Operation Swords of Iron: What happened on days 6-7?

Israel will destroy Hamas, no matter how long it takes, and will finish the war stronger, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an unusual address on Friday night.

"This is just the beginning," he said. "Our enemies have only begun paying the price and I will not say more. This is just the beginning."

Lapid: Netanyahu sent Israel into a frenzy for nothing

Opposition head Yair Lapid attacked Netanyahu for not giving any new information while inducing anxiety among Israelis for an unusual address during Shabbat. 

"How can Israel's prime minister send an entire nation into a frenzy for an unusual Friday night statement only to then say nothing on the hostages, the North, the evacuations," Lapid charged.

"A prime minister should not make these statements unless he has new information."

לא ייתכן שראש ממשלת ישראל יכניס מדינה שלמה לסחרור חרדה בהמתנה להצהרתו בשישי בלילה בזמן של חירום ואז לא יגיד דבר חדש לא על משפחות החטופים, לא על חזית הצפון, לא על המפונים. הצהרות כאלה לא עושה ראש ממשלה אלא אם כן יש לו מידע חדש להביא לעמו ולארצו.

— יאיר לפיד - Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) October 13, 2023

During his short address, Netanyahu also stressed that Israel, through talks with US Secretary of State Lloyd Austin, is "ensuring the continuation of fighting" with American supply on its way to Israel.

More than 110 Jewish organizations and communities from 40 countries around the world sent a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and the ambassadors of the UN member states. The letter was seen by The Jerusalem Post.

In the letter, they called for immediate action to release those kidnapped by the Hamas organization. 

"Hamas has threatened to publicly execute them, and this threat must be taken seriously in light of the brutality of their past actions," the letter stated. "Timing is critical here.”

Tens of thousands in Gaza are estimated to have fled south after Israel gave Palestinians 24 hours notice to evacuate from the enclave's north before an expected ground offensive, UN humanitarian office OCHA said on Friday.

Prior to the evacuation order, more than 400,000 Palestinians had been internally displaced due to the hostilities, OCHA said on its website.

Mark Goldfeder, director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, took to Twitter on Thursday to tackle accusations that Israel would be in violation of international law by enacting a siege on Gaza.

Goldfeder was tackling accusations from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Peter Beinart that Israel would violate international law and norms by enacting a siege.

He couches his argument largely in the Laws of Armed Conflict (LOAC), which are a series of regulations on armed conflict originating in the Geneva and Hague Conventions.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) regularly publishes documents detailing the LOAC. The LOAC is also cited in both American and British military training manuals as part of the regulations soldiers must follow.

Dear @AOC and friends:
You don't understand the first thing about international law, but that doesn't stop you from spreading your ignorance. Here is a quick primer on the Law of Armed Conflict to explain why you and @Ilhan are incredibly, dangerously, wrong as usual: https://t.co/Gmoka70J8L

— Mark Goldfeder (@MarkGoldfeder) October 12, 2023

Three principles

"The central feature of the LOAC is to prevent unnecessary casualties and protect innocent civilians," says Goldfeder, this is done "through the application of three fundamental principles: distinction, military necessity, and proportionality."

ICRC Headquarters (credit: DOROTHÉE BAUMANN)

He explains that distinction requires combatants and civilians to be clearly distinguished and that attacks must not be directed against civilians, only combatants.

"Hamas does not do that," he says, he continues by citing a Lieber Insitute report which says "There are no reliable reports that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have intentionally targeted civilians." The Lieber Institute is part of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, colloquially known as West Point, the premier US military academy.

He clarifies by saying that it doesn't mean Israel won't respond to Hamas, nor does it mean that innocent lives won't be lost.

Military necessity, Goldfeder says permits “measures which are actually necessary to accomplish a legitimate military purpose and are not otherwise prohibited by international humanitarian law.”

He directly refutes any claims that blockades are illegal under international law citing from the ICRC casebook, which sets out a series of requirements for a legal blockade such as specifying a start date, geographic range, and finally allowing neutral ships to leave before it begins.

Goldfeder specifies that there are humanitarian aspects of the law such as facilitating the passage of food and medicine by third parties, adding that "IF and only IF they can be reliably delivered without diversion to the enemy."

He sums up the understanding of siege law as "Sieges are lawful unless deliberately aimed at starving the local population."

"Israel’s aims, repeatedly stated, are to defeat Hamas terrorists by depriving them of resources and to rescue hostages."

He again clarifies that it doesn't mean that there is no limit on Israel's actions, saying that the third principle of proportionality is key here.

"The principle of proportionality forbids attacks in which the expected incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or any combination thereof, would be excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage gained," he explains.

Proportionality is not about revenge nor is it about comparing the capabilities of technology or weaponry, nor is it effect-based. It also does not look at the amount of damage, or the number of dead bodies, on both sides.

He describes proportionality here, "Proportionality is a prospective analysis that legally permits the risk of collateral damage necessary to achieve a just military objective. The greater the objective, the greater the extent of permitted risk of incidental damage or even, God forbid, death."

Israel's military objective is to wipe out Hamas due to its targeting of men, women, and children, this is a legitimate objective under the LOAC.

He also notes that only 6% of Gaza's water is purchased from Israel while the vast majority 92% is found in natural aquifers.

He also says that, under the LOAC, Israel is under no obligation to provide Gaza with electricity, because there is no way to ensure it will not be used by Hamas.

He ends with, "To review- a proportional targeted response is not collective punishment, and you are not qualified to opine on this situation."

The IDF targeted Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in response to the infiltration of unidentified unmanned vehicles and the firing towards unoccupied IDF aircraft.

The strike against the aircraft was successful.

The launch at the aircraft was intercepted, according an IDF spokesperson.

