Israel at war: What happened on days 21-22?

The Israel Defense Forces have entered the Gaza Strip and are operating on the ground with support from troops in the air and at sea, Israel's political and military leadership said Saturday night.

"Last night, additional ground forces entered Gaza, marking the beginning of the second stage of the war, whose goal is to destroy the military and political capabilities of Hamas and to bring our kidnapped citizens back," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an evening briefing. 

"We are only at the beginning of the road. The war will be tough and long," the prime minister said. But he stressed, "We are prepared for it. This is our second War of Independence. This is our mission, our purpose in life, and together we will prevail."

Netanyahu said that not only do "the people and the leadership stand behind our soldiers," but also the international community is rooting for Israel. 

"Our partners understand that if Israel doesn't win, they will be next," he said. "Many around the world understand well that Israel is not only fighting its war but a war for all of humanity, a war of humanity against barbarism."

The US military on Thursday carried out strikes against two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and groups it backs, the Pentagon said, in response to a spate of attacks against US forces in both Iraq and Syria.

US air strikes in Syria overnight hit a weapons storage facility and an ammunition storage facility used by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Cops and militia it backs, senior US officials said, saying it was unclear if Iranian nationals were killed.

The strikes took place at roughly 4:30 a.m. on Friday in Syria (0130 GMT) near Abu Kamal, a Syrian town on the border with Iraq, and were carried out by two F-16 fighter jets using precision munitions, one of the officials said.

"Iran-backed attacks against US forces are unacceptable and must cease. We are prepared to take further measures to protect our people if necessary," a second official official said.

As tensions soar over the Israel-Hamas conflict, US and coalition troops have been attacked at least 12 times in Iraq and four times in Syria by Iran-backed forces.

A total of 21 US forces have suffered minor injuries, the vast majority of them traumatic brain injuries.

US PRESIDENT Joe Biden delivers an address to the American people from the Oval Office of the White House, last Thursday. (credit: JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS)

"These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17," US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

The strikes were ordered by President Joe Biden.

"These Iranian-backed attacks against US forces are unacceptable and must stop," Austin said in the statement.

"If attacks by Iran's proxies against US forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people."

America strikes back

The United States has occasionally carried out retaliatory strikes against Iranian-backed forces in the region after they attack American forces. In March, the US military carried out multiple air strikes in Syria against Iran-aligned groups that it blamed for a drone attack that killed an American contractor.

President Biden has sent a rare message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning Tehran against targeting US personnel in the Middle East, the White House said earlier on Thursday.

The United States has 900 troops in Syria, and 2,500 more in neighboring Iraq, on a mission to advise and assist local forces trying to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large swathes of both countries but was later defeated.

There is growing concern that the Israel-Hamas conflict could spread through the Middle East and turn US troops at isolated bases into targets.

Last week off the coast of Yemen, a US warship shot down more than a dozen drones and four cruise missiles fired by Iranian-backed Houthis.

During a false alarm at Al-Asad air base in Iraq last week, a civilian contractor died from cardiac arrest.

The United States has sent warships and fighter aircraft to the region since the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted on Oct. 7, including two aircraft carriers, to try to deter Iran and Iran-backed groups. The number of troops added to the region is in the thousands.

Reuters reported this week the US military was taking new measures to protect its Middle East forces during the ramp-up in attacks by suspected Iran-backed groups, and was leaving open the possibility of evacuating military families if needed.

The measures include increasing US military patrols, restricting access to base facilities and boosting intelligence collection, including through drone and other surveillance operations, officials say.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations played a video of a Hamas terrorist attempting to decapitate one of its victims as he addressed the General Assembly during a debate on a Gaza war ceasefire.

“The man on the ground is an agricultural worker from Thailand. He is not Israeli. He is not Jewish. He was merely alive, trying to make a living for his family,” Erdan said as he held up a tablet with the video.

“But he was decapitated with a blunt gardening tool,” Erdan said, adding that it was “horrifying.”

He spoke during the start of a two-day debate on a cease-fire for the Gaza War that began on October 7 when Hamas infiltrated southern Israel killing over 1,400 people and taking more than 224 hostages.

Erdan urged the UNGA not to call for a ceasefire which he said would only support the Iranian proxy group Hamas and allow it to rearm itself so it could launch further attacks against Israeli civilians.

PLO envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour. (credit: REUTERS)

“Any call for a ceasefire is not an attempt at peace. It is an attempt to tie Israel’s hands, preventing us from eliminating a huge threat to our citizens,” Erdan said.

