Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 172?

Nearly half a year since the October 7 Hamas invasion, how it happened remains unfathomable.

Still fighting the war to destroy Hamas, the nation has not yet turned from the battleground to an in-depth look at what went so terribly wrong.

True, there have been television investigations and newspaper examinations, and both the IDF and the State Comptroller are conducting investigations, but a systemic look at how the IDF, intelligence agencies, and the government were so completely blinded and left clueless will take years to emerge. A State Commission of Inquiry will surely be established after the war to examine all aspects of the colossal failure, though it is not clear what will mark that end-of-war point or when this body will be set up.

Conventional wisdom holds that such a committee is essential to rebuild trust in the state’s institutions, and that trust is vital. Israel critically needs to rebuild institutional trust.

Much has been written of Israel’s vaunted resilience, its uncanny ability to take blows and bounce back, usually even stronger than before. And this resilience has a number of different components.

The United States will only support a pause to the Gaza war that includes the release of hostages, Senator Lindsay Graham (R-South Carolina) told reporters in Israel on Wednesday as he warned Hamas not to misunderstand Washington’s abstention on the recent United Nations Security Council resolution.

“Hamas can’t believe for a second that Israel would pause the fighting without the return of the hostages,” Graham said.

He spoke just two days after the United States refused to veto a Security Council resolution that called for a pause to the Gaza war but did not condition the temporary cessation of fighting on freeing hostages.

Israel has warned that the US failure to use its veto sent Hamas the message that it doesn’t need to release the remaining 134 hostages, and weakened Jerusalem’s ability to secure a deal for their release.

“The resolution debacle for lack of a better word... will soon be behind us. The one thing that Israel cannot afford is mixed signals,” Graham stressed.

The United States’ position is that there “will never be a ceasefire unless the hostages are released,” he said.

At least eight people, including Hezbollah terrorists, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon, security sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

Five were killed in a strike on the border village of Tair Harfa and a strike shortly afterward that hit a restaurant in the border town of Naqura killed at least another three people, the security sources and official Lebanese media said.

Iran-backed Hezbollah said it had launched dozens of rockets over the border at Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel early on Wednesday in response to deadly Israeli air strikes on the village of Hebbariyeh in southern Lebanon a day earlier.

Those airstrikes near two towns in northeast Lebanon killed three Hezbollah militants, the heavily armed Shi'ite Muslim group said.

Americans across the political spectrum remain broadly supportive of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, according to the most recent Harvard-Harris poll of American voters, but opinions about the war are still dependent on age, with a large contingent of young Americans declaring support for Hamas over Israel.

The overwhelming majority (91%) of Americans follow the war, and 64% say they follow it closely. A majority of both Democrats and Republicans support the United States providing military aid to Israel. This consistency stands in contrast to opinions about funding the war in Ukraine, which are sharply divided along party lines. 

A large majority (79%) of American voters say that they support Israel more than Hamas, but a fifth support Hamas over Israel, including about 36% of those 18-34.

Of those 18-24, a majority (57%) support an immediate ceasefire that would leave everyone in place, including Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas. In comparison, a large minority (43%) of respondents that age say a ceasefire should happen only after the release of all hostages and Hamas’s removal from power. 

For those 25-44, opinions on an immediate ceasefire are split, while a clear majority of those 45 and above believe a ceasefire should only happen once hostages are returned and Hamas is removed.

Young voters split on whether Hamas must be removed

Asked who was more to blame for creating the crisis, Israel or Hamas, young people (18-44) were split almost exactly down the middle, while older respondents 45 and above responded in clear majorities that Hamas was responsible. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office agreed to reschedule meetings in Washington to discuss alternatives to a full-scale ground invasion in Rafah despite conflicting reports from the Prime Minister's Office, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Peirre said on Wednesday. 

Jean-Pierre said the White House is working to set a date for the rescheduled meetings.

Netanyahu initially said he canceled the Israeli delegation that was meant to meet with senior US officials in DC this week as "a message to Hamas," said Netanyahu in a meeting with US Senator Rick Scott on Wednesday

Dozens of people protested outside the Beirut office of the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) on Wednesday after it put a staff member on administrative leave over possible violations of staff conduct regulations.

School teacher Fathi al-Sharif was put on leave for three months without pay as the UN agency investigated alleged activities "that are in violation of the Agency's regulatory framework governing staff conduct," the agency told Reuters in a statement.

UNRWA said it could not discuss further details. It did not say whether he was accused of membership of an armed group.

Sharif spoke at the protest on Wednesday, where a crowd had gathered to support him. Several people told Reuters that he had been accused of links to Hamas.

"The job can go, and we will stay!" he told those gathered.

Five people have been killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon, including Hezbollah fighters, security sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled the Israeli delegation that was meant to meet with senior US officials in DC this week as "a message to Hamas," said Netanyahu in a meeting with US Senator Rick Scott on Wednesday.

Netanyahu canceled the delegation following a US abstention in the UN Security Council that led to the adoption of a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the immediate release of the hostages.

"I thought the US decision in the security council was very, very bad," said Netanyahu in the meeting with Scott.

"It encouraged Hamas to take a hardline and to believe that international pressure will prevent Israel from freeing the hostages and destroying Hamas," he said.

"Therefore, my decision not to send the delegation to Washington in the wake of that resolution, was first and foremost a message to Hamas - don't bet on this pressure to work," he said.

The delegation was set to discuss with US officials the alternative plans for a massive military operation in Rafah and to discuss the hostage deal negotiations.

The most difficult issues involved in the hostage negotiations remain to be resolved but talks are not believed to have come to an end, a State Department spokesperson said Wednesday, after Hamas rejected an American compromise proposal late Monday night.

"By nature of these types of negotiations, when you get down to the end, when you make progress, the issues that remain are often the hardest ones. You don't usually solve the hardest issues first, you solve them last,"  Spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

However, Miller wouldn't confirm "any particular conversations" that are still ongoing.

"We believe that there is an ability to continue to pursue the release of hostages and that's what we're going to continue to do," Miller said.

The IDF finished the command training for battalion commanders on the northern front, the Israeli military said on Wednesday. 

 "We have been at war for almost half a year now, and it does not end only with Hezbollah," Commander of the northern front, Maj.-Gen. Ori Goldin said, referring to the recent attacks on al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya terrorists in Lebanon.

"We are determined to change the security situation in the north so that its residents can return in security," he added.

"If we realize that we will have to act, we will act tonight as well, and the readiness is there," he continued. 

Hamas has released a recording of a speech made by Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, arab media reported on Wednesday.

"Our people in Jordan and Lebanon, in Egypt, Algeria, the Maghreb, in Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and in all parts of the Arab and Islamic world," Deif called to the Arab world. 

“Begin marching today, now and not tomorrow, towards Palestine, and do not let borders, regulations, or restrictions deprive you of the honor of jihad and participation in the liberation of Al-Aqsa Mosque," Deif continued.

"Go forth, light and heavy, and strive with your money and your lives in the path of God," the Hamas leader added.

According to the report, the speech is dated to the beginning of the October 7 attack. However, The Jerusalem Post could not independently confirm the date of the recording.