IDF Operating Against Hamas in Shifa Hospital

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What’s happening: The IDF is currently conducting a targeted operation against Hamas in the area of the Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

• The operation began early this morning, just a few hours before the Israeli delegation to Qatar was scheduled to depart to renew negotiations for the release of the hostages.
• As troops surrounded the hospital, they were shot at and engaged in exchange of fire. Whilst the IDF has called on civilians to evacuate, more than 80 suspects have been detained so far. Several terrorists have been killed in firefights.
• IDF Spokesperson Hagari confirmed that “troops operating in the area were trained for the mission and were briefed in advance about the importance of refraining from harming civilians, patients, medical teams and medical equipment,”
• The IDF also released a recording  of a phone conversation between IDF Col. Moshe Tetro, head of the Coordination and Liaison Administration, and Dr. Youssef Abu Rish, the Director General of the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip.
  • Col. Tetro said, “We see that the Hamas terrorist organisation has continued its military operations from inside hospitals. We are prepared to provide any humanitarian assistance needed. Our request is simple: the immediate halt to all terrorist activity in hospitals, as we saw in the hospital in Khan Yunis.”
  • Dr. Abu Rish replied, “We received your message and I assure you that we are on the same page. Hospitals need to be a place for providing service and no one must harm the patients or the provision of medical treatment in these hospitals.”
• Hagari added, “even in the course of the operation, the IDF has guaranteed the hospital’s ongoing operation, and it brought Arabic-speakers to the scene so that they might engage in dialogue with patients in the hospital. IDF doctors are prepared to help anyone who needs that. The patients and the medical teams need not leave the hospital, but there is passage for the departure of civilians from the area.”
• His office added, “the IDF will continue to operate in compliance with international law and against the Hamas terrorist organisation, which is operating out of hospitals and civilian infrastructure in a systematic and cynical pattern of behaviour, without making any distinction between the civilian population and the organisation’s terrorists.”

Context: This operation was planned several days ago after intelligence showed Hamas operatives, including senior terrorists, had regrouped inside the hospital and were using it as a base to launch attacks.

• In addition, the IDF continues to face multi-theatre operations:
  • Across other areas of the Gaza Strip.
  • In Lebanon, where IDF planes bombed Hezbollah targets following continues fire on Israel’s northern border over the weekend. 
  • Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq claimed responsibility for launching drones towards the Golan Heights. 
  • Overnight there was also a suspected infiltration by Yemeni drone. According to the IDF “a suspicious aerial target crossed into Israeli territory from the Red Sea and fell into an open area north of the city of Eilat. The target was monitored by IAF forces. No damage was caused and no injuries were reported.”

• In parallel, both the War Cabinet and the wider Security Cabinet met last night to formulate the scope for the Israeli hostage negotiators led by Mossad Director David Barnea.
• Whilst no details have been released, the speculated positions include:
  • Israel is not expected to accept Hamas’s demand that the IDF withdraw from the corridor south of Gaza City, which prevents Palestinians from returning to the northern Gaza Strip.
  • Israel also objects to Hamas’s demand that the second phase of the deal include a permanent ceasefire.
  • The key negotiations will be over the ratio of released hostages in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners, and how may and which “heavyweight” (mass murderer) terrorists will be released. Speculation suggests 40 civilian hostages for 950 prisoners.
  • However, Hamas are thought to be demanding 50 prisoners in exchange for every female soldier being held hostage, including 30 “heavyweight” prisoners
• The negotiations could be carried out in a similar fashion to the Shalit talks, with Israeli and Hamas delegations in sperate quarters in the same hotel, with the Egyptian an Qatari envoys shuttling in-between.      
• Also in parallel, aid continues to enter Gaza: 61 UN trucks, including 19 into northern Gaza.
• Also, a ship carrying 200 tons of aid from the World Central Kitchen organisation arrived on Friday. 12 WCK trucks distributed the aid to the northern Gaza Strip.
• Also, the weekend saw the first time a Fatah statement criticised Hamas asking, “did Hamas consult the Palestinian leadership or any Palestinian national party when it made its decision to carry out the ‘adventure’ of last October 7, which led to a catastrophe more horrific than the Nakba of 1948?… [Hamas] have no right to dictate national priorities.”

