IDF soldiers fighting in Gaza
The fighting continues in northern Gaza as Israeli forces tighten the noose on Hamas terrorists in that area. Reportedly, many of the Hamas terrorists have fled to the south, including the Hamas leadership.
But the Israeli advance is not without the ultimate sacrifice. So far 63 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting since the IDF entered Gaza 20 days ago. Over 360 soldiers have died since Oct 7th, when the Hamas terrorists invaded the Jewish settlements along the Gaza border.
The fighting is now focused on certain areas of northern Gaza. Israel has taken the area around and including the al-Shifa hospital. Contrary to some media reports, Israel did no structural damage to the hospital. According to the IDF (Israeli Army) Over 400 patients remain in the hospital, others have been transferred to other hospitals.
The IDF also reports that tunnel shafts and tunnels have been found beneath the hospital. And that weapons and supplies have been found within the hospital. The IDF spokesman took an international press on a tour of the hospital pointing out the weapons and supplies and tunnels.
However, some of those in the press have questioned the veracity of the sites asking if perhaps the scenes were staged since no prisoners were yet caught in the IDF raid of the tunnel network.
Security sources suspect that the head of Hamas, Yeheh Sinwar and the “military brains” behind Hamas, Mohammed Dieff, have fled south, and are probably hiding out in Chan Yunus, hometown of Mohammed Dieff.
Israel’s Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, said that Israel is now wrapping up the first phase of the battle plan and is ready to enter the second phase.
Ynetnews reported that as part of the end game of phase one, the IDF is getting ready to enter Sangia, a Gaza town with one of Hamas’ strongest battalions. This was also where Israel suffered huge losses during the Tzuk Aytan battle in 2014.
Defense Minister Gallant was not specific about what the second phase would be, but military analysts suspect he is talking about sending troops into the south. This is going to be a difficult struggle, according to analysts.
Reportedly, most of Hamas’ headquarters were located in the northern part of Gaza, However, 75% of the Gaza land mass is in the south but only 30% of the Gaza fighters were located there, which is why the IDF struck the north first. The southern area also has twice the landmass as the north. And a population of over 2 million packed tightly into confined spaces.
And the Hamas forces in the south are heavily entrenched, with some of the most battle-hardened Hamas terrorists protecting that area. Sources also suspect that the hostages are being held in the south. Additionally, according to reports, Israel suspects that thousands of Hamas terrorists have already fled to the south.
Because of the difficulties the IDF faces, Israel is still taking a slow and steady approach, especially as they consider entering southern Gaza. Experts also say that the Rafiah crossing into Sinai is problematic since tunnels there have been used for years to smuggle in tens of thousands of weapons for Hamas’ use, many used in the Oct 7th massacre.
Map of Gaza Strip. Red Line in center divides north, (on the right) from the south( on the left)
The column in the lower center of the photograph shows the IDF approach to fighting in Gaza.
The map also shows the al-Marawsi area in yellow, the humanitarian region where nearly one million Gazans have taken shelter among schools and buildings of the UN and other international bodies
According to Ynetnews, Israel’s battle plans are first, to send in bulldozers (D9) and tanks to clear the roads, in coordination with the air force, using fighter jets and Apache attack helicopters to bomb targets, including terrorists in positions on rooftops, in apartment buildings, or emerging from the plethora of tunnels found beneath Gaza. The IDF also sends in Yaalom elite special forces engineering troops trained to disable booby traps.
The second phase is to comb the area with ground troops, including sending special units into the tunnels with highly-trained combat dogs to ferret out more bombs and booby-traps.
The third phase is to send it elite units trained to fight in the tunnels. This entire process takes several days and proceeds very slowly in order to save the lives of Israeli solders, says a military analyst .
According to the Army spokesman, the IDF has destroyed over 130 tunnel shafts in Gaza, killed over 4,000 Hamas terrorists, and destroyed most of their battalions in the north. Still, according to experts, the IDF still has to go into Sangia, a stronghold that was the site of fierce fighting in the Tzuk Ayton operation in 2014.
