Israel-Hamas War Day 165: What is going on in Gaza, Lebanon?

The IDF and the Shin Bet on Wednesday announced that they had captured Mahmoud Kawasme - the last remaining conspirator at large from the Hamas murder of three Israeli teenagers in 2014 - as part of their operations to retake Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza.

In 2014, the IDF Judea military court convicted Hussam Hassan Kawasme of being the mastermind behind the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens.

Hussam was convicted based on his own confession of planning and financing the attack, including receiving NIS 200,000 from Hamas in Gaza, purchasing and providing weapons for the other terrorists, hiding the bodies, and destroying evidence.

The IDF Prosecution filed an indictment against Hussam with the Judea Military Court in September 2014.

The Shin Bet arrested him on July 11, 2014, on suspicion of assisting the killers and of hiding the victims’ bodies in land he owned in Hebron, security forces said.

On June 12, 2014, Hamas members kidnapped Gil-Ad Sha’er, 16, Naftali Fraenkel, 16, and Eyal Yifrah, 19, as they waited for a ride outside the Alon Shvut settlement in Judea. The Shin Bet named the killers Marwan Kawasme and Amar Abu Aisha.

The two were killed in a shootout with the IDF near Hebron in September 2014.

Hussam, a resident of Hebron, was in Israeli prison from 1995 to 2002 after being convicted of involvement in Hamas terrorist offenses, including being part of a cell that carried out bomb attacks.

“He is the son of a family whose sons have been involved in severe terrorist attacks on behalf of Hamas,” the domestic intelligence agency said at the time.

Hussam’s brother Hassin Kawasme is serving a life sentence for his role in a bomb attack on a bus stop across from the Jerusalem International Convention Center in March 2011. Scottish tourist Mary Jane Gardner, 59, was killed in the attack, and 39 people were wounded.

His other brother was Mahmoud Kawasme, who had served a 20-year prison sentence for his role in a twin suicide bombing attack aboard buses in Beersheba in August 2004, which killed 16 residents of the city and wounded more than 100 people. However, Mahmoud was released as part of the Schalit exchange with Hamas and expelled to the Gaza Strip.

From Gaza, Mahmoud transferred funds to his brother in Hebron for the attack on the three teenagers.

“During questioning by the Shin Bet, and the questioning of others, it emerged that Hussam Kawasme served as a command level for the kidnapping,“ the Shin Bet said.

At least one person was killed in a targeted attack on a vehicle in Jenin carried out by a UAV, the IDF confirmed on Wednesday.

חיסול מהאוויר במחנה הפליטים בג׳נין: כטב״ם תקף רכב ובו חוליית מחבלים שעמדה לבצע פיגוע pic.twitter.com/hqK3baFtKo

— אורי איזק | Ori Isaac (@oriisaac1) March 20, 2024

This is a developing story.

The Shin Bet and the IDF arrested Mahmoud Kwasama, who was involved in the kidnapping and murder of three boys in 2014 at a Shifa hospital, the Shin Bet announced on Wednesday. 

On the morning of October 7, Hamas attacked Kibbutz Kfar Aza by breaking through a fence that runs around the community. The community is one of the closest to Gaza, and the suburbs of Gaza City, such as the built-up area of Jabalya and Beit Hanoun, are easily visible from here.

Hamas crossed the mile of open fields that separate the Jewish community from Gaza and massacred people here.

I visited Kfar Aza on Wednesday, March 20. It was a warm day, the kind of day that would usually be full of life in spring. However, today, this community - which once had almost 900 residents - is now empty. There are guards at the entrance, and people patrol the community in cars or golf carts.

Many groups visit to see the evidence of the massacre and hear the stories of the tragedy here. One resident provided a tour to the group I was with. However, like the rest of the community, she has been evacuated and does not stay here.

We began the tour in the reverse of how Hamas would have encountered this community. That means we began in the center of the community and moved towards the fence. Many of the houses do not look damaged on the outside, instead life has been frozen here since October 7. There is still a Sukkah in one yard. Bicycles, toys, everything that marks the life of a peaceful village is here. But there is no civilian life today. Only the birds make noise, along with the humming of a Hermes 450 drone overhead, the kind Israel uses for surveillance and also airstrikes in Gaza. There is the roar of artillery in the background a few times.

However, in general, the war also feels distant. It's like life stopped here, and we are still living October 7. I’ve spoken to other residents of the border who describe life like that. They say we are living in day 160 of October as if the month keeps going on and on.

