Israel at War - What happened on day 32?

The White House accused Hamas of “genocidal intentions” against Israel, as it pushed back against criticism of the IDF’s military campaign in Gaza and its high Palestinian civilian death toll.

“Hamas actually does have genocidal intentions against the people of Israel. They would like to see it wiped off the map, they said so on purpose,” US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters in Washington on Tuesday.

“That is what is at stake here,” he stressed.

He spoke amid sharp criticism for US President Joe Biden’s support of Israeli actions in the Gaza war, which Hamas asserts has cost over 10,000 Palestinians lives, including those of over 4,000 children.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that thousands of those killed were military combatants but has not provided an actual death count.

Palestinians at the rubble of a destroyed building after an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip, on November 5, 2023 (credit: ATIA MOHAMMED/FLASH90)

US Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who is of Palestinian descent, has accused Biden of supporting the genocide of the Palestinian people in a video she posted on her X account. 

The video included chants from a pro-Palestinian rally that called for the destruction of the state of Israel through the chant, “from the river to the sea.” 

Kirby, in defending Israel’s military campaign, acknowledged the painful reality of Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza.

“We are also keeping in our prayers, this one month in, the many thousands of innocent Palestinians who have been killed in the conflict since October 7th and the many more who are injured and wounded,” he said.

Israel not targeting civilians

He rejected, however, accusations that Israeli actions in Gaza were solely aimed at killing innocent people. He referenced in that defense, Hamas’ killing of over 1,400 people and its seizure of over 240 people hostage when it infiltrated southern Israel on October 7.

“We ought not to forget what happened one month ago, 1,400 people slaughtered in their homes [and] at a music festival,” Kirby said. 

“When Hamas decided to conduct operations, it was with the intent of killing people,” he stressed, as he underscored the extent to which the terror group used civilians as human shields.

“When you are fighting in urban warfare you have to make tough choices about your targets,” he said.

“We are going to keep urging them to be as discriminate and careful as possible,” he said.

But Israel, he said, “has a right and responsibility to defend itself” agaisnt “what was clearly an existential threat to their society and their people.”

The US is “going to continue to make sure that they have the tools and the capabilities that they need” to do so, he said.

Following Hamas’s attack on October 7, more women have been learning to defend themselves. Some attend krav maga classes, while others have been training for a gun license at Caliber 3.

Israel’s leading counter-terror, defense, and security school, Caliber 3 offers combat training to the IDF, the police, special units, and civilians.

One of the services Caliber 3 offers is training those eligible to obtain gun licenses to use the weapons. School leader Sharon Gat says they have seen a massive rise in women seeking guns.

The commander of the IDF's Southern Command, Yaron Finkelman, said that the IDF is "striking the heart of Hamas's capabilities," in a speech on Tuesday.

"For the first time in recent decades, the IDF is fighting deep in the heart of Gaza City, the heart of terrorism. This is a complex and difficult war and, sadly, there are costs," said Finkelman.

Finkelman added that the main goals of the war are to dismantle Hamas and rescue the hostages.

The US will deliver $320 million worth of precision bombs to Israel in an attempt to lower the number of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The bombs, Spice Family Gliding Bomb Assemblies, are produced by Rafael USA, a subsidiary of the Israeli Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. Congressional leaders received an update about the transfer last week, although the transfer was already approved by the relevant US congressional committees a few months ago, before the October 7 attack, according to CNN.

Israel could consider a small tactical pause to the Gaza war for an hour or so, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told David Muir of ABC’s World News Tonight program as he responded to the international pressure for a ceasefire.

“As far as tactical little pauses, an hour here, an hour there, we have had them before,” Netanyahu said.

"He was a young person who wanted to conquer the world, and the whole world was before him," Dr. Erez Cohen Mivtach solemnly reflected on the life of his son, 22-year-old St.-Sgt. Shahar Cohen Mivtach, who was killed in combat in the Gaza Strip, during an interview with Army Radio on Monday.

Mivtach, who served in the IDF's 9th Armored Battalion of the 401st Brigade, became the 34th soldier to be killed in the current ground operation in Gaza.

The death toll in Gaza amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war has risen to 10,328 people, including 4,237 children, since the fighting began on October 7, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reported Tuesday.

Hamas terrorists often fire rockets towards Israel in civilian clothing, so that when Israel retaliates, Hamas can claim them as civilian deaths. 

Opposition leader Yair Lapid asked Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana to arrange for a permanent exhibit of photos of hostages in the Knesset in a letter on Tuesday.

Lapid told Ohana that he had been meeting with families of hostages over the last few weeks and how each family is experiencing high levels of anxiety,

"Before even the operational objective, the State of Israel has a primary duty to ensure the hostages return home as soon as possible," Lapid wrote. "Until they have returned, we cannot look the families in the eye."