One of the primary goals of the current operation is, according to Channel 12TV news, taking out Mohammed Dieff, a near legendary figure in Gaza., considered to be the brains behind Hamas’ military operations.
Israel has tried to assassinate Dieff a few times, starting in 2006, but each time he escapes, sometimes with life-threatening injuries. “Taking out Mohammed Dieff would be huge,” said Ohad Hemo, Arab affairs reporter for Channel 12TV. “He is considered to be a ‘phantom.’ And is a symbol of Hamas’ ability to survive…his death would be much more important than that of Sinwar.”
Minister of Defense Gallant told the press conference that it didn’t matter if a Hamas leader was wearing an army uniform and was in Gaza or a three-piece-suit living in a mansion outside of Israel. They would all be found and killed.
Gallant said that he meets with soldiers and reservists in the field and all he hears over and over is that “They aren’t willing to leave until the job is done, even if it takes a year."
Gallant also said that Israel was chasing the leaders and would not stop until they were caught. Gallant also praised the courage and persistence of the IDF, the Navy, the Air Force, the Shin Bet and military intelligence. He said that those in the south would soon feel the force of the IDF.
In the same press conference, opposition leader Benny Gantz, a member of the small War Cabinet, said to the soldiers watching the press conference, “All of Israel is behind you.”
Gen (res.) Giora Eiland, former head of Military Intelligence, told Channel 11 TV Kan that Israel shouldn’t launch any attacks on the south until they’d finished the hard fight in the north of Gaza.
Eiland spoke of US support and said, The US agrees that Hamas are bad, so kill them. But then they say that be careful you don’t harm the citizens of Gaza not accepting the fact that those people support Hamas. The two trucks of fuel being discussed will go to Hamas. But the bigger problem is the government in Gaza. Hamas in Gaza is like the Nazis were in Germany. The population of Gaza supports Hamas.
North
Sunday morning witnessed an exceptional barrage of missiles from Lebanon. Hezbollah continues to fire missiles and RPGs into the Israeli communities along the Lebanese border. These communities have, for the most part, been evacuated to the center of the country. Israel returns fire each time.
The general consensus among military analysts is that Hamas is staying just inside the red line that if crossed would start a war.
But Gen Yair Shimoni, former commander of the IDF in the south, warned that the situation with Hezbollah in the north was extremely dangerous. He questioned the common assumption that Hezbollah was going to sit out the war and satisfy Hezbollah followers, and Iran, by lobbing a limited number of rockets into Israel on a daily basis. Shimoni said that a well-armed Iranian supporter militia had moved into Lebanon from Syria and “They didn’t come to just sit there. I think there’s going to be a major problem in Lebanon.”
West Bank
Israel has reportedly prevented an imminent terrorist attack that was planned from inside Jenin on the West Bank. Shin Bet and IDF forces entered Jenin and arrested members of the cell, finding explosive devices ready to be detonated. The IDF and special police troops have frequently raided Jenin arresting wanted terrorists.
In another incident, three Hamas terrorists attacked an IDF checkpoint leading from Gush Etzion into Israel. One soldiers was killed in the attack. All three terrorists were ‘neutralized.’
Missiles
Hamas continues to fire missiles into Israel. The attacks begin in the morning and continue sporadically through out the day. At about 17:00
on Saturday night a volley of rockets flew out of Gaza aimed at Tel Aviv. Most were destroyed by the Iron Dome. Some fell in open areas causing no damage.
Israel has reportedly also deployed at least one Iron Beam battery in the south. This is a new high-tech weapon that fires a laser beam that can take out both very short range and even long range missiles. The weapon was to have been deployed in 2025 but was brought out early for what turns out to be real-time on-site testing.
