Israel-Hamas war: What happened on day 144?

Some hostages are kept by Hamas in Rafah, IDF spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari said in an interview given at the emergency conference on challenges facing Jewish communities held in Jerusalem.

"We are fighting Hamas from the north to the south," Hagari said. "We will finish in Rafah, it is an important city - there are hostages in Rafah," he was quoted by Israeli media as saying at the conference.

When asked on the whereabouts of Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, Hagari simply responded: "We will get to him, dead or alive."

Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, attends a rally marking the anniversary of Land Day, in Gaza City on March 30, 2022 (credit: ATTIA MUHAMMED/FLASH90)

Hagari on antisemitism: Israel's war is not limited to the Gaza Strip

Hagari told the people in attendance at the World Zionist Organization (WZO) emergency conference, "I am here with you today because I receive new information, on a daily basis, of antisemitic incidents occurring across the globe.

"The challenge is huge, and we are dealing with it together - this war is not limited to the Gaza Strip," the Israeli military spokesman added. "This war is fought by the entire Jewish People - we are losing this war based on social media, we must improve.

"We need to continue battling in this arena for the truth so that the entire world knows."

The Qatari Foreign Ministry's spokesman stated that "there is no breakthrough in the negotiations for a hostage deal talks and a ceasefire in Gaza," Walla quoted him as saying on Tuesday.

He noted, however, that Qatar remains optimistic in mediation talks.

IDF fighter jets struck a military site and infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah terror organization in southern Lebanon on Tuesday.

This was following dozens of rockets being fired towards Israel earlier. The IDF reported that 35 launches were detected towards the Mount Meron area. There were no Israeli casualties from the rocket fire.

The Hezbollah infrastructure that was destroyed was located in the villages of Jebchit, Baisariyeh, and Mansouri. In addition, Israeli forces used artillery to strike at and remove a threat in the Yaroun region.

Volley of rockets

Hezbollah said it had launched a volley of rockets at an Israeli aerial surveillance base in response to the Israeli military's deepest attack yet into Lebanese territory.

Two Hezbollah members were killed by Israeli warplanes in the Bekaa Valley on Monday.

The Hezbollah outpost oversees the northern settlements. (credit: Amir Buhbut)

Hezbollah on Monday also fired dozens of rockets toward the Golan, with the Lebanese terror group saying it was aiming for an IDF Golan base.

Yonah Jeremy Bob and Reuters contributed to this report.

The IDF and IAF conducted operations against Hamas infrastructure and terror operatives in the Zaytun area in Gaza City on Monday.

Israeli forces located a weapons manufacturing facility and rocket launchers used by the terror organization and identified a number of terrorists inside a tunnel shaft, which they promptly destroyed. The terrorists were eliminated.

Several other terrorists were eliminated by Israeli forces in central Gaza the same day. Strategic sites belonging to Hamas were also destroyed by IDF engineering troops.

Hamas also launched numerous rockets towards Israeli communities bordering the Gaza Strip on Monday, in response to which the IAF struck an operational center of the launches located in central Gaza.

IDF soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip February 26, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Evacuating civilians

Also on Monday, the IDF underwent efforts to evacuate Gazan civilians from combat areas, where forces apprehended a number of terrorists who tried to flee under the cover of the civilian population.

A number of Hamas operatives were also eliminated after they were identified observing Israeli forces.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah said it had launched a volley of rockets at an Israeli aerial surveillance base in response to the Israeli military's deepest attack yet into Lebanese territory.

Israeli warplanes struck the Bekaa Valley on Monday, killing at least two Hezbollah members in the military's furthest reach into Lebanese territory since hostilities erupted with the Iran-backed group last October, sources in Lebanon said.

Israeli response to Hezbollah attacks

The Israeli army said it had struck Hezbollah air defenses in the area in response to the downing of an Israeli drone, which Hezbollah said it had shot down with a surface-to-air missile earlier on Monday.

HEZBOLLAH FIGHTERS, with posters of Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei, are photographed by the author at the Badr group headquarters in Baghdad in 2015. (credit: JONATHAN SPYER)

In retaliation for the Bekaa strikes, Hezbollah fired 60 rockets on Monday at an Israeli army station in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The group did not say how many rockets were fired on Tuesday morning but said it was a "large volley."

