Israel at war - what happened on Day 33?

The Israeli army is likely to remain in Gaza in the immediate aftermath of the war until such time as a security architecture is drawn up for the enclave, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday.

“In the immediate aftermath of conflict, it’s certainly plausible that at least some period of time, Israeli defense forces are still going to be in Gaza to manage the immediate aftermath [of the war] and the security situation,” Kirby said.

“But it shouldn’t be the long-term solution. It should not be about the IDF reoccupation of Gaza as a long term governance solution.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC earlier this week that “Israel will, for an indefinite period, have the overall security responsibly, because we have seen what happens when we do not have it.” 

The White House and the State Department have clarified, however, that the territory must eventually be controlled by Palestinians, possibly the Palestinian Authority, in a situation where both Gaza and the West Bank are unified under one government.

St.-Sgt. (res.) Yaacov Ozeri was named as fallen in battle in Gaza, the IDF announced on Wednesday morning.

Ozeri, from Kfar Shamai, served in the 52nd company, 401 Battalion in the Armoured Corps.

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.

Saudi Arabia will host three summits in the coming days to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - this is what the country's investment minister, Khaled al-Faleh, said Wednesday night.

The country is planning a meeting for Arab countries, a second meeting for African countries, and another meeting for Muslim countries. "In the short term, the goal of bringing these three summits and other gatherings under Saudi leadership will be to promote a peaceful solution to the conflict."

The Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers are expected to mention the necessity of a humanitarian pause in the fighting in the Gaza Strip in their joint statement, Japan's Asahi newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The government’s legal advisor, Gali Baharav Miara, and the state attorney Amit Isman published an announcement yesterday evening regarding preparations for the trials of the Hamas terrorists caught in Israel after October 7.

"The State of Israel will not put up with the murder, kidnapping, and injury of civilians and members of the security forces and with the destruction of communities," it said. "Besides the activity on the operational and political level, among other things for the return of the abductees, since October 7 intensive activity has been carried out in the legal field."

"The activity is carried out from an overall view of the criminal terrorist attack, in all its aspects, national and international. This, with the aim of investigating and conducting legal proceedings against those who carried out these atrocities, planned them and were involved in them, wherever their place of residence may be," the statement continued.

According to their statements, the State of Israel will work to prosecute terrorists who have been caught or will be caught and will demand punishments that reflect the severity of the atrocities committed. "This is an unusual and unprecedented event in its scope, and the law enforcement system must deal with the challenges of the complex investigation of the criminal acts of terrorism, as well as with the complex legal issues that arise from these acts."

For obvious reasons, primarily the desire not to disrupt the ongoing investigations, it is not possible to detail the activities being carried out on this issue. It can be said at this stage that the atrocities are being investigated in close cooperation with the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), the Israel Police, and the IDF and that the investigation is being done under the close supervision of the State Attorney and his staff, and under the supervision of the legal adviser to the government.

Baharav Miara and Isman revealed that they had established joint and united work teams of the various bodies, in which the most senior and experienced officials in the law enforcement system are participating. The teams regularly report on the progress of the work at the investigative and legal level, nationally and internationally, to the legal adviser to the government and the state attorney.

The destruction caused by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, near the Israeli-Gaza border, in southern Israel, October 30, 2023. (credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

In the meantime, the work of collecting evidence (including digital media) from all the scenes is centralized by the Israel Police, and for this purpose, it has assigned experienced forces, unprecedented in their scope, led by the head of the investigation and intelligence division of the police. At the same time as the collection of evidence progresses, the Ministry of Justice - the legal advisory system for the government and the state attorney's office, is promoting benevolent solutions to all the complex legal issues and questions that arise.

According to them, there are thousands of victims as well as a wide range of scenes where horrific acts of terrorism were committed, and extensive efforts are being made to optimally collect all the necessary evidence, in the most professional, fast, and sensitive way possible.

The largest terrorist attack in the history of the State of Israel

The task of identifying the areas and locating the missing, the task of investigating, bringing the terrorists to justice, and punishing them with all severity, is a task of national and international importance, as they say. They state in their statement that in the largest terrorist attack in the history of the State of Israel, thousands of terrorists carried out mass and systematic massacres of civilians and soldiers, which included, according to the information in the hands of the investigating authorities - torture, abuse, rape, burning people alive, mutilation of bodies, destruction of settlements and looting. At the same time, the terrorist organizations fired indiscriminate rocket fire at civilian population concentrations in Israel.