Hostages
On Saturday night Nov 18th, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv to pressure the government to bring the 238 hostages home. Also, thousands of protesters and families of the hostages, completed a five-day march to Jerusalem to pressure the government to rescue the hostages, or negotiate their release.
Hostage families and supporters in Modiin
On Thursday, the families were joined by thousands of marchers when they detoured through the city of Modiin to pay a condolence call at the home of Noa Marciano, 19. According to the Army Spokesman, Gen. Hagari, Noa was wounded in fighting in the Gaza settlements but was later murdered at the Shifa hospital. Hagari bases his conclusion on results of the Israeli medical examiner’s office.
Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said that Hamas was preying on the sensitivities of the hostages’ families and of the Israeli public. Gallant said that the hostages are a rich resource for Hamas and they will do anything to protect that research. “In fighting Hams for over 30 years I know that what they did on Oct 7th is the worst seen in decades. And that the only thing that will get them to release the hostages is strength. “That’s all they understand. Strength.”
He said Israel still has only two goals, to destroy Hamas and to rescue the hostages. “Hamas,” said Gallant, “is only thinking of their own survival. Those sitting in their bunkers, or those in mansions wearing three-piece suits. We will get them.”
Galant also said that Israel will bring the hostages home. “We have an obligation to these families to bring their children home. We look at them as our own children. We will do everything possible to get them back.”
Rumors abound as to an impending hostage deal brokered by Qatar however no deal has yet been completed. Some talk of a five-day ceasefire, exchange of hostages for Hamas prisoners, and allowing supplies of fuel and water and food into Gaza. PM Netanyahu has denied that any deal has been reached. On Sunday night, a Hamas spokesman reportedly told a Saudi TV station that they need two or three day cease-fire just to find where the hostages have been taken.
Hamas terrorist with hostage inside Shifa hospital
On Sunday night, Nov 19, 2023 Army Spokesman Gen. Daniel Hagari showed dramatic footage from the Shifa hospital in Gaza. Part of the footage showed two Asian hostages captured from Gaza taken into the Shifa hospital. Other footage showed the same pick-up trucks used by Hamas to attack the Jewish communities in Gaza driving into the Shifa parking lot.
Hamas vehicle in Shifa parking lot
However, since the battles in the north, the IDF now suspects that many of the hostages are being held in the southern Gaza strip, around Chan Yunis. The IDF also suspects that the Hamas leadership is hold up in tunnels there.
Politics
During a press briefing, Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant told reporters that ‘Now is not the time to discuss politics.’ when asked about dissension within Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party.
A recent Channel 12TV poll showed that should elections be held today, PM Netanyahu’s Likud party would receive approximately 17 seats, down from 32, while Benny Gantz’s National Unity party would rise to over 30. The present coalition would drop from 64 seats to 45 and a Gantz led group of opposition parties would receive 70 seats. A majority of 61 seats out of 120 is needed to form a government. Also, in the poll, over 80% of those polled thought Netanyahu should resign.
According to Channel 12TV, the Israeli cabinet sat yesterday from 10:00 pm until 04:00 discussing the pros and cons of allowing 2 fuel tankers going into Gaza. Ministers Smotritch, Ben Gvir and Regev objected to the tankers going in, even though PM Netanyahu warned of a potential health disaster should the filtration systems cease to function because of lack of fuel.
Avraham Rabinovitch, the veteran political analyst on Channel 12TV, said that the three ministers wasted an entire night over politics rather than discussing important issues related to winning the war.
Public Opinion
Ynetnews reported on Sunday that, “The CNN network published tonight (between Thursday and Friday) a six-minute investigative report containing hard evidence about rape cases that occurred on October 7, during the Hamas attack. Israel considers it very important to echo the hard evidence in the world, and therefore briefings were also held for the foreign media on the subject. The published evidence is very difficult.
“Presenter Jake Tapper, who brought very difficult testimonies both from the paramedic who testified that he was exposed to girls who were raped and murdered, and from one of the volunteers from Camp Shura, and from the difficult testimony of a survivor who told about the atrocities of Hamas terrorists.”
