Israel at war: What happened on day 17?

Two captives out of the 222 hostages Hamas abducted on October 7 were released from Gaza to Egypt on Monday night, Israel confirmed.

Nurit Cooper, 80, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, both from Kibbutz Nir Oz, were released to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which took them to the Rafah crossing where they were met by Israeli officials. 

Their husbands, also in their 80s, remain in captivity.

The women had been freed after 20 trucks of humanitarian aid entered Gaza, and amid reports that Qatar separately had secured the release of some 50 hostages with foreign passports. These two women were both Israeli and were not part of that deal.

“We decided to release them for compelling humanitarian and health reasons,” Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida said.

Hamas did this “despite the occupation committing more than eight violations of the procedures that were agreed upon with the mediating brothers for the occupation to adhere to during this day to complete the handover process,” Ubaida said.

The Hamas announcement came shortly after i24News reported Monday evening that representatives of the ICRC were on their way to Gaza to redeem the hostages and against the backdrop of a report by The New York Times on Monday that said Hamas was exploring the possibility of releasing hostages who hold foreign passports.

The Times cited an Israeli military official who mentioned that Qatar is actively engaged in mediating negotiations for the release of these hostages, separate from those who are exclusively Israeli citizens. The Israeli official cited in the Times reportedly made this claim based on discussions between the United States and Qatar.

The Wall Street Journal later said that negotiations for the release of a group of 50 captives in Gaza failed because Hamas conditioned their release on the supply of fuel to the Gaza Strip, which Israel has refused to allow because it said Hamas uses the fuel to launch rockets at Israel. 

Efforts on multiple fronts

According to KAN News, conversations are occurring on multiple fronts, including via several intermediaries, from former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen to Ronen Levi, who served for almost 30 years in the intelligence and defense communities and has connections in Qatar and other Gulf countries. 

Several media new sites speculated that Israel has held off from embarking on a military ground campaign in Gaza to allow for further negotiations for the release of the hostages.

In Washington, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said US President Joe Biden and his administration were committed to ensuring that all the hostages would be freed.

“We’re going to [work] with our partners to do everything we can to get hostages out,” he told reporters at the Foreign Press Center. “They should be released immediately; there’s no reason for them to be held in the first place.”

John Kirby, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, answers questions during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, US, February 17, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/EVELYN HOCKSTEIN)

In a briefing at the White House, Kirby dismissed questions about the possibility of a ceasefire in exchange for the hostages. Hamas could at any moment simply release all of them, he said.

“Here’s an idea: They [Hamas] can release them all now,” Kirby said. “They can let them go now, because they can release them all now. Just let them go now, because these people did not do anything wrong. They are just innocent civilians caught up in this conflict. Let them go now.

“Now, I recognize that is not going to happen, which is why we are going to keep working with our partners in the region to do what we can to get them released.”

At the Foreign Press Center briefing, Kirby also appeared to dismiss reports linking the absence of an Israeli ground campaign with the hostages, noting that he "won’t speak for the Israelis and what they will or won’t do on the ground.  All I can tell you is that we have been working – and I don’t mean – and this is not an exaggeration – we’ve been working by the hour since the moment we found out that Americans were being held hostage to get them released."

IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari gives a statement to the media in Tel Aviv on October 16, 2023. (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/FLASH90)

During an evening briefing, IDF Spokesman R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari said that the IDF's delay in entering Gaza was due to "strategic considerations" and that Israel was "looking at the situation in the entire Middle East."

Kirby reiterated the Biden administration’s strong support for Israel’s campaign against Hamas in light of the October 7 attack, in which more than 1,400 civilians and soldiers were killed. An estimated 5,000 Palestinians have been killed in IAF airstrikes on Gaza and failed Palestinian rocket launches.

First hostages released last week

Judith Tai Raanan and her daughter Natalie Shoshana Raanan, US citizens who were taken as hostages by Palestinian Hamas militants, walk while holding hands with Brig.-Gen. (Ret.) Gal Hirsch, Israel's Coordinator for the Captives and Missing, after they were released by the militants. (credit: Government of Israel/Handout via REUTERS)

Last Friday, Hamas released two American-Israeli hostages, Judith Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natalie, 17.

The terror organization said they were released on humanitarian grounds. The mother and daughter were transferred from Hamas to the Red Cross, then to the Israeli border and into Israeli hands. They were met by Brig.-Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch, the country's coordinator for hostages and missing persons and a team of security officials.

Until now, the Red Cross has not been allowed to meet with the hostages nor deliver the medications earmarked for them, the organization said. However, on Monday, the Red Cross confirmed it had assisted in the release of the captives.

