Israel at war: What happened on day 53?

Ten Israelis and two Thai captives were freed amid media reports that Qatar sought to mediate a ceasefire deal to end the Gaza war in which the remaining 150 hostages would be returned, in exchange for the release of a large number of Palestinian security prisoners.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party) rejected such reports outright, explaining that it’s not on the table and “there has been no discussion about it at all.”

Such a deal, he said, “is a plan to destroy the State of Israel. We will continue [the war] until with God’s help, we achieve absolute victory over the Hamas Nazis.”

Talk about a possible deal for all the hostages, including soldiers, came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to visit the region in the coming days and the security cabinet held a late-night meeting in Tel Aviv.

Discussions are already underway in Qatar to extend the hostage deal beyond its Thursday expiration date based on the formula by which Hamas frees 10 Israeli hostages in Gaza for every 24 hours of quiet.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a press conference at the Finance Ministry in Jerusalem on October 19, 2023. (credit: NOAM REVKIN/FLASH90)

Officials remained committed to the deal even though Palestinians in Gaza placed explosive devices near IDF troops in northern Gaza, in violation of the hostage deal, according to the army spokesperson’s unit.

The initial mechanism by which hostages are freed in exchange for a lull in the fighting began on Friday at 10 a.m. and was first due to end on Tuesday, but at the last minute, the war was put on hold for another 48 hours.

As part of the deal, Israel has halted aerial surveillance above the enclave for some six hours daily to allow Hamas to locate all the hostages, which are held in separate locations by several different groups. The Pentagon said it has also paused its surveillance of Gaza during that same time.

The deal and its extension have focused on the 98 women and children that were among some 240 hostages that Hamas seized on October 7 when it infiltrated southern Israel.

To date, 60 female and child hostages have been released. Under a separate agreement, one Filipino and 25 Thai citizens have been freed, as was one Israeli who also holds Russian citizenship. Last month four women were also freed, two of whom were Americans and another two Israelis.

There are eight children still in captivity, including Ariel Bibas, who is four, and his 10-month-old brother Kfir.
On Tuesday night, the only child to be freed was Mia Lemberg, 17, who returned clutching a small white dog. Another 10 Israelis are due to be freed on Wednesday night.

Mossad chief David Barnea was in Qatar on Tuesday as was CIA chief William Burns and Egyptian intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Abbas Kamel to discuss an extension of the deal, possibly through Sunday.

A source told Reuters that the spy chiefs were there to “build on the progress of the extended humanitarian pause agreement and to initiate further discussions about the next phase of a potential deal.”

But it’s also presumed that they are talking about a larger and wider scope resolution to the hostage crisis and the war.

Discussions with Qatar

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Barnea in Qatar to discuss Tuesday’s hostage release, his office said, as it published a photograph of the call.

The question of what happens next week is particularly acute, given that a new mechanism would need to be found to free the male hostages, particularly the soldiers.

Under the existing deal, Israel agreed that for every captive in Gaza that was released, it would free three jailed Palestinian women and minors held on security-related offenses. To date, 180 such Palestinian prisoners have been freed, including 30 women and minors on Tuesday.

It’s expected that a larger number of prisoners and those with much more serious security offenses, including the killing of Israelis would need to be freed in exchange for the male hostages.

The Biden administration is under pressure from positions of the Democratic Party and the American public to support a permanent ceasefire. Many in the international community and Arab countries have also called for a halt to the war, particularly in light of Hamas assertions that over 14,800 Palestinians have been killed in conflict-related violence in Gaza.

The damage to the enclave from IDF aerial bombing and Israel’s closure of its two crossings into the Strip has also created a humanitarian crisis.

Israel has insisted that plans to resume the war once the hostages are released, so that it can complete its military campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza. It has been considered that Hamas poses an existential threat to Israel since the terror group’s October 7 attack, in which it killed over 1,200 people, burning, dismembering and raping its victims.

Netanyahu said on Tuesday, that Israel was committed to the following missions: “Freeing all of the hostages, eliminating this terrorist organization above and below ground and – of course – that Gaza must not return to being what it was, that it will no longer constitute a threat to the State of Israel.”

