The BFD | Eight Israeli Soldiers Killed Fighting in Gaza

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Gaza Strip: The IDF announced that eight soldiers were killed yesterday as fighting continues in north and south Gaza.

The soldiers were named as Lieutenant Colonel Tomer Grinberg, the commander of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion; Major Roei Meldas; Major Moshe Avram Bar On; Major Ben Shelly; Captain Liel Hayo; Staff Sergeant Oriya Yaakov’ Sergeant First Class Rom Hecht; and Sergeant Achia Daskal.
Seven of the soldiers fell in battle in the Shajaiya neighbourhood in northern Gaza. Hamas terrorists opened fire at a Golani force that was operating in the area. When the soldiers approached the source of the shooting, an explosive device was detonated which wounded several soldiers. Israeli forces who arrived to rescue the soldiers, assisted by air force and artillery, were hit by another bomb that was detonated. A third force that tried to locate the disconnected soldiers was also injured in the fighting.
Prior to the incident in Shajaiya, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant held a situation assessment meeting at the 162nd Division’s forward command post. Gallant said at the meeting: “The operation is very serious, very resolute, and the results speak for themselves. Gaza City is gradually breaking, and we will shortly destroy Hamas’s entire infrastructure in Gaza City.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel had recently begun pumping seawater into Hamas’ vast labyrinth of tunnels underneath Gaza, in a process that would likely take weeks.
Israel declared 19 of 135 hostages still in captivity in Gaza dead in absentia on Tuesday, after announcing its forces had recovered the bodies of two hostages.
The IDF said it has repatriated the bodies of Eden Zacharia, 28, and First Sergeant Ziv Dado, 36. Zacharia was kidnapped from the party near Re’im.
Egyptian sources told Sky News Arabia that Israel asked Egypt and Qatar to help mediate another cease-fire agreement with Hamas. There was no confirmation from Israel.

The West Bank: The Palestinian Health Ministry said seven Palestinians were killed in an IDF drone attack in the West Bank targeting members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, which is considered a part of the Palestinian Fatah organisation’s military wing.

This comes as the Israeli government continues to weigh whether to allow entry to Israel of work permit holders from the West Bank. The security and defence establishments support the move, in a bid to prevent the West Bank spiralling into further violence.
A “reformed” Palestinian Authority (PA) – of which Fatah is largest faction – remains the US’s preference for taking control of Gaza after the defeat of Hamas.

Israel-US: President Biden laid out his thoughts on the fighting in Gaza and the future for the Strip at a US fundraiser yesterday.

“We continue to provide military assistance to Israel as it goes after Hamas,” he said. “We’ll continue leading the world in delivering humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian civilians as well to emphasise to our friends in Israel the need to protect civilian life. And they understand it, the vast majority of the population.”
He later added what the US needs to do: “First and foremost, do everything in our power to hold Hamas accountable — every single thing in our power. They’re animals. They’re animals.”
“Secondly, we have to work toward bringing Israel together in a way that provides for the beginning of the option of… a two-state solution.”
Speaking of the current Netanyahu government’s position, President Biden said, “You cannot say there’s no Palestinian state at all in the future.” The president also warned that Israel was beginning to lose international support because of “indiscriminate” bombing.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday that he would soon be discussing with Israel officials their timetable for the war in Gaza.
With military officials estimating that achieving the operation’s goals in Gaza could take months, maintaining US support is crucial to Israel being able to withstand international pressure to cease its operation before then.
PM Netanyahu also clarified that Israel and the US “have differences regarding ‘the day after Hamas.'” Following Biden’s comments, Netanyahu posted a video in which he said, “I won’t allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo. I won’t allow, after the immense sacrifice made by our citizens and fighters, for us to put [into power] in Gaza people who teach terrorism, support terrorism, finance terrorism. Gaza won’t be either Hamastan or Fatahstan.”
This is Netanyahu’s second reference to the Oslo process in the last few days. He made a similar connection to the US’s proposed steps towards a two state solution after the defeat of Hamas at a meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee on Monday.
Netanyahu has publicly confirmed that his government has no intention to reoccupy the Gaza Strip in the long term, nor to allow Israeli resettlement there. However, the prospect of a post-Hamas interim in which Israel retains a security presence in the Strip is likely to put the US and Israel at loggerheads.
Partially responding to Biden’s comments, Daniel Hagari said that the IDF makes every effort to prevent civilian casualties, adding: “Even when things get said, the right thing to do is to show and explain with facts. We know how to explain exactly how we act with precision, based on intelligence, even when we are operating on the ground against Hamas’s centres of gravity in a way to differentiate the civilians, who aren’t involved in terrorism, from the terrorist objectives.”
The IDF has opened the Nitzana and Kerem Shalom crossings to enable security screening of aid. This includes trucks containing water, food, medical supplies and shelter equipment that will then be forwarded to the international aid organisations. The goods will continue to enter via the Rafah crossing from Egypt.