Looking ahead: Israel faces growing calls from the international community to end the fighting. In response Prime Minister Netanyahu told the Cabinet yesterday, “In the international community, there are those who are trying to stop the war now, before all of its goals have been achieved… Let it be clear: If we stop the war now, before all of its goals are achieved, this means that Israel will have lost the war, and this we will not allow. Therefore, we cannot, and will not, succumb to this pressure.”

• He also reiterated the need to operate in Rafah. Netanyahu said, “we have approved the operational plans for action in Rafah, including advancing the steps to evacuate the civilian population from the combat zones. This is an essential stage ahead of the military action… We will operate in Rafah. This will take several weeks, and it will happen.”

The West Bank in the Shadow of October 7

This BICOM research paper identifies dangerous trends in the West Bank, and maps Israel’s challenges in this arena in the post-October 7 context.

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ARTICLE

‘Reactionary Anti-Imperialism’ as the new Totalitarian Temptation, from Foucault to 7 October

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Top stories from the UK and Israeli media

The BBC, The Guardian, The Times, ITV News, The Independent and The Financial Times all report that the IDF has taken control of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, following a major overnight raid on the medical complex.

Sky News, Reuters, The Sun and The Guardian report on PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech on Sunday, where he gave an operational update and spoke about Rafah.

The Guardian speaks to Israelis whose home is close to the border with Lebanon, about their fears, being displaced, and what life is like living so close to Hezbollah. The BBC reports on whether war with Hezbollah is on the horizon.

Reuters reports that Israel will send a high-level delegation, headed by its Mossad chief, to Qatar on Monday for mediated talks with Hamas designed to secure a six-week Gaza truce under which the Palestinian militants would free 40 hostages, an Israeli official said.

The Financial Times reports on PM Benjamin Netanyahu hitting out at Western politicians for calling for Israeli elections, saying “have you so quickly lost your moral conscience?”

The Times reports on the straining relationship between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Telegraph reports that US military aid to Israel has slowed amid a row over a planned operation in Rafah, a senior Israeli official has said.

The Telegraphalsoreleases a piece on ultra-Orthodox communities and why they are against being conscripted to serve in the IDF.

Charles Moore writes in The Telegraph about attacks on UK and US arms sales to Israel.

The BBC speaks to hostage families on their current fears and how they feel about potential ceasefire negotiations.

The I reports on the Association of Rape Crisis Centres in Israel’s recent publication on rape and sexual assault attacks on 07/10.

Much of the Israeli media coverage focuses on the deterioration of relations between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu. Israel Hayom claims that senior Israeli officials are increasingly concerned that the US will slow down its supply of arms shipments, which are crucial to Israel’s security. “The dispute between the sides revolves around several issues,” it says, “but according to sources familiar with the matter, the main reason for the escalating rhetoric is a complete lack of trust between the Biden administration and Netanyahu’s government. The sides disagree, among other things, on the issue of humanitarian aid to the strip. The Democratic administration has long demanded expanding humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, but this has been met with Israeli pushback. There are also those in the administration who believe the Israeli government has not lived up to its promises on the matter.”

Yediot Ahronot quotes Netanyahu opening yesterday’s cabinet meeting by saying: “To our friends in the international community I say, ‘Have you really forgotten October 7, the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, so quickly?’ So quickly are you prepared to deny Israel the right to defend itself against the Hamas monster? So quickly have you lost your moral compass? Instead of pressuring Israel, which is fighting the most justified war possible against the cruellest enemy possible— [you should] direct your pressure at Hamas and its patron: Iran.”

Of this, Yediot Ahronot’s Amos Gilad says “Prime Minister Netanyahu’s unprecedented verbal attack on President Biden is an extreme expression of ingratitude and strategic failure of the highest order. The United States is Israel’s only true friend, and Joe Biden is the friendliest president to Israel in history. There is no strategic logic to attacking him and the Democratic majority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, and one can only suspect that at play here are petty domestic politics that have replaced a strategy that is vital for Israel’s security and future.”

