Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 163?

During the IDF and the Shin Bet's reinvasion of Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza on Monday, they killed Hamas's Interior Ministry Operations Chief Faack Mabhough.

Mabhough has been in charge of all of Hamas's internal security forces both during the war and during peacetime.

Israeli forces killed Mabhough during an exchange of gunfire when he resisted arrest and had been trying to hide within the Shifa complex.

In the room next to his hiding spot, significant Hamas weaponry was located.

 Pro-Iranian Lebanese Mayadeen television station said on Tuesday explosions were heard in the vicinity of the Syrian capital Damascus.

It gave no further details, but the Syrian army said on Sunday that Israel had hit areas in southern parts of the country.

By March 25, Israel is due to have submitted a significant update to the US regarding alleged war crimes files from the current war.

This submission is crucial to maintaining US military, diplomatic, and public relations support for Israel’s war and peace policies with Gaza and in the region.

At the same time, The Jerusalem Post understands that there is a chance that Israeli defense companies will be blacklisted from participating in the crucial EUSATORY defense conference in France in mid-June.

This comes after Israeli defense companies were recently banned from a major defense conference in South America.

Israel's national defense

Put together, Israel is facing the most daunting and critical period with its allies overseas in decades in ways that could strategically harm the Jewish state’s national defense in both the long and the short term.

Israel has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) not to issue emergency orders for it to step up humanitarian aid to Gaza to address a looming famine, dismissing South Africa's request to do so as "morally repugnant."

In a legal filing to the United Nations' top court, made public on Monday, Israel said it "has a real concern for the humanitarian situation and innocent lives, as demonstrated by the actions it has and is taking" in Gaza during the war.

Israel denies allegations of causing humanitarian suffering in Gaza

Lawyers for Israel denied allegations of deliberately causing humanitarian suffering in the enclave, where thousands have died and hunger is rising, and said South Africa's repeated requests for additional measures were an abuse of procedures.

Col. (Res.) Dr. Moshe Elad, Orientalist, lecturer at the Western Galilee Academic College, and former head of the security coordination between the Palestinians and the governor of Jenin and Bethlehem, recently explained what is behind Hamas's actions regarding the hostage negotiation deal, the need for human shields and the future of northern Gaza's leadership. 

According to Elad, "Hamas insists time and time again in statements to the Arab media, that their demands [to Israel] include returning displaced Gazans in the north of the Gaza Strip to their homes in Beit Hanon and Beit Lahia, actually stems from the fact that the threshold of the terror group is falling under its feet.

"Hamas is interested in gradually regaining its control capabilities due to the fact that its chances of reestablishing itself as a government and military body"

Col. (Res.) Dr. Moshe Elad, Orientalist and Lecturer 

Hamas is interested in gradually regaining its control capabilities because its chances of reestablishing itself as a government and military body are in the north of the Strip, not necessarily in the south."

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi announced dozens of new appointments at the mid-level rank of colonel and lieutenant colonel on Monday despite criticism from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who had tried to block them.

Smotrich had said that "the current IDF High Command failed in a colossal way on October 7 and cannot design the future generation of the IDF or appoint the commanders who will fix things." 

He also said, "We support them absolutely to manage the war and to win. That, but nothing more."

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Outgoing Labor party leader Merav Michaeli, and others slammed Smotrich for undue interference in military affairs, with which he is inexperienced.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the war cabinet granted the Israeli delegation a more limited mandate than the heads of the security establishment had requested for the talks on the hostage deal in Qatar. 

The Prime Minister set stricter red lines regarding the prisoners to be released and additional Hamas demands, according to two senior Israeli officials who are familiar with the subject.

Why is this important?

Some members of the delegation fear that the red lines set by Netanyahu will make it difficult to reach an agreement, but others in the delegation believe that the mandate given by the cabinet is broad enough to conduct negotiations and reach an agreement.

The delegation, headed by Mossad chief David Barnea, arrived in Qatar today and began talks with the Qatari and Egyptian mediators this evening. In parallel, discussions are taking place between the mediators and Hamas representatives in Doha.

Over the last week, a senior IDF officer, Brig.-Gen Dan Goldfus, criticized politicians, and a senior politician, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, criticized senior IDF officers.

Both men subsequently faced a fierce backlash. Goldfus for taking on politicians while in an army uniform, and Smotrich for taking on officers while sitting in the comfort of his Finance Ministry.

In both cases, however, valid criticism was largely drowned out not due to the lack of substance of the critique but rather because of the individual who expressed it.

What did Goldfus say? Only that he hopes that the politicians, who have reverted to the divisive rhetoric of October 6, will correct course and prove worthy of the sacrifice of those fighting and dying in this war.

Famine is expected between now and May in the north of the Gaza Strip where 300,000 people remain trapped by fighting, a UN-backed report said on Monday.

Across the whole of the Gaza Strip, the number of people facing "catastrophic hunger" has risen to 1.1 million, about half the population, the report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said.

"Famine is now projected and imminent in the North Gaza and Gaza Governorates and is expected to become manifest during the projection period from mid-March 2024 to May 2024," it said.

Mossad Director David Barnea, Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar, and IDF Maj. Gen. (res.) Hostage Coordinator Nitzan Alon are all currently flying out to further negotiate a potential hostage deal with Hamas.

A senior diplomatic official told The Jerusalem Post that the negotiations would take at least two weeks, if not more.

The official explained that this is the first time since the current round of negotiations started that the negotiating team has more specific positions and discretion to finalize a variety of items in the deal.

Despite the negotiating team receiving a larger mandate to seal a deal than it had in past rounds, when the team had at best received approved general principles for a deal, there are still some issues about which the cabinet has not given its final opinion, said the official.

The official also said that the negotiations were still through Qatar, but have reached a clearer direct point with Gaza Chief Yahya Sinwar himself, with less confusion and interference from Hamas’s Qatar leadership, which currently have less influence on the terms of a final deal.

Director of Shin Bet Ronen Bar attends the state ceremony marking 50 years since the Yom Kippur War, held at the military cemetery at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl, on September 26, 2023. (credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Negotiations drag out as Hamas seeks Sinwar approval

Part of the reason the deal will take longer is that each time some new issue will need to be decided by Sinwar, it will take 24-36 hours to reach him from his tunnel hideout, said the official.

In addition, the general terms of around 42 days of ceasefire for 40 hostages was confirmed by the official.

The terms still in dispute are exactly which Palestinian security prisoners will be released and what concession Israel will make upfront regarding any partial return of some Palestinians to northern Gaza and any partial withdrawal of IDF forces from certain spots during the ceasefire.

The official said that the negotiations are expected to be excruciating, requiring very painful sacrifices from Israel.