Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 345?

Yemen's Houthis fired at least one ballistic missile, possibly more, on the Tel Aviv and central Israel areas, IDF sources said on Sunday.

The ballistic missile fired by Yemen's Houthis at Israel early Sunday morning impacted an open area near Ben-Shemen, some six kilometers from Ben-Gurion Airport, KAN news reported. 

23 Palestinians hiding in the back of a garbage truck have been arrested at the Maccabim junction on road 443 for attempting to enter Israel illegally, Israeli media reported on Saturday night.

23 פלסטינים שניסו להסתנן לשטח ישראל נתפסו בתוך משאית זבל במחסום מכבים@carmeldangor pic.twitter.com/mZi0eBLByR

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 14, 2024

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to speak at the upcoming UN general assembly in New York on September 27, Ynet reported on Saturday night.

With the assembly being mere hours before Shabbat, Netanyahu is expected to spend the entire weekend in the US.

The UK and US remain committed to Israel's security, the two countries said in a joint statement on US-UK strategic dialogue on Saturday night.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy met in London to discuss parts of the US-UK partnership, including "unwavering support for Ukraine" and "the promotion of peace and security in the Middle East, including through a ceasefire in Gaza."

Lammy expressed the UK's support for mediation efforts, and both countries stressed the desire to avoid regional escalation and work towards a two-state solution.

Both said they were seeking a "lasting security solution along the Blue Line that will allow Israeli and Lebanese civilians on both sides to return to their homes with safety and security."

They also called on all parties to protect civilians and for Israel to allow for the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Both countries welcomed the polio vaccination campaign.

The United States and the United Kingdom also discussed Iran's role in bringing instability to the region through the "proliferation of advanced weaponry" as well as financing and supporting Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and others. 

The BBC will broadcast the Nova Music Festival documentary - Surviving October 7th: We Will Dance Again - on 26 September, the British broadcaster announced this week.

The 90-minute film, which gives insight into Hamas's attack on the 7 October, will air on BBC Two and iPlayer, and was commissioned by BBC Storyville. The film contains unseen footage.

A first sign of life emerged on Saturday from Matan Angrest, the soldier kidnapped while severely wounded and unconscious during the fighting in Gaza on October 7.

In a recently discovered video from his captivity in Gaza, Angrest addressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging him to secure his release. "Netanyahu, you must make the exchange between the prisoners in Israel and the prisoners here," he said. "I believe you're capable of it; you just need to want it."

The audio from this video was made public for the first time by his mother, Anat Angrest, during the weekly protest supporting a deal to return the captives. In the recording, Matan says, "Netanyahu, I trust you! You can do it, and I hope it will happen as soon as possible."

Matan, who served in a tank unit, was captured alongside his fellow soldiers Itai Chen, Daniel Peretz, and Tomer Leibovitz - all of whom were killed in the battle. Their bodies were also taken into Gaza. According to the Hostages’ and Missing Families Forum, Matan was critically injured when he was captured, and his family had not received any news of him for months.

Video was known to exist by Anat beforehand

Anat Angrest had previously revealed the existence of the video at a rally in early July at Hostages’ Square, where she shared her disappointment that her son had not been mentioned in the first phase of negotiations for a prisoner exchange. The family now sees the video as a sign of hope, confirming Matan is alive and holding on.

Families of soldiers held hostage in Gaza, March 28, 2024. (credit: Hostage and Missing Families Forum)

Matan's case has garnered significant public attention. During a recent competition, Israeli swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko dedicated a medal to him, describing the surreal reality of having a friend and classmate held captive in Gaza.

There is a reason that incoming Northern Corps and Multi-Domain Joint Maneuver Array Maj.-Gen. Dan Goldfus is considered one of the rising stars of the IDF.

Israel Defense Forces Brig.-Gen. Itzik Cohen of Division 162, along with Brig.-Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa of Division 36 (also becoming a major general but in a less upwardly mobile position), Brig.-Gen. Barak Hiram of Division 99, and Brig.-Gen. Moran Omer of Division 252 have all played important roles in the invasion of northern Gaza. So what is so special about Goldfus?

One of the reasons that South African-Israeli Goldfus – promoted from brigadier general to major general in May – is joining the high command (others to hold his next post have gone on to become IDF chief, IDF deputy chief, and IDF intelligence chief) is that he is both the hero of Hamas’s defeat in Khan Yunis and the general who broke up the terrorist group’s network of tunnels.