The north: Following mortar and antitank fire against Israel, the IDF launched a series of attacks on Hezbollah positions in Lebanon.

The IDF also identified three launches from Syria – two of which fell inside Syrian territory and one which landed in an open area in Israel.
According to a statement issued early Wednesday, Israeli tanks and attack helicopters targeted Hezbollah missile launching sites and other terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon, as well as military infrastructure and positions belonging to the Syrian army.
Israel maintains that the pre-October 7^th status quo on the northern border cannot be returned to, and that that Hezbollah, and its elite Radwan force in particular, must be moved north of the Litani river, as called for by UN Resolution 1701.
The US and France have made efforts to induce the Lebanese government to act to remove Hezbollah fighters from the border area, but Israel has also affirmed that if diplomatic initiatives fail it will be forced to take military action to secure the north.

The international arena: The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. The resolution garnered 153 votes in favour, while 23 countries abstained from the vote. General Assembly resolutions are non-binding. This follows the US vetoing a Security Council vote, which would have been binding, on Friday calling for a ceasefire.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said “not only does this resolution fail to condemn Hamas for crimes against humanity, it does not mention Hamas at all. This will only prolong the death and destruction in the region, that is precisely what a ceasefire means,” he said.
He added that the only intention of Hamas is to destroy Israel and that the group has declared that it will repeat its atrocities again and again until Israel ceases to exist. Erdan said that a ceasefire means one thing only – “the survival of Hamas.”
Both Austria and the US tabled amendments that failed to pass. Austria’s inserted the phrase, “held by Hamas and other groups” in relation to the hostages still being held in Gaza as well as inserting the word “immediate” in reference to ensuring humanitarian access. The US amendment called for wording to be inserted “unequivocally” rejecting and condemning “the heinous terrorist attacks by Hamas that took place in Israel starting October 7^th 2023 and the taking of hostages” as the first operative paragraph. The Austrian draft amendment secured 89 for, 61 against and 20 abstentions while the US draft amendment saw 84 in favour, 62 against and 25 abstaining. Both failed under the two-thirds rule.
Hamas welcomed the UN vote and urged the international community to pressure Israel to abide by decision.

BICOM Background Briefing: Operation Swords of Iron

BICOM published a comprehensive background briefing on Operation Swords of Iron, including background on Hamas, Israeli policy on Gaza, and Israel’s obligations under international law. Read the full briefing here.

PODCAST

Episode 223 | The Military and Diplomatic Timetables

In this episode, Richard Pater speaks to Shalom Lipner. Two months into the war, they discuss the military campaigns in the south and the north as well as the diplomatic front and Israel–US relations. They also speculate on the day after for the Palestinians and inside Israel. Shalom Lipner is a nonresident senior fellow for Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council, and a former veteran of the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, serving seven consecutive Israeli prime ministers over 25 years.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts

ARTICLE

‘I had never witnessed such barbarism before’: Major ‘F’ and the Battle of Holit

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Top stories from the UK and Israeli media

The Independent, The Daily Mail, The Sun and The Telegraph report that Israel has begun pumping seawater into subterranean Hamas tunnels in a bid to flush out the militants, according to a report. The Wall Street Journal, citing US officials briefed on the Israeli military’s operations, reported that the move to flood the tunnels with water from the Mediterranean Sea has already begun.

Gideon Rachman writes for The Financial Times: “Israel and Hamas are bitter enemies. But they also agree on some things. Neither the government of Israel nor Hamas has any real interest in a ‘two-state solution’ to the Israel-Palestine conflict. And neither side wants to stop fighting in Gaza — even as the territory is devastated around them. Nonetheless, at some point, the fighting will stop. The day afterwards, the world will face a series of urgent questions. Who will rebuild the territory, who will govern it, how will it be supplied?”