Ynet also published a report that Israeli investigators from police unit 433 were investigating terrorists who will eventually be prosecuted for their crimes.
According to the report, the police have already collected more than 700 testimonies from survivors, and have tens of thousands of video files documenting the massacres and atrocities. Police officials recently said that this is the largest investigation ever conducted by the state.
According to the police, there is evidence that the terrorists trained for years for the massacre. "The terrorists said that the purpose of the beheading and the rape was to sow fear and panic in the Israeli public," according to an interrogator.
But, according to pundits, the result was neither fear nor panic, but rage. A rage that drove reserve soldiers to rush to their units, suit up, grab their weapons and go to war.
According to a Channel 12TV news report, IDF 504 battalion has arrested over 100 Hamas terrorists in Gaza over the last few days. Three of them were involved in the Oct 7th massacre. One said he and his squad drove into the settlements using an ambulance. The ambulance, he said, provided good cover for what they planned to do.
CNN also reported that over 700 hours of testimonies were taken. And that criminal proceedings would be held against those found to have perpetrated the rapes and murders.
The Shin Bet (Israel’s FBI) released interviews with captured Hamas terrorists who had participated in the Oct 7th massacre of over 1200 Israelis (The security services adjusted the number of deaths from 1400 to 1200 two days ago).
The Shin Bet also released new footage from the interrogation of Omar Abu Rusha, a member of terror group's elite Nukhba force that carried out the Oct 7th massacre. Abu Rusha said he had received orders to kill every Israeli in sight on October 7; 'We weren't supposed to kidnap, just kill.”
Abu Rusha, described how he and another Hamas operative entered a house in the small farming community through a window. Once inside, they heard the cries of children coming from a safe room. “We shot at the safe room…We shot at the door until we didn’t hear noise anymore,” he recounted the atrocities he’d committed. When asked whether the orders they received made a distinction between men, women and children, he replied negatively.
“They told us that all the settlers were soldiers, they were soldiers. Kill every single one you see.”
Interrogator: Even the women are soldiers?
Terrorist: Yes, they told me, soldiers.
Interrogator: They told you to kill everyone? The women and the children?
Terrorist: Yes.
Abu Rusha added, “"We had a guide with us, not from our team, he had a motorcycle. We were inside the jeep. We got to Kfar Aza, to the cars. The one on the motorcycle, Mohammad Nahder Albesht, he opened the fence on the border of Kfar Aza using an explosive device. Our people were there, he opened the fence for them.”
The IDF has raised the number of people killed at the Re’em music festival to 360.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthis have hijacked a ship in the Red Sea that they thought was Israeli.
Channel 12TV reported that the Galaxy Leader, a ship that is owned by Israeli Roni Unger, but has been leased long term to a Japanese company. The ship was sailing with an Asian crew and was hijacked off the coast to Yemen by Houthi forces.
Earlier, Yemen’s Houthis say they will target all ships owned and operated by Israeli companies
According to Reuters, a spokesman for Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi military, Yahya Sarea, said on Sunday the group will target all ships owned or operated by Israeli companies or carrying the Israeli flag, according to the group's Telegram channel. The spokesman called on all countries to withdraw their citizens working as crew of any such ships.
What did Israel ever to to Yemen? asked one pundit. He was answered by another who said, “Yemen is controlled by Iran.”
Rape
There have also been a number of reports of Israeli women raped during the Oct 7th Hamas attack on Israeli settlements, and the music festival near Kibbutz Re’em.
Israel’s Reshet Bet radio program played a recording of a fictional staged complaint by an Israeli woman calling into a rape center in America. The call was aimed at raising the awareness of the general public over the fake news being spread in the media that no rapes had been committed.
Speaking English the Israeli woman said she needed help because she’d been raped. The woman at the rape center asked for details, where and when the rape occurred. The Israeli woman said it happened at a music festival in Israel on Oct 7th.
