Israel at War: What happened on day 15?

The air force chief said he “wouldn’t want to swap places with our enemy and face an IDF division or brigade,” as the army continued with its plans for an invasion of Gaza.

Maj.-Gen. Tomer Bar’s comments were made on Saturday during a briefing of squadron commanders in preparation for the invasion.

At the briefing, Bar also said the Israel Air Force has struck Hamas with thousands of missiles.

“We will come in with full force and strike them as if [it was] the first day of the battle,” Bar said. “Our role is to ‘embrace’ the land forces and say: ‘The enemy you are about to encounter met us before’” – meaning that the air force had worn down Hamas before the ground forces had to enter.

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said, “Gaza is densely populated; the enemy has prepared a lot [for our invasion], but we are also preparing,” during a visit to Golani troops.

Israel Air Force drills with foreign forces in the ''Blue Drill'' exercise in October 2021. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his inner war cabinet, along with National Unity Party leader and war minister Benny Gantz, also met on Saturday. The content of the meeting is classified.

Earlier Saturday, IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari said one-fifth of the rockets fired by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have misfired in the last day, landing inside Gaza and killing civilians.

Over the course of the conflict, 550 rockets have been misfired into Gaza by the terror groups. “They are killing their own people,” he said.

The announcement came only a few days after Hamas accused Israel of firing a rocket that struck Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, killing dozens of people. The accusation was quickly dispelled by the IDF and independent, international investigators who found the rocket emanated from a PIJ misfire.

Weekend rockets with few hits

Over the weekend, Hamas continued its rocket fire on Tel Aviv and the Gaza corridor, but with even less success in hitting Israelis or disturbing daily life as compared to many other days in recent weeks.

Hagari said, however, that Israel is continuing to attack Hamas military targets in the northern Gaza Strip in preparation for an imminent ground invasion. Israel planned to enter Gaza last week, but delayed due to a variety of factors, including evacuating civilians, US pressure on humanitarian issues, tactical concerns about Hezbollah’s intention, and traps that Hamas might be setting. He said 700,000 residents had already moved to the southern Gaza Strip.

Hagari also updated the number of soldiers killed and hostages taken. He said Israel had been in touch with the families of 307 fallen soldiers so far. He also raised the number of hostages to 210, noting that the country constantly gathers intelligence and informs families as soon as they know something new.

“That number will continue to change, and we will update you every time we tell a new family” that their loved one has been kidnapped.

On Thursday, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon said a complex array of factors meant that the IDF had high certainty about a majority of its estimates, but that there were dozens or more cases that still required more examination of evidence, DNA testing, and other issues.

Some 765 civilians murdered by Hamas since the start of the war have so far been identified, the police said on Saturday.

The police, the IDF, and volunteers from ZAKA at the casualty identification station in Camp Shora have been working to identify the victims of Hamas’s massacre in the South for the past two weeks. They said the 765 victims who have been so far identified comprise approximately 75% of the Israeli civilians who were killed in the conflict.

Meanwhile, the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) on Saturday arrested 89 wanted terrorists in Judea and Samaria overnight, including 68 members of the Hamas terrorist organization.

Among those arrested were prominent and close associates of Saleh al-Arouri, who, from outside the area, manages military-terrorist networks in the West Bank. These included al-Arouri’s brother and cousin – both members of Hamas – and Abraham Suleiman from Nablus, a prominent Hamas operative and former prisoner.

In addition, the IDF demolished the home of Hamas terrorist Maher Shalon, who carried out the Almog junction shooting attack in February, which killed Israeli-American Elan Ganeles.

During the operation, several suspects threw stones at the forces and fired explosives, prompting the troops to respond with fire. Injuries were reported.

In addition, the army and Shin Bet said forces located and confiscated materials used for manufacturing weapons in the village of Qusra.

Since the start of the conflict on October 7, there have been 670 wanted individuals arrested throughout the Judea and Samaria region, as well as in the Jordan Valley and the Bekaa region, with over 450 affiliated with Hamas, the army said.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report. 

Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden about the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported on Friday evening.

Canada is still committed to a two-state solution to create peace in the Middle East, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday, reiterating the country's long-time position in the wake of deadly Hamas attacks against Israel earlier this month.

