Israel-Hamas War: What happened on Day 88?

Saleh al-Arouri, deputy leader of the Hamas terrorist movement, was killed along with at least three other people in an alleged drone strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold for Hezbollah, according to Lebanese reports.

According to the reports, the strike targeted an office belonging to Hamas in Mushrifiyah in the southern suburbs of Lebanon's capital.

Initial reports indicated that both an apartment and a vehicle were targeted in the area.

Arouri has been an Israeli target

Arouri has been noted as a central target for Israel in the past year due to his role in organizing terrorism in the West Bank.

People stand at a damaged building following an explosion at the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, Lebanon January 2, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/MOHAMED AZAKIR)

A member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist movement told Lebanese media after the incident that the secretary general of the movement, Ziyad al-Nakhala, was not harmed in the strike.

 The UN Security Council may meet as early as Wednesday on the situation in the Red Sea, the French ambassador to the United Nations, whose country assumed the council presidency, said on Tuesday.

"It's likely the council will meet on the issue sooner, probably even tomorrow," Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere told a news conference when asked about the international response to attacks by Yemen's Houthis on Red Sea shipping.

"The situation is bad," he said. "There is a repetition of violations and military actions in this area."

 The US State Department on Tuesday slammed recent statements from Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir that advocated for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza, calling the rhetoric "inflammatory and irresponsible."

Finance Minister Smotrich, one of the senior figures in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition, had called on Sunday for Palestinian residents of Gaza to leave the besieged enclave, making way for Israelis who could "make the desert bloom."

Hamas froze talks for a second deal to release additional hostages held in Gaza after Israel assassinated deputy Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut, according to the Al Arabiya news outlet.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said the assassination was a “terrorist act,” a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty, and an expansion of Israel’s hostility against Palestinians.

Before the assassination, Israel had been hopeful that Hamas had slightly softened its stance and that a middle ground could be found that would allow for a deal to move forward to secure the release of some of the 129 captives remaining in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Tuesday with representatives for the hostage families. In a statement after the meeting, he said, “The effort [for a deal] is continuing. The contacts are being held; they have not been cut off.

“There was an ultimatum from Hamas; now it has been softened. These contacts are being held now,” Netanyahu said.

Smoke rises on the Lebanese side near the border with Israel, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Tyre, southern Lebanon November 21, 2023 (credit: ALAA AL-MARJANI/REUTERS)

The assassination also distracted Israel from focusing on conversations regarding plans for the day after Hamas is eliminated and reportedly caused US Secretary Antony Blinken to push off until next week his trip to Israel.

Blinken speaks about Middle East threats

Earlier in the day, Blinken spoke with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron about Middle East threats and other issues, including delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza and the importance of combating the Houthi threat against Red Sea shipping routes. They spoke of a “shared interest in upholding freedom of navigation and maritime security in the Red Sea,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller wrote on X.

.@SecBlinken spoke with UK Foreign Secretary @David_Cameron about improving humanitarian aid delivery to civilians in Gaza, our shared interest in upholding freedom of navigation and maritime security in the Red Sea, and our work to help Ukraine prevail.

— Matthew Miller (@StateDeptSpox) January 2, 2024

Cameron stated on X that, in the conversation, they condemned “the illegal attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea” and agreed to “hold them accountable.”

.@SecBlinken and I are clear – the UK and the US condemn the illegal attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea and will hold them accountable.

We spoke today on this and other issues, including the urgent need for significantly more aid to reach Gaza and our continued support for…

— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) January 2, 2024

“We spoke today on this and other issues, including the urgent need for significantly more aid to reach Gaza,” Cameron said.

Both men said they also discussed their countries’ continued support for Ukraine.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Let’s start with how it is different.

This is the first conflict since Hamas took over Gaza in 2007, in which the IDF invaded for real.

There was a sort of invasion-lite of the outskirts of northern Gaza in 2014, and there was a somewhat more serious incursion of Gaza in 2008-2009.

But in 2014, the IDF barely entered any critical areas, keeping most ground troops on the edge of urban areas, and mostly depended on airstrikes, tank, and artillery fire.

Though 2008-2009 was more serious, the actual ground invasion part of the war lasted only about two weeks, far from the amount of time needed to substantially harm Hamas long-term, let alone topple the terrorist group.

In 2012 and 2021, the IDF almost entirely relied on air power, and in numerous other exchanges with Gaza since 2007, relied entirely on airpower.

In most earlier rounds, the IDF did not call up all the reserves, or but some tens of thousands soldiers, with most doing very little.

In contrast, this time the IDF called up 360,000 reservists, large numbers of whom served in invasions deep into the heart of Gaza’s most dangerous cities.

This time, the IDF has already taken operational control over Gaza City, Jabalia, Shejaia, and most other areas of northern Gaza around two weeks ago (Daraj – Tuffah remains unconquered, but is expected to be finished soon). Also, this time the IDF is deep into the heart of Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city.

Next, if in the past the IDF neutralized some tunnel shafts, this time it is spending extensive time and munitions to completely destroy tunnels which it discovers.

If in 2008-2009, fewer than 1,500 Palestinians were killed and in 2014 around 2,100 (about half of whom were fighters), this time the IDF is probably close to having killed 9,000 Hamas terrorists, plus wounding thousands, and arresting reportedly well over 1,000.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant seen inside the Gaza tunnel complex (credit: ARIEL HERMONI/DEFENSE MINISTRY)

World War III against the dangerous radical Islamic belief perpetuated by Iran has already begun, newly installed Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday as he began his first day of work.

