Israel-Hamas War - What happened on day 70?

During operational activity in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaia, IDF troops killed three hostages taken by Hamas after mistaking them for terrorists, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Friday evening.

The three victims include Yotam Haim, who was abducted from Kfar Aza on October 7 and Samer Talalka who was abducted from Nir Am on the 7th.

During fighting in Shejaiya, Gaza, an IDF force mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat. They opened fired and killed them.

The bodies were returned to Israel and identified as:
🕯️ Yotam Haim, abducted from Kfar Gaza
🕯️ Samar Fouad Talalka, abducted from Nir Am… pic.twitter.com/Cx6KbGw7RH

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) December 15, 2023

The family of the third victim asked that they not be identified.

Identifying the bodies

The IDF said that following the incident, acting on a suspicion of the identities of the deceased, their bodies were brought back to Israel for examination where it was determined they had, indeed, been among the hostages.

The IDF added that an investigation was immediately opened into the circumstances of the event. So far, the details regarding what happened have not yet been discussed with the public.

This is a developing story.

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister said on Friday there was no need for any further escalation in the region, when asked about attacks by Yemen's Houthi movement in the Red Sea.

Prince Faisal bin Farhan also told journalists in Oslo that he hopes a new resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in the UN Security council will get more support, "especially by the US who had previously vetoed the resolution".

Danish shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk will pause all container shipments through the Red Sea until further notice and send them on a detour around Africa, a spokesperson for the company told Reuters on Friday.

"Following the near-miss incident involving Maersk Gibraltar yesterday and yet another attack on a container vessel today, we have instructed all Maersk vessels in the area bound to pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait to pause their journey until further notice," the company said in a statement.

Maersk on Thursday said its vessel Maersk Gibraltar was targeted by a missile while traveling from Salalah, Oman, to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and that the crew and vessel were reported safe.

Houthi claims denied 

Earlier on Friday Maersk denied a claim by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement that the militia had struck a Maersk vessel sailing towards Israel.

"The vessel was not hit," a Maersk spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement following the Houthi claim.

IDF soldiers in Jenin, who played the Shema Yisrael prayer through the loudspeakers of a mosque in Jenin, were suspended for violating religious sanctity. However, the far-right news site, Hakol Hayehudi (the Jewish Voice), claimed on Friday that the mosque is used for terror activities.  

The IDF released a statement regarding the soldiers' activities stating that, "The soldiers were immediately removed from operational activity, after receiving the videos and after an initial inspection of the incident by commanders. The behavior of the soldiers in the videos is serious and stands in complete opposition to the values ​​of the IDF."

According to Reuters, Palestinian foreign ministry condemned what it said was a "mockery" of the religious sanctum.

Under the guidance of the IDF Chief of Staff, it was even decided that the fighters would be put on trial this evening before Major General Menashe Ayoub Kiuf.

Soldiers from the IDF’s Maglan unit, along with Shin Bet personnel, battled Hamas terrorists in the Khan Yunis neighborhood where Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was raised and lived in recent years, the IDF said on Friday.

In one of the engagements, the Shin Bet and IDF troops conducted their efforts on the ruins of one of the houses where Sinwar lived in the past few years, the IDF reported.

The structure had been demolished by an IDF airstrike shortly after the start of the war.

Over the course of the fighting, the Israeli soldiers eliminated numerous Hamas terrorists, the IDF added. Additionally, the IDF and Shin Bet personnel located a long-range artillery barrel as well as a number of shafts, one of which contained weapons.

Further, the Israeli security forces found weapons and intelligence materials during a raid on the home of the head of the northern Khan Yunis Brigade’s rocket array.

During the fighting that took place in the area, the Israeli troops identified a terrorist squad emerging from a nearby tunnel.

One of the terrorists wielded an RPG and took aim at the Israeli personnel. The IDF and Shin Bet quickly eliminated the terrorist, along with the rest of the squad, before the RPG could be fired.

Israel's emergency medical service, Magen David Adom (MDA) reported that a rocket fired from Gaza struck an open area in the central Israeli city of Beit Shemesh, Israeli media sources reported on Friday. The rocket strike did not cause any casualties.

Rocket sirens and the booms of at least three interceptions by Israel's Iron Dome air defenses were heard over Jerusalem on Friday for the first time in recent weeks, Reuters witnesses and the Israeli army said.

Israel's national paramedics service said no injuries or deaths had yet been reported but that its paramedics were en "route to reported scenes."

The security cabinet approved the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza through its Kerem Shalom crossing into the enclave for the first time since the Gaza war started on October 7.

It took that step during a visit by US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan who had pressed the officials he met with to open the crossing, which until the war had served as the main commercial passage for goods traveling in and out of Gaza.

Sullivan called the move “a significant step.”

Limited crossings into Gaza

The IDF’s military campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza will take time and will occur in phases, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters in Tel Aviv on Friday amid speculation that the White House wants Israel to wrap up the war.

“The fight against Hamas, a deeply entrenched terrorist group in Gaza, is going to take time and will happen in phases,” Sullivan said, as he defended Israel’s right to battle the terror group.

There is no contradiction between the two things,” he said. “When Israel launched this campaign to root out the terror threat, it made clear the war would proceed in phases,” said Sullivan.

Some of those phases include targeting of Hamas leadership and intelligence operations, he explained.
Sullivan spoke with reporters after meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, President Isaac Herzog, and Minister Benny Gantz.

Media attention has focused this week on US President Joe Biden's sharp criticism of Israel, in which he accused it of indiscriminately bombing Gaza and asked it to do more to focus on protecting Palestinian civilian lives.

Sullivan described a situation in which there was broad agreement between the US and Israel about the importance of destroying Hamas and the protracted nature of the campaign, even as there were disagreements over the process.

Two Al Jazeera journalists, Wael Al-Dahdouh and Samer Abu Daqqa, were wounded on Friday by a missile fired from a drone in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, their colleague said.

Dahdouh was injured in his hand and was being treated while Abu Daqqa's whereabouts were unknown, Heba Akila, who was also reporting live from elsewhere in Khan Younis, told the channel's live feed.