Israel at war: What happened on days 21-22?

The Israel Defense Forces have entered the Gaza Strip and are operating on the ground with support from troops in the air and at sea, Israel's political and military leadership said Saturday night.

"Last night, additional ground forces entered Gaza, marking the beginning of the second stage of the war, whose goal is to destroy the military and political capabilities of Hamas and to bring our kidnapped citizens back," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an evening briefing. 

"We are only at the beginning of the road. The war will be tough and long," the prime minister said. But he stressed, "We are prepared for it. This is our second War of Independence. This is our mission, our purpose in life, and together we will prevail."

Netanyahu said that not only do "the people and the leadership stand behind our soldiers," but also the international community is rooting for Israel. 

"Our partners understand that if Israel doesn't win, they will be next," he said. "Many around the world understand well that Israel is not only fighting its war but a war for all of humanity, a war of humanity against barbarism."

The Israeli military said on Friday that an "aerial threat" had been spotted in the Red Sea region and linked this to a projectile that landed on Egyptian coastal territory there.

"In recent hours, an aerial threat was spotted in the Red Sea region. Combat helicopters were scrambled in response to the threat, and this matter is now being investigated," chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

"To our understanding, the strike that took place in Egypt originated in this threat," he said in a televised briefing. "Israel will work with Egypt, and the United States, and bolster regional defenses against threats from the Red Sea region."

Another eight trucks carrying food, medicine and water are expected to cross into the Gaza Strip on Friday, a senior United Nations official said.

"We have gotten in approximately 74 trucks. We're expecting another eight or so today," Lynn Hastings, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told reporters in Geneva.

The IDF issued a demolition order for a house owned by senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in 'Arura in the northern West Bank on Friday, according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

Arouri, who has been linked to Hamas's operations in the West Bank, is believed to be a potential target if Israeli authorities decide to carry out targeted strikes against leaders of the movement outside the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He is currently hiding in Lebanon.

US President Joe Biden and his team have markedly shifted their tone on the Israel-Hamas war in recent days, moving from unfettered support of Israel to emphasizing the need to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza ahead of a looming Israeli ground invasion.

Biden has not changed his fundamental belief that Israel has the right and responsibility to defend itself in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack from Hamas terrorists that killed 1,400 people in southern Israel, aides say.

But a rapidly rising Palestinian death toll, the difficulty of freeing hostages held by Hamas and an increasingly vocal outcry from Arab nations, European allies and some Americans at home, have pushed Biden's team to support a humanitarian pause to Israel's attacks and focus on getting aid to Palestinians, say multiple sources inside the administration and out.

A White House official said the shift in tone was based on "the facts on the ground" in Gaza with a humanitarian crisis worsening and the Biden team's "conversations with countries around the world."

There has been a tug of war behind the scenes among Biden and his advisers about the US message, said one former official who is in touch with current officials.

ACCORDING TO Thomas Friedman, US President Joe Biden is still not committed to a Saudi-Israeli deal. (credit: JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS)

"We've seen sort of an evolution from sort of full-throated, unconditional hugging of Israel to a little bit more nuance," the former official said.

The administration had not expected Palestinian casualties to mount as fast as they have – now more than 7,000 dead in Gaza, local officials say – or for the humanitarian situation to deteriorate so rapidly, a US official said on condition of anonymity.

"I think the framing has clearly changed, unsurprisingly, in response to changing circumstances and what appears to be an even greater looming catastrophe should the Israelis move into Gaza with a major campaign," said Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Biden, 80, has evolved in the face of a challenging 2024 reelection bid, threats by some would-be supporters to withhold their votes over his lack of backing for Palestinians, and a warning from former President Barack Obama that Israel's actions could backfire.

Israeli officials and their US supporters have privately voiced concern to Reuters that as more time passes since the Oct. 7 atrocities committed by Hamas, the more the world’s focus will be on death and destruction from the Israeli assault in Gaza.

Biden’s aides are urging their Israeli counterparts to take more time to carefully think through their exit strategy before a full-scale ground invasion, one US source said.

US officials have cautioned that crafting fine points of such a strategy "on the fly," as was often the case for the US in the early stages of the Iraq war, would be a mistake, the source added.

US military advisers sent to the region are urging Israeli counterparts to be cautious because any invading force will face difficult fighting terrain and a warren of tunnels and booby-trapped buildings that could increase casualties among Israeli soldiers and Gaza civilians, a separate source familiar with the conversations said.

In rare comments on an active foreign policy crisis Obama, Biden's Democratic predecessor and former boss, warned this week that Israel cutting off food and water to Gaza could "harden Palestinian attitudes for generations."

The White House did not respond when asked if the administration coordinated with Biden's Democratic predecessor.