He added that the request for the exhibit comes from the families.

"They have to be in our view every hour of every day," he said.

Yesh Atid head MK Yair Lapid speaks during a press conference in Tel Aviv on October 19, 2023. (credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)

Exhibits honoring Gaza hostages

Exhibits in honor of the hostages have been set up in Israel and abroad over the last few weeks. The exhibits range from shoes, to beds, to tables with empty seats.

Ohana did not respond to a request for comment on the request to have an exhibit in the Knesset.

As you enter Kibbutz Beeri, a place once lush and vibrant, the air is now tainted with the grim scent of death. The houses, once standing tall, lie broken and charred.

An officer advises caution.

"Watch your step," he said, as the archaeologists still need to complete their delicate task.

Their mission: Amidst the chaos of ash, twisted wire, and blackened timber that defies adequate description, these archaeologists hope to find a remnant of those who perished on October 7 to provide closure to families still searching for their loved ones. 

There are still at least 100 missing people.

Israel Antiquities Authority workers sift through the ash of a burned-out house in Kibbutz Be'eri. (credit: Israel Antiquities Authority)

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) joined the search for missing individuals within the houses and vehicles that were consumed by the Hamas massacre two weeks ago.

"They have been employing the techniques, and the knowledge they have acquired in archaeological excavations of burnt and destroyed ancient sites and have discovered many signs of human remains in the hope that they will provide certain evidence for the families regarding the fate of their dear ones," the IAA explained.

The archaeologists, which also included international volunteers, are meticulously sifting through the ash, painstakingly examining the charred remnants of homes where families from Kibbutz Beeri, Kfar Aza, and Nir Oz met their tragic end. They are also investigating the contents of the vehicles from the gathering at Kibbutz Re'im. Initially, the archaeologists formed teams to search for any traces of missing individuals. However, it soon became evident that their archaeological techniques could reveal previously undiscovered remains. Consequently, they expanded their efforts to include the examination of the burnt houses and vehicles.

Archaeological methods are applicable

"The archaeological methods employed at ancient sites are similar to the methods applied here, but it is one thing to expose 2,000-year-old destruction remains, and quite another thing—heart-rending and unfathomable—to carry out the present task searching for evidence of our sisters and brothers in the settlements," IAA archaeologists said. 

They said they had found specific evidence of at least 10 deceased persons previously considered missing. Some have been buried, but others were transferred for examination on the Shura Base or the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute. 

At Abu Kabir, a small team of forensic scientists receive these findings and aim to determine if enough DNA can be scraped from them to determine a person's identity. 

Prof. Tal Simmons, a professor in the Department of Forensic Science at Virginia Commonwealth University's College of Humanities and Sciences, leads the project. She is an Israeli citizen who told The Jerusalem Post, "I could not sit home" and wanted to join Israel in recovering from the massacre.

Today, she sits in a tiny room in the basement of Abu Kabir. The walls are white. The smell is a mix of formaldehyde, death, and cleaning supplies. 

"We received five boxes like this from different places in Alumim," Simmons said, pointing to a set of small cardboard boxes, each just about the size of a package of six shot glasses. "We think these are the Thai workers."

Inside each box are the pieces discovered by archaeologists and thought to be the bones of people burnt in their homes. On one package, it says, "Kibbutz Amirim, Apartment 3."

Simmons opened the box, whose insides look like what a six-year-old girl would gather from the park and insist on keeping for her imaginary pet. 

"Is there one person per box?" The Jerusalem Post asked. 

"Right now, we're going through each box, trying to see what pieces are identifiable. And then to make sure there is not more than one individual per box," Simmons responded.

On the wooden table in front of Simmons were several more gray rocks. She picked one up: "This is a small piece of a right foot," she noted. "These bones here, they are parts of bigger bones." 

Israel Antiquities Authority workers in one of the houses in Kibbutz Be'eri destroyed by Hamas. (credit: Israel Antiquities Authority)

The people were doused with lighter fluid and burnt at temperatures upwards of 70 degrees Celcius, she explained. As such, in most cases, "there is nothing organic left," Simmon sighed. 

"Then she touched a small knob that was a bright brown more than a gray. She put it to the side to take a sample that could be sent upstairs to the lab for testing. 

If the team is successful, then one more family will have closure. If not, they will have to resift through the box of bone pieces in hopes of finding another option. 

"I've worked in war zones worldwide," Simmons told the Post. "I've dealt with a lot of skeletal remains. I think the only time I ever dealt with anything that was as burned as these were was from a helicopter crash in Bosnia. 

"This is a really, really unique, horrible situation where the houses and outposts, everything was set on fire, and they burned for a long time without any fire suppression," she continued. 

"But we're working with this because this is what we've got."