War
Israeli troops in Gaza
Israel has entered the 11th day of fighting in Gaza. Israeli forces have encircled and are now entering Gaza city. According to military experts, the troops have air cover from attack helicopters, armed drones and fighter jets overhead that can be used to take out a terrorist squad planning an ambush of the troops. Israel is also attacking Gaza city from the sea.
Unconfirmed reports by Sky News say that, according to the Israeli defence minister, the IDF has broken through into "the heart of Gaza City" - and that the leader of Hamas in the enclave, Yahya Sinwar, is "surrounded in his bunker". Israel also says it has killed Hamas's head of weapons.
Exactly what the battle plans are and what is being achieved is a tightly held secret, according to Channel 12TV’s military correspondent Nir Dvori.
Gen. Daniel Hagari, the army spokesman, appears twice a day with briefings but gives only general descriptions of the fighting.
So far, 32 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting in Gaza.
Israel held a “Day of Mourning” for the more than 1,400 people killed on the first day of fighting. One minute of silence was observed across the country, as is done on Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Day and Israel’s Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers. The usual one minute siren to mark the memorial day was not turned on due to the war.,
Speaking on Channel 11 Kan TV, Yisrael Hason, former deputy-director of the Shin Bet (Israel’s FBI), Hamas will get to the point where they pull up stakes and leave with what they have, or die.
Like others, Hason said that Hamas didn’t expect Israel to invade after the Oct 7th massacre, since in the past they’ve done everything to avoid putting boots on the ground. But now, he thought that the IDF had to keep going and to push hard.
Channel 12TV’s Arab affairs correspondent Ohad Hemo agreed that Hamas was surprised by the Israeli response. He said that Hamas encountered an attack on Gaza ‘without precedent.’
Gen (ret.) Yossi Kupwaser, former head of military intelligence research division, told Channel 11 Kan TV, that Hamas’ strategy was to stretch out the conflict until the international community steps in and stops Israel. But, he said, the international community doesn’t understand that Israel has a new plan. Israel isn’t going to stop, said Kupwaser. And that the country was united in the desire to destroy Hamas.
Prof. Uzi Rabi said, on Channel 11 Kan TV, “I think that Hamas does understand that this is a new era.”
Gen (res.) Amos Malcha told Channel 12TV that after Oct 7 Israel’s citizens, the government, and the military have lost their patience. He dismissed calls by US President Biden for a temporary ceasefire. Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu has said there will be no ceasefire until the 242 hostages are released.
“Hamastan” was how Amos Gilad, former head of Israel Military Intelligence, referred to Gaza. “We have no choice. We have to destroy Hamas.”
Avi Issacharoff, creator of the hit TV show Fauda andPalestine affairs correspondent for the Times of Israel, Haaretz and Walla News, said that Hamas has more tunnels under Gaza than can be imagined.
According to Ynetnews, the Hamas leadership is constantly moving through these tunnels, that run beneath Gaza from north to south. Some estimate that the tunnels would be over 500 kilometers long if laid out in a straight line.
The leaders, like Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deiff, reportedly run the war while moving from place to place to avoid detection and assassination.
IDF forces are now approaching the Sharif hospital in Gaza City. According to the IDF spokesman, Hamas has a central command unit built inside the tunnels beneath the hospital. Research showed that the hospital was build upon the spot to cover up the tunnels. Reportedly, the entrance to the underground headquarters is through a building near the hospital.
Other Gaza hospitals, according to the Army Spokesman, were also built purposefully to obscure the tunnels, like the Indonesian Hospital, paid for by funds provided by the Indonesian government.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces killed two terrorists who were running from a Gaza mosque where they had been hiding towards the entry to a nearby tunnel. The IDF announced that they’d killed the top terrorist Muhsin Abu Zina, who was behind Hamas rocket production. The IDF also struck at two squads launching rockets eliminating the terrorists.
The IDF announced that two of the terrorists captured from the Oct 7th massacre were “foreigners” who were apparently from North Africa. They were brought to court in Beer Sheva and held over for questioning. They are expected to be tried in Beer Sheva.