The Financial Times reports that Washington expects the most intensive phase of Israel’s war on Hamas in southern Gaza to be scaled back and become more targeted as soon as early January, US officials said. Israel still has military aims in Gaza’s south that justify its continued assault around Khan Yunis and other areas where senior Hamas militants are thought to be sheltering, according to the officials.

The Telegraph report that the Israeli embassy has accused a UK advertising company of “playing into the hands of terrorists” after it cancelled a hostage awareness campaign.

The Telegraph further reports that the IDF said on Tuesday that it had recovered during an operation in Gaza the bodies of two hostages taken by Hamas in its October 7 attack. The bodies of soldier Ziv Dado and Eden Zecharya have been returned to Israel.

The Telegraph also reports that Israeli officials shuttled suitcases filled with Qatari-provided cash to Gaza for years, despite concerns the money was being used to fund Hamas’s military wing, it has emerged. The plan was said to be an attempt to ’buy quiet’ in the enclave but critics say it ended up supporting the terror group’s murderous assault.

The Guardian writes that: “The United States was looking increasingly isolated on the world stage on Tuesday after a resounding vote at the UN general assembly calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. Cheers and clapping echoed around the general assembly chamber in New York as the emergency vote was announced. A thumping 153 member states out of the 193 total membership backed the resolution, with only 10 including the US, Israel and Austria voting against, and 23 – including the UK and Germany – abstaining.”

The BBC and The Financial Times report that US President Joe Biden has said Israel is starting to lose global support over its “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza. His comments, made to donors at a fundraising event on Tuesday, marked his strongest criticism yet of Israel’s leadership.

Sky News and The Guardian report that a tanker that was hit by a missile off the coast of Yemen was due to make a stop in Israel, its owners have confirmed. The MT Strinda was attacked in the Red Sea near the port city of Mokha on Monday night. The ship caught fire but the crew on board managed to bring the blaze under control and there were no reports of any injuries. Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attack and said the Norwegian-owned ship was heading to Israel.

The Guardian reports on Germany’s support for Israel: “The German vice-chancellor, Robert Habeck, said in a video message: ‘The phrase “Israel’s security is part of Germany’s Staatsräson” has never been an empty phrase and it must not become one. It means that Israel’s security is essential for us as a country,’ adding that Germany bore a ‘historic responsibility’ as the perpetrator of the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews were murdered. ‘It was the generation of my grandparents that wanted to exterminate Jewish life in Germany and Europe. After the Holocaust, the founding of Israel was the promise of protection to the Jews – and Germany is compelled to help ensure that this promise can be fulfilled. This is a historical underpinning of our republic,’ Habeck said.”

The Financial Times, Reuters and The Telegraph report that Puma is terminating its sponsorship of Israel’s national football team in a decision the German group said was taken a year ago and was not related to renewed calls for consumer boycotts, as Israel continued its assault on Gaza in response to the October 7 Hamas attacks. From the end of next year the world’s third-biggest sportswear company will no longer provide kit to the squad after deciding not to renew a contract with the Israel Football Association, according to an internal note.

Reuters reports that Israel’s military said 10 soldiers were killed in Gaza fighting on Tuesday, including a colonel who had commanded a forward base for the Golani infantry brigade. The statement, issued on Wednesday, updated an earlier statement which had put the latest one-day death toll at eight, among them a lieutenant-colonel who had commanded a Golani regiment.

The BBC reports on civilian deaths in Gaza. “‘When he asks me about his family I can’t answer. Instead, I take a deep breath and try to avoid the question in a childlike way by changing the subject.’ Moein Abu Rezk is the only surviving relative of his four-year-old nephew, Omar, who is in a critical condition at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip.” The BBC also reports that a businessman who has lost five members of his family in a bombing in Gaza said he feels “broken” and “destroyed”. Dalloul al-Neder, who owns a takeaway in Manchester, said his mother, brother, pregnant sister-in-law and two nieces all died in the strike on their home in Jabalia over a week ago. He said he feared for the rest of his relatives who were injured, including his wife and six-month-old daughter.

