Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 151?

The hunger crisis facing the Palestinians in Gaza is unacceptable, and a plan to better distribute humanitarian assistance in the enclave will be “top on the agenda” of United States officials in their meetings with Minister Benny Gantz in Washington on Monday, officials from the Biden administration told reporters.

“I can assure you that the issue of humanitarian assistance will be top of that agenda,” US National Security Spokesman John Kirby and US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

“What we have made clear is that... it is not an acceptable alternative for people to starve,” Miller said.
“The situation now is unacceptable, and everyone needs to do more,” he said.

Kirby stressed that the fastest way to improve the humanitarian assistance was a hostage deal as he indicated that actions were needed from Hamas to make that happen.

“It’s all part of a package deal,” he said.

National Unity Party leader MK Benny Gantz is seen addressing the Knesset plenum during a discussion regarding the reasonableness standard bill, in Jerusalem, on July 23, 2023. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

But he and Miller also pointed fingers at Israel when it came to the humanitarian crisis on the ground in Gaza, which they said has led to an inadequate amount of food for the 2.3 million Palestinians that live in the enclave.

Miller noted that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken would speak with Gantz about the humanitarian crisis on Tuesday when they meet. Blinken raised the issue with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer when the two spoke on Monday.

On Monday, Gantz met with US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Kirby: 'Most efficient way to aid Gaza is through land'

Kirby stressed that “we believe that Israel can and should do more,” adding that there were “incidents where they [Israelis] have not been willing and able to keep the [aid] trucks going at an increased level.

“Clearly, there is a desperate need for this stuff [humanitarian assistance],” he said. Kirby pointed to the airdrops of food that the US began on Saturday, adding that more such flights were planned as well as a maritime route.
The most efficient and quickest way to get aid into Gaza, Kirby said, is through land convoys.

Kirby addressed questions as to why the Biden administration would speak to Gantz, given that it was understood that the trip he initiated was done in opposition to that of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a show of opposition to the trip, Netanyahu’s office asked the Israeli embassy in Washington not to facilitate Gantz’s visit.

Gantz is considered Netanyahu’s chief political rival, and polls show that he would easily win if elections were held now. The trip comes as Israeli politicians in the opposition have increasingly talked about the need to go to elections despite the danger of political disunity in a time of war.

Gantz, who heads the National Unity party, is a member of the small war cabinet and a former Defense Minister and IDF chief of staff, is no stranger to Washington and has already engaged with all the top Biden administration officials since the start of Israel’s military campaign to destroy Hamas in Gaza.

“We see this a natural outgrowth of these discussions,” said Kirby, adding that if “a member of the war cabinet wants to come to the US and talk to us about the progress of that war, giving us an opportunity to talk about the importance of getting humanitarian assistance.. we’re not going to turn away that sort of opportunity.”

Miller said that the Biden administration found Gantz “an important figure” to engage with.

During her meeting with Gantz, Harris “expressed her deep concern about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza and the recent horrific tragedy around an aid convoy in northern Gaza” last week, according to the White House.

She spoke about the urgency of a hostage deal that would lead to a six-week pause and said it was important for the terror group to accept the terms that were on the table.

Harris condemned “the brutal October 7th terrorist attack by Hamas” against Israel “and the taking of hostages, including American citizens,” the White House said. 

“She reiterated U.S. support for Israel’s right to defend itself in the face of ongoing Hamas terrorist threats and underscored our unwavering commitment to Israel’s security.”

The two also discussed the situation in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, where many Palestinians have sought shelter from Israeli bombing campaigns in the north. Israel now wants to conduct a military operation there to destroy the remaining Hamas battalions.

The White House said there was a need for a “credible and implementable humanitarian plan prior to contemplating any major military operation there, given the risks to civilians. “

Harris “urged Israel to take additional measures in cooperation with the United States and international partners to increase the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza and ensure its safe distribution to those in need.”

The IDF announced that following sirens that sounded in northern Israel approximately 10 launches that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory were identified on Monday.

According to the announcement, a number of the launches were intercepted, and no injuries were reported.

In response to the launches toward the area of Margaliot in northern Israel, fighter jets struck a series of Hezbollah terror targets in the areas of Bint Jbeil, Sultaniyeh, and Seddiqine.

