Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 137?

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in an interview with Eran Binyamini and Igal Gueta on Kan Reshet Bet on Tuesday that the hostages are not of the utmost importance when it comes to the Israel-Hamas war. 

While the interviewer emphasized the return of the 134 hostages is of prime importance; Smotrich said, "No, that’s not the most important thing."

He further stated, "It's very important, but not the most important thing."

Smotrich then clarified, "We are committed to bringing back the hostages - the only way of doing this is by defeating Hamas and applying even more military pressure; this is what brought to the previous deal."

"No pressure," internal or external, will change Israel's plans to destroy Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told IDF soldiers at the Zikim base in southern Israel on Tuesday evening.

Netanyahu, who spoke as the United Nations Security Council convened to discuss Israel's war in Gaza, told soldiers that Israel "faces pressure to end this war before reaching all of our goals.

"We would love to release more hostages, we are willing to go to great lengths to get there, but we will not pay any price, espeically not the delusional prices set by Hamas."

The United States on Tuesday again vetoed a draft United Nations Security Council resolution on the Israel-Hamas war, blocking a demand for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire as it instead pushes the 15-member body to call for a temporary ceasefire linked to the release of hostages held by Hamas.

Thirteen council members voted in favor of the Algerian-drafted text, while Britain abstained. It was the third such US veto since the start of the current fighting on Oct. 7.

"A vote in favor of this draft resolution is support to the Palestinians' right to life. Conversely, voting against it implies an endorsement of the brutal violence and collective punishment inflicted upon them," Algeria's UN Ambassador Amar Bendjama told the council before the vote.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield signaled on Saturday that the US would veto the draft resolution over concerns it could jeopardize talks between the US, Egypt, Israel, and Qatar that seek to broker a pause in the war and the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

"Demanding an immediate, unconditional ceasefire without an agreement requiring Hamas to release the hostages will not bring about a durable peace. Instead, it could extend the fighting between Hamas and Israel," Thomas-Greenfield told the council ahead of the vote.

"From my point of view, October 7 was a punishment from God", said Channel 14 presenter and 103FM broadcaster Yinon Magal in a sneak peek video of an interview between him and Roni Kuban that will be aired on Tuesday evening.

In the clip, Yinon claimed that the punishment from god was deserved because of immoral actions by the Israeli public during the holidays, including breaking up prayer services in Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur last year.

Roni Kuban, the interviewer and host of the show "Meeting with Roni Kuban," in which the full interview will be aired, pushed back in the clip, asking, "God is responsible for a security failure?"

Roni Kuban at the launch event of the broadcasting season of the Public Broadcasting Corporation ''KAN'' in Tel Aviv, February 8, 2023. (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/FLASH90)

When Yinon laughed off the question and responded with "No," Roni followed up by asking, "Who was more responsible for the security failure on October 7, God or Netanyahu?"

Magal then responded, saying, "Netanyahu is guilty," a few times before the clip ended.

האם ינון מגל העביר אי פעם ביקורת על ראש הממשלה בנימין נתניהו?

הערב #פגישה עם @ronikuban אחרי החדשות בכאן 11 ובכאן BOX @YinonMagal pic.twitter.com/JedGQfvOhx

— כאן (@kann) February 20, 2024

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit revealed on Sunday a pharmacy containing sealed packages of drugs that were transferred for the treatment of the hostages. Many of them suffer from chronic diseases and need daily care, without which their lives are in danger. 

Maariv revealed the drugs identified from the videos, their nature, and the indications for which they are intended.

The medicines found by the IDF soldiers at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis were closed and had not been used. Some of them were still enclosed in sealed brown boxes. On every medication box was the name of the hostage for whom it was intended. The IDF said that the source of the drugs and their use was under investigation.

The IDF operation was carried out by the commando forces, Shayetet 13, and other special forces, following intelligence information that indicated Hamas terror activity at the hospital. While searching the hospital area, Maglan fighters also located Hamas weapons, mortars, and grenades.

The IDF spokesperson obscured the drugs to prevent their association with the hostages. Maariv listed the drugs themselves and the indications for which they were intended.

The United States on Tuesday again vetoed a draft United Nations Security Council resolution on the Israel-Hamas war, blocking a demand for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

Thirteen council members voted in favor of the Algerian-drafted text, while Britain abstained. It was the third such US veto since the start of the current fighting on Oct. 7.

