Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 85?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a stern warning to Iran and Hezbollah and confirmed that the Gaza war could continue for months, amid a push to bring to fruition a Qatari proposal to secure the release of additional hostages.

“On the northern border - we are landing heavy blows against Hezbollah, eliminating many terrorists and destroying the enemy's capabilities,” Netanyahu said in a press conference in Tel Aviv on Saturday night.

He spoke as Israel continued its military operation to destroy Hamas in Gaza even as it thwarted Hezbollah violence along its northern border, working to contain the situation from escalating into a full-fledged war.

Netanyahu said that diplomacy was the best option to restore security to that border, but noted that Israel would not hesitate to act against the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah should those options fail.

“We approved operational plans for the continuation of the fighting. If Hezbollah expands the war - it will receive blows it never dreamed of, and so will Iran. We will act in any way until we restore security to the residents of the north,” Netanyahu stated.

“Iran leads the axis of evil and aggression against us on the various fronts,” Netanyahu stated.

“This aggression is directed not only against Israel but against the entire free world. We act against Iran all the time, everywhere, in every way,” Netanyahu said, as he declined to provide details to back up his statement.

The official “readouts” describing conversations between world leaders are usually dry, information-deficient affairs, but the ones between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been telling a story of diverging views on Israel’s war in Gaza.

Their most recent conversation, on Dec. 23, is an example: According to the Israeli readout, the Israeli leader “expressed his appreciation for the US position at the UN Security Council,” referring to the Biden administration’s removal of calls for a ceasefire from a UN Security Council resolution. “The Prime Minister made it clear that Israel would continue the war until all of its goals have been achieved.”

The White House readout suggested why Netanyahu felt he had to make it “clear” that Israel would not stop until Hamas is crushed and the more than 100 remaining hostages abducted by the terror group on Oct. 7 are returned: Biden wants Netanyahu to change tactics.

“The leaders discussed Israel’s military campaign in Gaza to include its objectives and phasing,” Biden’s version said. “The President emphasized the critical need to protect the civilian population including those supporting the humanitarian aid operation, and the importance of allowing civilians to move safely away from areas of ongoing fighting.”

Biden, while maintaining his opposition to any ceasefire that leaves Hamas intact, has called Israel’s bombing in Gaza “indiscriminate.” His top officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, have said that Israel risks losing support if it does not shift to more targeted warfare.

U.S. President Joe Biden is welcomed by Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu, as he visits Israel amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, October 18, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/EVELYN HOCKSTEIN)

Both leaders are under pressure. Biden is facing Democrats on the left, and also surprisingly Republicans on his right, who want him to condition aid to Israel. Netanyahu’s popularity in Israel has plummeted and he needs his far-right flank to survive in office to avoid a crushing electoral defeat.

Here are some of the factors that could shape the Biden-Netanyahu relationship as we head into a new year.

That $14 billion

On Oct. 19, less than two weeks after Hamas terrorists massacred 1,200 people in Israel, abducted more than 240 and brutalized thousands more, Biden asked Congress for $14 billion in emergency assistance for Israel, along with $60 billion for Ukraine for its war against Russian invaders.

The aid for Israel seemed an easy ask then: Republicans have become the most reflexively pro-Israel party in Congress, and within three days of Biden making the request, more than half of the Democrats in the US House of Representatives backed Biden’s Israel strategy, in a letter signed by all 24 Jewish House Democrats.

Marching into 2024, the funding has yet to happen and the responsibility lies, unusually, with Republicans, who lead the House. 

The first obstacle was the removal of the Israel-friendly speaker, California’s Kevin McCarthy, leaving the House unable to function. He was replaced by Louisiana’s Mike Johnson. The House approved the Israel portion, but for the first time ever, the body conditioned aid to Israel — on cuts to the Internal Revenue Service. Far-right Republicans engineered McCarthy’s ouster for compromising with Biden on spending bills, and Johnson has no taste for playing nice with the president, even when Israel is involved.

Conditioning Israel aid on IRS cuts guaranteed that the bill was dead on arrival in the Senate, which is led by Democrats. There, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Jewish New York Democrat, tried to craft a new assistance bill but was met with a new headwind. Republicans in the body are now using the filibuster to keep the bill from advancing unless it includes new protections on the Mexican border.

Sen. Bernie Sanders joined Republican senators in the Dec. 7 vote that blocked the assistance from advancing. The Jewish Vermont independent, an unofficial leader of US progressives, wants Biden to condition aid to Israel on how it conducts the war.