How did Dan Goldfus overcome Hamas's tunnel networks and defeat them in Khan Yunis?

The Magazine has learned that Goldfus considers that his breakthrough in overcoming Hamas’s tunnel warfare is not about a single moment in which he had an epiphany but the result of hard, exhaustive, and continuous work.

If, at first, the soldiers in his Division 98 – considered almost a special forces unit – had to slowly and clumsily feel their way around in the dark of the Hamas tunnels, they eventually became, in his view, the first army in modern history to carry out large-scale, full-unit invasions, maneuvering throughout the Hamas tunnel network.

Dan Goldfus, a rising star in the IDF, is seen inspecting a Hamas terrorist tunnel in east Jabalya, northern Gaza. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

The Magazine learned that in the initial stages of the war, Goldfus’s forces were required to focus on basics, such as recording the size of the tunnels, their volume, and their depth. Likewise, they just needed to get used to the aspect of the tunnels and to dig into them, gather photos, and study them. Over time, this systematic approach began to help build more confidence.

Goldfus and his troops would slowly explore various tunnel depths and examine the types of equipment Hamas used in differing tunnels but with very targeted and circumscribed goals and missions.

WHEN HE and his forces went in, Goldfus, being a soldier’s soldier, insisted on entering a huge number of tunnels himself to see them up close despite the extra risk to his person, as they usually did not yet know what to expect.

The Magazine understands that they would have a specific goal for each area in question, usually starting with tunnels about which Goldfus had received more extensive pre-operation intelligence from Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and IDF intelligence sources – particularly if Hamas was putting up a bigger fight to fend off IDF advances from a particular tunnel shaft.

At the outset, neither Goldfus nor any of the other generals allowed full units to maneuver down into the tunnels. So, even in early January, three months into the war and a full month after the then-brigadier general had invaded Khan Yunis, IDF soldiers very rarely ventured into the tunnels.

EVENTUALLY, GOLDFUS realized that the Hamas tunnels were not separate systems but one massive decentralized network. This conclusion was reached when he and his top advisers found a convergence of trends.

The next step, diagnosing the convergence, was reserved for Special Forces. Division 98 started assuming slightly greater risk by entering the tunnels to maximize the benefit of taking over given areas above ground.

These Special Forces and engineers then began to diagnose the components of each particular tunnel on a deeper level. Goldfus would be the first to admit that this stage also took a long time.

Finally, early in January, the Division 98 commander and his forces had a breakthrough.

They had discussed and debated, sometimes through the night as they sat for their operational situation assessments and constructed a plan for entering the tunnels. The Magazine understands that Goldfus and his team asked themselves: What level of risk should we take to explore the tunnels? What are they worth to the enemy?

All levels of command were involved, including IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, because going into the tunnels was taking a big risk.

Finally, Goldfus succeeded in understanding what Hamas was and was not doing. Surprisingly, he realized that Hamas had not come to fight underground. It just wanted to use the tunnels to survive and rest.

SUDDENLY, GOLDFUS and his team began to view the issue of the tunnels in another light.

The Yahalom Special Forces unit, along with various commandos, began entering the tunnels in larger numbers, with greater frequency, and covering larger distances.

Then, more “regular” infantry units such as the Unit 7 combat team, the Givati Brigade soldiers, and others went in.

In terms of understanding how the tunnels in various parts of Gaza relate to one another, Goldfus holds that this is not fully possible until one has seen a large number of different tunnels in various parts of Gaza. He would point out that every tunnel has different nuances: For instance, the doors built into the tunnel look different, and the cement material for framing the tunnel is different.

For example, in his view, anyone who saw the Shifa Hospital tunnels at the start of the war was in some sense a bit misled or “faked out.”

Many in the IDF who focused overly on Shifa thought that all the tunnels that the military went on to find would be the same. Goldfus would label this a “substantive error” because many tunnels are different.

DAN GOLDFUS stands in the crater at the site of what was once Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s house in Gaza. (credit: YONAH JEREMY BOB)

In his view, Khan Yunis tunnels are different from Rafah tunnels, which are different from Jabalya tunnels, which are different from Shejaia tunnels. And there were different kinds of diggers in Khan Yunis and for each area.

ACCORDING TO Goldfus, some people thought he was crazy, but he was convinced that under their feet was a single giant network. These were not separate strategic tunnels, tactical tunnels, or separate areas. In his narrative, it was a single giant network from which it was possible to enter around Erez in northern Gaza and come out at Rafah and Egypt – like the process of water seeping through and flowing down a mountain.