No medics or civilians were killed in the IDF operation on the Shifa hospital, IDF spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari said in an interview with the US government-owned, Arabic-language Alhurra channel on Wednesday.

The spokesperson added that the IDF began its operation in the Shifa hospital because terrorists had regrouped in the complex, noting that terrorists were entrenched in the complex.

He also said that Israel wanted Gaza civilians to have peace during Ramadan, but Hamas did not allow this. 

IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip. March 19, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Hagari's remarks on the situation in the North 

Regarding the situation on Israel's northern border, Hagari stated Israel wanted to be able to return its citizens to their communities in the area. 

He also added that in its military operations against Hezbollah, Israel was distinguishing between civilians and terrorists. 

While he blamed Hezbollah for escalating Lebanon into a war, he also said that Israel did not rule out diplomatic conduits to cease the conflict. 

A senior Hamas official said on Wednesday that Israel's response to the group's latest Gaza ceasefire proposal was negative after mediators handed it over.

"On Tuesday evening, our brothers, the mediators, informed us of the occupation’s position on the proposal.

"It is a negative response in general and does not respond to the demands...In fact, it retracts the approvals it previously provided to the mediators," Osama Hamdan told a press conference in Beirut.

Hamas official Osama Hamdan attends a news conference in Beirut, Lebanon, March 20, 2024 (credit: REUTERS/MOHAMED AZAKIR)

He said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government were responsible for the failure to negotiate a hostage release in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and stop the fighting in Gaza.

Talks on a ceasefire have resumed this week in Qatar, but weeks of negotiations have so far failed to produce the agreement between Israel and Hamas that Washington hopes will alleviate the humanitarian crisis gripping Gaza.

This is a developing story.

Hadash-Ta'al MK and faction leader Ayman Odeh was taken out of the Knesset plenum after he made remarks opposing IDF's war on Hamas in Gaza on Wednesday.

He began by quoting a statement made on Wednesday by former Health Minister and Israeli ambassador to France, Yael German, on the hunger in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war. 

He then said, "I appeal to you to be a real opposition against this government and its crimes in Gaza," he told the Knesset plenum.

"מה שהצבא עושה שם זה רצח, זה טבח - הרעבה של ילדים" - ח"כ איימן עודה הוצא מהמליאה בעקבות אמירותיו נגד צה"ל והביקורת על המצב ההומניטרי בעזה@AyOdeh@GermanYael1@hanochmilwidsky pic.twitter.com/k5uRwELAeo

— ערוץ כנסת (@KnessetT) March 20, 2024

"What the army is a crime, it's killing, it's murder, it's a massacre," he shouted. His remarks were met with severe protests from other MKs, and he was removed from the Knesset plenum.

Protesters try to tie themselves to Knesset fences 

Furthermore, on Wednesday, some 20 protestors against the government arrived at the Knesset, tried to tie themselves to the Knesset fences, and were blocked by security, according to Maariv.

Israel Police officers seen handling protesters near the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on March 20, 2024 (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

Two additional protestors tied themselves to the car handles of a vehicle that was blocking an emergency exit on the premises. 

Police subsequently removed them. 

A senior Hamas official said on Wednesday that Israel's response to the group's latest Gaza ceasefire proposal was negative after mediators handed it over.

"On Tuesday evening, our brothers, the mediators, informed us of the occupation’s position on the proposal ... it is a negative response in general and does not respond to the demands... In fact, it retracts the approvals it previously provided to the mediators," Osama Hamdan told a press conference in Beirut.

He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government were responsible for the failure to negotiate a hostage release in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and stop the fighting in Gaza.

Talks on a ceasefire have resumed this week in Qatar, but weeks of negotiations have so far failed to produce the agreement between Israel and Hamas that Washington hopes will alleviate the humanitarian crisis gripping Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said plans to evacuate Rafah civilians would be approved soon in a video published on Wednesday.  

He added, "While we are preparing to enter Rafah, which will take some time, we continue to operate with all our might. We continue to operate in Khan Yunis, in the central camps, in the elimination and capture of senior Hamas officials as we did now in Shifa, in the elimination of many hundreds of terrorists."

Hamas senior official Osama Hamdan said on Wednesday that the Israeli response to the group's latest Gaza ceasefire proposal was negative after mediators handed it over.