Among the targets struck were Hezbollah military structures and a military command and control center used by the terrorist organization

Under constant criticism by cabinet ministers of their prosecution of the war, top IDF officials and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have revealed that multiple cabinet members were against a deep invasion of Gaza back in October.

In fact, according to IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, Gallant, and other top IDF officials, without their strident push for a deep invasion of Gaza, the current war might have seen a much more limited incursion into Gaza, as with many past more limited rounds.

Some top officials have even implied that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in October was privately waffling on the risks of a deep invasion even as in public he constantly trumpeted destroying Hamas.

The drama heated up on Monday with a Channel 12 report that Halevi finally confronted some of the critical ministers with what he viewed as their hypocrisy for being initially too afraid to invade and then later questioning why the invasion had not been larger and faster.

The Jerusalem Post has known about the inconsistencies in various ministers’ views for some time, but can only report the story now following the publication of the exchange in the cabinet.

IDF soldiers on operation in Khan Yunis, Gaza, February 29, 2024 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

As the war has dragged on, Halevi has, in closed meetings, further lost patience with cabinet members who he views as not being serious about security issues, but rather being more focused on their political exposure or opportunities.

Limiting interactions with Ben-Gvir

Likewise, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) has started to reduce its interactions with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir after perceiving him as being verbally abusive of their officials as well as there being allegations that one of his staffers has leaked security information.

For his part, Gallant has multiple times lashed out more publicly at Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for, as he sees it, harming Israeli security, by supercharging the atmosphere around Ramadan and the Temple Mount, as well as other issues. 

The White House called on Hamas to accept a hostage deal that would allow some of the remaining 134 hostages to be freed and put in place a six-week pause to the war.

“Israel has put a forward-leaning deal on the table,” US National Security Communication Advisor John Kirby. “They have made an offer here. And the onus is on Hamas to accept it.”

He added that he remained hopeful that the deal would be in place by the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramada that begins on March 10.

“The goal here is to get this done as soon as possible. And certainly, we'd like to see it done before Ramadan begins,” Kirby said.

John Kirby, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, answers questions during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, US, February 17, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/EVELYN HOCKSTEIN)

Hamas and Egyptian mediators said on Monday they were pressing on with talks on securing a ceasefire in Gaza, despite Israel's decision not to send a delegation.

The ceasefire talks, which began on Sunday in Cairo, are billed as a final hurdle on the way to securing the first extended ceasefire of the five-month-old war, in time for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, expected to begin on Sunday.

Israel has declined to comment publicly on the Cairo talks. A source told Reuters it was staying away because Hamas had refused a request to list the hostages that are still alive, information that the terror group which controls Gaza said they will provide only once terms are agreed.

"Talks in Cairo continue for the second day, regardless of whether the occupation's delegation is present in Egypt," a Hamas official told Reuters.

Two Egyptian security sources said mediators were in touch with the Israelis, allowing negotiations to continue despite their absence.

A Palestinian source close to the talks said the discussions remained "uneasy," with Israel sticking to its demand for only a temporary truce to free hostages, while Hamas was seeking assurances that the war would not start up again.

Late on Monday, officials from Hamas, Egypt, and Qatar began a second round of talks for the day, a Hamas source said.

The proposal discussed

The proposal being discussed envisages a truce of about 40 days, during which militants would release around 40 of the more than 100 hostages they are still holding in return for some 400 Palestinian security prisoners and terrorists from Israeli jails.

Kirby told reporters that what was being discussed in this six-week deal was the release of “vulnerable, wounded, elderly female hostages.

During an initial release of hostages in November in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, “the list of hostages and a list of Palestinian prisoners … was part of the last deal and you can certainly imagine that that's a part of this deal, too. 

“Now, in this case, we're talking about more, more on more of both over a longer period of time” with several exchanges over six weeks.

“A list of names is part of that” conversation for a deal, he said. “We obviously want all the hostages returned to their families, and we recognize that it's likely that not all of them are still alive.”

As part of the emerging second deal, Israeli troops would pull back from some areas, more humanitarian aid would be allowed into Gaza, and residents would be permitted to return to abandoned homes.

But the deal does not appear to address directly a Hamas demand for a path to a permanent end to the war. Nor does it resolve the fate of more than half the remaining hostages - Israeli men excluded from both this and earlier agreements covering women, children, the elderly, and the wounded.