“Wait,” said the woman on the rape hotline. “Are you Israeli?”
“Yes,” said the woman. “I was raped by a Hamas terrorist.”
“I’m sorry,” said the woman on the fictional hotline. “We have instructions that we’re not allowed to discuss anything that happened in Gaza,”
and hung up the phone.
The point of the video clip was to indicate the bias against Israeli women and the rejection of their claims of rape.
Samantha Pearson, head of the campus sexual assault center at the University of Alberta in Canada signed a letter denying Oct 7 rape cases. ’ She was later dismissed from her position.
As published in Ynetnews, the women's organizations in Israel held a large rally last week, in which they harshly criticized the international women's organizations that continue to remain silent about the crimes against humanity committed by Hamas.
”Thirty-five days and another 12 hours have passed since Black Sabbath, and many of us have not been able to close an eye since then," said Dr. Kochav Elkim Levy, an expert in international law, rights and gender from the Hebrew University.
"For years I have been fighting for human rights and the rights of women and children. I have been teaching whole generations about the importance of the international system, a system that was created from the dust of the horrors of the Jewish Holocaust and the deep rift after the two world wars. and basic freedoms. Among other things, uncompromising norms were created to ensure exactly that. To ensure that these do not happen again."
Levy, who was interviewed in the CNN report, also referred to the kidnapping of women, children and girls by Hamas terrorists. International laws, she said, defined such kidnapping as a serious crime against humanity.
"We are faced not only with the results of the terrible attack, but also with mechanisms of denial from those institutions that are supposed to condemn these crimes. We encountered an unimaginable opacity. When even the same institutions that are supposed to protect women and children refuse to recognize what happened on October 7.
In the face of the silence of some from these institutions for what happened - all that remains is violent incitement to severe hatred against Jews and Israelis. There is a direct connection between this lack of condemnation and the rising violence and anti-Semitism in the world.”
The Times of Israel reported that, “A major worry for Israeli women’s rights groups is that it also appears that very little, if any, investigative work was done to document sexual violence before bodies were returned to their families for funerals, meaning that the gender-based nature of some of the violence has largely gone under the radar in Israeli and international media.
Tal Hochman, a government relations officer at the Israel Women’s Network, said: “Most of the women who were raped were then killed, and we will never understand the full picture, because either bodies were burned too badly or the victims were buried and the forensic evidence buried too. No samples were taken.”
The Guardian reported that, “Rape and sexual assault are considered war crimes and a breach of international humanitarian law. Israeli intelligence officials, experts and sources with direct knowledge of interrogation reports of captured Hamas fighters think units that attacked were given a document based on a controversial, and contested, interpretation of traditional Islamic military jurisprudence. This document claims that , captives are “the spoils of war.” This potentially legitimized the capture of civilians and other abuses by Hamas, without being an explicit instruction to do so.
And taking the side of Hamas, Ynet also reported that “Qatari PM has said that, 'What happened in Al Shifa is a crime, world needs to take a stand'
According to Ynetnews, the prime minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Jassim Al Thani, charged that "the massacre in the Gaza Strip continues before the eyes of the whole world. The world community must take a stand against the violation of international law."
He added that "Israel claims that hospitals are the headquarters of Hamas. What happened in Al Shifa is a crime and, unfortunately, we have not heard condemnation from the international community.
Humanitarian Aid
Gen.(res) Gad Shimoni, former commander of the southern region, thought that Israel needed to allow fuel and other humanitarian aid into Gaza, according to Channel 12TV news. He thought that the IDF had to keep up the pressure on Hamas and keep pushing as that would help free the 239 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.
Israel had decided to allow two fuel tankers, each with 60,000 liters of fuel, into Gaza to defuse what Prime Minister Netanyahu has called an impending health crises. The fuel is needed to run the pumps of the sanitation system. Stagnant drainage could breed disease that could not only spread in Gaza but also to Israeli troops.