Israel in Gaza “is not at war with the Palestinians. Israel is at war with the genocidal Jihadist Hamas terror organization,” Erdan said, as he stressed that the Jewish state was standing at the forefront of a global battle.

“Hamas’s genocidal ideology, just like ISIS, al-Qaeda... is not just about destroying Israel. It is ultimately about world domination. It is about bringing the Jihad war to the soil of each and every one of your countries,” Erdan warned.

Hamas leaders can end the war at any moment by stopping its rocket fire into the country, returning the hostages, and turning themselves in, Erdan said.

“If the drafters of this Resolution truly want peace, if they truly want an immediate solution, then why do they not demand this of Hamas?” Erdan said.

He devoted a portion of his speech to the victims of the attack. 

“Twenty days have gone by and Israel is still counting her dead. It took weeks to collect all of the bodies,” Erdan said. “Some bodies are burnt like pieces of coal – it is almost impossible to identify them.”

Ash was found in the throats of countless burnt bodies, evidence that they were alive when they were lit on fire, he said... Medical personnel who first found the burnt human remains didn’t understand at first what they were looking at, Erdan explained.

In one case two spines were found “bound together with wire – one belonging to an adult, and the other, the small spine of a child,” he said.

“Try to imagine that parent’s feeling as they and their child were burning alive. The painful screaming of the love of their life was the last thing they heard,” Erdan told the UNGA.

Palestinian Authority envoy Riyad Mansour

Palestinian Authority envoy Riyad Mansour devoted a portion of his speech to the painful experience of civilians in Gaza who are living through the daily bombings. Hamas has asserted that some 7,000 Palestinians have been killed. Israel has not provided casualty figures, but it has some that the fatalities were from IDF aerial bombings or failed Palestinian rocket launches.

“Jenan, a little girl under the rubble shouts at the people coming to rescue her, 'What took you so long.' There are 900 Palestinian children under the rubble alive or dead, wondering what is taking so long. Wondering if any help is on the way,” Mansour said.

All total, there are some 1,600 Palestinians under the rubble, and “no one can reach them to bury or save them,” he said.

A Gaza cease-fire is about saving lives, he said.

“Why doesn’t the world feel a sense of urgency to stop the killing of Palestinians” in Gaza, Mansour asked.

“Vengeance is a dead end, the only path forward is justice for the Palestinians,” Mansour continued.

Mansour asserted that in the Gaza bombings, 3,000 children and 1,700 women have been killed since the war began on October 7. In total, according to Gaza's health ministry, run by the Hamas terrorist organization, 7,000 people were killed and some 40% of all homes have been destroyed.

Israel thinks, ’If you say Hamas enough times the world will not be able to object to wiping off entire families from the face of the earth,” Mansour said.

Israel has called for the release of the hostages, but takes two million people in Gaza hostage, Mansour continued.

“Why feel so much pain for Israelis and so little pain for us the Palestinians? What is the problem? Do we have the wrong faith, the wrong skin color, the wrong nationality,” he asked.

"Nothing can justify the killing of a single Palestinian child,” Mansour stressed as he called on the UNGA to simply “stop the killing.”

Approximately 125,000 residents have evacuated their homes. "We recommend that they stay in hotels until the end of the year."

Major General Yoram Laredo, Head of the National Emergency Authority, described the evacuation plans since the beginning of the war, emphasizing, "We are working to implement the government's decision and provide the necessary resources."

Major General Yoram Laredo, the head of the National Emergency Authority (RAHAL), conducted a briefing Thursday and stated that since the beginning of the war, around 125,000 residents from the north and south have evacuated to hotels and guest rooms funded by the state.

He stressed that the authority recommends that the evacuees stay there until the end of the year, saying, "We are working to implement the government's decision and provide the necessary resources."

Evacuation plans began being implemented from the start of the war

At the beginning of his remarks, Laredo said, "Starting on October 7, we began implementing evacuation plans, the goal of which is to remove citizens from areas subject to military or security coercion. The first evacuees were the communities around the Gaza Strip (0-4 km) in an operational process by the Search and Rescue Division. They were evacuated from there and placed in hotels. This evacuation was carried out under immediate military coercion.

U.S. nationals and their immediate family members wait before leaving Israel on a ship headed for Cyprus, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Haifa, Israel, October 16, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/SHIR TOREM)

A week later, we began further evacuation operations, under security coercion, in communities located 4-7 km from the border, and the city of Sderot followed. The second stage of evacuations was also under immediate military coercion, and they included settlements within 0-2 km in the north, the city of Kiryat Shmona, and 14 other settlements in the north. All these communities are included in the government's plans, and in total, about 125,000 residents have evacuated."