"A vote in favor of this draft resolution is support to the Palestinians' right to life. Conversely, voting against it implies an endorsement of the brutal violence and collective punishment inflicted upon them," Algeria's UN Ambassador Amar Bendjama told the council before the vote.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield signaled on Saturday that the US would veto the draft resolution over concerns it could jeopardize talks between the US, Egypt, Israel, and Qatar that seek to broker a pause in the war and the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

"Any action this council takes right now should help, not hinder these sensitive, and ongoing negotiations. And we believe that the resolution on the table right now would, in fact, negatively impact those negotiations," Thomas-Greenfield told the council ahead of the vote.

"Demanding an immediate, unconditional ceasefire without an agreement requiring Hamas to release the hostages will not bring about a durable peace. Instead, it could extend the fighting between Hamas and Israel," she said.

In an interview on Radio North 104.5FM on Tuesday, the Alma Center's director of research, Tal Be'eri, referred to a report by the French newspaper Liberation claiming that Hezbollah has a secret tunnel network. This tunnel network, according to the report, is even more advanced than that of Hamas in Gaza.

According to the report, Hezbollah has an underground infrastructure hundreds of kilometers long that reaches into Israel, and possibly into Syria as well.

"Our assumption is that everything we see in Gaza in the past few months – all this and more is happening in Lebanon," Be'eri said. "Hezbollah started building in the 1980s, with the help of Iran and North Korea, who brought the professional knowhow. The result is a large system of tunnels under Lebanon.

"The tunnels are divided into different types," Be'eri continued. "The types we are familiar with are the attack tunnels, whose purpose is to cross the fence and invade the Galilee area, but here we are also talking about strategic tunnels that allow people to move from place to place, spread over many kilometers. Unlike the attack tunnels, they allow for the movement of vehicles and even medium-sized trucks," he added.

Two people were killed in an IDF strike on a vehicle in Rafah on Tuesday, according to Israeli media citing reports in Gaza. 

This is a developing story. 

US, European, and Middle Eastern officials have been sending out messages recently suggesting that there may be a path to establish a Palestinian state as part of a larger peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was among those voicing the White House’s wish for Palestinian statehood recently, saying that he had been working on “a practical, time-bound, irreversible path to a Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace with Israel.”

US President Joe Biden has also spoken about working “toward a two-state solution.” Both French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron and former British Prime Minister David Cameron have also spoken of a “horizon” leading to a two-state solution.

The Washington Post reported last week that talks involving the US, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Palestinian representatives were proposing a three-stage truce, which in the first stage would involve a six-week cease-fire during which Hamas would release the over 100 Israeli hostages it is holding.

This would give the sides time and space to garner support, hold meetings, and even see the formation of an interim Palestinian government, the report said.

In response to such reports, Israel’s government on Sunday firmly rejected any international attempts to impose recognition of a Palestinian state on Israel, saying that any permanent settlement with the Palestinians would come about only through direct negotiations between the sides.

“Israel utterly rejects international decrees regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians,” the cabinet said in a statement.

“A settlement, if it is to be reached, will come about solely through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions. Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. Such recognition in the wake of the October 7th massacre would be a massive and unprecedented reward to terrorism and would foil any future peace settlement.”

The World Food Programme said on Tuesday it was pausing deliveries of food aid to northern Gaza until conditions in the Palestinian enclave allow for safe distribution.

"The decision to pause deliveries to the north of the Gaza Strip has not been taken lightly, as we know it means the situation there will deteriorate further and more people risk dying of hunger," the Rome-based WFP, the United Nations' food agency, said in a statement.

Three UN agencies - the WFP, the World Health Organization, and the children's agency UNICEF - said on Monday food and safe water were "incredibly scarce and diseases are rife...resulting in a surge of acute malnutrition" in Gaza more than four months into the Israel-Hamas war.

The food crisis is particularly serious in the north, where in January one in six children under the age of two were reported as acutely malnourished, and where "the situation is likely to be even graver today", the agencies said.

Men inspect trucks carrying aid from UN World Food Programme (WFP), following a deadly earthquake, at Bab al-Hawa crossing, Syria February 20, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/MAHMOUD HASSANO)

Resumed on Sunday

The WFP said it had resumed food deliveries to the north on Sunday after they were suspended for three weeks because of an attack on a UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) truck and "the absence of a functioning humanitarian notification system."

A convoy of trucks started making its way towards Gaza City, but struggled to make progress as hungry crowds tried to attack the trucks, which then faced gunfire as they entered the city, the agency said.

The next day, WFP trucks were looted between Khan Yunis in the south and Deir al Balah in central Gaza, and a driver was beaten, it said.

The Israeli military began its offensive to eradicate Hamas in Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas raid on southern Israel in which Israel said 1,200 people were killed and 253 taken hostage by the Islamist militant group. More than 29,000 people have since been killed in Gaza, health authorities in the Hamas-governed enclave say.