Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 123?

There has been "some movement" on a deal to secure the release of hostages by Hamas, US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday, adding that there had been a response from the militant group that he described as "a little over the top."

"Hamas has responded to the initial hostage deal proposal, but the details of that cannot be made public at this time," Qatari Prime Minister Mohammad Al-Thani said Tuesday during a public press conference in Doha with visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“I would like to inform the media that we have received a reply from Hamas about the general framework of the agreement for hostages," he continued,  "The reply includes some comments, but in general, it is positive." 

Without expanding further, he said, “However, given the sensitivity of the circumstances, we will not tackle details."

“We are optimistic, and we have delivered the response to the Israeli party,” he said.

Israeli forces located documents proving direct cooperation and communication between Iran and Hamas's leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, IDF Spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari announced on Tuesday night.

The documents, dating to 2020, detailed funds transferred from Iran to Hamas from 2014-2020, according to the IDF.

The sum of the funds transferred is upwards of $150 million, Hagari said.

A total of $154 million

Images of the documents subsequently published by the IDF suggest the figure is, in total, $154 million.

According to the documentation, in the years 2014, 2015, 2019, and 2020, Sinwar received $15 million, $48 million, $42 million, and $12 million, respectively. 

Additionally, a video published by the IDF apparently showing the discovery of some of the funds reveals a safe and some bags containing money earmarked for terror, the IDF said.

In the early morning hours of October 7, Wahid Al-Hazeel from Rahat was sitting in his house with some of his family members. Suddenly, sirens started going off, followed by a barrage of rockets.

Soon enough, videos of gunmen breaking into Israeli towns began circulating on his social media accounts, and then another barrage, this time of a different nature, arrived in the form of messages by friends and neighbors looking for family members who were working that morning on kibbutzim bordering Gaza.

Al-Hazeel, a former major in the IDF and an ex-commander of its Bedouin brigade who the Israeli public came to know in 2008 after he thwarted a Hamas terrorist attack involving three car bombs in Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, quickly responded by setting up a war room dedicated to locating and assisting Bedouin citizens in the midst of all the confusion and chaos.

“At first, we thought like everyone that this would be a short event, but as the hours passed, we began to get a sense of the scale and numbers of those who were either wounded, missing, murdered, or kidnapped.”

How many Israeli Bedouins were killed on October 7?

Twenty-one Bedouin Israelis were murdered in the Hamas massacre of October 7, in addition to five Arab Israelis from the North. Seven of the Bedouin causalities – a woman and six children – were killed by a rocket fired by Hamas, which landed in their home not far from Kseifeh in the Negev desert, and the rest were murdered from zero distance during Hamas’s lethal raid on Israeli towns and at the Nova festival in Re’im.

AT A PROTEST outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem earlier this year, the call was made to legalize unrecognized Bedouin villages. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

Additionally, seven Bedouin Israelis were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists, with five remaining there still, after siblings Aisha (17) and Bilal (18) Alziadana were released in the last exchange deal in December. One of those still held by Hamas is Hisham Al-Sayed, who was kidnapped almost nine years ago by the terrorist group.

The war room set up by Al-Hazeel on October 7 soon evolved into an initiative he named The Civil Forum for Those Harmed among the Negev Bedouins. The forum aims to provide aid to the bereaved families, as well as families of the kidnapped, in various fields: from material help to families who were left without a main breadwinner, to psychological aid for children, and even fun activities to help cope with the harsh experiences and losses. They do this along with the Resilience Center for the Bedouin Community, located in Rahat, “though we physically reach any family anywhere needed,” Al-Hazeel said.

“We try to hug and stabilize the families and create educational, social, and even economic programs for the affected. We treat between 100-150 families with different levels of needs. It’s all very new for the Bedouin community in Israel,” he said, referring to the well-known Jewish Israeli existential condition of grief and bereavement as a result of terrorist attacks.