"Canada remains firm and steadfast in our commitment to a two-state solution," Trudeau told reporters in Toronto. "The world and the region needs a peaceful, safe, prosperous, viable Palestinian state alongside a peaceful, prosperous, democratic, safe... Israel."

Currently, 299 individuals injured as a result of the Gaza conflict are being treated in Israeli hospitals, the Health Ministry said on Friday.

Among this figure are 49 in serious condition, 172 in moderate condition, and 78 in mild condition.
 
 

The IDF Gaza division, which was attacked and fought difficult battles during the Hamas assault on October 7, issued a letter to its soldiers on Friday.

The letter congratulates those who fought bravely during the Hamas attack and confirms the IDF's intention to take the fight from a defensive one to an offensive one.

"The division will pursue the enemy and fight everywhere and at any time. It relies on the spirit of its people:
 a spirit for heroism and brotherhood, of the love of the people and the country, and the belief in the righteousness of its path," the letter signed by the division's head stated.

The IDF targeted a group of terrorists who were operating near the border in Lebanese territory, the IDF said on Friday.

Earlier, the IDF reported multiple launches from Lebanon towards the Mount Dov area in Israeli territory.

The IDF responded with artillery fire directed at the source of the launches.

Additionally, following the fall of a mortar near Kibbutz Dan in northern Israel on Friday, Highway 99 was closed to traffic from the She'ar Yeshuv junction to the east, the Upper Galilee Regional Council said.

False alarm

Later, a rocket alarm sounded in the northern Israeli community of Dovev, near the border with Lebanon. The alarm, however, was a false alarm, the IDF said.

A Hezbollah flag flutters in the southern Lebanese village of Khiam, near the border with Israel, Lebanon July 28, 2020 (credit: REUTERS/AZIZ TAHER)

The IDF added that it confirmed 20 launches from Lebanese territory that had been fired into Israel.

Additionally, on Friday afternoon, multiple anti-tank missiles were fired toward IDF positions on the Lebanon border. Fire from light arms was also directed toward an IDF observation post.

No casualties were reported among IDF personnel from these events, but IDF continued to respond with artillery fire directed at the sources of the shooting.

Israel is evacuating Kiryat Shmona, a town of more than 20,000 people near Israel’s border with Lebanon, following repeated exchanges of fire with the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah and ahead of a planned ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.

The announcement early Friday comes after nearly two weeks of combat with Hamas on the Gaza border in Israel’s south, and after ongoing clashes with Hezbollah in which there have been casualties on both sides of Israel’s northern border.

For days, Israel has been on the verge of an incursion into Gaza, and seeks to prevent the conflict from escalating on its other fronts.

Like Hamas, Hezbollah is backed by Iran, and has intensified its engagement with Israel since Hamas’ October 7 invasion of Israel, but the exchange of rocket fire has not yet escalated into a full scale conflagration.

Many border towns evacuated

Israel recently evacuated the area surrounding the Gaza border, including much of the 30,000-resident city of Sderot. The country had some 60,000 internal refugees before the Kiryat Shmona evacuation.

An Israeli Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) is seen at Israel's border with Lebanon as tension mounts between the countries, in northern Israel, October 11, 2023. (credit: Lisi Niesner/Reuters)

Kiryat Shmona, barely over a mile from the Lebanese border, has been a main target for Hezbollah rocket fire in past wars.

 London police said on Friday they had recorded a 1,353% increase in antisemitic offences this month compared to the same period last year, while Islamophobic offences were up 140% in the wake of the attack by Hamas on Israel.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called the rise in antisemitism sickening and vowed that Britain would not tolerate any hatred, as groups which monitor incidents involving Jews and Muslims said cases had soared after Hamas gunmen rampaged through Israeli towns and Israel pounded Gaza in response.

Police in the British capital ramped up patrols amid growing tensions, but said there had been 218 antisemitic offences between Oct. 1 and 18, compared to 15 in the same period in 2022. Islamophobic offences were up to 101, from 42.

Official comments on the rise of hate

"Regrettably, despite the increased presence of officers we have seen a significant increase in hate crime across London," police said in a statement.