Israel’s allies have pressed it to do more to allow for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, even though under the terms of the deal some 200 humanitarian trucks a day have entered and are expected to continue to enter the enclave. They have also warned Israel that it must do more to protect civilians should hostilities resume.

The US is asking Israel to take greater care to protect civilians and limit damage to infrastructure in any offensive in southern Gaza, senior US officials said, in what amounts to a more forthright approach to protecting Palestinians.
The message has been delivered from Biden on down, the officials told reporters on a conference call.

“We have reinforced this in very clear language with the government of Israel – very important that the conduct of the Israeli campaign when it moves to the south must be done in a way that is to a maximum extent not designed to produce significant further displacement of persons,” one official said.

At issue in particular has been the high number of Gazans, some 1.6 million in an enclave of 2.7 million, that have fled their homes due to IDF aerial bombings.

“You cannot have the sort of scale of displacement that took place in the north, replicated in the south. It will be beyond disruptive, it will be beyond the capacity of any humanitarian support network,” the official said, adding “It can’t happen.”

A US official said the first of three relief aid flights conducted by the US military would land in northern Sinai on Tuesday, with two more planned in the coming days.

The flights would bring medical items, food aid and winter items that would be delivered by the United Nations.
The officials said aid deliveries to Gaza were running at about 240 truckloads a day but this was nowhere near enough.

They said the effort would need to turn to commercial contracts to get deliveries up to 400 trucks a day and the US side had been discussing this with Israel.
Reuters contributed to this report.

Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara welcomed on Wednesday the release of two more Thai hostages who had been held by Hamas in Gaza, the latest to be freed under a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas.

"Happy to personally welcome 2 additional Thai hostages just released and arrived at the hospital in Tel Aviv," Parnpree, who is also deputy prime minister, posted on social media platform X.

"A totally warm feeling to see how the former 17 were lining up to welcome and give moral support to the two newcomers," he said.

Nineteen Thai hostages have so far been released, while the foreign ministry says 13 more remain in captivity. There were 39 Thai nationals killed in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

A Thai Muslim group that spoke directly with Hamas said on Monday its efforts were key to ensuring Thai hostages were among the first to be released. A Thai foreign ministry spokesperson said multiple actors were consulted.

Before the Israel-Hamas war, about 30,000 Thai laborers worked in Israel's agriculture sector, comprising one of the largest migrant worker groups in the country.

Nearly 9,000 have been repatriated, according to the government.

The Thai citizens released are slated to return home this week as Parnpree visits Israel.

Ministers from across Israel’s political spectrum recently signed a joint call spearheaded by deputy Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Moshe Abutbul, asking people to come volunteer on Israeli farms to help save the nation’s agricultural sector, the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry stated.

On the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry website page where volunteers can go to sign up to assist Israeli farms, the ministry explains the need for such service.

After October 7, many individuals who would otherwise be working on these farms were either called up for army service, did not return due to safety concerns or were subject to a “closure imposed by the Palestinian Authority.”

Additionally, many foreign workers who had found employment on these farms elected to return to their home countries.

Covering the costs for volunteers

To address the problem, the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry “decided to fund logistical costs to bring volunteers to work in agriculture amid the emergency situation faced by Israeli agriculture,” the ministry wrote. “This includes covering transportation, accommodation, and food for the volunteers in order to fill the gap until permanent workers can be brought in.”

An Israeli volunteer walks with a weapon as he helps farmers from Kibbutz Beeri, Israel, to pick avocados from their land as part of an initiative to help farmers from Kibbutzes in Israel near the border with Gaza to pick the crops after the October 7 deadly attack by Hamas gunmen from Gaza in the K (credit: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

Further, the ministry stated that it supports volunteer efforts from organizations within the public sector to fuel this agricultural effort.

Members of Knesset from Likud, Shas, the Religious Zionist Party, United Torah Judaism, Yisrael Beytenu, National Unity, and Labor all came together to sign onto Abutbul’s initiative.

According to the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry statement, Construction and Housing Minister, Yitzhak Goldknopf, stated that employees of the Israel Lands Authority were among those to volunteer to help pick fruits and vegetables.