Also, another report by Ohad Hemo on Channel 12TV news stated that there are 20,000 Hamas fighters, too many to hide in the tunnels. Many of the terrorists roam above ground. That’s how Israel managed to find and eliminate Hamas commander Wael Asefa, who was in charge of a group of the 3000 plus terrorists that struck Israel on Oct 7, killing 1400 people and capturing 242 people. Asefa had been jailed in Israel from 1992-1998 for terrorist activities.
Reportedly, Israel killed over 1000 terrorists on the first day of the fighting and captured hundreds.
Two of the prisoners taken during the initial IDF attack reportedly participated in the Oct 7 massacre. Because of their strange Arabic dialect, it was determined the two were from North Africa. They have been brought before a judge in Beer Sheva and are being held for trial..
According to Giora Eiland, former head of Military Intelligence Research Division, the USA doesn’t understand the Gaza residents’ mentality. Speaking to Channel 12TV news, Eiland said that Gaza was not Mosul or Isis. This was Iran. The Iranians have invested billions of dollars in Gaza developing the Hamas’ military capability.
The Americans don’t understand this, said Eiland. Gaza is a country like Germany in WWII where the entire population was drafted into the battle. Every other house in Gaza has an opening into the Hamas underground tunnel network, he said. Another thing that the Americans and much of the world doesn’t understand, he said, is that the majority of those in Gaza support Hamas.
According to Eiland, the residents of Gaza, and other places with aims to attack Israel, have to understand is that this type of response by Israel is what happens when Israel is attacked. The attack on Gaza influences the entire Middle East. More and more the US military is beginning to understand that Israel has to produce the effect that everyone is afraid to mess with Israel. We have to, need to, deal with the Shifa hospital and other places like it even if hundreds of people die, said Eiland.
Eiland also said that he thought that Hamas leader Yehyeh Sinwar may have lost some buildings but as far as he and the other leaders were concerned it is business as usual. He thought the fighting might take another two weeks before significant results were achieved.
Speaking to a Channel 11 KanTV panel, Gen (ret.) Noram Tivon said that Israel has to go in and destroy Hamas. Give them the judgement due to them.
Also speaking on Channel 11 KanTV, Prof. Ofer Binstock, an Islamic researcher and former army officer with combat experience, said that most people don’t understand that the West and Islam occupy two different worlds. According to the Koran, said Binstock, mosques and schools and UN buildings can be used to house rockets and terrorist activities. He said that the Islamic culture produces this behavior.
Other analysts thought Binstock’s view too narrow, citing Israel’s Arab Israeli citizens who serve in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, and work with Jewish Israelis on a daily basis.
US Nuclear Submarine
A US nuclear powered nuclear weapon ready submarine was deployed this week off the coast of Israel to accompany the two US aircraft carrier strike groups, and the US jet bombers that could carry heavy weapons.
Knesset Member Ram Ben Barak, former Mossad deputy director, told Channel 12TV, that the Americans were worried about the spread of the conflict and have deployed these naval assets to try to contain the possible escalation. Some pundits see these as US moves aimed at Iran, and her proxies in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
Reportedly, Yemen sent long range missiles aimed at Eilat in Israel’s south. One volley was destroyed by Israeli jet fighters. Another by Jordanian or US forces.
On the home front, Channel 12TV’s veteran political correspondent Avraham Rabinovitch said that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited an Israeli air force base, but was later quoted as saying that the reserve pilots weakened Israel and caused the Hamas invasion.
Netanyahu was referring to the reserve pilots’.refusal to do reserve duty due to their objection to the Judicial Reforms that Netanyahu was pushing before the war. The Judicial Reforms would have restructured Israel’s judiciary, allowing Netanyahu to shape the courts and legal system in a way that would extract him from the ongoing trial of three indictments for fraud and bribery
Ben Barak, speaking on Channel 12 TV news said that if Netanyahu keeps on with this type of behavior, “We, (the security establishment) won’t be able to keep quiet even if there is a war.”
As of now, most members of the military and security establishment have been careful not to blame Netanyahu for the Black Saturday war saying that after the war a full investigation would be held to determine responsibility. Meanwhile, national unity was the key.
Opinion polls show that the majority of Israelis polled think that Netanyahu should resign.