Israel says it will not end the war until Hamas is eradicated. Hamas says it will not free all its hostages without a deal that ends the war.

The Egyptian security sources said mediators were trying to bridge the gap with guarantees to Hamas on future peace talks, and to Israel on the safety of hostages.

A Palestinian official close to the negotiations disputed the US contention that Israel had already agreed to the deal and Hamas was holding it up, saying this appeared aimed at deflecting blame from Israel should the talks collapse.

The war erupted after Hamas fighters invaded Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253 hostages

Since then, the IDF entered Gaza to destroy Hamas and pounded it from the sky and the ground. Hamas has assured that over 30,000 people have been killed and most of the population has been made homeless. Israel has said that at least 11,000 of the fatalities are combatants.

A Ramadan truce could head off a threatened Israeli military campaign in Rafah, the last town on the southern edge of Gaza where Hamas battalions are active, where more than half the enclave's population are now sheltering.

The US also hopes that a Gaza truce would help ensure a diplomatic resolution to the cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

US Special Envoy Amos Hochstein said on Monday that a truce in Gaza would not necessarily bring an automatic end to hostilities across Lebanon's southern border and he warned about the risks of an escalation of the conflict.

"Escalation of violence is in no one's interest, and there is no such thing as a limited war," he told reporters after meeting Lebanon's parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who is close to Hezbollah.

Hochstein said friction on the border had increased in recent weeks.

"A temporary ceasefire is not enough. A limited war is not containable," he said.

Lebanon deputy parliament speaker Elias Bou Saab told Reuters he believed the timing of Hochstein's visit signaled progress in efforts over a Gaza truce.

Hezbollah has publicly indicated that it would halt its attacks on Israel from Lebanon when the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip stops unless Israel kept shelling Lebanon.

But Hochstein said a Gaza truce would not automatically trigger calm in southern Lebanon and said he was "hopeful" for a diplomatic solution to the conflict across that border.

"It does not necessarily happen that when you have a ceasefire in Gaza, it just automatically extends" to Lebanon, he said.

The United States is optimistic that a new maritime route to deliver aid to Gaza that is currently being discussed could supplement current efforts to get aid into the enclave by land and through air drops, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.

A maritime assistance corridor is "still in the development phase" and Washington is continuing to work to increase the amount of aid reaching those in need in Gaza, Miller said.

A mission team led on a trip through Israel by the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, found that there was substantial evidence to conclude that victims, as well as hostages and survivors of October 7, were sexually abused and raped by Hamas terrorists. This is the first instance where an international organization has confirmed what Israel has alleged since October 7.

Patten, therefore, called on Hamas to “immediately and unconditionally release all individuals held in captivity and to ensure their protection, including from sexual violence.”

The team, traveling and researching with Israel’s full cooperation, found “clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment has been committed against hostages.”

They have “reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing against those still held in captivity.”
Patten’s team, which visited throughout the first two weeks of February, was comprised of “nine experts drawn from the United Nations, including… specialists trained in safe and ethical interviewing of survivors/victims and witnesses of sexual violence crimes; a forensic pathologist; and a digital and open-source information analyst.”

ACTIVISTS PROTEST against recent cases of violence against women at Habima Square in Tel Aviv last week. (credit: MIRIAM ALSTER/FLASH90)

The team also found “that there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred in multiple locations during the 7 October attacks, including rape and gang-rape in at least three locations, namely: the Nova music festival site and its surroundings, Road 232, and Kibbutz Re’im.”

This region was the same area specified in the report released two weeks prior by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI), which summed up the evidence available so far regarding sexual violence on October 7.
“In most of these incidents, victims first subjected to rape were then killed, and at least two incidents relate to the rape of women’s corpses,” the report stated, once again confirming what the ARCCI had reported.

Patterns of sexual violence uncovered during the investigation

They found a “pattern” that “may be indicative of some forms of… sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” in which “victims, mostly women, [were] found fully or partially naked, bound, and shot across multiple locations.”

A MOURNER sits near the fresh graves of the five members of the Fogel family – mother, father, and three of their children – murdered in a Palestinian terror attack, in 2011. The White House sharply condemned the murder. But, as in the case of the October 7 events, the shock soon wore off, says the (credit: ABIR SULTAN/FLASH90)

These findings are based on a myriad of evidence, including 50 hours of footage, 5,000 photographs, and 34 independent interviews. The report did, however, claim that two reports of sexual assault in Kibbutz Be’eri, including that which revealed that a pregnant woman’s womb was torn open before she was killed, were “unfounded.”

