to avoid swallowing fabrications and falsehoods. Herzog added that more people today get news from ill-informed social media influencers, posing a challenge to the free world. He advocated not allowing access to accurate reporting to depend on algorithms or the rationing of press freedom by likes and shares.

During the press workers’ panel discussion, award-winning freelance journalist Zach Anders asserted that free speech and truthful information, cornerstones of democracy, are under attack from every angle. He expressed concerns about the role of AI and social media technology in distorting reality and advocated for a digital bill of rights to address potential threats.