The attacks marked an intensification of the worst violence between the heavily armed Hezbollah and Israel since their 2006 war, fuelling concerns about a potential escalation and a widening of Israel's war in Gaza to other parts of the region.

Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has received a draft proposal from Gaza truce talks in Paris, which includes a 40-day pause in all military operations and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages at a ratio of 10 to one, a senior source close to the talks told Reuters on Tuesday.

Under the proposed ceasefire, hospitals and bakeries in Gaza would be repaired, and 500 aid trucks would enter the enclave each day, the source said.

This is a developing story.

Municipal elections are here again. This long-standing practice comes every five years and sees Israelis in the polling booths once again, this time to cast their ballots for their local heroes.

These elections have been notoriously different to those for representation in the Knesset. Party lines are split far differently, simply because national policies and the issues dealt with day-to-day are worlds apart. But this does not make local elections any less exciting or interesting.

First, and most obviously, this is because it is a day off for most people. It’s a relatively new practice that has turned election days – not always the most welcoming of days – into mini-staycations. You go to vote, cast your ballots, and go to the zoo or the park with your kids.

Secondly, and more directly, election days are when we citizens have the most significant impact on the issues that affect our lives. While, after so many repeat national elections, Israelis are sick and tired of this recurring ritual, it is nevertheless important not to overlook the importance of such a day.

An Israeli municipal elections voting box. (credit: HADAS PARUSH/FLASH90)

But this municipal election comes at a more complex time than any we have faced in decades; it comes in the middle of a war.

Initially scheduled for October 31, the municipal elections were first pushed off to January 30 and, soon after, they were delayed again – to today.

The war will be a significant factor in the decision-making process when it comes to national elections, but the question remains: how will it impact local councils?

The locales most clearly affected are the 14 that will not be holding elections because their residents have been forced to evacuate. But even those that are holding elections are likely to experience a change in voter trends, though the direction is not yet apparent. It seems, however, that the focus has shifted mainly to welfare, living conditions for IDF soldiers and reservists, and, of course, the hostages being held by Hamas.

Municipal election overshadowed by war 

Meanwhile, the topics at the forefront of the localities’ focus – education, infrastructure, services, transportation, and so on – have been shunted into an obscure and murky background.

There is a sense, too, that Israelis are far less motivated than usual to vote while the fighting is still going on.

“I anticipate that voter turnout this time will be even lower than usual due to diminished motivation among the populace,” said Prof. Osnat Akirav, head of the Political Science Department at Western Galilee College, in an interview this week with Maariv’s Dudi Fatimer. 

“Add to that the grim reality of numerous hostages still being held in Gaza; entire families are in mourning, and every day, more soldiers are being killed. Overall, the prevailing mood is far from celebratory.

“While holding elections remains crucial for democracy, boosting voter participation will indeed demand innovative approaches.”

Nevertheless, the importance of such elections must not be lost on us, especially in times of crisis. It is the local authorities that coordinate with police how to manage security within cities, and it is those security systems that function under the leadership of local authorities in Israel’s South that ultimately defended those communities on October 7.

It was also the municipalities throughout the country that ultimately managed the influx of evacuees from the Gaza and Lebanon borders. They experienced a massive surge in public demand, with municipal call centers seeing more than a 600% rise in calls.

“What we have witnessed recently is a significant failure on the part of the central government, contrasted by the flourishing performance of local authorities,” said Prof. Itai Beeri, head of the Center for Public Management and Policy at the University of Haifa.

A lot of Israel’s future is currently unclear, now more than ever. How our lives will change, especially on a day-to-day basis, will affect and be affected by our local leaders, so today is perhaps more important than any previous municipal election in recent times.

So even if it is challenging, even if it’s the last thing you want to do today, go out and vote. Israel needs you now, more than ever. Make your voice heard, ensure that these local elections are a valuable event for the country and for the future of the Jewish state.

Three Palestinians were killed and three others were injured in clashes with Israeli forces in Tubas and El Far'a Camp in the West Bank early Tuesday morning, according to Palestinian reports.