Arab leaders pressure

When Hamas militants burst out of Gaza and attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, Biden offered full-throated support for Israel, saying he relayed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that "Israel has the right to defend itself and its people. Full stop."

He did not mention the Palestinian people.

Addressing reporters before departing for the Middle East on Oct. 11, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the top objective of his trip was a robust show of solidarity with Israel, including providing all the military equipment that it needs to defend itself.

Egyptian cleaning workers are seen in front of the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side, while trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Palestinians await for it to open to enter Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt October 19, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/STRINGER)

"The United States has Israel's back," Blinken said. He didn't mention humanitarian aid at all.

During Blinken's six-day trip, the death toll in Gaza soared from Israeli air strikes and concerns grew about food and water. Every Arab leader Blinken met in the region pressed him to urgently find a solution to the rapidly deteriorating situation in Gaza.

Blinken relayed the concerns of Arab leaders, while others spoke to the US president directly.

The intense protests against Israel that followed last week's blast at a Palestinian hospital, which the United States and Israel both blamed on Palestinian militants, also alarmed US officials.

The protests were reminders of the risks of escalation during any ground assault, US officials said, because they show how Israel's adversaries could seek to wield disinformation to spark unrest.

Humanitarian pause

The most rapid shift in US policy has happened this week, to support a cessation in Israel's attacks on Gaza to allow aid in and people to escape.

Asked on Oct. 23 about international demands for a humanitarian pause, White House security spokesman John Kirby said the United States wants to make sure "Israel has the tools it needs to defend itself and to go after Hamas and that humanitarian assistance keeps flowing."

A day later, Kirby and Blinken advocated for one publicly. The shift followed a plea from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for civilians to be protected and increasingly desperate appeals from U.N. organizations to allow in aid.

The US revised its own U.N. resolution from a focus on Israel's right to defend itself to include calls for all measures, specifically to include humanitarian pauses, to allow unhindered humanitarian access of aid.

Remarks made by Biden on Wednesday are in contrast with those on Oct. 7, and show a new direction. "Israel has to do everything in its power, as difficult as it is, to protect innocent civilians," Biden told a press conference.

He offered a rare criticism as well of Israel's "extremist settlers" on the West Bank, accusing them of pouring gasoline on a fire, and called for a “concentrated effort,” once the crisis is over, to work toward an accord under which Israel and a new Palestinian state would exist side-by-side in peace.

But Biden also expressed skepticism toward Palestinian estimates of the death toll and a continued staunch support of Israel. He told the press conference that he had "no confidence" in the numbers the Palestinians were using about Gaza's dead.

Hamas spokesperson Ghazi Hamad stormed out of an interview with the BBC on Thursday after he was asked about the terrorist group’s massacre of civilians in Israel on October 7.

During the interview, Hamad reiterated claims made starting a few days after the massacre that Hamas did not intend to kill any civilians during its assault.

A Hamas spokesman, Ghazi Hamad, was interviewed tonight by the BBC

He was asked how he justifies the killing of families in their beds

His response is all you need to know…. pic.twitter.com/Om9nsxj6BF

— We Stand With Israel (@SussexFriends) October 26, 2023

When the interviewer stressed that many civilians were killed and asked if Hamad believed that Hamas’s murder of civilians in their beds was justified, Hamad ripped off his microphone and responded “I want to stop this interview” before storming out.

Hamas claims it did not kill the 800 civilians murdered in its assault

Footage published by both Israeli sources and Hamas-affiliated media outlets on the day of the attack and afterward showed Hamas terrorists entering homes and towns in southern Israel and shooting and kidnapping men, women, and children.

Israeli soldiers around the destruction caused by Hamas Militants in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, near the Israeli-Gaza border, in southern Israel, October 10, 2023. (credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Of the over 1,400 people killed by Hamas terrorists, at least 800 were civilians. Many of the bodies were burnt, decapitated, or otherwise disfigured by the terrorists during the assault. The terrorists also burnt down houses in order to kill the families inside.

Despite the footage and testimony from both Israeli and Palestinian sources, Hamas has conducted a campaign on social media since a few days after the attack claiming that the footage and testimonies are fake. Hamas leaders have blamed Gazan civilians and even the IDF for any civilian deaths during the assault.

Almost half of Israelis want to hold off on any invasion of Gaza, according to a poll published on Friday, in what may indicate a dip in support for the planned next stage of the counter-offensive against Hamas militants holding some 200 hostages.

Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas in response to the Palestinian Islamists' killing and kidnapping spree in its southern communities on Oct. 7, and has been stepping up tank and infantry raids in concert with heavy shelling of the enclave.