Missiles
On both Monday and Tuesday Hamas fired rockets from Gaza into the center of Israel. Most of the rockets were downed by the Iron Dome, or fell in empty fields. On Tuesday, rockets fell as far as Herzliya. One rocket badly destroyed a home. The two rocket attacks on Tuesday night were nearly exactly at 21:00 and 21:30, leading analysts to suspect that the rockets were on timers.
According to Gen Daniel Hagari, the Army Spokesman, Hamas has built hospitals on top of the tunnels and bunkers. He showed photographs of rocket launch sites just 75 meters from the entrance to a hospital. Other sources say that rocket launch pits were placed in the basement of schools. Another showed a launch pit beneath a mosque with electric wires powering the rocket launchers running into the mosque.
The IDF also showed a launch pit of 50 rockets beneath the Shifa hospital, all with opening barely visible peeking out from beneath the hospital.
Hamas Rocket Launching Pit beneath a building
Launching Pit as seen from outside
Answering the question how Hamas can continuing firing missiles while Israel bombs the area, Ynetnews reported that these types of rocket “Launching Pits” are spread all across Gaza, hidden from view of surveillance planes and drones.
The Hamas rockets are aimed at different areas within Israel. Some are on timers, some can be launched by remote control. According to Ynetnews, Israel will never be able to find all of these rockets.
But the supplies are not finite, said one pundit. Hamas cannot receive a resupply of rockets while the IDF is in Gaza. One day they will run out. Meanwhile, the best solution to the rocket problem is the Iron Dome.
Public Opinion
One of the burning issues in Israel is how some in the outside world view Israel’s position in this Black Saturday war. Most Israelis are astounded that some around the world takes the side of Hamas. Two young women caught on camera in Brooklyn, NY, were tearing down “Kidnapped” posters of hostages held by Hamas. When asked why they were tearing down these posters. “It is all lies,” they said. “There are no hostages. And no one was killed by Hamas.” As they spoke the analyst said he detected an accent specific to Palestinians.
This false narrative about Hamas’ massacre is apparently being spread by anti-Israel activists. According to Ynetnews, Singer and Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) activist Roger Waters, known for his anti-Israel vitriol, said Tuesday that Israel's account of the October 7 massacre is "fishy" and that "Israel is making up stories.”
In the US, the Congress has voted to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib over comments critical of Israel and in support of Palestinians amid Israel’s war against Hamas.
US Senator Bernie Sanders rejected calls for a ceasefire in Gaza on Sunday. He broke away from progressive lawmakers who have been urging an end to the fighting.
“I don’t know how you can have a ceasefire, a permanent ceasefire, with an organization like Hamas, which is dedicated to turmoil and chaos and destroying the State of Israel,” Sanders told CNN. “I think what the Arab countries in the region understand is that Hamas has got to go.”
Another analyst said that most of the pro-Hamas protests around the world were organized and led by Palestinians. Few of those marching held any sympathy for Israel even before the Hamas massacre of the Israeli civilians, the men, women and children in Israeli settlements along the Israeli border with Gaza. Protesters in Italy, France, Britain, Australia, and the USA carried Palestinian flags.
At one protest in Westlake Village in a suburb of Los Angeles, Paul Kessler, 65, was part of a pro-Israel protest opposite a pro-Palestinian protest. Kessler was shouting pro-Israeli slogans at the pro-Palestinians. One of the pro-Palestinians, who may have been a woman, broke away from the group and attacked Kessler, hitting him in the head with a megaphone. Kessler fell to the ground, unconscious. He was rushed to the hospital where he died of a brain hemorrhage. The perpetrator, masked like many of the pro-Palestinian protesters, was not found.
Golden Globe Restaurant owner Peter Tsadis
Peter Tsadis, owner of the Golden Globe restaurant in Huntington, Long Island, hung “We Stand With Israel” posters on the window of his restaurant and also posters of some of the 242 Israelis kidnapped by Hamas.
He was amazed at the reaction. Three employees quit. Some regular customers stopped coming into the restaurant. The DoorDash delivery service stopped taking his orders. Tsadis, who is married to a Jewish woman, runs the restaurant in an area that is primarily Irish, Italian and Jewish. After a radio report on the reaction to the pro-Israeli posters in his restaurant Tsadis said his sales doubled.
The famous 2nd Avenue Deli in New York City was vandalized after putting up pro-Israeli posters in the window. Swastikas were painted on the windows. Owner Jeremy Lebewohl, nephew of Holocaust survivors who started the restaurant, could not believe that a swastika could be painted on his window in New York City.