Israel Hayom’s Meir Ben Shabbat assesses that “the root of the dispute between Washington and Jerusalem concerns the meaning of the war, which brought Israel back to the realisation that it is still fighting for its existence. The Biden administration has not internalised that for Israel, the defeat of Hamas is an existential issue. It is not like America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which were conducted thousands of miles away.” The effect of this, he argues, is that “the administration’s approach plays into Hamas’ hands and has granted Hamas freebies: A delay in action in Rafah and increased humanitarian aid – conditions that help it reassert its control. The pressure from Washington moves Israel closer to a war of attrition, whose costs are high and its duration is difficult to control. They even push away America’s hopes of advancing a deal for the release of the captives.”

Israel Hayom’s Ariel Kahan is also sharply critical of Biden and says “after he and his people verbally attack Israel almost every day, how exactly will Biden be able to say the day after the war that he stood by Israel at its difficult hour? No matter how you look at it, his legacy has already been tarnished.”

Haaretz reports on another aspect of US-Israeli tensions – the speech last Tuesday of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who criticised Netanyahu’s leadership and called for Israeli elections. Netanyahu appeared on CNN yesterday and called Schumer’s intervention “totally inappropriate.” Changes of government, he said, are “something that Israel, the Israeli public does on its own and we’re not a banana republic.” Schumer elaborated on his speech, backed by the White House, over the weekend, telling the Washington Post, “I spent two months thinking about this and wrestling with it… Too many people are turning against Israel because of their dislike for Netanyahu. And I felt an imperative to show that you could be against Netanyahu and still be very pro-Israel, which of course I am… We’re not determining who Israel should pick. We’re just asking that they get a right to choose when so many people are just upset with the direction of the present government in Israel.”

On another important diplomatic relationship, Haaretz quotes remarks made by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during visits to both Jordan and Israel yesterday. Scholz warned against an Israeli operation in Rafah, saying it would make peace “very difficult”. “Right now, it is about ensuring we come to a long-lasting ceasefire,” he continued. “That would enable us to prevent such a ground offensive from taking place… Israel has every right to protect itself… At the same time, it cannot be that those in Gaza who fled to Rafah are directly threatened by whatever military actions and operations are undertaken there.” In his meeting with Netanyahu, Scholz said “we cannot stand by and watch Palestinians starve.”

Channel 13 features a demand by National Security Minister Ben Gvir that Jews be allowed to visit the Temple Mount during the last ten days of Ramadan. This would represent a departure from previous policies, and an unnamed senior government official says, “it is clear that Ben Gvir’s position ultimately won’t be accepted by the prime minister, but the mere fact of his demand to deviate from the status quo practiced in recent years will lead to additional and unnecessary unrest.”

Army Radio reports tension between Finance Minister Smotrich, on the one hand, and the IDF and Defence Minister Gallant on the other. Smotrich’s criticised IDF Chief of Staff Halevi’s plan to make a round of military promotions, to which Gallant responded in cabinet that Smotrich was “causing damage to Israel’s security and was undermining the defence establishment for reasons purely partisan reasons. Gallant said he would not allow anyone to turn the IDF into a militia in the service of any individual.”

Recommended Reading  Chances of Israeli-Hamas Deal Hinge on How Much Leeway Netanyahu Gives Qatar Delegation, Amos Harel, Haaretz

• “Hamas’ reply to mediators in the hostage talks opens the door for a potential deal, but Prime Minister Netanyahu’s insistence on achieving ‘total victory’ signals that Israel is unlikely to show much flexibility” Read more

How tensions between Hamas and Fatah could change Gaza, Seth J Frantzman, The Jerusalem Post

• “The Hamas decision to launch the unprecedented massacre of October 7 was an attempt to launch a first strike that could change the region.” Read more

Justice Salim Joubran – a symbol of Israeli coexistence between Jews and Arabs, Dr Matan Gutman, Ynet

• “Any attempt to briefly summarize the life and achievements of the baby who left with his family on a boat to Lebanon during the 1948 Independence War and appointed Supreme Court deputy chief justice in his later years is doomed to fail” Read more