The BBC speaks to the father of a girl murdered on October 7: “We meet Danielle Waldman’s father Eyal in his art-filled office, high above Tel Aviv. He has long been a tech giant – who founded the Israeli chip maker Mellanox Technologies, and sold it for $6.8bn in 2019. But now he is simply a father, raw with grief, robbed of his youngest daughter… Despite the brutal killing of his youngest daughter, Eyal Waldman still believes that the Palestinians should have a state – and soon. ‘We need to change leadership on both sides. And then I hope in two to four years we’ll be able to do peace and build two states for the two people and be able to live together next to each other,’ he says. But before that, he wants something else. Anyone that was responsible, anyone that was associated with what happened on 7 October 2023, will be eliminated. And we will take care of that,’ he says firmly.”

Jeremy Bowen writes for The BBC: “Israel is on holiday. Schools are out, and away from the frontline areas the shopping centres are full. Cake shops are bursting with the doughnuts that Jews like to eat during Hanukkah, the current religious festival. It is different the closer you get to the fighting. Along the Gaza border, the area known by Israelis as the ‘envelope’, tanks and troops are moving, civilians are mostly elsewhere and it looks like a war zone. In the north, along the border with Lebanon, communities have also been evacuated and the military continues to exchange fire with Iran’s strongest ally, Hezbollah. But casual visitors might be able to deceive themselves that life has somehow returned to ‘normal’ in central Israel, the broad swathe of land between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.”

The Daily Mail reports that an Israeli frontline medic has told how she treated a Palestinian in Gaza who she later discovered was a terrorist involved in the October 7 atrocity. Dr. Roni, 31, said the extremist refused to even look at her such was his contempt but despite losing personal friends in the massacre she does not regret helping him. “During the event, when we treated the people, there was one person that I was sure doesn’t hate me – he kissed my hand while I treated him,” she said. “But there was one young guy that I felt that didn’t make eye contact with me. That’s one of the people that I found out later was in Israel on October 7.”

The Daily Mail also reports that The Metropolitan Police has been criticised after telling protesters in Trafalgar Square to stop waving Israeli flags because it is a “heritage site” – despite the square playing host to several pro-Palestine rallies in recent weeks. In a video shared online by the campaign group Eye on Antisemitism, the officer can be heard telling a protester to take the flag “off the wall” in front of the National Gallery before he is then challenged by someone filming the exchange.

The Daily Mail also reports that a Turkish lawmaker collapsed suddenly in parliament after reportedly having a heart attack following an impassioned rant in which he said Israel would “suffer the wrath of Allah”. Rounding off a strongly worded speech, Bitmez had concluded, “We can perhaps hide from our conscience but not from history,” stating that “Israel will suffer the wrath of Allah”, as reported by The Yeshiva World. In that moment, he stumbled and dropped to his knees before lying flat on his back. The Saadet Party Kocaeli Deputy had to be stretchered out of the hall after receiving chest compressions “for a long time”, Turkish media reports.

Reuters reports that the United States is concerned about reports Israel used US-supplied white phosphorus munitions in an October attack in southern Lebanon, White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday. “We’ve seen the reports. Certainly concerned about that. We’ll be asking questions to try to learn a little bit more,” Kirby told reporters on Air Force One. Kirby said white phosphorus has a “legitimate military utility” for illumination and producing smoke to conceal movements.

Both Israel Hayom and Haaretz report comments by President Biden that “you cannot say there is no Palestinian state in the future” which is at odds with the Israeli government’s position.

Commenting in Yediot Ahronot, Nahum Barnea describes Netanyahu’s decision to post a video in which he rejects a Palestinian state as “tantamount to a declaration of war [on the Biden administration].” Barnea suggests that Netanyahu is motivated by personal political concerns, writing: “Netanyahu is trying to secure renewed support from the right-wing public, after many of them abandoned him on account of the October 7 disaster and the government’s subsequent failures. In other words: It isn’t Biden that interests him; neither is it Gaza. What interests him is his political future on the day after. He failed as Mr. Security and he failed as Mr. America. Maybe he’ll succeed as Mr. Never Palestine.” Barnea adds “Biden chose yesterday to say in his own voice what his aides have been saying behind closed doors: Israel is gradually losing the international community’s support.”