One of the three Palestinians killed was identified as Ahmed Daraghmeh, a commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad-affiliated Tubas Battalion terrorist group.

Hamas' chief in Gaza Yahya Sinwar is believed to be hiding in tunnels under Khan Yunis, but getting to the terrorist leader will be difficult as he's seemingly surrounding himself with a human shield of hostages, Israeli, US, and Western intelligence and security officials told The Washington Post on Monday.

According to the report, the central challenge in capturing or killing Sinwar will be trying to do so without killing or injuring nearby hostages.

“It’s not about locating him, it’s about doing something” without putting the hostages at risk, a senior Israeli official told the Washington Post.

Sinwar was born in Khan Yunis in 1962. He became infamous for murdering suspected Palestinian collaborators, gaining the nickname "the Butcher of Khan Yunis" and eventually landing in an Israeli prison until he was released in 2011 as part of the deal to release IDF soldier Gilad Schalit from Hamas captivity.

Earlier in the war, Israeli media reported that the defense establishment believed that Sinwar and the commander of Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammad Deif, were hiding under Khan Yunis, although, in recent weeks, some reports alleged that the two had fled to Rafah or even into Egypt.

Yahya Sinwar leader of the Palestinian Hamas Islamist movement hosts a meeting with members of Palestinian factions, at Hamas President's office in Gaza City, on April 13, 2022. (credit: ATTIA MUHAMMED/FLASH90)

The Elaph newspaper, run by a Saudi-British businessman, reported last week that Sinwar and Deif had managed to escape through a tunnel from Rafah to Egypt. The newspaper additionally claimed that there were eight large tunnels, big enough for cars and small trucks, running between Rafah and Egypt. The report has been rejected by Israeli sources.

The hunt for Sinwar under Gaza

The Washington Post report published on Monday noted that, since the war began, Israeli soldiers have discovered Hamas administrative files, computers, and phone directories indicating various offices located in the network of hundreds of miles of tunnels located under Gaza.

US intelligence analysts are helping Israel with some of the mapping of the tunnel system through the aid of powerful analytic technologies that piece together fragments of information, officials knowledgable about the efforts told the Washington Post. The US analysts have also been helping with analyzing intercepted communications and data from recovered hard drives.

There are no US intelligence personnel on the ground in Gaza and the US is not helping Israel with the day-to-day efforts to find and strike Hamas fighters and facilities, according to the report. When asked if the US was helping Israel fight the war, a former Mossad officer told the Washington Post that "the question itself is offensive."

US President Joe Biden said he hoped to have a hostage deal in place by this coming Monday, March 4, as Qatar hosted delegations from Israel and Hamas.

The two sides looked to inch forward toward a deal for the release of the remaining 134 hostages in Gaza.

The presence of both sides for so-called proximity talks - meeting mediators separately while in the same city - suggested negotiations were further along than at any time since a big push at the start of February, when Israel rejected a Hamas counter-offer for a four-and-a-half-month truce.

Biden hit an optimistic note as he spoke with reporters in New York about the possibility of deal.

Mediators taking part in the hostage deal talks have said that, as of now, Hamas is disinclined to agree to the US-proposed deal, Israeli media reported on Monday. 

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian meets with Palestinian group Hamas' top leader, Ismail Haniyeh in Doha, Qatar December 20, 2023. (credit: IRAN'S FOREIGN MINISTRY/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY)/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)

In public, both sides continued to take positions far apart on the ultimate aims of a truce, while blaming each other for holding up the talks.

Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause in fighting to secure the release of hostages. Hamas says it will not free them without an agreement that leads to a permanent end to the war.

After meeting Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the reclusive head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, said his group had embraced mediators' efforts to find an end to the war, and accused Israel of stalling at while Gazans die under siege.

"We will not allow the enemy to use negotiations as a cover for this crime," he said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ready for a deal, and it was now up to Hamas to drop demands he described as "outlandish" and "from another planet."

"Obviously, we want this deal if we can have it. It depends on Hamas. It's really now their decision," he told US network Fox News in an interview. "They have to come down to reality."