“We’re in the middle of World War III against Iran lead radical Islam, whose tentacles are already in Europe,” Katz said. He spoke ceremony in the Ministry, in which employees welcomed his return to an office he left in 2020 after holding the post for a year.

Katz noted that he had left amid the COVID-19 pandemic and returned in the middle of a war, not just against Hamas, but also against a violent radical ideology.

“This doesn’t look like WWI or WWII,” he said, explaining that Israel was in the forefront of this war, “we are there for everyone.”

“We’re in the middle of World War III against Iran lead radical Islam, whose tentacles are already in Europe,”

Foreign Minister Israel Katz

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators in London, 2021. (credit: REUTERS/HENRY NICHOLLS)

Israel is not alone here, he said, as he explained that Israel was at the front of a war, that also placed moderate Arab states against Iran.

He blamed the Islamic Republic for Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, explaining that the terror group had sought to thwart the completion of a Saudi peace with the Jewish state.

“We were in the middle of a dream” of regional peace and “that is why Iran did what it did,” he said.

Even antisemitism has become connected to this larger war, Katz said, as are Israel’s battles with Iranian proxy groups, Hamas in the south and Hezbollah in the north.

Free hostages is top priority

Katz set freeing the 129 hostages in Gaza, who had been seized in the Hamas-led attack on October 7, as his top priority goal.

“The first thing, my top priority is the activity of this office to bring the hostages home,” said Katz, noting that as diplomates the ministry has the potential to advance their release.

“We will employ global pressure” toward this objective, Katz said. Upholding Israel’s diplomatic legitimacy to battle Hamas and Hezbollah will be the ministry’s second priority, he said.

The third and connected objectives, Katz said. is to apply diplomatic pressure that would force Hezbollah to withdraw from Israel’s northern border, including through the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 which mandates that move.

Following that, Katz said, is halting the threat from Iran’s drive to produce nuclear weapons and to use its proxy groups, including the Houthis, to attack Israel through conventional methods.

Katz said that despite this, he was determined to advance regional peace, as he noted that he had brought with him from his past office as Minister of Energy and Infrastructure a map of the plan he had initiated at least as far back as 2018 for a regional rail line that would connect Israel to the region. Katz recalled that also had planned for a sea route for Gaza cargo, a move that is more important now given that Israel no longer wants to supply Gaza with goods and utilities.

Before Katz took the podium, Eli Cohen who had served as Foreign Minister for the last year, summed up his work during that time.

The Ministry later sent out a list of his achievements. There were 65 bilateral meetings held with foreign ministers or heads of state, of which, included 36 overseas visits.

Nine business delegations were sent abroad to strengthen economic ties.

Cohen also worked to promote Israel’s entry in September into the United States’ visa-free program.

There were 30 world leaders and foreign ministers who made solidarity visits to Israel in the aftermath of the October 7 attack. They toured the southern communities that had been attacked and met with families of the captives.

Cohen personally led abroad five delegations of relatives of the hostages, including to the European Union and the United Nations, as well as to the International Committee of the Red Cross headquarters in Geneva.

He resolved two diplomatic crises with ally countries Poland and Serbia and oversaw the opening of Israeli embassies in Azerbaijan, the first one in a Shia Muslim country and Turkmenistan, ten kilometers from the Iranian border, Cohen said.

During his time as Foreign Minister, Oman agreed to allow Israeli planes to fly over its airspace even though the two countries do not have diplomatic relations. Israel also signed a free trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates and Cohen visited Sudan to help advance the completion of its normalization deal with Israel. He also was the highest level Israeli to visit Kyiv, traveling there in February.

In describing the last three months under fire, Cohen said that Israel has received more support than was imagined.

One can count on one’s hand, the number of Western countries who are calling for a permanent ceasefire, he said.

Cohen highlighted the Biden administration’s support for Israel at the United Nations, particularly the Security Council.

“All this is due to the hard work of the employees of this Ministry,” he said.

More than any other Ministry, this one wrests most squarely on the employees within it. “To be a diplomat is challenging and doubly so to be an Israeli one,” he said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has delayed his visit to Israel until Monday, according to reports from Israeli media sources on Tuesday night.

This delay comes following the assassination of Saleh al-Aaruri, the deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas, in Beirut on the same day.

Police in Israel raised the level of alert on Tuesday following the assassination of Saleh al-Arouri, the Deputy Head of the Political Bureau of Hamas, in Beirut, according to Israeli media sources.

Officers have been instructed to prepare for heavy rockets, as well as infiltrations into Israeli territory, and adjust response teams' operational hours following threats from Hezbollah.
 
 

 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron spoke about attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the wars in Gaza and Ukraine in a call on Tuesday, the US State Department said.

They discussed "the need to improve civilian protection and humanitarian aid delivery to civilians in Gaza" and "the importance of collective multilateral action to address threats to global interests posed by Iranian-backed Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea," US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

The Prime Minister's Office instructed ministers on Tuesday not to be interviewed and not to make any references to the assassination of Saleh al-Aaruri, the deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas, according to Israeli media sources. 

Senior officials in Israel have commented on the assassination, saying, "Finally a worthwhile assassination. Every Hamas leader is a son of death."