Another analogy for the web of tunnels and the difficulty in navigating all of it that Goldfus likes to use is from a scene in the 1987 movie Spaceballs, a spoof on Star Wars, where Stormtroopers are told to “comb the desert” for escapees. They are then seen, literally and futilely, “pulling” a giant comb through the vast desert.

A recent operation to retrieve the bodies of hostages took less than 24 hours from start to finish, partially because Goldfus had acquired enough experience and intelligence regarding the tunnels to plan all the specifics. 

In his view, he could not have done this without everything the IDF had learned along the way. This was a significant and complex operation, and the major general felt that he and his team had achieved something unusually significant.

All of this eventually led to IDF’s capability, in mid-and-late January, to shift to the process of simultaneously attacking above and below ground.

Will all of these breakthroughs help the IDF succeed in destroying all of Hamas’s tunnels?

Goldfus took into consideration that the IDF would not be able to get to all the tunnels. Rather, it would succeed in destroying the critical mass of tunnels that threaten the State of Israel because of their proximity, the Magazine has learned.

Further, the Division 98 commander’s view is that the military will be able to blow up many kilometers of tunnels – and key connecting tunnels that are central to the Gaza network – even if it will never be able to destroy them all. This equation does not disturb Goldfus. He would suggest looking to the kilometers of Japanese tunnels from World War II in Okinawa, many of them still there.

If no one is using them, he believes that the task is not the tunnels themselves but for the IDF to kill or wound Hamas terrorists – and to convince the Gazan population that they have alternatives to being ruled by the terrorist group, being used as human shields, or working with Hamas out of fear.

Goldfus disapproves of those who lack the patience to utilize a systematic approach to destroying the tunnels. His approach is that the IDF must be systematic and produce and utilize deep knowledge to maximize achievements within the minimum time necessary.

For example, in Shejaia his forces destroyed eight tunnels in just two weeks, the Magazine has learned. However, his forces were nowhere near that level of effectiveness in other areas.

The major general advocates that the IDF aspire to continue to up its game to rid the area of as much of the tunnel threat as possible.

IN HIS next challenge in the Northern Command, Goldfus will focus mainly on a variety of land forces, but he will also work with the Air Force and others to attempt to improve the holes in the military’s air defense. Although he has not yet fully assumed his new position, his view on using the older anti-aircraft Vulcan defense system to protect against drones is that, if used, it should remain the last line of defense.

In a recent interview, former Air Defense chief Brig.-Gen. (res.) Ran Kochav told the Magazine that on the one hand, the Vulcan was not a solve-all solution; but on the other hand, he thought it could have a place in plugging some of the holes in Israel’s current air defense, which is geared more toward rocket defense and less toward drones.

Goldfus’s approach is that, with the Vulcan systems’ utility limited by their short-range capabilities, it is impractical to spread them throughout Israel’s borders.

He considers that playing defense is difficult and that part of the solution is to be increasingly on the offensive against the drone threat.

This is hardly surprising, given that Goldfus began his career in the Shayetet 13 naval commandos. 

The international stage is once again witnessing heightened diplomatic tensions as the aftermath of the Gaza war ignites fresh debates over the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A central issue in these discussions is the United Arab Emirates’ refusal to support any post-war reconstruction efforts in Gaza without a clear plan for the establishment of a Palestinian state. This position, echoed by UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Saturday, reflects a growing regional consensus on the need for a two-state solution to resolve the conflict.

Abdullah made his stance clear in a statement posted on X/Twitter emphasizing that the UAE’s participation in Gaza’s recovery would be contingent upon progress toward Palestinian statehood. “The United Arab Emirates is not ready to support the day after the war in Gaza without the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he declared.

الامارات غير مستعدة لدعم اليوم التالي من الحرب في غزة دون قيام دولة فلسطينية

— عبدالله بن زايد (@ABZayed) September 14, 2024

The UAE’s position aligns with the sentiments expressed during a Joint Ministerial Contact Group meeting in Madrid last week, where representatives from several Muslim and European countries convened to discuss ways to end the Gaza war.

UAE's position endorsed

Hosted by Spain, the meeting brought together foreign ministers from nations such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Norway, and Slovenia, as well as Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa. The group, which also included the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, reiterated the necessity of implementing a two-state solution based on international law.