Al-Hazeel also said he aims to build a memorial and form yearly ceremonies in honor of the fallen and the heroes from the Bedouin society in Israel, but what is missing now is funding. “We have yet to find a clear address on a governmental level. But for now, the Joint and the Diaspora Affairs Ministry, headed by Amichai Chikli, are chipping in, which is very much appreciated.”

Another challenge facing the Bedouin community is the issue of safe-proofing houses or installing portable safe room units made of concrete. Government data shows that the Bedouin society is at least 11,000 units short, an undoubtedly costly matter.

However, according to Al-Hazeel, the government is working these days on a plan that will eventually empower and train Bedouin communities to produce these units themselves.

“The Bedouin and Jewish societies in Israel have different cultural codes which make our challenges and needed treatment measures different from the ones Jewish society faces,” adds Al-Hazeel.

“For instance, the issue of trauma and psychological assistance is still widely stigmatized, and many parents don’t take their children to get examined out of this fear, which means that we, in turn, can’t know sometimes who needs help in this area. There’s also the problem of violence in the Arab sector, with which we must deal on a different level. We need to help our youth turn away from the path of radicalization.”

How do you think that this can be achieved?

“I believe that it all starts with national service. It must be legislated as mandatory for all 18-year-olds in Israel, regardless of creed or ethnicity. Of course, not everyone is fit to join the IDF, but there are plenty of other choices, like volunteering with Magen David Adom, the National Fire and Rescue Authority, communal police, and more. National service, employment, mental health therapy – all of these can be of great help in coping with our challenges as a society.”

“Our society as a whole disavows Hamas and views them as a group which does not represent Islam in any way and which harms the very fabric of relations between Jews and Arabs,” He stressed.

“The Jewish and Bedouin societies in Israel are partners in life and destiny. Somewhere between 2,000-2,500 Bedouins work in agriculture in Jewish towns. Success in handling the challenges of the Bedouin community will also project as a success for the Jewish community, and of Israel as a whole. Despite all the hardships and challenges, I believe that as a society, we will be able to overcome them together.”

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi on Tuesday implied that he will open an internal IDF review of the failure to stop Hamas’s October 7 invasion of southern Israel in the coming weeks.

While part of Halevi’s speech to a conference held by the Air Force emphasized the idea of moving forward with the internal probe, the IDF chief said nothing about the external probe that he had originally tried to kickstart on January 4 to be led by former IDF chief Shaul Mofaz.

Following withering criticism from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and without support from Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Halevi seems to have dropped this probe or delayed it indefinitely until after the internal probe.

Netanyahu opposes having any significant responsibility for October 7

Netanyahu has opposed any broad probes about October 7 and has opposed anyone trying to label him as having part of or significant responsibility for the failure.

In political and security terms, this means that the IDF will be judging its own errors, as opposed to former defense officials who were not involved, and it also means that no broader strategic issues will be raised.

Israeli forces operate in the Gaza Strip on February 6, 2024 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Halevi defended having delayed the internal probe until now, saying that the IDF had to focus on defeating Hamas as well as managing the conflict with Hezbollah.

Also, the IDF released the name of Maj. David Shakuri on Tuesday evening as the latest Israeli soldier to have fallen in combat in Gaza.

Shakuri, 30, from Rehovot, was a deputy commander of the 601st Battalion of the 401st Brigade. He was killed in combat in northern Gaza.

The IDF continued mopping up operations throughout northern, central, and southern Gaza on Tuesday but has largely achieved operational control except in Deir al Balah and Rafah, where most of the 2.3 million Palestinian civilians are and where Hamas’s leadership and the Israeli hostages may be.

Israeli forces located documents proving direct cooperation and communication between Iran and Hamas's leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, IDF Spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari announced on Tuesday night.

Former IDF deputy chief and Meretz MK Yair Golan on Tuesday said that when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the Israeli public that it is possible to kill the entire Hamas leadership and to save all of the Israeli hostages at the same time, he is lying.

