Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 166?

The IDF announced on Thursday that in its four-day operation in Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, it has now killed around 140 terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as arrested around 650 additional terrorists.

This was a significant jump from the 90 killed and 160-350 arrested, which the IDF confirmed on Wednesday.

Curiously, the IDF said that all of the Islamic Jihad operatives in the area quickly surrendered, whereas Hamas’s forces were split into two groups, with one large group also surrendering en masse and one large group continuing to resist.

According to the IDF, this second group’s continued fighting could prolong the operation for several additional days.

IDF estimates are that there are an additional 50 Hamas fighters to subdue within the Shifa Complex, of which 20 may have significant roles.

Israeli raid at Al Shifa hospital and the area around it, in Gaza City (credit: REUTERS/DAWOUD ABU ALKAS)

IDF sources said that the operation had been planned for over a month.

Previously, The Jerusalem Post had reported that the operation had been carefully planned for some time, but it was unclear whether the planning went back a week or longer.

Such an extensive period of time indicates that the IDF may have intentionally waited longer for more terrorist senior officials to arrive before attacking.

The Iranian pro-government Tasnim news media claimed that the “Islamic Resistance of Iraq announced that in support of the people of Gaza…it targeted the power plant of the Zionist regime in ‘Tel Aviv’ with a drone early this morning, Thursday.”

The Iranian media included an image of an explosive-laden kamikaze drone in the report. These types of drones may have a range of up to 2,000 km. Iran has exported the Shahed 136 kamikaze drone to Yemen and Russia.

 It was not clear what incident the Iranian-backed terrorist groups in Iraq were referring to. The Iranian media said that the statement shows the “continuation of these attacks to crush the enemy's positions; it is stated that today's operation was carried out to complete the second phase of the operation to resist the occupation and support the people of Gaza and in response to the crime and killing of the Zionists against the defenseless Palestinian civilians.”

It was also unclear what the Iranians meant by the “second phase.” Iran has sought to bring together various terrorist and proxy groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen to threaten Israel in the wake of the Hamas attack on October 7.

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that only the expansion of land crossings into Gaza could help prevent famine in the densely populated Palestinian enclave.

"Recent efforts to deliver food by air and sea are welcome, but only the expansion of land crossings will enable large-scale deliveries to prevent famine," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Israeli officials are under "heavy pressure" to postpone the entry of IDF soldiers into Gaza's Rafah, according to a Thursday report by Al Arabiya, 

The report added that a senior Israeli official claimed that Israel would control Rafah even if it caused a diplomatic rift with the United States.

Concerns for the American mediation team come from fears that there is no concrete plan to relocate more than a million Palestinians taking refuge in the southern city. American mediators have rejected the proposal regarding the planned operation in Rafah, with Israel "refusing to link the issue to the ceasefire negotiations."

EU leaders will call for a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza at their summit in Brussels on Thursday, the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. "Today the Council goes much further" than in previous months, Borrell said before the summit.

"Asking for a sustainable ceasefire, certainly also asking for the freedom of hostages, but showing a strong concern for the situation of the people in Gaza, which is unacceptable," Borrell called on Israel to ensure more aid reaches Gaza and hoped EU leaders would do the same.

"They are starving. So I hope that the council will send a strong message to Israel, stop blocking, stop preventing the food to come into Gaza and take care of the civilians," he said. "Certainly Israel has the right to defend, [but] not to revenge."

A wrongful termination lawsuit, currently underway in the Jerusalem Labor Court, has revealed turmoil at the head of the left-wing human rights organization B’Tselem, according to a report in the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz.

The plaintiff, Ro’ei Yelin, claims that at the heart of his employment dispute is a fight over the wording of a call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

He admits, however, that while upset about that matter, he changed the password of the organization’s Instagram account, effectively locking out his colleagues, after which he was summoned for a hearing and then fired. He maintains that he was fired for his views.

According to the lawsuit, the events of October 7 had a profound effect on B’Tselem, causing “a shock and serious crisis” as a consequence of differences of opinion among the organization’s employees, “including painful phenomena of denial or attempts to downplay the severity and scope of the crimes.” 

The ethics council of Norway's $1.6 trillion wealth fund says it is investigating whether companies in which it holds shares fall outside its permitted investment guidelines due to the war in Gaza.

The world's largest sovereign wealth fund, which owns 1.5% of the world's listed shares across 8,800 companies, operates under ethical rules set by parliament, and over the years has divested from nine companies, all Israeli, over activities in the Palestinian territories.

Svein Richard Brandtzaeg, chair of the council, said the war had prompted it to examine which firms were selling weapons to Israel that were being used in Gaza.

It could lead to divestments if these weapons are used for "serious and systematic violations" of the rights of individuals in war or conflict, or of international rules on the conduct of war, according to the fund's ethical guidelines.

"We are looking at this because of the seriousness of the breach of the norms that we see," he told Reuters in an interview.

A wrongful termination lawsuit, currently underway in the Jerusalem Labor Court, has revealed turmoil at the head of the left-wing human rights organization B’Tselem, according to a report in the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz.

The plaintiff, Ro’ei Yelin, claims that at the heart of his employment dispute is a fight over the wording of a call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

He admits, however, that while upset about that matter, he changed the password of the organization’s Instagram account, effectively locking out his colleagues, after which he was summoned for a hearing and then fired. He maintains that he was fired for his views.

According to the lawsuit, the events of October 7 had a profound effect on B’Tselem, causing “a shock and serious crisis” as a consequence of differences of opinion among the organization’s employees, “including painful phenomena of denial or attempts to downplay the severity and scope of the crimes.” 

Combat soldiers from the Commando Brigade, under the guidance of military intelligence and the Shin Bet, operated in the Hemed neighborhood of Khan Yunis, the IDF announced Thursday.

Egoz soldiers raided several buildings and fought and eliminated terrorists at close range. During the fighting, armed terrorists barricaded themselves on different floors of the building. The terrorists were then killed. 

The Hemed operation was carried out in close cooperation with the Israel Air Force, which attacked terrorist targets and infrastructure in preparation for the maneuver and to assist the maneuvering forces.

Satellite images analyzed by the United Nations Satellite Centre show that 35% of the Gaza Strip's buildings have been destroyed or damaged since the start of Israel's offensive there following Hamas's October 7 attack.

In its assessment, the United Nations Satellite Centre, UNOSAT, used high-resolution satellite images collected on February 29 and compared them with images taken before and after the war broke out.

It found that 35% of all buildings in the Gaza Strip - 88,868 structures - had been damaged or destroyed.

Among these, it identified 31,198 structures as destroyed, 16,908 as severely damaged, and 40,762 as moderately damaged.