Two significant developments in the war occurred in the past week. First, the IDF has begun to reduce its forces in the Gaza Strip, sending thousands of reservists home to their families, their livelihoods, and their educational pursuits. This reduction should not be confused with a de-escalation of the fighting- it is the beginning of a more targeted phase of the operation against Hamas, which may last for many months.
Second, last Friday South Africa launched a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, alleging that Israel’s military operation in Gaza amounts to genocide. This week, to much of the world’s surprise, Israel announced that it would defend its military actions in front of a panel of judges in the Great Hall of Justice, in a highly sensitive case that will likely drag on for years and become a subject of international debate following the war.
Operational Updates:
As Israel changes its operational strategy in Gaza, the IDF continues its offensive from the ground, the air and the sea, with a week marked by important discoveries of Hamas terror facilities and equipment heavily embedded in civilian infrastructure throughout Gaza’s residential areas.
The IDF uncovered a tunnel shaft in a Gazan school, and in civilian homes in the El Bureij area, troops discovered complex tunnel shafts, intelligence data, and weapons and rockets, including long-range rockets discovered inside a family home. In a residential complex, ground troops identified and destroyed a large stockpile of Hamas’ weapons and ammunition, including dozens of shoulder-fired missiles and grenades.
On the northern border, since the onset of the war the IDF eliminated over 130 Hezbollah terrorist cells with tactical air strikes backed by precise intelligence. Hezbollah continues to send rockets, anti-tank missiles and mortar shells into Israel from the southern Lebanon area, attempting to deflect Israel from its ongoing operation in the south. The IDF remains on high-alert in the North and its troops remain in the area.
The withdrawal of reserve units from Gaza should not be misconstrued as a lowering of the intensity of Israel’s war with Hamas, nor is the redeployment and readjustment of Israeli forces a result of American pressure to end the war. In fact, the opposite is true. The new phase of the operation is expected to last for many months and Israel is more determined than ever to destroy Hamas. The returning reservists realize that their release from duty may be temporary, depending on the security situation on the Northern border and the developments on the ground in Gaza.
As thousands of Hamas terrorists hide in the Gaza’s underground city of terror, attempting to attack Israeli soldiers from within the endless terror tunnel shafts hidden across the Strip, the IDF shifts its focus to the complex and high-risk subterranean war.
At this stage, the IDF’s main objective is to root out the terrorists hiding in the underground terror city and destroy the entirety of Hamas’ tunnel network, which will require advanced technological solutions, precision intelligence and great creativity. Complicating this objective is the fact that Hamas has likely taken the remaining captives – including women, children, the elderly, and chronically ill civilians – and spread them throughout the tunnels, using the hostages as human shields in an effort to avoid the elimination of the heads of the organization, which the State of Israel has declared as one of its war goals.
During this phase, we will undoubtedly see Hamas increase and amplify its use of videos and photos of the Israeli hostages to sow fear and spread disinformation within Israel in an effort to influence its decision making.
In the international arena, South Africa made a bold statement with its filing in the International Court of Justice in the Hague against Israel, claiming that it violated its obligations under the Genocide Convention, stating that “acts and omissions by Israel… are genocidal in character” as they are committed with the intent “to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.” Furthermore, South Africa asked the court to issue an interim order for Israel to suspend its military operations in Gaza.
In an unprecedented move, Israel announced that it will send representatives to appear before the court to defend Israel’s position, and Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated that it rejected “with contempt the blood libel by South Africa in its application to the International Court of Justice” and held Hamas responsible for the Israeli response in Gaza, stating that Hamas attempted to “carry out genocide on October 7,” when thousands of terrorists invaded Israel, murdering 1,200 people and taking hundreds of hostages.
Israel will not back down and leave terror on its doorstep. Hamas’ well-documented strategy of embedding itself in Gaza’s civil infrastructure and among its civilian population has left Israel with no choice- in order to defeat the enemy, the IDF must search, clear and destroy Hamas strongholds located in schools, mosques, hospitals and homes and unfortunately, civilians will get caught up in the crossfire of war. The picture is clear. Gaza has become a city of terror where its citizens – men, women, and children – are just scenery. It has become a city that is entirely composed of weapons, explosives, bombs, and an industry that manufactures terror and death. Hamas, under the guise of a civil government, developed a complete terror operation that brought disaster upon Israelis and Gazans alike.
The word must open its eyes and remove its mask of hypocrisy. Those countries and groups who are now criticizing Israel for its conduct of the war in Gaza were silent during the civil war in Syria, in which more than 230,000 civilians were killed. They were utterly silent in the face of terrible crimes committed in Africa. They remain silent in the face of tyrannical dictatorship and the slaughter of civilians in countries around the world, such as Iran. They have completely ignored the actions of Hamas, whose crimes have been well documented and filmed, with ample testimony supplied by survivors, and about its widespread use of the civilian population and public buildings for the benefit of terror.
With the press of a button, the international court can view and see all of the proof of the war crimes committed by Hamas and their use of innocent civilians as human shields. The pictures that have come through since the IDF’s entry into Gaza cannot be contested. We have seen it in photographs, in videos, in documents, and via the interrogation of Hamas terrorists. They hide missiles and weapons in mosques, in schools, underneath the beds of children, under couches in private homes, prepare explosive suicide vests for children, and place warheads inside toy chests in a Gaza kindergarten. Every second house in Gaza is a weapons cache of lethal explosives.
After the discoveries made by IDF forces of these weapons, the briefings on the subject from the IDF Spokesperson, and the overwhelming evidence presented to foreign correspondents, who took correspondents to Gaza with all of the evidence, the facts are indisputable.
The vast mountain of evidence that illustrates how Hamas turned Gaza into a place of terror must be placed before the judges at The Hague. The entire responsibility for this tragedy rests upon the heads of Hamas, and not the State of Israel.
Despite the anger and pain caused by the Hamas massacre of October 7, the Jewish people is a nation that always prefers to extend its hand for peace and shared life, rather than living by the sword and war.
It is hypocritical of South Africa, a country that instituted apartheid racial separation, to lecture Israel on issues of morality. Just this week, Israel’s Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the government’s plan to limit the powers of the judiciary shows that Israel will remain a beacon of democracy in the Middle East with a strong and independent court. This includes Israel’s military legal advisors, who accompany every decision made by the Israeli military and provide legal backing to its actions, enabling it to fight against terror while observing ethics and international law.
The IDF Prosecutor’s Office is a part of all of the military operations and the decision-making process. The commanders and pilots are doing as much as they can to minimize the damage, but we must understand that thousands of Hamas terrorists attach themselves to the civilian population, and they built all of their terror infrastructure among the population. If the Gazans want a future for their children, they have no choice but to get rid of the infrastructure of terror in order to build anew.
But when terror is millimeters away, when we are speaking of tens of thousands of active terrorists who hide among the population and use it as human shields, who crossed Israel’s borders and decapitated people, murdered and raped, we have no choice but to fight a complex war, and keep fighting the war, despite the significant losses. The destruction in Gaza is a warning sign for those countries who choose terror – for Beirut, for Hezbollah, for the Huthi in Yemen, and for everyone who wants or values terror or death over life.
Israel will reply to the charges of genocide by South Africa and explain and justify its actions. In the meantime, the judges in The Hague must view the proof of the true genocide and murders perpetrated by Hamas. The truth is in plain sight.