During the operation carried out by forces under the command of Maged 77, Israeli bodies were located. It turned out that throughout the fighting, reports were received from the forces near the border that there were "discoveries" near the border.

The issues were investigated and analyzed by observations and factors, and finally, it was decided to send in a large force under the command of Lt. Col. Shimon Putrabani. After the force surrounded the place, bodies were collected from the place and transported to Israeli territory.

The credit rating agency Moody's informed the accountant general that it does not intend to use the current publication date - no credit rating notice will be published on Friday.

The next scheduled date for the publication of a credit rating notice by the credit rating agency Moody's is in approximately six months. The actual meaning of the decision is that the credit rating of the State of Israel remains intact.

- Kuwait "categorically" rejected Israel's calls for the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza Strip and the continued escalation and random destruction, which is a violation of international and humanitarian law, Foreign Minister Sheikh Salem Al Sabah said in a statement to Kuwaiti state news agency (KUNA) on Friday.

Russia on Friday proposed a draft United Nations Security Council resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict that would call for a humanitarian ceasefire and condemn violence against civilians and all acts of terrorism, according to a draft text seen by Reuters.

The one-page draft resolution also calls for the release of hostages, humanitarian aid access and the safe evacuation of civilians in need. The text was given to the 15-member council during a closed-door meeting on the conflict on Friday, diplomats said.

Calls for a humanitarian corridor or an escape route for Palestinians from Gaza as a conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has escalated have drawn a blunt reaction from Arab neighbors.

Egypt, the only Arab state to share a border with Gaza, and Jordan, which is next to the Israeli- West Bank, have both warned against Palestinians being forced off their land.

It reflects deep-rooted Arab fears that Israel's latest war with Hamas in Gaza could spark a new wave of permanent displacement from land where Palestinians want to build a future state.

"This is the cause of all causes, the cause of all Arabs," Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Thursday. "It is important that the (Palestinian) people remain steadfast and present on their land."

For Palestinians, the idea of leaving or being forced out of land where they want to forge a state carries echoes of the "Nakba," or "catastrophe," when many Palestinians fled their homes during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation.

Smoke billows following Israeli strikes amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Gaza, October 13, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/MOHAMMED SALEM)

Some 700,000 Palestinians, half the Arab population of what was British-ruled Palestine, fled or were driven from their homes, many spilling into neighboring Arab states where they or many of their descendants remain. Many still live in refugee camps.

Israel contests the assertion it drove Palestinians out, pointing out it was attacked by five Arab states the day after its creation.

Since Israel launched its intense bombardment of Gaza after a devastating attack by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, hundreds of thousands of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, while still staying inside Gaza, a small, slither of land wedged between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. 

'Preventing a spillover'

The Israeli military on Friday warned civilians of Gaza City, more than 1 million people, to relocate south within 24 hours for their own safety, a signal that Israel could be launching a land invasion soon.

In response, Jordan's King Abdullah warned "against any attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians from all Palestinian territories or cause their internal displacement, calling for preventing a spillover of the crisis into neighboring countries and the exacerbation of the refugee issue."

The head of the 22-member Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, urgently appealed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to condemn "this insane Israeli effort to transfer the population."

The United States said this week it was talking to Israel and Egypt about the idea of safe passage for Gaza civilians.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: "Civilians need to be protected. We do not want to see a mass exodus of Gazans."

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said the evacuation warning was "to temporarily move (people) south ... to mitigate civilian harm." He was speaking at an event at the UN with families of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas.

"The UN should be praising Israel for these precautionary actions," Erdan told UN diplomats at the Israel-hosted event. "For years, the UN has put its head in the sand in the face of Hamas's terror build-up in Gaza."

The fate of Palestinian refugees is one of the thorniest issues in the moribund peace process. Palestinians and Arab states say a deal should include the right of those refugees and their descendants to return, something Israel has always rejected.

In Khan Younis in the south of Gaza, Mariam al-Farra, a 36-year-old mother of two, said people displaced inside the enclave were crammed together without water, power or internet links.

"People are just saying we are all going to Sinai – that we are going to be forcibly displaced," she said. "We have nothing to do with any of this. We just want to live in peace."

Some Israeli statements have fueled Arab apprehension.

An Israeli military spokesman said on Tuesday he would advise Palestinians to "get out" through the Rafah crossing on Gaza's southern border with Egypt. Israel's military issued a clarification stating the crossing was at that time closed.

The Rafah crossing is the main gateway for people in Gaza to the outside world. All the other exits lead to Israel.

Cold peace

Since Islamist group Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, Egypt has helped maintain a blockade of the strip, largely sealing off its border and imposing tight controls over the passage of goods and people through Rafah.

Egypt faced an Islamist insurgency in northern Sinai that peaked after 2013 before security forces re-established control, and security sources and analysts say it wants to prevent infiltration by terrorists from Hamas - which shares an ideology with the Muslim Brotherhood, a group outlawed in Egypt.

Egypt says the Rafah crossing is open and they are trying to secure the delivery of humanitarian relief into Gaza, although this has been hampered by Israeli bombardments close to the border. Cairo has also indicated that the resolution of the issue through any mass exodus of Palestinians is unacceptable.

Opposition to new displacement of Palestinians runs deep in Egypt, where a peace treaty with Israel more than four decades ago secured an Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula but never led to reconciliation on a popular level.

"Egyptian public opinion would overwhelmingly see this as a prelude to ethnic cleansing, forced displacement, basically expulsion, where it would be expected then that they just never would go back," said H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.

The conflict around Gaza has also stirred long-standing fears in Jordan, home to a large population of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, that a wider conflagration would give the Israelis the opportunity to implement a transfer policy to expel Palestinians en masse from the West Bank.

After an emergency Arab League meeting on Wednesday, Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said all Arab states agreed to confront any attempt to displace Palestinians from their homeland.