Calls for a ceasefire

Sanders still stops short of calling for a permanent ceasefire, but a growing number of Democrats do — some 63 so far, including a number of the Jewish Democrats who back in October were backing Biden’s Israel policies.

The number of Palestinians killed since Israel launched its counterstrikes has topped 20,000, according to Palestinian sources, although Israel estimates that a third of these are combatants. Nonetheless, as casualties mount in the Gaza Strip, expect more pressure on Biden from the left.

The politics

Axios reported this week that Biden, in that Dec. 23 phone call, told Netanyahu that he expected him to show the same fortitude in resisting pressure from his right-wing that Biden has shown in ignoring his left flank. Biden wants Israel to build up the Palestinian Authority after the war is over so it can replace Hamas; Netanyahu has said that is not an option. 

One problem is the weakness of the Palestinian Authority, which has limited governance powers in the West Bank. Biden wants Netanyahu to resume transferring taxes to the Palestinian Authority, which Netanyahu resists as long as it continues to compensate the families of Palestinians who have attacked Israelis. 

“This conversation is over,” Axios reported Biden as saying after he told Netanyahu that he needed to show the same level of leadership Biden is showing defending Israel.

Support for Biden’s Israel policy among Democrats has plummeted, and growing numbers of Arab-American and Muslim voters are saying they will stay away from the polls next November when Biden is likely to once again face Donald Trump in a presidential election. That could cost Biden a key state, Michigan, where there is a substantial Arab-American population.

As Biden heads into the presidential election, the politics of the war are being seen in a phenomenon unimaginable a decade ago: Mainstream Democrats are running against the mainstream pro-Israel line. In California’s Senate race, Rep. Barbara Lee is seeking to set herself apart from the frontrunners, fellow Democratic representatives Adam Schiff and Katie Porter, by endorsing a ceasefire.

Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, a moderate Jewish Democrat running a longshot presidential primary campaign against Biden, also endorses a ceasefire. It’s one of the few policy differences distinguishing him from the incumbent.

A New Jersey man arrested in Kenya has been charged for trying to aid terrorist group al-Shabaab, the US Justice Department said, alleging he was motivated by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel to wage violence.

The arrest comes amid heightened incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia in the wake of the Israel-Gaza war, which have raised terror threat levels in the United States.

Karrem Nasr, a US citizen who moved from New Jersey to Egypt around July, was taken into custody in Nairobi on Dec. 14 and brought to the United States on Thursday, the Justice Department said in a statement on Friday.

The 23-year-old has been charged with "attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization," which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to prosecutors.

The United States designates al-Shabaab as a "foreign terrorist organization."

PREVIEW Police officers stand guard near Hayat Hotel, the scene of an al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group militant attack, in Mogadishu, Somalia August 21, 2022 (credit: REUTERS/FEISAL OMAR)

"As alleged, Karrem Nasr, motivated by the heinous terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, devoted himself to waging violent jihad against America and its allies," US Attorney Damian Williams said.

Nasr traveled from Egypt to Kenya "bent on joining and training with al-Shabaab," prosecutors said.

October 7 inspired him to become a jihadi

In communications exchanged with an FBI confidential source and postings online, Nasr stated that he had been thinking about "engaging in jihad for a long time, and he was particularly motivated to become a jihadi by the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel," prosecutors added.

Nasr took steps to join and receive training from al-Shabaab, planning to meet members of the organization in Kenya for further travel to Somalia to join the group, the Justice Department said. He was taken into custody by Kenyan authorities.

It was not clear whether Nasr had legal representation.

The Justice Department has said it was monitoring rising threats against Jews and Muslims in the United States due to soaring levels of antisemitism and Islamophobia linked to the war in the Middle East.

In early December, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the threat level was so elevated that he saw "blinking lights everywhere."

The IDF destroyed two Hamas military buildings in the city of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, Walla sourcing an IDF spokesperson on Saturday morning. 

Israeli forces in the Strip eliminated dozens of terrorists throughout Friday, including 15 who were eliminated by aircraft, and two Hamas observers who ambushed the soldiers inside a building.

Also on Saturday, the IDF began attacking several Hamas targets in the north and center of the Gaza Strip that morning with artillery fire, according to a report by Walla.

Several hours earlier, Israeli air force and ground troops attacked terror targets in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis.

This is a developing story.

The World Health Organization said on Friday night that they're concerned about the spread of infectious diseases in Gaza, according to reports by Walla and NBC News.

This is because many Palestinians are in overcrowded shelters and facilities.
 