Asked if the military should immediately escalate to a large-scale ground offensive, 29% of Israelis agreed while 49% said "it would be better to wait" and 22% were undecided, the poll published in the Maariv newspaper said.

October 19th poll: 65% support major ground offensive

The daily said the results contrasted with its Oct. 19 poll that found 65% support for a major ground offensive.

Smoke rises following a blast amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, October 18, 2023, as seen in this screen grab taken from a handout video. (credit: Palestinian Media Group/Handout via REUTERS )

"From a breakdown of the answers, it emerges that there is no division in accordance with political camp or demographics, and that it is almost certain that the developments on the matter of the hostages, which is now topping the agenda, have had a great impact on this shift (in opinion)," Maariv wrote.

Hamas freed four hostages over the last week amid efforts by regional mediator countries to arrange a larger-scale release.

Hamas says around 50 hostages have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza. One ex-hostage said she had been held, along with at least two dozen others, in an underground Hamas tunnel and bunker complex that is a focus of Israel's offensive.

Maariv polled a representative sample of 522 adult Israelis. The margin of error was 4.3%, the newspaper said.

The IDF and Shin Bet have killed the head of the rocket firing of northern Khan Yunis for Hamas, according to a statement from the IDF.

IAF fighter jets eliminated the commander, Hassan al-Abdallah, in a strike directed by intelligence information from the Shin Bet.

Later in the day, the IDF announced that it struck three senior Hamas operatives in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion, which played a significant role in the assault on southern Israel on October 7.

Based on precise IDF and ISA intelligence, IDF fighter jets struck 3 senior Hamas operatives in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion.

The battalion's operatives played a significant role in the invasion and murderous attack against Israel on October 7, and is considered to be the most… pic.twitter.com/WOnmE2Cv3O

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 26, 2023

The three operatives were identified as Ibrahim Jadba, Rifaat Abbas, and Tarek Maarouf.

This is a developing story.

A missile launched as part of fighting between Hamas militants and Israel struck an Egyptian resort town about 220 km (135 miles) from the Gaza Strip early on Friday, Egypt's Al Qahera News reported, citing sources.

The missile hit a medical facility in Taba, injuring at least six people, Al Qahera TV reported. A witness in Taba confirmed hearing an explosion and seeing smoke rising, but Reuters was not immediately able to identify the blast's source.

A large missile just hit a residential area in Taba, Egypt, which is just outside Southern Israel.

It may have been sent by the Houthi terrorists in Yemen - OR, maybe Hamas misfired again. Oooops!

Egypt will be pissed! pic.twitter.com/T1kLNn8Rxk

— 🇺🇸ProudArmyBrat (@leslibless) October 27, 2023

مصادر مطلعة: سقوط صـ ـاروخ في #طابا وإصـ ـابة ٥ أشخاص وحدوث تلفيات في إحدى العمارات السكنية#القاهرة_الإخبارية pic.twitter.com/5W0THc9wNx

— AlQahera News (@Alqaheranewstv) October 27, 2023

Taba straddles Egypt's border with Israel's Red Sea port of Eilat. Israel's military said it was aware of a security incident outside its borders.

The aftermath of a direct rocket impact on an apartment building in Rishon Lezion on October 25, 2023 (credit: MOR ALONI/MAARIV)

Hamas said on Wednesday it had targeted Eilat with a missile, which the Israeli military said hit an outlying area. That incident appeared to be the longest-range Palestinian attack of the Gaza war raging since Oct. 7

مصدر سيادي للقاهرة الإخبارية: بمجرد تحديد جهة إطلاق الصاروخ في حادث #طابا فإن كل الخيارات متاحة للتعامل معها و #مصر تحتفظ لنفسها بحق الرد#القاهرة_الإخبارية pic.twitter.com/CcqzjcSben

— AlQahera News (@Alqaheranewstv) October 27, 2023

There was no immediate claim of responsibility after Friday morning's blast.

Growing regional conflicts

The Taba explosion highlights the risk facing Egypt and other countries in the region as fighting intensifies between Israel and Hamas.

Egypt has taken an active role in negotiating access to aid for Palestinians, trying to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas and advocating for a ceasefire.

But its proximity to the front line has exposed it to risks. On Oct. 22, several Egyptian border guards were injured after being accidentally hit by fragments of a shell from an Israeli tank. Israel apologized for the incident.

Al Qahera reported the missile strike on Friday hit a Taba ambulance facility and a residential building for the administration of the Taba Hospital.

Taba, in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, is popular with tourists. It is about a three-hour drive from Egypt's Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The US military, which is on heightened alert for activity by Iran-backed groups as regional tensions soar, said last week a Navy warship in the northern Red Sea intercepted projectiles launched by Yemen's Youthi group potentially toward Israel.