October 236, 2023, "The War"

My 184th post on The War

Today’s Image

This photo is a collage of photos taken of the five female IDF soldiers taken hostage on October 7. These were taken on much better circumstances. These women were charged with observing activities in and around Gaza via surveillance cameras stationed all around the perimeter of the Gaza Strip. The night before the attack they notified their superiors that something was happening, that was unusual and serious. Their commanders chose to discount the warnings. Then we all know what happened next.

Hamas Gaza Rockets

No rockets were fired from Gaza into Israeli territory in the past 48 hours.

Casualties

No IDF casualties reported in the past 24 hours.

Gaza Operations

Today a senior commander of Hamas was killed during a gun battle inside a tunnel below a home in the Jabaliya area, where the IDF has reported intense fighting. Hussien Fiad was Hamas’s Beit Hanoun Battalion commander and responsible for many anti-tank missile and mortar attacks launched against Israel during the course of the war. He was hiding inside one of the tunnels being mapped out by IDF special forces. The IDF continues its operations in Jabaliya, but the intensity seems to be declining a bit. Nearby in Beit Hanoun, the IDF’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion (comprised of mostly ultra-orthodox) continued conducting raids on tunnels and armories, protected by combatants, based on intelligence. In this video published by the IDF you can see the combatants shooting at IDF troops, and then an Israeli UAV firing and destroying them and the building from which they were fired.

The officer leading the Jabaliya Operation, Col. Barak Ganot, said this today:

This is no exaggeration, in nearly every home and structure Hamas terrorists prepared large numbers of weapons and armaments. They don't have to walk outside armed. They only have to enter a building or tunnel shaft and take up a position with rocket-propelled grenades, AK47 rifles and ammunition. There are a lot of explosive devices hidden inside the walls

Because of tunnel entrances in nearly every residential building and arms stored, the IDF is blowing up many civilian facilities so they can’t be used again for these purposes. The forces operating in Jabaliya estimate that they have killed nearly 250 terrorists during the past 10 days of fighting.

One of the hostages recovered last Friday was found inside a tunnel whose entrance was inside an UNRWA humanitarian shelter. Once they entered the building they could smell a terrible odor. There the special forces unit entered to map out the tunnel and eventually found one of the bodies. You can read and view more about it here. In the article you will see a sign near the entrance to the facility saying that the shelter was built using the generous funds from The Federal Republic of Germany.

Defense Minister Gallant visited troops in the Israeli Navy today that are engaged in active support operations to the infantry in souther Gaza, along the border with Egypt. Gallant served his time in the IDF in the Navy’s Shayetet 13 unit, a very high end special forces unit known for undertaking the most dangerous operations. They train often with the US Navy Seals. During his visit, he announced that additional brigades are joining the Rafah Operation as its continues to penetrate further and further into the city, that is largely evacuated now.

During operations in Rafah, IDF infantry forces uncovered multiple rocket launching batteries underground adjacent to a muslim cemetery. They connected to tunnels then traversed below the cemetery. In this article you can see a map of the cemetery and the surrounding areas. And the Rafah Operation continues to expand into two former residential neighborhoods, acting on intelligence gathered along the way. Then, at the border crossing, the IDF is uncovering a great deal of intelligence from documents found there. In this article, they document how an Hamas combatant serves at the border crossing by night and a border inspector during the day. I guess this is a different type of “moonlighting”.

Lebanon Operations

An airstrike conducted by the IDF assassinated a prominent member of Hezbollah this morning, Naser Farran. Farran was responsible for the manufacture and procurement of weapons - “the production of Hezbollah’s strategic and unique weapons.” It was another instance of a calculated attack on a terrorist, with aids, in a moving vehicle. That seems to be the common mode. This video shows the precision with which the vehicle was struck. Here you can see the mug shot for this guy. You can tell when the IDF hits someone important by the response from Hezbollah. Earlier this afternoon, Hezbollah launched more than five rocket barrages, about 50 rockets in all, targeting Kiryat Shmona “in retaliation” for the IDF’s successful assassination of commander in charge of missile manufacturing for an Iranian backed proxy operating in Syria. The rockets ignited several large fires on fields outside the city. They are still being handled by fire fighting brigades.