Regarding the Tourism Ministry, he said, "It has entered the mission and taken on the management of all the accommodations. The Tourism Ministry is on the verge of completing the process of transferring contracts, some of which were scattered among the Interior Ministry, the Defense Ministry, and local authorities.

The last returnees will be transferred to the Tourism Ministry on November 2. The person who manages the contacts with hotels will supervise the rooms, set the standards, and conduct further negotiations with additional accommodations. The Tourism Ministry is working actively. Except for the residents of the Gaza periphery and Sderot, the Tourism Ministry is responsible for everything.

The National Emergency Authority receives from the Tourism Ministry a situation picture of the occupied rooms and the vacant rooms to prepare for further evacuation tasks if necessary, but currently, there is no need for that. The evacuees are currently in hotels, and we recommend that they stay there until the end of the year, and we will work to advance the government's decision and provide the necessary resources."

"At the same time, a mechanism has been created that gives the representative of communities eligible for evacuation the option to choose alternative housing for themselves. A compensation mechanism is established for the eligible population, enabling those eligible to choose between going to a hotel assigned to them by the state or choosing alternative housing on their own, such as a housing unit, family accommodation, AIRBNB, or any other solution that suits them."

"As a result of a request by the mayor of Ashkelon, the government decided to allow him to evacuate about 70,000 of his residents, including those lacking shelters, public shelters, and various affluent populations.

This is being managed directly with the Director-General of the Tourism Ministry and the municipality. At this stage, populations lacking family shelters and various affluent populations were evacuated from the city.

The Tourism Ministry is responsible for accumulating the rooms, and as more rooms become available, the eligible residents of Ashkelon will choose the method that suits them - evacuation to a hotel assigned to them or compensation and finding housing on their own."

Capt. Amit is ready for the next phase of the battle in Gaza. An officer in the Givati Brigade, he commands a company of soldiers. Those men are now training at an urban warfare facility. Driving to the facility one comes to an area run by Elbit Systems, one of Israel’s largest defence companies. Private companies play a key role in making the Israeli army ready for the future battlefield. Givati brigade members are going through the paces preparing to clear urban areas that they might encounter in Gaza. This is highly relevant because overnight between October 25 and 26 the Givati members with tanks and other vehicles, entered Gaza for a raid.  

Earlier this week I drove to a firing range in central Israel, near Nahal Sorek. The rolling hills here are part of the Shfela, the area of Israel that is cut into small valleys and rolling hills. It sits between the coastal plain and the hill country. It is here that Capt. Amit was working with his soldiers. His full name cannot be used for security reasons.  

He discussed the importance of the recent training. He said his unit has been there several days. Reservists are also present, carrying their M-4 rifles and Negev machine guns. The Givati guys have Tavor rifles. Every soldier has all the gear they need and they are motivated. Some sport mustaches, a new trend in the IDF. These shooting ranges are often used by special forces for training. Now regular infantry are going through the refresher course for the next phase. 

“It’s about preparation if you are preparing for long operations you need to train for that,” says the Givati officer. His unit is part of the Tzabar battalion, one of three battalions in the brigade. This unit was in Protective Edge and other operations and has a long history in the IDF.  

Amit has a story to tell about the war. As they prepare for the next phase he remembers October 7 when Hamas attacked. Like many Israelis he was sleeping and looking forward to a nice weekend when it happened. He was staying near the Sea of Galilee when he heard about the sirens sounding across southern and central Israel. He took his personal weapon and decided to drive towards Gaza, sensing something bad was happening. He drove through Tel Aviv around 9 in the morning. Eventually he got to Sderot.  By this time the Givati brigade was activating its units that were stationed in the Golan. Men were getting rifles and preparing for battle.  

(credit: IDF SPOKESMAN’S UNIT)

Updates on the way

Amit spoke to another officer in the unit and they headed south. On the radio they heard about the disaster unfolding. In Sderot he saw the first evidence of the terrorist attack. There were dead terrorists who had attacked the city. Police in Sderot had neutralized some of the first wave of attackers. Others were under siege in the police station. Amit decided to drive toward a more acute site, the Reim parking lot for the Nova festival where hundreds of people were being massacred. When he arrived he saw other forces, many of whom also arrived in private cars. There were elite forces from the Yamam. There were many dead bodies he remembers.

The Givati officer now split up from the deputy commander of the unit, who was driving with him. They now began to understand how bad the situation was. Terrorists had attacked at 29 locations and overwhelmed the infantry units of Golani that were on the border. They were massacring civilians. However, by around noon as more soldiers arrived and more people came who had been reservists, the IDF had enough fighters to take the fight to the enemy. Amit and his fellow men got more weapons, including Negev machine guns, and participated in the battles to liberate Israeli communities. They went to Kibbutz Reim. Nearby the Gaza division headquarters had been attacked.  

