Israel at war: What happened on day 34?

Palestinian Islamic Jihad is willing to release two Israeli hostages they are holding, the terror group's spokesperson announced on Thursday, according to Israeli media reports. 

The spokesperson said that an elderly woman and a child could be released. They were later named as Hanna Katzir, 77, and Yagil Yaakov, 12, both of Kibbutz Nir Oz. Yaakov was kidnapped alongside his father, his father's partner, and his brother Or, 16.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday his country does not seek to conquer, occupy or govern Gaza after its war against Hamas but a "credible force" would be needed to enter the Palestinian enclave if necessary to prevent the emergence of terrorist threats.

Netanyahu's comments this week suggesting that Israel would be responsible for Gaza security indefinitely drew pushback from the United States, Israel's main ally.

Washington has said it would oppose Israeli post-war occupation of Gaza, where Israel has waged a bombing campaign to destroy the enclave's Hamas rulers after terrorists rampaged through southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7 in an attack that Israel says killed 1,400 people.

Speaking to US television's Fox News on Thursday, Netanyahu said: "We don't seek to conquer Gaza, we don't seek to occupy Gaza, and we don't seek to govern Gaza."

A Palestinian woman uses a Phone app that allows Gaza women to report domestic abuse anonymously, outside Gaza Women's Center in Gaza City May 31, 2022 (credit: REUTERS/MOHAMMED SALEM)

The future of Gaza

Netanyahu said a civilian government would need to take shape in Gaza but that Israel would make sure an attack like Oct. 7 does not happen again.

"So, we have to have credible force that, if necessary, will enter Gaza and kill the killers. Because that's what will prevent the reemergence of a Hamas-like entity," Netanyahu said.

Israel's bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 10,800 Palestinians, according to health officials there. A humanitarian catastrophe has unfolded as basic supplies run out and wounded people overwhelm a fragile medical system.

US officials say the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, should return to govern Gaza after the war. Hamas seized control of Gaza from the PA forces of President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007.

Top Palestinian officials, including Abbas, say a PA return to Gaza must be accompanied by a political solution that ends Israel's occupation of territory it captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Netanyahu said that after the war, "what we have to see is Gaza demilitarized, deradicalized and rebuilt."

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told PBS this week the PA would not return to Gaza "on the back of an Israeli tank."

Loud explosions are being heard in the center and south of Israel, apparently from air force strikes in Gaza. According to various reports, the air force is carrying out significant attacks tonight, as well as many attacks that are being carried out in the Shifa Hospital area in Gaza.

Fistfights broke out Wednesday night outside a Holocaust museum in Los Angeles that was screening footage of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis after pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated against what they said was a “Gal Gadot military propaganda video.”

Several people were reportedly pepper-sprayed and detained by police following the Museum of Tolerance screening of “Bearing Witness,” a 45-minute compilation of footage largely from cameras carried by Hamas terrorists when they attacked Israeli civilians on Oct. 7. About 1,400 Israelis died in the attack and about 250 were taken hostage in Gaza, which Israel has invaded with a stated goal of demolishing Hamas.

The October 7 footage

An LAPD helicopter reportedly circulated overhead and ordered protesters to disperse. In footage of the confrontations circulating online, pro-Israel protesters sexually harassed a Jewish woman who demonstrated with pro-Palestinian protesters and accused her of being “Arab.”

The clash came days after a Jewish man in Los Angeles died after an altercation with a pro-Palestinian protester at a rally, the first known incident of a death in the United States related to protests around Israel. Police said they had identified a suspect but had not yet made any arrests in that case.

A SCREEN CAPTURE from video released last month showing a Hamas terrorist who was captured on October 7. (credit: IDF)

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass denounced the violence. “We cannot allow current worldwide tension to devolve into this unacceptable violence in our city,” she tweeted late Thursday. “This is a time of immense pain and distress for thousands of Angelenos. We must stand together.”