This evening two kamikaze drones launched by Hezbollah crossed into Israeli territory. One was neutralized by a fighter jet and the other reached the outskirts of the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona. No injuries or damage reported. Other fighter jets conducted a series of attacks on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon including a training facility and observations posts.

Today, Prime Minister Netanyahu visited the northern border to meet with officers in the northern command. Nominally, the purpose was to discuss their plans for several different scenarios of what might unfold in the future. There are some reports appearing in Israeli press that without a diplomatic solution very soon, the IDF will have to enter Lebanon to push back Hezbollah to the Litani River, perhaps holding those positions for some time until an alternative diplomatic solution emerges. To date there have been 10 civilian and 14 IDF deaths resulting from Hezbollah’s attacks. Hezbollah claimed that more than 312 have been killed by Israeli forces and another 61 other terrorists killed during IDF operations.

Yemen

Today a Greek owned cargo ship came under fire from a missile launched by the Houthis. The Maltese flagged bulk carrier was carrying materials, not identified, from Russia to Kenya. The ship had nothing to do with Israel. No damage or injuries were reported. This morning the UK Maritime Trade Operations reported an Houthi missile attack on a merchant vessel just 98 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen. Again, no damage or injuries.

And US Central Command reported that it shot down four drones launched by the Houthis in the Red Sea.

Iraq/Jordan/Egypt

This evening two UAVs launched by Iranian proxies in Iraq towards the southern city of Eilat were intercepted over Jordanian air space.

Gaza Aid

NGO aid organizations have finally started distributing aid that arrived on the US Army built pier today. Between yesterday and today, about 40 trucks moved cargo arriving at the pier to warehouses for distribution. Altogether, yesterday more than 298 aid trucks were inspected and transferred into Gaza. Most of them came through the recently opened Erez border crossing at the northern border between Gaza and Israel.

Hostages

Here you can read about the testimony of several Hamas terrorists being held in Israeli prison describing how he, his father and cousins raped victims on the October 7 attack. Be careful as there are many graphic images on the site that should not be viewed by children.

Today, Hamas announced that it is holding a senior ranking IDF officer, Col. Asaf Hamami 41 in captivity. Previous to this announcement the IDF pronounced Hamami dead based on the videos captured on October 7 and the nature of his wounds from fighting that day. They have shown no proof of life, however, which makes this very suspicious as they often use the videos to stir up protests. And in this case the officer would be exchanged for many terrorist prisoners in Israeli jails.

Last Friday, I reported on the recovery of the bodies of five hostages by the IDF. More details were released today. During patrols by the IDF infantry during its operation in Jabaliya, one platoon uncovered an IED hidden inside a wall. They followed the wires into a different building where they uncovered a tunnel shaft leading to a tunnel 30 meters underground. You can read and view more about it here. In the article you will see a sign near the entrance to the facility saying that the shelter was built using the generous funds from The Federal Republic of Germany. The commander of the unit, Capt. Roy Beit Yaakov (Z’’L) was the one who uncovered the tunnel entrance. The IDF forces are finding tunnel entrances and hidden arms in virtually every home inside Gaza as well. Experienced special forces trained in handling the tunnels were called in. They uncovered a large tunnel complex ten meters deep accessed by a metal ladder bolted onto the sides of the shaft. When this special forces unit enters a tunnel it takes much time as they find booby traps everywhere. Once they neutralized the explosives at the entryway they proceeded into the tunnel complex exploring it methodically. This can take days. They found several underground rooms and the bodies were stored in two of them. The bodies were recovered and then the entire tunnels destroyed. Roy was killed in action due to friendly fire on May 16. A great loss.

And perhaps in an attempt to restore its credibility, Egypt appears to be reaching out to Israel and Hamas in an effort to restart hostage/ ceasefire discussions. Personally, I do not expect much to change in this area until the Rafah Operation proceeds much more. It is only when Hamas feels seriously threatened that they engage in anything serious. Of course, should the USA or Egypt start castigating Israel again, then Hamas will once again think that it can wait it out and let additional pressure bear on Israel.

And I do not know how they know, but the IDF seems convinced that many of the hostages are being held in facilities in Rafah…

IDF - General

Today, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, Chief Spokesman for the IDF, committed that the army will investigate and provide answers on what happened on October 7.