"This includes abuse directed at individuals or groups in person or online, racially or religiously motivated criminal damage and other offences."

Police officers clash with demonstrators as they protest in solidarity with Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, in London, Britain, October 14, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/TOBY MELVILLE)

Officers have made 21 arrests for hate crime offences, including a man detained for defacing posters of missing Israelis and another over Islamophobic graffiti on bus stops.

The Community Security Trust, a charity that advises Britain's estimated 280,000 Jews on security matters, said it had recorded 457 antisemitic incidents across the UK since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 until Oct. 18.

TellMama, which monitors anti-Muslim incidents, said it had received 200 cases up to Oct. 16.

"The conflict is having a direct impact on London and Londoners, with increasing cases of abhorrent Islamophobia and antisemitism seen in the capital," London Mayor Sadiq Khan said.

A number of pro-Palestinian marches are due to take place in London on Saturday, and the police have said 1,000 officers will be on duty, with restrictions in place around the Israeli embassy and a promise to clamp down on any hate crimes.

Germany's interior minister said Hamas supporters should be deported from the country where possible, adding that authorities would keep a close eye on potential Islamist attackers.

"If we are able to deport Hamas supporters, we must do this," Nancy Faeser told reporters following talks with officials at the Federal Criminal Police Office.

"Our security authorities have currently placed an even stronger focus on the Islamist scene," Faeser added, pointing to a recent attack in Brussels as an indication of the threat relating to tensions over the Israel-Hamas conflict.

When a senior physician at a major US medical center wants to go abroad or even just take a vacation, he has to register as long as a year in advance. But assistant Prof. Betzalel Reich, a leading emergency medicine specialist watched on TV and read reports about what is happening in Israel, his colleagues at their large Minnesota hospital volunteered to cover for him for two weeks. 

Reich organized a group of five physicians who filled out Internet forms on the Health Ministry’s website so they could treat patients in hospitals here. His first group of five are volunteering at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and Shamir Medical Center (Assaf Harofeh) at Tzrifin. 

Reich, who is now in Israel and visiting family in Efrat, told The Jerusalem Post in an interview that he was very moved when – telling his colleagues that he was determined to go to Israel to help out, “within 10 minutes all my shifts were covered. They organized their plans in only 10 days. We took a charter flight to Israel that flew relatives of wounded or bereaved Israelis rushing back here. We bought one-way tickets because no one knows exactly how long they will stay.”

Most of his group, who are now numbering around 50, have connections with Israel, but they include non-Jews as well as Jews. He expects his next group will go to volunteer in hospitals in the south and north. His group is cooperating with a group of 300 US physicians who want to help out here. 

Although all the doctors they are working work speak English, it’s a bit of a challenge for foreign doctors who don’t read or speak Hebrew to work smoothly, as there are different labels and computer records, but they get help. Reich, born in New York City, came on aliya with his family in 1989 and lived in Efrat, spending several years as a young adult here. But then he moved to Minnesota to work in a leading hospital. Besides emergency medicine, he also has an interest in medical education and palliative care.

Asst. Prof. Betzalel Reich (credit: Asst. Prof. Betzalel Reich)

His wife is a registered nurse, and they have small children aged two, four and six. Many of his family are in medical professions. 

A stark reality

While in the streets of Tel Aviv this week, one of many Red Alert sirens went off. He found a shelter at random and went down many stairs. At the end, he found an auditorium where the musician and actor Yermi Kaplan was performing on Facebook Live to raise money to help the wounded, bereaved families and others. Chicago-born, 61-year-old Kaplan who came on aliya with his family in 1969, and performed in the Israeli English-instruction program “Neighbors”  and was the drummer in the band. So he felt something in common with the performer. Even after the all-clear, Reich remained in the underground shelter/auditorium for half an hour.

“The sirens are scary, but I completely trust Iron Dome to protect us,” he asserted.

Some of the members of his group here and those who will arrive soon have never been to Israel, so Reich decided that they must all be prepared to prepare them for what is going on. “It’s amazing that doctors are ready to leave their families and workplace and come here at the drop of a hat.”