Along the way they saw a police vehicle that had been blown up. They also went to Kfar Aza to help in the fighting there. By now they had around 10-20 fighters with them. They went house to house and helped save people from shelters. They made sure that each civilian would be taken to safety with soldiers, in a kind of cordon.  

He says the terrorists were in a trance, like on drugs. It has been revealed now some had taken Captogan, a drug. They had also been involved in an orgy of mass killing. The challenge taking the fight to the terrorists was also complicated by the presence of so many civilians and terrorists and various IDF units in the same place. It was hard to bring air power into the battle and use the techniques that Israel has trained for because of the setting.  

Ever since the battle the members of Givati have been training hard for the next stage.  

“I don’t know what caused me to go south but I was right,” he recalls. What was shocking was to see the size of the attack. It is now known some 2,900 people from Gaza, many of them terrorists, but some of them civilians seeking to loot, entered Israel on October 7. “We are now ready for everything that will happen and learning about the enemy and we are preparing to go in. We are as prepared as possible. I am ready to go.” 

Ali Ziadna, from the Israeli Bedouin city of Rahat, has given insulin to the Red Cross, hoping they will give it to his brother who is one of more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 and dragged into captivity in Gaza.

"He's diabetic," Ziadna told Reuters in a phone interview after a meeting with the Israeli president in Jerusalem. "Without it, his sugar could drop and he could collapse."

Ali's 53-year-old brother Yosef Hamis Ziadna, his sons Hamza and Belal and his daughter Aisha were working on the Holit farm on Israel's border with Gaza.

The Bedouin makeup within Israel

Bedouin citizens, who are ethnically Arab and Muslim, make up about 4% of Israel's total population. They mostly live in the Negev desert and in northern Israel.

Bedouin Head of Regional Council Al-Batuf Ahed Rhall says there are at least 7 other Bedouin civilians thought to be missing but, as some bodies are still being identified, the fate of some remains unclear.

Kfar Aza residents and People call on the release of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, outside the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv. October 26, 2023. (credit: Jonathan Shaul/Flash90)

"We are speaking of citizens of Israel and it doesn't matter if they are Bedouins or Jews - it's a citizen like any other," Rhall told Reuters. "I know it's hard on the families, every minute that goes by is hard, but everyone is waiting for developments and hoping this ends well."

"They went to milk the cows and then what happened happened and they were kidnapped," Ziadna said of his family. "We still don't know what became of them."

Ziadna said 21 Bedouins were killed by the Hamas onslaught in southern Israel.

He said the Israeli government has paid "very good attention" to their case and government representatives, military, police and psychiatrists had come to their home.

"I don't understand the military, I'm not a military man. I'm a regular citizen whose brother went to work, my brother only knows how to farm, he and his children went to work," Ziadna said. "I am praying that everyone comes home in peace."

Israeli air strikes have killed approximately 50 Israeli hostages, Hamas's al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson, Abu Obaida, wrote on the terrorist group's Telegram channel on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF revealed Abu Obaida's true identity as Hudhayfah Kahlot.

"Al-Qassam Brigades estimates that the number of Zionist prisoners killed in the Gaza Strip as a result of Zionist bombing and massacres reached approximately 50 people," the Telegram statement said.

The spokesperson did not give any further details and the Jerusalem Post has not been able to verify the numbers.

Further, earlier this month, Hamas made a similar claim. One week after Hamas's deadly attack on southern Israel, the terrorist organization claimed that Israeli air strikes killed nine hostages, including four foreign nationals.

The face of Hudhayfah Kahlot, the supposed real identity of Hamas military spokesperson and terrorist Abu Obaida (credit: SCREENSHOT/IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Hamas has apparently lied about airstrikes killing hostages

At the time, Hamas wrote on their Telegram channel that the captives were killed "because of the Zionist bombardment on the areas they were staying in."

A subsequent Al Jazeera report noted that those captives had been executed by Hamas. The report claimed that Hamas said the executions were revenge for Israeli bombings of Hamas military buildings. 

This is a developing story

IDF forces carried out a ground raid of infantry, armor, and engineering troops in the territory of the Gaza Strip on Thursday night.

Troops from the 36th Division entered the Gaza Strip, operated there for several hours, attacking Hamas and terrorist targets - and are expected to leave soon, according to Army radio.

At least one terrorist was killed during an exchange of fire on Thursday night between IDF fighters and terrorists in Jenin.

This is a developing story.