Benny Gantz, member of the War Cabinet and leader of the National Unity Party, issued a statement today that it is essential that a state commission be appointed soon to investigate all the failures leading up to the October 7 massacre as well as how the IDF handled the attack once it became aware of the situation. In part, this is a reaction to the distribution of that 3 minute video of those young female IDF “scouts” who were taken hostage. There are UNCONFIRMED reports emerging that during 2023 Prime Minister Netanyahu received four warning from IDF Military Intelligence that the Judicial Upheaval was being viewed as a weakness by Israel’s enemies. According to these reports, Netanyahu rejected the claims saying that the documents supplied to him by the IDF do not support those claims. Today, in a statement Netanyahu insists that there was nothing in the documents that provided any indication that Hamas intended to attack. It sounds to me like the Intelligence Organization provided their report, which showed no evidence of Hamas’ intentions, but the officers in the unit were fearful of what the large protests were showing to Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and others. But what do I know??

International

Today the Spanish Minister for Labor and Economy, Yolanda Diaz, delivered a speech in which she accused Israel of barbarism, calling for the EU to sever all ties with Israel. In the speech she called for “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea.” Maybe she can get a teaching position at Harvard???

While in attendance to the funeral of The Butcher of Tehran, former President Raisi of the Islamic Republic of Iran, leasers of all the resistance movements - Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and various proxies in Syria/Iraq - met to discuss/plan their operations against Israel. You can see a photo of “who’s who” here.

And not to be outdone by the minute of silence at the UN Security Council in memory of the Butcher of Tehran, the General Assembly intends to meet to have a ceremony in remembrance. I don’t recall the UN doing anything when President Kennedy was assassinated or any one of the US Presidents died, do you??

Politics/Demonstrations

Well it appears that we not only have issues with Hamas commandeering all the aid trucks in Gaza and looting them, but we have one incident in Israel that happened today. Far right extremists who have been trying to interfere with the hauling of aid by trucks across Israel to the northern Gaza border, managed to succeed in blocking, then looting a truck in Judea/Samaria. They suspected that the truck was bearing aid for Gaza, but as of my writing this post it is not clear that the goods on board were heading to Gaza.

Our “most brilliant” Finance Minister and leader of one of the Far Right Parties, Bezalel Smotrich, has indicated that he may block Israeli banks from processing payments for services or salaries tied to the Palestinian Authority. What an idiot! So now US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated publicly that she would be very concerned if he followed through his threat. These guys just don’t know when to stop campaigning in an election and how to start running their ministries. He says all these idiotic things to appeal to his extremist base without considering how idiotic it sounds in the “world of the sane”. He insists that the government must respond, in some way, to the European countries declaring their recognition of “Palestine”. And speaking of idiotic ministers, Our Minister of Communications Shlomo Kathi announced today that his ministry returned all the equipment to Associated Press that it confiscated a few days ago. He blames the Defense Ministry for being forced to do it.

In Your Copious Spare Time…

• It has been awhile since I told you that this is a “must read”, but this article in Tablet falls into that category. The author, Andrew Fox, never served in the IDF, is not Jewish and has no “skin in the game” regarding this war. He served in the British Army for 17 years, reaching the rank of Major. He served several tours in Afghanistan and other Middle East Locations. This means that he is not under some political agenda from his superiors, nor does he have some Zionist commitment. Here is his honest assessment of the IDF’s performance in Gaza. Basically, he insists that the IDF is not only succeeding in its mission, but it is redefining how warfare of this type can be fought. So all those naysayers inside the Biden Administration, and even many here in Israel, should read this… and you too!!!

• And while we are on the subject of IDF performance, here is an internal assessment of the IDF from a former Israeli Brigadier General, Amir Aviv. He argues that Israel needs to tell the US Army, thanks for your advice but we have a much better way. All this insistence from the US Army that going into Rafah was a disaster, for sure, was all politically motivated and no base in reality.

• And on a very different subject, here is a Congresswoman (If someone knows her name, please let me know in comments.) exposing, with the help of her staff, how federal environmental funds are being spent to support a Pro-Hamas non profit in the USA.

• And finally, here is an opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal talking about the lack of transparency in Congressional closed rooms about the arms shipments to Israel by the Biden Administration.