"The dimensions of the destruction and devastation are enormous and also included the abduction of over 240 people to the Gaza Strip, the vast majority of them civilians, including toddlers, children, women, and the elderly, and the murder of over 1,400 civilians and members of the security forces, including citizens of about forty foreign countries. Thousands more were injured," it added.

During the fighting, the security forces eliminated many of the terrorists, and others who were involved in the murderous attacks were captured.

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a pause in fighting in Gaza during a call on Monday.

A White House spokesperson previously said the two leaders discussed the potential for "tactical pauses" in fighting in Gaza for humanitarian reasons and possible hostage releases during their conversation on Monday.

President Isaac Herzog spoke with the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, about the war in Israel and the rise in anti-Semitism.

In their conversation, Herzog stated that "the immediate and unconditional return of the abductees is the main concern of the State of Israel. He repeated Prime Minister Netanyahu's statement in the last hour, according to which there will be no ceasefire without the release of the abductees held by Hamas."

Israeli troops are operating deep inside Gaza City, both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday, as the war against Hamas terrorists in the coastal enclave entered its 31st day.

“Gaza City is encircled, we are operating inside, we are increasing pressure on Hamas every hour, every day. So far, we have killed thousands of terrorists, above and below ground,” Netanyahu said in a televised address on Tuesday evening.

While the troops increased their pressure on the enemy, despite two late evening barrages, Hamas has fired fewer rockets than it has in weeks. Although the IDF declines to provide statistics of Hamas rocket fire – saying the terrorist group must be kept in the dark about any successes it has – sources confirmed that the general number was far lower on Tuesday than it had been in recent days.

The drop, even if only temporary, was notable both in the number of rocket siren alerts and impacts in the Tel Aviv and central areas.

There were a couple of days of reduced rocket fire during the first and second weeks of the war, but they were superseded by subsequent spikes in launches, so it is unclear whether the reduction is part of a trend.

Israeli Air Force F15 planes fly during an aerial demonstration at a graduation ceremony for Israeli air force pilots at the Hatzerim air base in southern Israel, December 27, 2017. (credit: AMIR COHEN/REUTERS)

Most importantly, the IDF could not say whether its invasion progress had led to a reduction or whether it was a temporary tactical move by Hamas.

Hamas firing rockets

In a twist, Hamas said it had fired rockets at Tel Aviv, but no sirens sounded in the area.

Sources indicated that Hamas had fired rockets in the general direction of Tel Aviv, but they all landed in  the sea and not close enough to warrant sounding an alert.

In the North, however, Hezbollah continued its trend of increasing rocket provocations, firing a barrage of 20 rockets at Israel, setting off sirens in the Galilee and the Golan Heights.

Initial reports indicated no injuries or damage. The IDF struck back with artillery fire against the sources of rocket fire.

Rocket attacks from Lebanon came not long after the IDF attacked cells of gunmen near the border, as well as shooting down an unidentified airborne object approaching Israeli airspace. Hezbollah and Israel also continued exchanging cross-border fire.

In another incident, the IDF said it attacked a Hezbollah cell which was attempting to launch an anti-tank missile against the agricultural community of Shtula in the Upper Galilee.

IDF artillery also responded to an attack from Lebanon against an IDF post near Aramsha in the Western Galilee with shelling. Jerusalem responded more harshly against Hezbollah on Monday, but by Tuesday was back to extremely restrained and calibrated responses.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday night that he would not give up on the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas to Gaza and would not allow a humanitarian pause for Hamas, while adding that the IDF would need to maintain an extended security presence within Gaza even after it hands the territory over to a third party.

Gallant would not speculate about who the third party would be, adding only that it would not be Hamas.

Further, Gallant and IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari continued to threaten to kill Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, but declined to set a time for such an assassination. They also declined to set a time for taking over Gaza’s Shifa Hospital, where many top Hamas officials are said to be hiding.

The head of the IDF’s Southern Command, Maj. Gen. 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.

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

Additionally, the IDF took control of a second Hamas military stronghold in the northern Gaza Strip, not long after taking over a Hamas division headquarters.

IDF fighters from the 7th Armored Brigade were assisted by the air force, which struck a cell of some dozen Palestinian terrorists before guiding the ground forces to the stronghold, where they seized anti-tank missiles and launchers, weapons, and various intelligence materials. The military also struck dozens of mortar launchpads across the Strip overnight.