In a recent interview with the Jerusalem Post, Lt. Hila Wilf of the IDF’s national mission chapter highlighted that soldiers were also among those helping Israeli farmers along with additional volunteers from local schools.

For people who wish to sign up for the agricultural volunteer effort, the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry website provides registrations. Otherwise, interested individuals may call the ministry’s hotline 6016*.

Palestinian-American supermodel Gigi Hadid has apologized for writing on Instagram that Israel is the only country that keeps children as prisoners of war and that Israel had abducted, raped and tortured Palestinians for years “before Oct. 7.”

“I shared something that I did not fact check or deeply think about prior to reposting,” Hadid, 28, wrote in a new post on Tuesday to her 79 million Instagram followers. “I was trying to highlight how Palestinian children who are arrested by the IDF are often not given the same rights as an Israeli child accused of the same crime would. Unfortunately, I used the wrong example to make that point and I regret that.”

Her original post included a photo of Ahmed Mansara, who at age 13 in 2015 stabbed a police officer and a 13-year-old boy in East Jerusalem. Hadid also shared a video on her Instagram that claimed Israelis have long harvested the organs of dead Palestinians without their consent.

Gigi Hadid and her younger sister Bella Hadid, also a famous model, have harshly critiqued Israel in posting about the Israel-Hamas war, which started on Oct. 7 after Hamas attacked parts of southern Israel. But Hadid has also called on activists to keep Jews safe while advocating for Palestinians, and she emphasized that in her apology on Tuesday.

“I also want to reiterate that attacking any human, which of course includes Jewish people, is NEVER OK. Taking innocent people hostage is NEVER OK. Harming someone BECAUSE they are Jewish is NEVER OK,” she wrote.

The 76th Cannes Film Festival - Screening of the film ''Firebrand'' (Le jeu de la reine) in competition - Red Carpet Arrivals - Cannes, France, May 21, 2023. Gigi Hadid poses. (credit: REUTERS/SARAH MEYSSONNIER)

Jewish celebrities respond

Jewish music mogul Scooter Braun criticized Hadid for including Mansara in her first post. Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli chimed in, too, calling Mansara a terrorist on Instagram.

“I know people mean well but when you say a child was abducted when it turns out it was a teenager who went out and stabbed two random innocent civilians including a 12 year old on camera and then stated ‘I wanted to stab Jews.’ Let’s get our facts right before we post to 78 million people,” Braun wrote.

Hadid is one of the world’s most famous models, having appeared on the covers of most top magazines and in top fashion shows around the globe. Her high profile makes her one of the most prominent critics of Israel in pop culture.

Her father Mohamed Hadid, a well-known luxury real estate developer in Los Angeles, was born in Nazareth, Israel. His family fled to Lebanon during Israel’s 1948 war for independence.

The White House said on Tuesday that US officials see no indications that Hamas militants are refusing to release American hostages in Gaza in order to use them as leverage.

The United States believes Hamas is holding eight to nine Americans as hostages after the release of a four-year-old girl.

Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, called for Israel to set a time limit for Hamas to release the remaining hostages it is holding and to kill Hamas leaders, including his father, if they fail to do so, in a video posted on X on Tuesday.

After the successful release of the most vulnerable group of hostages, Israel must give Hamas a timeframe to release the remaining hostages. If they fail Israel must execute Hamas mass murderers in Israeli prisons. No exception, Sheik Hassan Yousef is included. pic.twitter.com/xpeVKHuLX4

— Mosab Hassan Yousef (@MosabHasanYOSEF) November 28, 2023

"Hamas has been waging psychological warfare against humanity...They want to release thousands of mass murderers back to the street in return for the Israeli hostages. Israel cannot afford this, but also humanity cannot afford this, because the release of mass murderers means the death of many other innocent people," said Yousef.

"Israel must not compromise," stressed the son of the Hamas co-founder.

"I understand that Israel had to compromise in the past week or two in order to release children, women, elders, and defenseless civilians. The remaining hostages, especially soldiers, those who failed to defend themselves and defend the civilians in the southern communities when they were captured, should be treated as war prisoners and Israel must shift its priority from a hostage rescue mission to an offensive that focuses on eradicating Hamas."