Reporting from New York City, Yuva Leibson, of Channel 12 TV, said big law firms in the city have notified major universities that the firm would no longer raise money for the universities if they did not stop the “fake news” on college campuses accusing Israel of genocide and espousing support for Hamas.
Channel 12tv also reported a recent poll taken on US college campuses that showed that 76% of the students polled thought Israel was not to be supported in the current war. 51% expressed support for Israel in the war.
As for humanitarian aid, Israel has begun allowing Gazans who want to flee the north and the fighting to go south through a humanitarian corridor. However, the Army Spokesman showed pictures of trucks blocking the roads preventing Gazans from leaving the city. Gen. Hagari said this shows the cynical use of the Gazans as human shields. He said that using human shields is a key Hamas strategy.
Reportedly, Hamas spokesman Abu Hazuk admitted that Hams had built 500 kilometers of tunnels to hide Hamas from overhead surveillance by drones, airplanes and satellites. When asked why Hamas didn’t use the money to build bomb shelters for the citizens he said that protecting the citizens was the responsibility of the UN not Hamas since 75% of the people in Hamas were refugees.
North
Israel’s settlements and towns along the northern border with Lebanon are still hit by rockets several times a day. On Tuesday rockets even landed in the Golan Heights. Israel responds to each rocket attack with artillery. Observers say that this tit-for-tat is a Hezbollah strategy.
Hezbollah leader Nasrallah is pushing the envelope to near the breaking point when Israel would respond with a ground invasion not only artillery or armed drones. Nasrallah is reportedly trying to avoid a full-scale war with Israel.
So far, most of the towns and villages along the northern border with Lebanon have been evacuated.
A total of over 126,000 Israelis have been forced from their homes either along the northern border with Lebanon or the southern border with Gaza.
Military experts say that the situation in the north will have to be dealt with eventually but not until the fight with Hamas is over. The Rejwan Militia, part of the Hezbollah army, sits on the northern border. Experts say they will eventually have to be driven back to the other side of the Litany River, creating a demilitarized zone from the Israeli border to the river, as has existed in the past.
West Bank
According to Ynetnews, Israel’s security forces are concerned that Hamas will begin laying roadside bombs along roads in the West Bank. Another concern is a Hamas, Islamic Jihad led attack on Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
On Tuesday, according to Ynetnews, IDF drones took out four Hamas terrorists in Tul Karem. According to media reports over 1300 Palestinians have been arrested so far in the West Bank. Some have been held over for trial.
Rose Elisheva Lubin
On Tuesday, Rose Elisheva Lubin, 20, a new immigrant from Atlanta with no family in Israel, who had joined the Israel Police Border Patrol, was stabbed to death by a 16-year-old Palestinian while she was at her post in East Jerusalem. Rose had also taken part in the fighting in the Gaza settlements on Oct 7th. She is to be buried on Thursday at Mt. Herzl military cemetery. Her parents are flying in for the funeral. Thousands of Israelis are expected to attend her funeral.
Hostages
Emily Hand, 8, (left) Thomas Hand, (left) Natalie Hand (right)
Thomas Hand’s daughter Emily, 8, went missing when the Hamas terrorists attacked Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct 7th. Up until yesterday she was listed as missing presumed dead. Her father was grief-stricken, as was
Emily’s sister Natalie, 26. Then suddenly Thomas was informed Emily was alive. That was the good news. The bad news was she was being held captive by Hamas somewhere in Gaza.
According to Yaron Bloom, former Shin Bet operative and hostage negotiator, Hamas leader Yehyeh Sinwar is the final word on the fate of the hostages. Reportedly, the hostages are being held not only in underground bunkers and tunnels but also in private homes by Hamas supporters.
Tal and Naula Levi (left) Einav and Uri (parents of 2 year old child)
Tal and Naula Levi appeared on Channel 12TV appealing for the release of their son and daughter-in-law Einav and son Uri. The couple were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists when attending a music festival at Re’em on Oct 7. Their 2-year-old son Almog is now with his grandparents, asking when his Ema (mother) and Abba (father) were coming home.
Display of Hostages in a Jerusalem Mall electronic’s store window