Nadav Eyal reports in Yediot Ahronot that the US has raised two primary concerns with Israel (apart from reducing the number of civilian casualties and increasing humanitarian aid). One is the precarious situation of the Palestinian Authority. The second is the concern that Israel might occupy territory inside the Gaza Strip and not leave. On both issues, they have heard and seen gravely disappointing statements and actions that have produced consternation in Washington. Eyal argues that “American officials have been frustrated by some of the messages they have received from the Israeli government regarding its future plans for Gaza and the West Bank. One of the Israeli messages that allegedly produced American ‘consternation’ is Israel’s intention to maintain a military presence in the northern Gaza Strip for an unspecified period of time. The Americans have been equally dismayed by the Israeli actions and policy decisions pertaining to the West Bank and the Palestinian Authority.”

Israel Hayom writes that the leaked statement that Prime Minister Netanyahu made at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee – in which he said the number of victims of the October 7 massacre is identical to the number of victims of the Oslo Accords – “sparked consternation within the Likud too. Whereas many Likud MKs support [the substance of] Netanyahu’s assertion—especially in light of the statements made by the Americans and Israeli political actors about the need to reinforce the Palestinian Authority and to dismantle Hamas before the war is over—some party members have been critical of Netanyahu, saying that certain boundaries have to be respected when campaigning in a time of war.” One senior Likud official said that “Despite the pervasive view in the Likud that Oslo was a disaster, there are some things that are best not said while half a million troops are inside Gaza and thousands others are grieving, mourning, and worried about their loved ones’ fate in Hamas captivity.” One Likud official who attended the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting said, “Netanyahu is in full campaign mode.”

In Haaretz, Amos Harel writes that “last month’s hostage deal had been critical for Hamas because it needed a cease-fire to recover and reorganise its forces. Now that the northern part of the Gaza Strip is already largely under IDF control and most of Hamas’ fighters have retreated, the organisation’s leadership feels no need to act. Top Hamas officials have said in recent days that more abductees will only be released as part of an overall deal, in which all the Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in Israel are released. There are no signs right now that Hamas feels that its bargaining power in future negotiations has diminished. However, despite the harsh conditions the hostages are suffering (more than 20 of them have been declared dead by the IDF), it does not appear that Israel’s leadership is in any hurry to reach a deal. One reason is political pressure: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fears the possible reaction of his far-right coalition partners to any kind of deal that is seen as surrendering to Hamas demands and disrupting the ground campaign.”

Channel 12 reports that Israel inspected trucks of humanitarian aid earmarked for Gaza at the Kerem Shalom crossing in order to facilitate an increase in the volume of humanitarian aid delivered to the Gaza Strip daily. However, hundreds of trucks remained stuck at the border waiting to be allowed into the Gaza Strip as a result of the behaviour of the UN, which is sticking spokes in the wheels as part of its effort to ratchet up pressure in hope of bringing about the war’s end. According to the report, Israeli officials want to double the number of humanitarian aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing, but it is dependent on the ability of the international organisations that operate on the Gaza border to process all the trucks. The Israeli security establishment’s view is that more humanitarian aid for Gaza will provide the IDF with more time to prosecute its war effort.

Maariv reports that MK Orit Struck from the Religious Zionism party came under criticism after an interview with Channel 12. Responding to criticism of the budget her ministry was given, Struck spoke out against funds intended for career military officers. “The chief of staff’s raises, something that is not written in any law, lines their [already] fat pockets. This is way, way more funded, several times more than my Jewish identity budget, which is just NIS 100 million. We’ll rethink things when they are cut from the budget.”

Commenting on the incident, Ben Caspit in Maariv writes, “let’s have a look at what’s happened to Struck’s budget in the Ministry for National Missions. The ministry is one of Netanyahu’s modern inventions, created in the framework of his war for his personal survival. The original budget slated for the ministry was NIS 133 million. During the ‘correction’ session on the budget last week, that budget jumped to NIS 343 million. On Monday at the Knesset Finance Committee, the number stood at NIS 543 million; yesterday, during the final stage, obscure reserve and surplus clauses were added in. Turns out that Struck’s ministry, extraneous to begin with, now has a budget of NIS 755 million. I know that sounds surreal. It is not.”