Israel-Hamas war day 208: What's going on in Gaza, Lebanon?

The humanitarian port being built off of Gaza by the US military will be up and running by this weekend, according to US and European officials reported in Politico.

Officials are expected to decide whether to begin operations by Friday, which means aid could begin arriving in the Strip as early as Saturday or Sunday, according to the report.

Officials cautioned that the schedule could be delayed by environmental factors or logistical issues.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan signaled on Wednesday in an interview with the Hezbollah-backed Lebanese channel "Al-Manar", that "if the enemy launches an aggressive ground operation in Rafah - the negotiations will be stopped because the resistance does not negotiate under fire," as reported in Israeli media.

Hamdan also referred to the fighting in Gaza and said that "the resistance capabilities [of Hamas] are still high and the resistance is still fine, this while the Zionist elite brigades have collapsed in the Gaza Strip."

He later noted, "The Israeli enemy bet on a decrease in its capabilities, but the resistance was preparing."

Hamdan confirmed that contact with Hamas's two leaders, Muhammad Deif and Yahya Sinwar, is permanent and that constant close monitoring is conducted in the field.

He also added, "There is coordinated action in the field and regular consultation between the resistance axis. How long can this fight last?"

Osama Hamden (credit: screenshot)

Hamdan said, "One of the most important results of this battle is that the resistance axis is increasing in strength and power." He continued, "What happened through the Iranian response to the Zionist entity established a new equation."

He pointed out that "those who manage the sea dock in Gaza are the American government," noting that "every armed soldier on Gaza soil is an enemy of the Palestinian people. The resistance thwarted the project of a new political authority in the Gaza Strip."

On the other hand, Hamdan said: "We welcomed the Chinese mediation and don't care about any compulsory role. The enemy is trying to blackmail everyone in the Battle of Rafah."

A different atmosphere

Sources in Hamas told the Saudi newspaper Asharq on Tuesday, "This time, there is a different atmosphere and circumstances regarding the proposal regarding a ceasefire."

Hamas members returned to Qatar's capital, Doha, for consultations after the meeting with mediators in Cairo.

The movement's delegation listened to the mediators' clarifications regarding some ambiguous points in the latest truce proposal," the sources said.

This is all while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding discussions in Kirya on the contacts for the hostage deal and on whether to send the Israeli negotiating team to Cairo, considering that Hamas's and Yahya Sinwar's answer has not yet arrived.

Israel understands that Hamas' answer to the Egyptian proposal will arrive within a few days—and most likely not in the next 24 hours.

State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman sent a letter on Wednesday to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, calling on them to cooperate in the probe of the October 7 failures.

"My public and ethical duty as the state comptroller is to carry out a comprehensive examination of the greatest failure in the history of the state, the Simchat Torah massacre on October 7," Englman wrote. 

"After more than six months of war, the citizens of Israel are entitled to answers regarding the responsibility of all the factors, the circumstances, and those responsible for the failure - and the State Comptroller is determined to provide them," he continued.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Wednesday that Turkey had decided to get involved in the case brought by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The idea that Israel carried out mass summary executions and covered them up in mass graves is preposterous.

There is not only no evidence connecting Israel to such an act, but the IDF, with all of the criticism, has shown unprecedented openness to international media to see and learn what it is doing in Gaza.

In fact, many of the accusations from global critics have come not only from Palestinian social media reports, but straight from IDF public admissions or exposure.

Israeli officials are increasingly worried about the possibility of ICC arrest warrants and the negative impact they might have on negotiations to free hostages held by Hamas. Prime Minister Netanyahu, who may be a target of an ICC warrant, voiced concerns about the court’s actions and confirmed that the Foreign Ministry is closely monitoring reports of impending ICC actions.

“If an arrest warrant is issued against them [Israeli leaders], this is not the same as an indictment, or document containing the charges; this comes much later,” said Iain Edwards, a defense counsel at the ICC, during a conversation with The Media Line.