Palestinian prisoners wait to be released from Ketziot prison, southern Israel, October 1, 2007. (credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS)

Yousef warned that Hamas will attempt to stretch out negotiations indefinitely in order to avoid an end to the ceasefire.

Yousef pointed to the Hamas members being held in Israeli prisons, saying "Israel must use this card. This is the time when Israel needs to use Hamas savages in prison to pressure Hamas leadership everywhere to release the hostages."

"Israel cannot continue like this. Prisoners like Ibrahim Hamed and Abdullah Barghouti must be sentenced to death. Hamas must have a timeframe - a month or two or six months - to return the hostages and if they don't return the hostages within the time frame, Israel must execute top Hamas leaders in prison, especially the mass murderers."

"When I say execute top Hamas leaders, I mean no exceptions. That includes my own father, the co-founder of the Hamas movement. In this war, there are no exceptions," added Yousef. "I made a mistake, 10 or 15 years ago when I saved his life many times...He was supposed to die for his actions. I saved his life. Things did not change, things got worse."

"I give the Israeli government permission to execute all Hamas top leaders in prison before we go after them in Gaza and before we go after them in Qatar. Again, I make myself very clear, no exceptions for anyone."

"If this is what Hamas wants, the release of those mass murderers, then in my opinion this is the head of the snake," stressed Yousef. "The head of the snake at this moment isn't in Qatar or in Gaza, it's in the Israeli prisons. If Israel knows how to manage and play this card against Hamas, I guarantee you the return of all the hostages and the defeat of Hamas.

Son of Hamas co-founder calls on Israel to demand Qatar expel Hamas

Yousef additionally called for Qatar not to be used as a mediator as long as it allows Hamas leaders to remain in the country and for Israel to treat Qatar as an enemy state until Qatar kicks Hamas out.

Yousef called on Israel to demand that Qatar kick out Hamas within a month and to carry out assassinations in Qatar if they aren't kicked out.

The son of the Hamas co-founder added that, in Gaza, the IDF should concentrate on Hamas leaders and shouldn't feel under any pressure to complete its goals within a certain timeframe. He added that the IDF should be even more careful than it already is to avoid harming civilians at this stage.

The US Senate will begin consideration of a package including aid for Israel and Ukraine as soon as next week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters on Tuesday, adding that an aid bill is needed even if there is no agreement with Republicans on funding for border security measures.

Schumer also said he will discuss US border security with President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats.

"I'm gonna put them on the floor next week, hopefully with bipartisan support, because that's the only way you can get it done," Schumer told his weekly news conference.

"I'm gonna put them on the floor next week, hopefully with bipartisan support, because that's the only way you can get it done."

US Senator Chuck Schumer

"We hope to have a vote next week. Yes, that's the plan," he said.

Approving the funds

Biden asked Congress last month to approve a $106 billion in funding, including aid for Ukraine as it battles a Russian invasion, Israel after the October 7 attacks by Hamas terrorists, and funding for additional security at the US border with Mexico.

US President Joe Biden delivers an address from the White House last month, after visiting Israel following the Hamas massacre The US playbook lacks the deterrence needed to curb Iran, the writer maintains. (credit: JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS)

But the funding has not been approved, raising concerns that funds for Ukraine in particular might never pass, particularly after the Republican-led House passed a bill including assistance for Israel, but not Ukraine.

The US military has paused its flights of surveillance drones over Gaza during the truce between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

"In compliance with the agreement reached between Israel and Hamas, we are not currently conducting those ISR flights. And so those have been paused for now," Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told a press conference, using an acronym for drones.

The US military had been carrying out drone flights to aid with the search for American hostages taken by Hamas.

The Al Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, said on its Telegram account on Tuesday it handed over 'some civilian detainees' as part of an exchange deal with Israel.

Hamas started handing over more Israeli hostages on Tuesday to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a Palestinian official said, on the fifth day of an extended six-day truce in the Gaza war.

Al Jazeera TV broadcast footage of the handover process saying that members of both Hamas's armed wing as well as the Islamic Jihad were present at the scene.

Some four tankers carrying fuel and another four tankers carrying cooking gas entered the Gaza Strip on Tuesday through the Rafah crossing, according to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

Additionally, 200 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Strip as well.