Israel at war: What happened on day 24?

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan and his delegation wore a yellow Star of David at the UN Security Council meeting on Monday bearing the message "Never Again."

The Security Council dealt with the war in Israel and the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

"When Jewish babies were burned in Auschwitz, the world was silent, and today Jewish babies were burned in Be'eri and the towns of the south by the Nazi Hamas - and the world is silent again.

"I will make you remember the shame of your silence every time you look at me," Arden added. "I will wear the yellow patch until the Nazi Hamas is eliminated and until the Security Council stops being silent and condemns the October 7 massacre. Some of you have learned nothing in the last eighty years! Some of you have forgotten why the United Nations was founded. So I will remind you. From today on, every time you look at me you will remember." 

"When my grandfather and his children were sent to Auschwitz, the world was silent. When his wife and their seven children were sent to the gas chambers, the world was silent. When their bodies were burned alongside millions of Jewish babies, the world was silent," Erdan said, comparing the silence of the UN to the Hamas massacre on October 7 to the silence of the international community regarding the horrors of the Holocaust.

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan shows a video on a portable device as he speaks to an emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas at U.N. headquarters in New York City, U.S., October 26, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/MIKE SEGAR)

"If this council had convened in June 1944, it would have dealt with the amount of fuel the Nazis had and the high death toll Germany had compared to Britain. You would have called for a ceasefire even before the Russians took over Stalingrad.

"My grandfather's story is a horror story of another time. Of a distant time of unimaginable hatred. A time about which until three weeks ago we said 'never again'. But 'never again' happened again."

"Hamas, they are modern Nazis - from their appalling inhumane violence to their ideology that calls for the extermination of the Jews. Hamas is not looking for a 'solution' to the conflict. They are not interested in dialogue. The only solution Hamas is interested in is the final solution - the extermination of the Jewish people.

"Khamenei is the new Fuehrer" - Erdan

"However, Ismail Haniyeh - the leader of Hamas - is not Adolf Hitler. He is not the Fuehrer. He is not the leader of this death cult, which wants to rule the world. This role is played by the supreme leader of Iran, the bloodthirsty Ayatollah Khamenei. Hitler's Third Reich wanted to create a thousand-year empire spanning continents, just as Khamenei envisions his radical Shiite hegemony spanning the region and beyond. The Ayatollah regime is the Nazi regime of our time, and their army includes Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the Houthis, the IRGC, and other jihadists. Instead of shouting 'Sieg Heil!' these radical Nazi Islamists shout, "Death to Israel! Death to America! Death to England!".

During Erdan's remarks, he also slammed the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to what the ambassador claims is his "biased attitude" towards Israel during the war.

"The antisemites saw that the council did not condemn the murderers, and heard the UN Secretary-General express 'understanding' of the massacre," Erdan claimed.

UN SECRETARY-GENERAL Antonio Guterres. (credit: Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)

Erdan also stated that the UN's silence has "emboldened our enemies."

"They saw that this council did not even condemn the Nazi murderers. They saw the UN General Assembly cheering efforts to prevent us from defending ourselves. They heard the Secretary-General express understanding for the Nazi massacre," he continued. "Now they know that slaughtering Jews in their beds is met with silence. They were so passionate about the silence and inaction of this organization that they can't wait to slaughter Jews themselves."

Erdan also said that "if Hitler had a Twitter account, it would look just like Khamenei's," and continues to say that "despite Iran's blatant Nazism and Islamic Reich ideology, the Secretary-General and UN officials still meet with Iranian officials without saying a single word of condemnation for their support of genocide."

At the end of his remarks, Erdan made it clear to the council members that despite their silence, Israel will continue to defend itself in the war against Hamas in Gaza: "The people of Israel are strong, we cannot be broken, and we are not going anywhere. Many have tried to destroy us, but we are here to stay. Israel will win, crush Hamas, and bring back the hostages."

The US State Department on Monday said 45 trucks carrying aid entered Gaza on Sunday, bringing the total to 150, and said that progress is being made on ensuring the delivery of essential fuel supplies to Gaza.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters that the US made clear to the government of Israel over the weekend that communications networks in Gaza needed to be restored.

Telephone and internet communications were partially restored in Gaza after a more than day-long blackout that had badly impacted rescue operations as Israel pounded targets of the militant Hamas group that controls the territory.

Private Ori Megedish, an IDF soldier, was rescued during the IDF's operation in Gaza on Sunday night, the IDF and Shin Bet said in a joint statement on Monday.

She was kidnapped by the Hamas terrorists on October 7 and has now been reunited with her family.

A subsequent medical examination administered to Megidish has determined that she is healthy.

The statement noted that the IDF and Shin bet will continue to make every effort to secure the freedom of the remaining hostages.

Hamas released a video on Monday in which three kidnapped Israeli women appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, angrily blaming him for the "disaster of October 7."

The video description provided by Hamas read: "A number of Zionist prisoners held by Al-Qassam send a message to Netanyahu and the Zionist government."

IDF strikes Hezbollah in southern Lebanon after rocket fire

The IDF also struck sites belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on Sunday night and Monday morning after about 19 rockets were launched by Hamas and the Fajr Forces, a group affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, from Lebanon toward Israel on Sunday.

Among the sites hit by the IDF on Sunday night and early Monday morning were some near Labbouneh, northeast of Rosh Hanikra, and others in Meiss El Jabal and Blida.

Hezbollah announced on Monday morning that one of its members had been killed amid the exchanges of fire along the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Later on Monday, terrorists fired toward an IDF site along the Lebanese-Israeli border. The IDF responded by striking Hezbollah's military infrastructure.

Rocket sirens sounded in the Israeli capital of Jerusalem and surrounding towns on Monday afternoon.

This is a developing story.

A Border Police officer was seriously wounded in a stabbing attack near the Shivtei Israel light rail station in Jerusalem on Monday morning, according to emergency services.

The suspected terrorist was apprehended by police. The wounded police officer was transferred to Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

"When we arrived at the scene we encountered a patient with a stab wound in his upper body. We gave him first aid at the scene and then he was transferred by a police ambulance," said United Hatzalah medics Pinchas Butz and Eli Avraham.

Footage from the area and the Old City of Jerusalem showed Israeli security forces on alert, with Palestinian media claiming that entry to the Old City and the Temple Mount was restricted after the attack.

Israel must ensure the safety of Palestinians in the West Bank against violence by extremist settlers, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday, after the recent killing and displacement of several Palestinians in the territory.

"It must be ensured that Palestinian families can remain where they have resided for decades and are not forced to leave their ancestral homes out of fear for life and limb," added the spokesperson, who warned that there are indications such violence is on the rise.

The Finance Ministry will not be giving the Palestinian Authority funds this month, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a letter on Monday.

The State of Israel collects taxes on behalf of the PA and transfers the money to it monthly minus a fee for services like electricity and water.

Smotrich announced his intention to withhold the funds from the PA, saying it was because it supports terrorism.

"After the terrible massacre that Hamas carried out in the towns by Gaza on that Black Shabbat, The PA didn't see fit to distance itself from these barbarian actions, and officials in the authority even expressed support for the awful massacre," wrote Smotrich to Netanyahu. "Furthermore, the PA is acting against Israel at the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice."

Smotrich went on to write that these actions prove that the PA is a terrorism-supporting organization and that therefore, the money is being used to fund activity against the State of Israel and its citizens.

The massive solar field in Eshelim, in Israel's Negev Desert, was resedesigned on Monday by Megalim company to show the symbol of the IDF.