Israel reopened the sole crossing on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, allowing aid trucks to pass through the Erez checkpoint following US demands to do more to address the growing humanitarian crisis.

Reopening the Erez crossing has been one of the main pleas of international aid agencies for months to alleviate hunger in the northern part of the Strip. 

The Israeli government opened the crossing point on the day of a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called for more humanitarian aid deliveries into the territory.

The United Nations's hatred of Israel helped spark the new wave of antisemitism surrounding the Gaza war including on American college campuses, Israel Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said in a blistering speech he delivered Wednesday to the UN General Assembly.

He spoke on what he said was the ninth UN General Assembly debate on Israel since Hamas’s invasion of Israel's southern border on October 7, in which over 1,200 people were killed and over 253 were seized as hostages.

A British police officer has been charged with a terrorism offence for allegedly publishing an image in support of Hamas, a group banned in Britain as a terrorist organisation, police said on Wednesday.

Mohammed Adil, 26, from Bradford in northern England, was arrested last November and charged following an investigation by British counter-terrorism officers, Counter Terrorism Policing North East said in a statement.

The police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), said the inquiries had focused on messages shared on WhatsApp which had concluded the case should be referred to prosecutors.

Hamas is a recognized terrorist group in UK

"On Monday, PC Mohammed Adil, 26, was charged with two counts of publishing an image in support of a proscribed organization, specifically Hamas, contrary to section 13 of the Terrorism Act," the IOPC statement said. "The offences are alleged to have taken place in October and November 2023."

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is shown a new Electric Hybrid deployment police car during a media visit, in Harlow, Britain, February 16, 2024 (credit: DAN KITWOOD/POOL VIA REUTERS)

Adil, a police constable, has been suspended from his job with West Yorkshire Police and is due to appear before London Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

The BBC recently reported on southern Lebanon where it said it saw “air strike destruction in deserted towns.” The report sought to downplay the role Hezbollah has had in bringing this disaster on southern Lebanon. However, reading between the lines, one can get a sense of how Hezbollah’s thousands of attacks on Israel since it joined the war in support of Hamas on October 8 have harmed civilian life in Lebanon.

Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed terrorist group that illegally occupies southern Lebanon and has illegally stockpiled more than 150,000 missiles and rockets. It has also acquired anti-tank missiles in the thousands and several thousand attack drones in recent years, as well as precision guided munitions. Some of its weapons are developed locally, while other are trafficked from Iran.

Hezbollah has festooned southern Lebanon with weapons, moving them into villages and building networks of bunkers, observation posts, launch sites and other illegal terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon. After the 2006 war the UN and Lebanon were supposed to keep Lebanon from creating a state within a state in southern Lebanon, and returning to the border, however, the group is exponentially more powerful today than in 2006. Similar to Hamas, the international community has sought to enable Hezbollah’s threats, or pretend not to notice them.

Parts of the South are ghost towns

The result of ignoring Hezbollah’s threats has now become apparent. The group began attacks on Israel on October 8 and has now launched thousands of missiles and rockets at Israel. Israel has responded proportionately, often targeting Hezbollah launch sites or observation posts, meaning that, in general, Hezbollah’s fighters simply move from place to place to attack again. Hezbollah has lost some fighters, more than 200 in the six months of attacks.

The BBC report, one of the few on southern Lebanon, includes details on how Hezbollah’s war has driven civilians out of southern Lebanon. According to the report, more than 70 civilians have been killed, and the conflict has turned “parts of the south into ghost towns. Residents have fled, leaving their homes at risk of destruction. The BBC went on patrol with the UN's peacekeeping force there to see what has happened.”

A supporter of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah holds his picture during a rally commemorating the group's late leaders in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon February 16, 2024. (credit: MOHAMED AZAKIR/REUTERS)

The report said, "in every town near the line, there are similar sights: buildings levelled or vanished into craters; next to them, buildings which have been damaged, then rows of houses intact - followed by more craters.”