Israel at War: What happened on day 19?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted for the first time that he would have to answer for the military failure that occurred on October 7, when Hamas caught the IDF by surprise and infiltrated southern Israel.

“This failure will have to be investigated to the last degree. Everyone will have to give answers,” he said. “Myself included.”

The admission came on the 19th day of the war, and after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and other top brass in the military had already admitted to one of the bigger military fiascos since the creation of the state.

“Citizens of Israel, October 7 was a black day in our history,” but the issue of accountably can only occur after the war is over, Netanyahu said.

"Everyone will have to give answers, myself included."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the October 7 Massacre

“As prime minister, I am responsible for securing the future of the country, and now my role is to lead the State of Israel and the people to a crushing victory over our enemies. 

“Now is the time to join forces for one goal: To charge forward to victory,” Netanyahu said.

Rocket sirens sounded in the Carmel region Wednesday afternoon on account of a rocket launched from Gaza that exploded in the air, the IDF said.

Hamas said it launched a rocket on Wednesday toward the southern Israeli resort city of Eilat, some 220 km (136 miles) from the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli military said there had been an impact in an outlying area.

There was no immediate word of any casualties in what appeared to be the longest-range Palestinian attack of the Gaza war raging since October 7.

More than 6,546 Palestinians have been killed, including 2,704 children, in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said on Sunday.

An Israeli air strike targeted Aleppo's airport in northern Syria on Wednesday, the Lebanese pro-Iranian al-Mayadeen TV station reported.

There has been no official confirmation by Syrian state media.

The airport has been out of service since Oct. 22 due to an Israeli missile attack.

Jordan's King Abdullah on Wednesday told French President Emmanuel Macron that ending the war in Gaza was an urgent necessity and warned that there could otherwise be an "explosion" in the region.

In a royal court statement, the monarch told Macron Israel should be pressured by global powers to stop its bombing campaign against civilians in the enclave and end its siege of its over two million residents.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Hamas is not a terrorist organization but a liberation group waging a battle to protect its land.

In a speech to his party's lawmakers in parliament, Erdogan said Israel had taken advantage of Turkey's good intentions and that he will not go to Israel as previously planned.

The president also urged an immediate ceasefire between Israeli and Palestinian forces and said Muslim countries must act together for lasting peace, calling on world powers to pressure Israel to halt attacks. Erdogan said that the Rafah border gate must be kept open for humanitarian aid and that prisoner exchanges should be concluded urgently.

Rockets are fired from Gaza towards Israel, on October 16 2023 (photo credit: ABED RAHIM KHATIB/FLASH90)

Italy's deputy prime minister condemned the words of Erdogan on Hamas, defining them "grave and disgusting".

Matteo Salvini would suggest to Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to formally summon the Turkish ambassador to Italy, the deputy PM's office said in a note.

This is a developing story.

A handwritten note discovered on the body of a Hamas terrorist encouraged the fighters to carry out a merciless massacre, including decapitation and dismemberment of the victims' bodies. 

The note, announced by IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari on an interview with American television network CBS, contains words of encouragement from the Hamas leadership declaring the religious importance of killing Jews and imparts inspiration from historical Muslim leaders who massacred men, sold women and children into slavery and looted cities.

'Removing the hearts and the livers'

The terrorists are encouraged to decapitate heads and remove the hearts and livers of their victims. 

"You must sharpen the blades of your swords and be pure in your intentions before Allah. Know that the enemy is a disease that has no cure, except beheading and removing the hearts and livers. Attack them!" the note reads. 

Over 1,000 Hamas terrorists infiltrated into Israel on the morning of October 7, attacking Israeli towns near the Gaza border and IDF bases. More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed since the first attack began, with some 220 people also kidnapped and held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Forensic evidence of the victims' bodies and video footage captured by terrorists have shown that Israeli women and children were raped and beheaded while others were dismembered. 

Israel has responded by attacking Hamas military targets in Gaza and striking at the Hamas leadership. 

It's a gift to be alive, 13-year-old Renana Botzer-Swissa from Kfar Aza told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday as she recounted her experience from October 7.

Botzer-Swissa's kibbutz was one of the hardest hit in Hamas's massive attack, but luckily for her family, their house was one of the only ones in the neighborhood to remain largely untouched.