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said the claims of Israeli officials accusing the organization of the gap in the transfer of humanitarian aid to Gaza are "wrong and baseless," Walla quoted him as saying.

Lazzarini said that media coverage of the Israeli claims leads to "baseless misinformation."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov likened the Israel-Hamas war to the Russian "denazification" of Ukraine, in an interview he gave to Russian TV on Friday.

Interviewer Dmitry Kiselev asked Lavrov about conspiracy theories relating to the war, including ideas that October 7 was a false flag operation and that the war is a cover for the construction of a parallel Suez Canal from Eilat across the Negev.

Lavrov neither confirmed nor denied any of these theories and linked them to other "unresolved" conspiracies such as a fake moon landing and 9/11.

Lavrov then pivoted and said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's announcements that Hamas must be destroyed and that extremism needed to be eliminated sounded like demilitarization and denazification, Russia's stated war goals in Ukraine.

He claimed that Netanyahu has not criticized Russia's actions in Ukraine and praised him for helping Russia evacuate its citizens from Gaza.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov chairs a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on ''The Middle East, including the Palestinian question'' at UN headquarters in New York City, US April 25, 2023 (credit: Mike Segar/Reuters)

Shared heritage of Russians and Israelis

Lavrov then focused on the shared anti-Nazism of Jews and Russians saying, "We should be very careful about our shared history with Israel, particularly our history of fighting Nazism. This is the main element that unifies us in terms of history. It is a fundamental element of our genetic code, so to speak."

"The Holocaust and the extermination of the multinational Soviet people are comparable," he stated, "But the numbers are different: six million people killed during the Holocaust and over 20 million Soviet people were killed during World War II."

The Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine's response to Ukraine's glorification of Stepan Bandera was "truly alarming," he added.

Esmail Qaani, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, told Iranian news organization IRNA this week that Hamas planned and executed the October 7 attacks on southern Israel without Iranian help. 

IRNA (Islamic Republic News Agency) is funded and controlled by the Iranian government.

Qaani reportedly commented at a commemoration of “martyr” Hossein Pourjafari that “resistance” groups across the Middle East each have their own independent and individual structures. “Resistance groups have grown step by step, and today, all the elements of the resistance front at their regional level make their own decisions and judgments.”

Iran funds numerous proxies in the region including Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Houthis. All of these groups have launched regular attacks on Israeli military and civilian targets since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

According to the US state-run news and radio network, Voice of America, Major General Pourjafari was a close associate of Qassem Soleimani and was instrumental in the formation of the IRGC’s intelligence wing.

Brigadier General Esmail Qaani, the head of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, speaks during a ceremony marking the anniversary of the death of senior Iranian military commander Mohammad Hejazi, in Tehran, Iran April 14, 2022. (credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)

“'Palestinian resistance began its work with its own preparation and the plan it had set,” Qaani said. 

"Everything they did was beautifully planned and executed"

“Due to the extensive crimes committed by the Zionist regime against the Muslim people of Palestine, they themselves took action,” he added. “Everything they did was beautifully planned and executed.”

The IRGC commander then turned his remarks to the Israeli government.

“You assassinated martyr Razi Mousavi because you couldn't achieve anything on the battlefield of Gaza, and Iran won't be drawn into your schemes,” IRNA reported the senior IRGC commander as saying. “What achievements have the Zionist regime and America had from the beginning of the war until now? Their skill lies only in killing innocent women and children.”

Sayyed Reza Mousavi was a senior IRGC commander killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike in the Damascus area.

Following Mousavi’s death, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Israel would pay a price for the incident.  

Qaani also addressed the United States, stating that if the US continued with its activities in Iraq, the Iraqi "resistance" would respond.

Israeli air force and ground troops attacked terror targets in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, the Israeli news organization Walla, reported on Friday evening.

The IDF has been operating in Khan Yunis throughout the month of December.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has approved the sale to Israel of 155 mm artillery shells and related equipment without congressional review, the Pentagon said on Friday.

Blinken determined that an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale to Israel, thereby waiving congressional review requirements, according to the Pentagon.

The sale comes as Israel intensifies its offensive in the Gaza Strip. The US has pressed Israel to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza and has called for it to scale down the war in the coming weeks.

The Pentagon said Israel has requested that fuzes, primers, and charges be included in a previous request for 155mm shells. The estimated total value of the sale is $147.5 million.

This is the second time this month that the Biden administration has skipped a congressional review of a weapons sale to Israel. On December 9, the administration used the emergency authority to allow the sale of about 14,000 tank shells to Israel.