"Our role as a neutral intermediary between the parties to the conflict makes our work possible," the organization said. "We are prepared to visit the remaining captives in captivity and assist in any future releases. We are pleased that those who have been released will soon be reunited with their families and loved ones."

The IDF must delay a ground incursion into the Gaza Strip if talks for the release of hostages are ongoing, former senior Mossad official David Meidan said in a Monday morning interview with 103FM.

Meidan, who served as the coordinator for hostages and missing persons at the time of Gilad Schalit's release in 2011, said that "saving lives should be the main priority and the invasion can wait.

"The forces are there, the manpower is there and we can do it later," Meidan argued, adding that he sees a short window of opportunity to release the hostages taken by Hamas into Gaza on October 7.

Former hostages coordinator says Israel risking captives' lives

"Among the hostages are 30 children, elderly, some seriously wounded. The more you drag on a humanitarian agreement to release the weaker hostages, you are risking their lives," Meidan added.

On October 7, a devastating border invasion took place involving over 3,000 terrorists, half from Hamas and half from various other groups, affecting more than 25 communities along the Israel-Gaza border. Coupled with this, Israel has been bombarded with more than 6,700 rockets, leading to loss of life, injuries, and significant property damage. At the heart of Israel's defense is the Iron Dome, a joint Israel-US technological marvel that has successfully intercepted 97% of incoming rockets.

The Media Line's Felice Friedson sits down with Maj. (res.) Libby Weiss, spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), to delve into the role and effectiveness of the Iron Dome, the complex challenges faced by the IDF—including a significant hostage crisis—and the intricate considerations behind a potential ground invasion.

The Eilat Municipality announced on Sunday that they will be erecting a "tent city" about 5 km. north of the city near the Shchoret Industrial Zone. 

Eilat is the Israeli city that has absorbed the most evacuees fleeing from the war with Hamas, with current estimates at over 120,000 and growing according to a municipality spokesperson.

The majority of new arrivals come from areas near the Gaza border who either fled or were evacuated by the government, but the municipality is expecting more arrivals and for some to come from the North too.

The new arrivals have swelled the city to over double its regular population, with all hotels, hostels, and rental apartments filled to the brim.

"In practice, the city is full to capacity and all the hotels are full," said the spokesperson.

Israeli NGO Shurat HaDin demanded a comprehensive criminal investigation into the leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad for their roles in the massacre of Israeli civilians on October 7,  in a formal complaint filed with the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

On October 7, thousands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants reportedly crossed from the Gaza Strip into Israel, launching a ferocious assault on Israeli towns, villages, and military bases during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.

In 2021, the chief prosecutor of the ICC began a criminal probe concerning "the situation in Palestine". Now, Shurat HaDin accuses Hamas and Islamic Jihad of a myriad of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the "Sukkot Massacre".

The NGO detailed more than 26 transgressions of the Rome Statute, the ICC's foundational treaty. The extensive list of crimes encompasses murder, intentional attacks on civilians, torture, and several other grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.

The IDF fired an interceptor missile at a suspicious target that crossed the Lebanese border into Israel, the military said Monday.

This is a developing story.

A third convoy of aid trucks entered the Rafah crossing from Egypt on Monday bound for the besieged Gaza Strip, an aid worker and two security sources said.

Deliveries of aid through Rafah began on Saturday after wrangling over procedures for inspecting the aid and bombardments on the Gaza side of the border had left relief materials stranded in Egypt.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must add a member of the coalition to the small war cabinet, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded in a letter on Monday.

"As a member of the coalition, a senior minister, and a member of the cabinet, I accepted your unilateral decision on the make-up of the 'small cabinet', which doesn't include me - the national security minister, and not one other like-minded minister," he wrote, saying that Netanyahu only added, "certain people that you personally chose."

Ben-Gvir wrote that he respects Netanyahu's decision even if he doesn't agree with it and assured Netanyahu that he didn't intend to fight over it.

"This is despite the fact that it would have been more appropriate that the opinions of a massive constituency, who put its faith in us and asked us to represent it, would be heard in the small cabinet as well."

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis landed in Israel on Monday and was expected to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mitsotakis's office said.

Mitsotakis told a Cairo Peace Summit on Saturday that no military intervention could replace a viable political solution.

Hamas resumed rocket fire from the Gaza Strip on Monday morning, launching a barrage of rockets at southern Israel some 14 hours after sirens were last heard across Israel.

Residents of the southern port city of Ashkelon, as well as those who remained in Gaza border towns such as Yad Mordechai, Erez, Karmia, and Nativ Ha'Asara were all told to seek shelter.

This is a developing story.