“Regarding genital mutilation overall, the mission team was not able to establish a discernible pattern.

“Overall, the mission team is of the view that the true prevalence of sexual violence during the 7 October attacks and their aftermath, may take months or years to emerge and may never be fully known,” the report concluded.

They recommended that Israel permit the office of the UN’s OHCHR and the International Commission of Inquiry on “occupied Palestinian territory” to conduct investigations. Patten also recommended that the Israeli government "consider signing a framework of cooperation with my office to strengthen capacity on justice and accountability for conflict-related sexual violence, but also security sector engagement, training, and oversight to prevent and address sexual violence" during a press conference upon the release of the report.

Despite the authority granted to him, the UN secretary-general did not order the convening of the security council in light of the findings, in order to declare Hamas a terrorist organization and impose sanctions on its supporters.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz

During that same press conference, Patten faced multiple questions of doubt from the media. One Arabic Daily reporter asked if Patten had seen "how well the hostages were treated," reminding her that some "held water bottles in their hands" upon their release to demonstrate how well they were treated.

"This report is only a validation of the Israeli narrative," the same reporter later said. "Can you address that a woman is being raped and bit the finger of her rapist? How can you stand with the rapist?" he asked, comparing Hamas rapists to victims of rape themselves.

A correspondent for PassBlue also asked to what extent one might believe the information gathered for the report "if you're just collecting evidence."

Hamas official Basem Naim said on Monday to AFP that the terror group did not know which of the hostages were dead or alive. 

Basem also added that the hostages were held by many terror groups in different locations in the Gaza Strip.

According to Basem, a ceasefire is necessary for Hamas to ascertain how many and which hostages it is still holding.

The same Hamas official, in an interview with the BBC, said that the hostages "are in different areas with different groups" and Hamas "have asked for a ceasefire to collect that data [on which hostages are alive and where.]"

Continuing the BBC interview, Naim asserted that information relating to the hostages was "valuable" and could not be given "for free."

An image taken from a Hamas video claiming the death of seven hostages. March 1, 2024. (credit: Screenshot/Hamas Telegram)

Information on hostages being withheld

Hamas, in an unsubstantiated statement on Friday, announced that seven hostages had been killed but announced the names of only three.

Gershon Peri, 79, Yoram Itak Metzger, 80, and Amiram Israel Cooper, 85, were announced as dead on Friday afternoon. Earlier in the day, Hamas released a video where they proposed three scenarios regarding the fates of the hostages. In the first, all had been killed, in the second some had been killed and others wounded, and in the third, all were still alive.

All three men, kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, had also appeared in a video released by Hamas in December. 

The information provided by Hamas is unconfirmed, and Hamas has previously shared false information on the well-being of hostages as part of its use of psychological warfare. Hamas has previously named a hostage as killed only to release them later, as was the case of Hannah Katzir. 

Israel's foreign minister said on Monday he has recalled the country's UN ambassador for consultation over alleged UN attempts to keep quiet a report on sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas.

"I ordered our ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, to return to Israel for immediate consultations regarding the attempt to keep quiet the serious UN report on the mass rapes committed by Hamas and its helpers on Oct. 7," Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.

"Despite the authority granted to him, the UN secretary general did not order the convening of the security council in light of the findings, in order to declare Hamas a terrorist organization and impose sanctions on its supporters," Katz said.

The IDF announced that it had attacked multiple buildings belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on Monday evening.

Another announcement followed that after receiving an alert about a hostile aircraft intrusion in the north, the IAF successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target.

Additionally, a number of launches were detected from Lebanese territory into the Mount Dov area of northern Israel. The IDF has since responded to the areas of the launches with artillery fire.

"I ordered ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, to return to Israel for immediate consultations regarding the attempt to silence the serious UN report on the mass rapes committed by Hamas terrorists on October 7," Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Monday.

"Despite the authority granted to him, the UN Secretary-General did not order the convening of the Security Council in view of the findings, in order to declare the Hamas organization a terrorist organization and impose sanctions on its supporters," he concluded.