Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 156?

Marwan Issa, deputy to Mohammed Deif and number three of Hamas's high command, was targeted by an Israeli airstrike on Saturday.

The IDF cleared the event for publishing on Monday morning.

Issa was reportedly hiding in Nusirat, in central Gaza, at the time of the strike, and it is unclear whether the Hamas leader was killed in the event.

Maariv, citing Palestinian sources, reported that Hamas was concerned about the status of the terror chief.

15 terrorists killed in central Gaza

Separately, in central Gaza, the IDF eliminated 15 terrorists through close-quarters engagements, sniper fire, and airstrikes, the IDF stated on Monday.

In one encounter, Israeli troops identified a terror cell carrying what were suspected to be weapons out of a Hamas military compound in the area.

After observing the subsequent activities of the cell, the terror cell was eliminated by a strike from an IDF aircraft, the military noted.

The IDF similarly eliminated another terror cell that was observing the Israeli troops in the area.

The Israeli forces also operated in the area of Hamad in southern Gaza, where special forces units conducted raids on a number of civilian residences that were being used for terror purposes, the IDF reported.

During these raids, the IDF troops arrested Hamas terrorists and found weapons, ammunition, and other military ordnance. In one operation, an anti-tank missile was launched at the soldiers, however not injuries among IDF personnel were reported as a consequence.

This is a developing story.

In Gaza, as armed men surround aid trucks, residents point fingers at both Israel and Hamas for exacerbating the humanitarian crisis, with vital supplies scarce amid ongoing conflict

The dire shortage of food and essential humanitarian supplies in the Gaza Strip has captured global attention, yet some of the Palestinians living in the enclave are debating the root of the crisis. While most attribute the hardships faced by Gaza’s residents to Israel, others point towards Hamas.

US President Joe Biden said on Monday he has not scheduled a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Biden also said he does not have any plans "at this moment" to address the Israeli parliament.

Designate Hamas as a terror organization and do more to pressure it to release the remaining 134 hostages, Foreign Minister Israel Katz told the 15-member body during its Monday debate on the sexual violence committed by Palestinians during the October 7 attack against the Jewish state.

“For too long the UN has been silent on Hamas actions,” Katz said.

During the five months that have passed since the attack, the “UN never condemned nor disapproved these Hamas brutal crimes,” he said. Nor in that time has the UN recognized Hamas as a terror organization, he added.

“Hamas crimes are even worse than the terror actions carried out by al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other terror organizations that were sanctioned by the UN,” he explained.

“Many countries have declared Hamas as a terror organization including the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, Paraguay, New Zealand, the UK, the EU, and others,” but the UN has not taken similar steps.

Yoav Gallant, Benjamin Netanyahu, Benny Gantz and Israel Katz in the Knesset plenum on February 21, 2024 (credit: NOAM MOSKOVICH/KNESSET)

“Hamas must be declared as a terrorist organization and face the heaviest sanctions possible,” he said.

“I am keeping my voice heard and fighting Islamists, and I also support Israel. I believe Israel is leading this war on behalf of all of us in the Middle East region,” says Dalia Ziada, an Egyptian writer and civil rights activist. She is the executive director of the Center for Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean Studies (MEEM) and the founding chair of the Liberal Democracy Institute.

She took a stand after the Hamas attack on October 7 and condemned it. At the time, this appeared in line with Egypt’s official view as well, which has been against terrorism. However, she faced harsh criticism and threats at home and became a target.

Ziada says her only option was to flee to the US. She says it’s not just about fighting Hamas terrorism but fighting terrorism in the region, “including Hezbollah, Houthis, and all Iran’s proxies. That is, I believe, the most important thing that Arab countries need to understand. I will keep working on that and keep the pressure [going], and I will keep working on Middle Eastern issues. I could have been killed by some extremists or imprisoned back in Egypt. So here I am, trying to keep things moving forward.”

UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, said at the Security Council briefing on sexual violence on Monday, "What I witnessed in Israel were scenes of unspeakable violence perpetrated with shocking brutality resulting in intense human suffering."

“We found clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, has been committed against hostages, and we have reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may still be ongoing against those in captivity," she added.

UK Minister of State for the Middle East, Tariq Ahmad spoke of his "concern" at Patten's findings. 

“Let me be absolutely clear – we, the United Kingdom, condemn conflict-related sexual violence unequivocally, wherever it occurs, and stand in solidarity with all victims and survivors,” he said.

An IDF military operation in Gaza’s Rafah is a necessity to defeat Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said as he pushed back at US President Joe Biden’s opposition to the move given his fears that it would deepen the humanitarian disaster in the enclave.

“Look, it's either Israel or Hamas. There's no middle way. I mean, we have to have that victory,” Netanyahu told Fox & Friends on Monday morning.

Biden had told MSNBC one day earlier that a Rafah operation would cross a “red line.”

Netanyahu shot back on Fox that Israelis have “a red line. We can't let Hamas survive.”

When pressed about whether the US was pressuring Israel to halt the Gaza war, essentially to get their “foot off the gas,” Netanyahu retorted, “I'm telling you that we're not getting off the gas.” 

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres failed to properly respond to the Hamas-led October 7 invasion of Israel because its victims were Jewish, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Monday.

“Your reluctance to lead a decisive international stance against” the atrocities committed by Hamas and its affiliated terror groups and the fixation of criticism on Israel ... signals a distressing bias,” Katz wrote in a letter he sent to Guterres.

“If the victims would not have been of Jewish or Israeli descent, your office would have responded in a much ‘more’ vigorous way,” Katz said.

In his letter, Katz called on the United Nations to declare Hamas a terror organization in advance of Monday afternoon’s Security Council’s debate on the October 7 attack.

Rocket sirens were heard at around 4 p.m. in many localities in Israel's north, while simultaneously, sirens were heard in Eilat 

Magen David Adom (MDA), the spokesperson, said that no damage or injuries had been reported. 

Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders on Monday said on social media platform X that he had met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and pledged his full support to Israel in its fight against terror.

Wilders, who is aiming to lead a new government after his nationalist PVV party won elections in November, has long been a staunch supporter of Israel.

The Israeli president was in the Netherlands to attend the opening of a Holocaust museum in Amsterdam on Sunday. At the opening ceremony, Herzog called for prayers for peace and the immediate release of hostages taken by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel and still held by the Islamist militants.

Wilders posted a picture of his meeting with Herzog and wrote: "I told him I am proud that he visits the Netherlands and that Israel has, and always will have, my full support in its fight against terror."