Striking in Gaza

Moreover, the navy also operated in Gaza early on Tuesday morning, striking “strategic targets belonging to Hamas,” including outposts containing what the IDF said were “technological assets.”

Elsewhere in the Strip, a terror cell that barricaded itself near the al-Quds Hospital was eliminated by IDF fighter jets, in cooperation with the IDF’s 36th Armored Division. The military said the cell planned to launch an attack on the ground forces from its barricaded position.

The aerial strike on the cell caused a large secondary explosion in the ground adjacent to the hospital, indicating the presence of a cache of explosives and other Hamas weaponry stored in the vicinity of the hospital.

In another event, IDF troops eliminated a number of tunnels, dedicating at least one tunnel destruction to a family member of one of the officers involved.

In the West Bank, the IDF said that it had arrested more suspicious individuals, raising the number of arrests since the war started to 870 Hamas and other terrorist group members out of 1,350 total arrestees.

The rate of arrests has only gone down a little in the last two weeks, while the rate of Hamas arrestees to total arrestees has remained similar.

Of Hamas’s countless human rights abuses and flagrant violations of international law, one of the most egregious is its exploitation of medical facilities, vehicles, and personnel for military purposes.

The examples are too numerous to list, but let us offer a selection.

For years, Hamas has used Al-Shifa Hospital – Gaza’s largest medical center – as a command and control base, transforming it into a massive human shield for its terrorism.

Hamas's underground bunkers underneath Al-Shifa Hospital

During Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009, Israel revealed that Hamas had constructed a bunker underneath the hospital and Hamas leaders were using it as a shelter and an operations center, from which they were directing the group’s terrorist activities. The New York Times reported that Hamas terrorists were going through the wards, killing individuals the group believed were collaborating with Israel. The Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry – not to be confused with the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas – accused the terrorist group of using the hospital as a detention and torture center, as well as stealing medical supplies and resources for its own use.

Palestinians check the damages after a convoy of ambulances was hit, at the entrance of Shifa hospital in Gaza City, November 3, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/MOHAMMED AL-MASRI)

During Operation Protective Edge in 2014, Hamas yet again used the hospital as a base – The Washington Post reported that it had become “a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices.” A Hamas operative captured by Israel revealed that the group’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was hiding in the hospital.

In recent weeks, as Operation Swords of Iron has raged in Gaza and Israel, the IDF has produced evidence that Hamas is once again using Al-Shifa – in which an estimated 60,000 people are currently seeking shelter – as a major operational base, with military facilities throughout the hospital complex. 

Last Friday, the IDF released recordings proving that Hamas is stealing Al-Shifa’s fuel reserves and using it for its own purposes. On Sunday, the military revealed that Hamas was using several other Gaza hospitals for military purposes, as well: the Qatari Sheikh Hamad Hospital contains an underground attack tunnel and Hamas has used the hospital premises to fire at IDF troops; the Indonesian Hospital contains an underground tunnel network and rocket launchers have been stationed in close proximity to the complex.

As if that weren’t enough, Hamas has been using ambulances to transport both terrorists and weapons – a practice it has utilized in the past – and attempted to smuggle terrorists out of Gaza by slipping their names onto lists of wounded Palestinians being evacuated from the territory for medical treatment.

This is nothing new

None of this is new. All of it is well documented. And yet it has gone largely unmentioned by the organizations and bodies charged with overseeing global humanitarian and medical matters.

While the World Health Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Doctors Without Borders have all released numerous statements about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza – most, predictably, blaming Israel for its response to the massacre of 1,400 of its citizens and the abduction of 240 others – not one has taken Hamas to task for its reprehensible exploitation of the territory’s medical facilities for terrorism.

Why?

We have grown accustomed to the gross bias exhibited by the supposed guardians of human rights and international law towards the Jewish state, and the sense that Israeli lives matter less to them than do other ones, but the victims here aren’t Israeli – they’re Palestinian.

Hamas’s cruel exploitation of hospitals, ambulances, and other medical facilities directly endangers the Palestinian patients and medical personnel it is using as human shields – which is, of course, exactly the point.

If Israel hits any of these sites – which have, in many cases, been transformed by Hamas’s actions into legitimate military targets under international law – it will be met with ferocious condemnation. If it refrains from doing so for fear of hitting innocent civilians, Hamas gets off scot-free and is able to continue using these facilities for its nefarious purposes.

If these organizations genuinely care about their missions and about saving Palestinian lives – and not just condemning Israel – it is long past time for them to speak out against Hamas’s abuses.