Israel-Hamas War: What happened on Day 138?

Hamas is reportedly being pressured by Hezbollah and mediators to drop high demands from Israel in a possible deal, Arab affairs commentator Jacky Hugi said in a Wednesday interview with Army Radio.

"Hamas is under pressure from home and abroad, one of them is Hezbollah," he said. "In recent weeks, Nasrallah and his men have asked Hamas to consolidate and claimed that their demand to release hundreds of prisoners with blood on their hands is unrealistic, and Israel would not be able to comply with it even if it really wanted to."

An alleged Israeli airstrike targeted the Kafr Sousa neighborhood of Damascus on Wednesday morning, according to Syrian state media.

Looks like an apartment may have been targeted. Could be a targeted assassination.https://t.co/Bv9skRc4s8

— Tzvi Joffre (@TzviJoffre) February 21, 2024

The neighborhood hosts residential buildings, schools, and cultural centers and lies near a large, heavily guarded complex used by security agencies. The district was targeted in an Israeli attack in February 2023 that killed Iranian military experts.

Around 40 wanted persons were arrested throughout the West Bank on Tuesday night by the IDF, Israel Security Service (Shin Bet), and Border Police, an IDF spokesperson said the following morning.

During a counter-terrorism operation in Jenin, 14 suspects were arrested, and three terrorists were killed, with a few injured in the operation.

Israeli forces located weapons and uncovered explosives planted with the aim of harming the security forces. Also, during the operation, an IDF aircraft attacked terrorists.

The IDF's Arabic Spokesman, Avichay Adraee, issued a call in Arabic to civilians still remaining in the Zitun and Turkmen neighborhoods of Gaza City, telling them to evacuate to the humanitarian areas south of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning. 

The areas in which the directive was issued are located next to a significant junction that the IDF has cleared in the south of Gaza City, effectively dividing Gaza into two parts. This is one of the significant logistical operations that the IDF carried out in the Gaza Strip. IDF soldiers have created a partition on the Palestinian side of the Gaza border fence with Israel. It has already earned the nickname "Gaza crossroad" in both Israel and Gaza. 

Health Minister Uriel Busso and Ministry Director General Moshe Bar Siman Tov notified all relevant authorities in Israel of detailed scenarios that could take place should Israel go to war on the northern front against Hezbollah in a presentation.

If this should be the case, Israel should be prepared for blackouts and power outages in more than 60% of the country, as well as power outages that will last about 48 hours. Local power outages may last up to three weeks in such a scenario. Managing such an electricity demand may lead to two-hour power outages between two and three times a day in every house in Israel. 

Residents of Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip and Rafah in the south took to the streets on Tuesday night to protest against Hamas leaders amid the ongoing war with Israel. Since the beginning of the conflict, there have been several protests by Gazan residents against the terrorist organization, but this is still a rather exceptional event.

Rafah now has demonstrations against Hamas pic.twitter.com/FnDqsLwoNZ

— Ph.Gritti (@Philipp27960841) February 20, 2024

Iran's Oil Minister Javad Owji accused on Wednesday Israel of being behind an attack on gas pipelines which occurred last week, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Brazilian First Lady Janja Lula Silva on Monday called the Israeli government genocidal and denied assertions that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had engaged in antisemitism by comparing Israel’s war against Hamas to the Holocaust.

“The speech referred to the genocidal government and not to the Jewish people,” the First Lady wrote on social media.

The White House warned, on Tuesday, against an Israeli military operation in Gaza, the Associated Press reported.

Claiming any misstep in potential operations in the densely populated city of Rafah would be a “disaster,” National Security spokesperson John Kirby said Israel needed to take into account the safety of Palestinian refugees taking residence in the city.

We must start with a simple and honest statement: No one knows where the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, is.

What we do know is that on the list of people who don’t know are Hamas’s leadership in Qatar and some Hamas officials in Gaza – who have known where he was until now.