The office of Qatar's emir said Al Thani and the Hamas chief had discussed Qatar's efforts to broker an "immediate and permanent ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip."

Earlier, a source told Reuters that an Israeli working delegation, made up of staff from the military and the Mossad spy agency, had flown to Qatar, tasked with creating an operational center to support negotiations there. Its mission would include vetting proposed Palestinian militants that Hamas wants freed as part of a hostage release deal, the source said.

On Monday night, Al-Jazeera reported that, during recent talks in Paris, Israel said it was prepared to release 400 Palestinian prisoners, including some convicted on severe charges, in return for the release of 40 Israeli women and elderly men being held in Gaza.

According to the report, Israel also would allow a gradual return of civilians to northern Gaza, except young men, and would allow a larger flow of humanitarian aid and the entry of temporary shelters and heavy machinery. Israel also offered to reposition Israeli forces outside of populated areas and stop aerial reconnaissance for eight hours a day as part of a potential hostage deal.

Gallant met with hostage relatives

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with relatives of the hostages on Monday, according to his office, and underscored Israeli efforts to ensure the return of the captives.

“We are working around the clock to achieve a framework that will allow the return of hostages. As part of the talks, we are working to maintain pressure on Hamas,” Gallant said.

He stressed that Palestinians would not be able to return to their homes in the northern part of Gaza until such time as the hostages were back in Israel.

“The defense establishment’s position will be clear: the full return of civilians to the northern area of the Gaza strip will only take place following the return of all the hostages,” Gallant said.

“As I have said repeatedly since day one, we have no moral right to stop the fighting as long as we have even a single hostage in Gaza. This position has not and will not change,” he stressed.

He appeared to indicate that not all the hostages were included in the deal.

“Even if we achieve a framework that requires a temporary ceasefire, we will then return to fighting, in order to destroy the Hamas terrorist organization and to return all the hostages,” Gallant stated.

Israel has also used its pending military operation in Rafah as a pressure lever. The War Cabinet heard the IDF’s plan to both destroy the Hamas battalions in Rafah and to protest civilians in that city near the Egyptian border. The plan, however, has yet to be approved. 

Netanyahu has said that a hostage deal would delay the operation.

Israel is under pressure from its main ally the United States to agree a truce soon, to head off a threatened Israeli assault on Rafah, the last city at Gaza Strip's southern edge where over half the enclave's 2.3 million people are sheltering, which Washington fears could become a bloodbath.

Netanyahu insisted that the assault on Rafah was still planned, and Israel had a plan to evacuate civilians from harm's way. Asked if Israel would attack the city even if Washington asked it not to, Netanyahu said: "Well, we'll go in. We make our own decisions, obviously, but we'll go in based on the idea of having also the evacuation of the civilians.”

Israel continues to maintain in public that it will not end the war until Hamas is eradicated, while Hamas says it will not free hostages without an agreement on an end to the war.

"We're totally committed to wipe Hamas off the face of the Earth," Israel's economy and industry minister, Nir Barkat, told Reuters at a conference in the United Arab Emirates, where his presence signaled Israel's continued acceptance by Arab states that has angered Palestinian militants.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, speaking to Reuters on Monday, said any ceasefire agreement would require "securing an end to the aggression, the withdrawal of the occupation, the returning of the displaced, the entry of aid, shelter equipment, and rebuilding".

The momentum behind talks appears to have grown since Friday, when Israeli officials discussed terms of a hostage release deal in Paris with delegations from the United States, Egypt and Qatar, though not Hamas.

The White House said they had come to "an understanding" about the contours of a hostage deal though negotiations were still under way. The Israeli delegation briefed Netanyahu's war cabinet late on Saturday.

Egyptian security sources said proximity talks involving delegations from Israel and Hamas would be held this week, first in Qatar and later in Cairo.

Since Hamas killed 1,200 people and captured 253 hostages in its Oct. 7 attack, Israel launched an all-out ground assault on Gaza, with nearly 30,000 people confirmed killed according to the Hamas Gaza health authorities. Israel has said that some 11,000 of the fatalities are combatants.

The Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.