Speaking from Reichman University, Golan said that the government must first return the hostages and only later hope to reach Hamas, with the key being preventing Hamas from returning to control of Gaza.

The former deputy IDF chief also accused Netanyahu's policy of weakening the Palestinian Authority and stabilizing Hamas in 2009 as being one of the key sources leading to the October 7 failure to stop Hamas's massacre.

Golan said that especially in 2009 the PA was operating better and was working better security-wise with Israel, whereas Hamas was at a low after Operation Cast Lead.

Hamas issued a statement on Tuesday saying it had submitted its response regarding a proposed ceasefire agreement for Gaza devised by Egypt and Qatar.

In the statement, Hamas stressed its commitment to "ensuring a comprehensive and complete ceasefire."

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said that Hamas's response to the hostage deal has made Qatar feel 'optimistic' during a live joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday.

In the press conference, the Qatari PM confirmed that they had received Hamas's answer but could not disclose details in this "critical time."

US SECRETARY of State Antony Blinken and Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani attend a news conference in Doha, earlier this month. (credit: EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/REUTERS)

Blinken: We believe an agreement is possible

Blinken said on Tuesday the United States was reviewing a response from Hamas to a framework on a deal that would see Hamas release hostages in exchange for an extended pause in fighting in Gaza.

Blinken said in Qatar that he would discuss Hamas' response with Israeli officials when he visits the country on Wednesday.

“There’s still a lot of work to do be done, but we continue to believe that an agreement is possible, and indeed essential," Blinken said.

This is a developing story.

War cabinet Minister Benny Gantz announced on Sunday evening he will move to the Gaza border town of Yad Mordechai, four months after southern Israel was ravaged by thousands of infiltrating Hamas terrorists on October 7.

Israel lost valuable time in dismantling Hamas's rule over Gaza through "feet dragging," Gantz further said.

Gantz appeared to attack Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's public comments over the Gaza hostage deal, which Netanyahu stressed would not be accepted "at any cost.

"It is not right to share information with our enemies and to invent red lines, even if there are ones," Gantz said on Sunday. "My friends and I, too, have [red lines].

"Let's keep them for behind closed doors to avoid harming the efforts to get a good deal, even if it will be painful," the minister added.

A man looks at the damage caused to the Yad Mordechai Museum from a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip a few weeks ago, in Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, on December 21, 2023 (credit: YOSSI ZAMIR/FLASH90)

Likud: Netanyahu is fighting for total victory in Gaza

The Likud issued a statement in response to Gantz's comments, saying that Netanyahu is "fighting for total victory.

"Those who think that entry of Palestinian Authority officials to the Gaza Strip will defeat Hamas is wrong," the Knesset's ruling faction further stated. "There is no alternative but a complete victory."

This is a developing story.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said that Hamas's response to the hostage deal has made Qatar feel 'optimistic' during a live joint press conference with United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday.

In the press conference, the Qatari PM confirmed that they had received Hamas's answer but could not disclose details in this "critical time."

This is a developing story.

Speaking at an Israel Air Force operational conference, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi stated that an investigation into the events of October 7 was to commence and that the investigation would “leave no stone unturned.”

Halevi spoke alongside Air Force Chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar and  Southern Command Commander Maj.-Gen. Yaron Finkelstein.

“Why have we not investigated yet? We are in a very intense war, dealing with many fronts, as I previously mentioned, with intense operations also inside the Gaza Strip itself,” Halevi said. “An investigation takes time, an investigation requires availability, and - we all understand - difficult investigations also require emotional capacity, so it's important to conduct them properly. This is why we waited until now.

“On the other hand, our intention is very clear. To investigate, to learn, and to get to the bottom of things, and to leave no stone unturned. We want to learn, understand what worked, understand what didn’t work, what we could have done differently, and to put it simply, to be better so that it won’t change our ability to deter and our ability to prevent.”