The film being shown, whose title is frequently used in Holocaust discourse, was first compiled by the Israel Defense Forces and screened for foreign journalists covering the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and siege of Gaza. The IDF said it undertook the step to prove that the Hamas atrocities had actually happened amid a rising tide of denial.

Critics of Israel’s war in Gaza say the film is being used to justify ongoing bombings there that some of them say is causing a “genocide” there. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says more than 10,000 people have been killed; it does not differentiate between civilians and Hamas fighters. Israeli officials have said the number killed could be around 20,000 but said the vast majority were terrorists.

The film has since made its way to the United States with the backing of some Jewish and Israeli entertainment industry leaders, including Gadot, whose reported involvement in Wednesday’s screening had been seized on by pro-Palestinian protesters online.

Dubbing the screening a “Gal Gadot military propaganda video” and a “Zionist trap,” some left-wing social media users encouraged non-Jewish protesters to stay away from the protest to avoid being labeled as antisemitic. A screening in New York earlier in the week passed without incident.

Gadot was not present at the Museum of Tolerance screening for around 200 industry professionals, though her husband, Israeli film producer Jaron Varsano, was. The screening was invitation-only, with industry reports deeming it the town’s hottest ticket, and its location was obscured from public view out of security concerns.

“You have a film that is being shown at a time when people are calling for a ceasefire,” one protester told the Los Angeles Times. “The screening is only for a few privileged people and it doesn’t lead to conversation.”

According to the Hollywood Reporter, several other notable Jewish and Israeli industry executives were present at the screening, including “Golda” director Guy Nattiv (who also helped organize it); “Pulp Fiction” producer Lawrence Bender; and Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz, who shepherded this year’s smash-hit “Barbie” movie.

Melissa Zukerman, a Hollywood publicist, identified herself as the main organizer at the screening and thanked a former IDF spokesperson for helping it come together. Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, also spoke, as did Rabbi Marvin Hier, longtime head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which oversees the museum.

The IDF's Aerial Defense Array took down a target near the Arava area in southern Israel. Israel employed a "Yahalom" (Patriot) system to intercept the target before it crossed into Israeli territory.

Yemen's Houthis have launched a batch of ballistic missiles at various targets on Israel including military targets in Eilat, the group's military spokesperson said on Thursday.

The Red Cross temporarily halted patient escorts to the Gaza border after its convoy came under fire earlier this week, the head of its Gaza office said on Thursday, describing the incident as "deeply alarming" and calling for safety guarantees.

"The ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) was targeted the day before yesterday, and that is unacceptable," William Schomburg, the head of the ICRC delegation in Gaza told Reuters by video link. "We took a pause yesterday," he added, saying the organization resumed patient transfers to the Egypt border crossing on Thursday.

Asked in the same interview if the ICRC had any staff fatalities in the Israel-Hamas conflict, he said a colleague had been missing for weeks, without elaborating.

Israel's defense minister said on Thursday that the military was undertaking "localized, pinpoint measures" in Gaza to enable Palestinian refugees to flee the fighting with Hamas, in an apparent reference to four-hour pauses announced by Washington.

"These things do not detract from the war fighting," Yoav Gallant said when asked by a reporter about the US announcement, which he did not directly address.

The war would continue until Hamas is toppled and hostages held in Gaza are freed, he said.

The US State Department said on Thursday that there will be two humanitarian corridors allowing people to flee areas of hostilities in northern Gaza, adding that it is critical humanitarian supplies and assistance be expanded in the areas where people are moving.

State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters that the Rafah crossing on Thursday was open for aid trucks to enter Gaza and foreign nationals to depart.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant addressed the media on Thursday stating that, "I look at the child hostages as if they were my own children."

Yigal Yaakov, aged 12, is one of the hostages that Palestinian Islamic Jihad could release, it was announced on Thursday.

"We will get to those who were involved in the attack, we will not let up, we will eliminate them all, they have no place under the sun," Gallant added.

Israel's "Arrow" aerial defense system successfully intercepted a missile launched toward Israeli territory in the area of the Red Sea, the IDF said on Thursday.

The IDF did not name the source of the missile.