Speaking at the Madrid meeting on Friday, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares called for a concrete schedule to ensure the realization of the two-state solution, asserting that it is the only viable path to peace in the region. “The implementation of the two-state solution is the only way,” Albares stated, urging the international community to move beyond rhetoric and take concrete actions toward resolving the conflict.

President Isaac Herzog meeting UAE Foreign Minister HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi. (credit: AMOS BEN GERSHOM/GPO)

Notably absent from the Madrid talks was Israel, a decision Albares defended by stating that Israel was not part of the contact group. “We will be delighted to see Israel at any table where peace and the two-state solution are discussed,” he said. This exclusion, however, underscored the widening gap between Israel and many international actors over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As the Madrid meeting concluded with a renewed call for “Palestine” to join the United Nations, Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz launched a scathing attack on Borrell, accusing him of antisemitism. Katz’s harsh comments were triggered by Borrell’s participation in discussions about the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Katz denounced Borrell as an “antisemitic Israel-hater,” comparing him to “the greatest antisemites in history.” He further accused the EU foreign policy chief of leading a “hateful, antisemitic campaign” against Israel while failing to confront the growing influence of Iran in the region. “Rather than confronting the Iranian axis of evil, which poses a threat to Europe’s security, Borrell sides with them in promoting anti-Israel initiatives,” the foreign minister charged.

The exchange between Katz and Borrell highlighted the deepening rift between Israel and the European Union regarding the future of the region. Borrell responded to Katz’s accusations by rejecting the notion that his advocacy for a two-state solution is driven by antisemitism. “Accusing those who disagree with a government’s position of antisemitism makes no sense,” Borrell said.

“There have, unfortunately, been examples in history of what it means to be antisemitic, and I don’t think we should play with big words that have had a tragic dimension in history,” he added, alluding to the historical weight of the term. Borrell defended his participation in the Madrid talks, stating that supporting a Palestinian state is not tantamount to opposing Israel but rather seeking a path to lasting peace.

"My heart was murdered in Gaza," Michal Lobanov, whose late husband Alex was one of the six hostages murdered two weeks ago by Hamas, said Saturday evening at the main demonstration's stage at Begin Gate in Tel Aviv.

Demonstrations in Tel Aviv and around the country for an immediate hostage deal, with subsequent calls for the government to step down for failing to reach a deal, have resumed Saturday night.

"My two boys are now fatherless. They will not get the chance to have their father raise them. How will our two young sons live in a country where its government abandoned their father? For them and for me, it is too late," Lobanov said.

"We could have done more; we could have pushed for a deal to release them before they were murdered. A deal isn't as glorious as the total defeat of Hamas, but it is the bravery of a different kind, the bravery of doing the right thing, even if it's the harder decision to make," she continued.

"Please give the other families here the chance at returning their loved ones; for me, it is too late; for them, there is still a chance. Let these families and the entire nation that supports them have a better ending to this nightmare. Bring them home now!" she declared.

Hostage protest on Begin Bridge. 14 September 2024. (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI)

Hostage family Reaction to Gallant's war shift 

Earlier, the Hostage Family Forum reacted to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant's remarks that the IDF has begun focusing on the North.  They said that this focus means that Netanyahu is "abandoning the hostages to die in the tunnels," N12 reported.

Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, stated, "We demand from the government: First, bring back the hostages. Expanding the war in the north without a deal is a death sentence for the hostages. Instead of bringing back 101 hostages, Netanyahu has abandoned them for the North."

"Everyone can see that the military's pressure is killing the hostages, and we all know there’s a deal ready to be signed. As long as Netanyahu remains in power, the war will go on forever, and there will be no deal. Netanyahu is the obstacle to the agreement," Zangauker added.

Police Intervention

Fifteen protesters have been arrested in Tel Aviv for disturbing the peace, Israeli Police announced Saturday night.

A police statement explained that during preliminary patrols, forces found waste materials intended for burning, such as tires, planks, and rafts.

“We reiterate that the freedom to protest and express oneself does not include the freedom to start fires, block main roads, disrupt the movement of many people, or break through police barriers.” the statement said. 

Protestors reported a significant change in police conduct, claiming that a line of closely parked trucks had blocked most exits.

"I have been here for 74 of the last 76 demonstrations," a protester told Maariv. "This has never happened. They allowed the crowd to evacuate in all directions quickly. Suddenly, everything is blocked. They lost their minds." 

According to Ynet, eight protesters have been arrested for blocking the roads, and another seven for possessing suspected combustible materials.

Following the arrests, police have announced that the roads have been reopened.