Israel at War: What happened on Day 55?

A bombshell report by the New York Times claims that Israeli officials had a detailed, approximately 40-page document outlining "point by point" the plans for a Hamas attack on Israeli soil, but dismissed the plan as aspirational and beyond the group's capacities.

The document, which authorities codenamed "Jericho Wall," is reported to have outlined "a methodical assault" in which drones would attack Israel's surveillance system as terrorists entered the country on foot and using paragliders and motorcycles under the cover of a barrage of rockets.

The document is also said to have included the locations and sizes of IDF forces in the area, and specifically stated as an objective to overwhelm the military base in Re'im, the site of the nature party on October 7 that was targeted early in the attack. At the top of the document was a quotation from the Qur'an: "Surprise them through the gate. If you do, you will certainly prevail." 

The plans "circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders," the report says. The IDF's Gaza division wrote an assessment of it, reporting plans for "a new raid, unprecedented in its scope," but concluding that the plans were a "compass," detailing Hamas's ambitions for the future, rather than an immediate plan of action. 

Pictures of the participants of the Nova party who were murdered and kidnapped by the terrorist organization Hamas on October 7, 2023 are displayed at the site of the Nova music festival massacre, in Re'im, near the Israeli-Gaza border, November 28, 2023 (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

Colonel called the plans "totally imaginative," said to "wait patiently"

Then, in July 2023, the IDF's signal intelligence division, Unit 8200, reported that Hamas had been spotted conducting training exercises that mirrored the blueprint in "Jericho Wall," including exercises to simulate shooting down Israeli airplanes, occupying a kibbutz, and overrunning a military base.

During the exercise, Hamas terrorists used the same quotation from the Quran that appeared at the top of the "Jericho Wall" document. The Unit 8200 analyst who wrote the report warned that Hamas was building the capacity to put the plan into action, and that the exercises Hamas was engaged in closely reflected what was outlined in the document. 

The colonel who received the report apparently called the exercise "totally imaginative," saying, "in short, let's wait patiently."  

An internal debate followed, with others endorsing the analyst's warning. One even invoked the example of the Yom Kippur War, writing "We already underwent a similar experience 50 years ago on the southern front in connection with a scenario that seemed imaginary, and history may repeat itself if we are not careful."

That comparison has been ubiquitous in Israel since the first moments of the attack. 

A previous warning, also unheeded

"Jericho Wall" was not the first intelligence that had prompted such a debate, the Times reports. In September 2016, the Ministry of Defense prepared a top-secret memo, signed by then-defense minister Avigdor Lieberman, warning of an invasion and hostage-taking operation by Hamas.

The memo outlined Hamas's purchases of drones, GPS jammers, and other sophisticated weaponry. It also reported that Hamas had swelled its fighting force by 6,000 men in two years, and aimed to grow it from 27,000 to 40,000 by 2020.

Ten Israeli hostages, including two Russian dual citizens, will be released on Thursday as part of a ceasefire extension agreement reached between Israel and Hamas on Thursday morning, a source in Hamas told the AFP.

Sky News Arabia reported that the agreement also included the release of 30 Palestinians and the continued flow of aid to Gaza.

Jordan's King Abdullah on Thursday urged UN aid officials and international NGOs to pile pressure on Israel to allow more aid into the beleaguered Gaza enclave where the humanitarian situation is worsening, officials and aid workers said.

They said the monarch told an emergency meeting in Amman of UN officials, heads of Western non-governmental organizations and representatives of Arab donors it was unacceptable that Israel continued to hold back sufficient aid flows into the densely populated enclave, home to 2.3 million people.

"The massacre of the Jews in Israel on October 7 and the Kishinev Pogrom are both rooted in systematic and violent antisemitism and an education that promotes hatred of Jews," Mark Weitzman, a renowned expert on antisemitism and advocate for Holocaust-era justice said this week during a poignant address at a conference in Chisinau, Moldova, commemorating the 120th anniversary of the Kishinev Pogrom. 

Weitzman highlighted the ideological parallels between the Hamas-led massacre of Israeli communities and the historic Kishinev Pogrom. Central to his argument was the notorious antisemitic text, 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.' He further noted, "The motive for the murder of an estimated 1,200 Israelis on October 7 can be traced, at least in part, directly to 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion', a text also linked to the Kishinev Pogrom."

Egyptian and Qatari negotiators are pushing for a new two-day extension to the truce in Gaza along with more prisoner releases and an increase in the delivery of humanitarian aid, a statement from Egypt's state media body said on Thursday.

One of the three Israelis killed in a shooting attack at the entrance to Jerusalem on Thursday morning is Rabbi Elimelech Wasserman, who served as a rabbinical judge in the rabbinical court in Ashdod, according to Religious Services Minister Michael Malchieli.

Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, president of the First Supreme Rabbinical Court, said in a statement that he "mourns the tragic murder of the rabbinic judge, Rabbi Elimelech Wasserman, who was brutally killed by evildoers this morning in Jerusalem.

Israel and US officials have discussed expelling thousands of lower-level Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip as a possible option to shorten the war between Israel and Hamas, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The proposal rose as part of discussions concerning how Gaza will be run when the war ends and how to prevent a resurgence of Hamas or similar groups.

Two Bedouin hostages are set to be released from Hamas captivity on Thursday evening, according to Israeli media.

The two are brother and sister, Belal and Aisha Zaidna, two of four family members who went missing on October 7 when Hamas terrorists invaded Kibbutz Holit, where they worked.

A ramming attack targeted the Beka'ot Checkpoint in the Jordan Valley on Thursday afternoon, according to initial reports.

The suspected terrorist was reportedly apprehended.

A drone launched from Lebanon was intercepted over northern Israel on Thursday morning, according to the IDF Spokesperson's Unit.