But while they were left physically unharmed, many of their neighbors were murdered as was one of Botzer-Swissa's classmates. Three of her friends are still missing, and it's unclear whether they were abducted to Gaza or are among those who were murdered and still unidentified.

For Botzer-Swissa, the nightmare began at 6:22 a.m. on October 7 when she woke up hearing sirens.

"This isn't unusual," she said. "It happens every few months, so we went into the safe room and then we started hearing gunfights. For 16 hours straight, there was non-stop shooting around the house. All we could do was sit in our safe room and pray that no one comes in."

Family and friends attend the funeral of five members of the Kotz family, Livnat and Aviv and their three children Rotem, Yonatan and Yiftach, murdered in Kfar Aza on Oct 7; photo taken October 17, 2023. (credit: FLASH90)

'Are they going to rape me?'

“I wondered if they were going to come into my house, into my bedroom, I didn’t know what they were going to do. Are they going to rape me? Are they going to kidnap me? Are they going to kill me?”

Botzer-Swissa has been interviewing both in Israel and abroad since she was six years old about her experience as a child living near Gaza.

In 2021, during Operation Guardian of the Walls, presenter John Oliver gave a monologue on his show bashing Israel for the conflict and calling it an apartheid state.

Botzer-Swissa responded to the video describing what it's like for her living in Kfar Aza.

"Every siren makes me cry," she told him. "Just so you know, my army is strong, but that does not protect me from fear. Since I was born, I have lived in fear. Since I was six, I have gone to therapy.

"Israel was founded to protect the Jewish nation, and we are not sorry for being a strong country. Our country doesn't attack whenever it wants. However, Hamas has been attacking for 20 years whenever it wants.

"I just want it to end, I just want peace, a normal childhood for me and for all the children in Gaza."

'I just want it to end, I just want peace.' 

Botzer-Swissa said she has been giving interviews for more than half her life because she thinks it's important to make the voices of the children living through the rockets and the danger heard around the world.

Right now, she wants the world to know that "Hamas is not a welcoming community or a resistance movement. It's a terrorist organization, and we need to treat it like one.

"I want everyone to know that Israel needs to attack because so many civilians were murdered. You cannot keep talking about proportional response because our soldiers don’t rape women and we don’t kidnap innocent children.”

Botzer-Swissa's family was evacuated to Shfa'im, but the trauma remains. On Tuesday, she heard her first siren since leaving Kfar Aza and she panicked.

“I grabbed my dog and we sprinted down to the safe room and stayed there for some time,” she recounted.

But she has been trying to find ways to deal with what she went through.

“At first the trauma was fresh, and I didn’t know how to cope with it, but I’m trying to get better and talk to therapists. I need to relive the experience to not relive it again every day.”

'I never want to set foot in my kibbutz again.'

But reliving the trauma does not include wanting to go back home. Four years ago, Botzer-Swissa's mother Ilanit told Reuters that she wanted to leave but that Renana loved Kfar Aza and wanted to stay. Her experience on October 7 seems to have changed that.

“I never want to set foot in my kibbutz [again]," she said. "The whole place is filled with trauma and bad memories, and I cannot imagine going back there.”

Since their evacuation, Botzer-Swissa said she has seen the opposite side of what she experienced on October 7.

“When we were in Kfar Aza, we saw the most awful part of humanity, but when we got here, we saw the best part of everyone," she said. "Everyone who could came and donated food and clothes and everything you could think of. We saw the best side of the Israeli people.”

The Jerusalem Post and OneFamily are working together to help support the victims of the Hamas massacre and the soldiers of Israel who have been drafted to ensure that it never happens again. 

Become a partner in this project by donating to OneFamily >>

 Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Wednesday that an Israeli ground operation into Gaza would turn the fighting there into a massacre.

In a joint news conference with his Qatari counterpart in Doha, Fidan said that those supporting Israel's actions under the pretense of solidarity are "accomplices to its crimes."

Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi on Wednesday described diplomatic intervention by Qatar in humanitarian aspects of the war with Hamas in Gaza as "crucial at this time."

"I’m pleased to say that Qatar is becoming an essential party and stakeholder in the facilitation of humanitarian solutions," Hanegbi said in an English-language post on the social-media platform X.