Israel at war: What happened on day 37?

Hamas's original plan for October 7 went beyond just a massacre in the Gaza border area and taking hundreds of hostages, but to continue their assault up to the border with the West Bank, The Washington Post reported Sunday, citing Western and Middle Eastern security officials briefed on collected evidence.

This information was obtained from numerous maps, notes, supplies, and other written instructions found among the bodies of dead Hamas terrorists in the Gaza border area, as well as from interrogations of Hamas captives. 

The funeral motorcade of beloved Ort Pelech Boys School principal Sgt. Maj. (res) Yossi Hershkovitz made its way from his home in the Gush Etzion Gevaot settlement to the school in Jerusalem, which was his other home, where hundreds of neighborhood residents, parents, and students lined the street holding Israeli flags, singing “Am Yisrael Chai” and the national anthem Hatikvah as it stopped on its way to Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery. 

“We are not used to coming to school and not seeing our principal at the gate, greeting us in the morning,” said Gilad Barchad,13, who had come with his mother, Shoshi, and older sister, a soldier to pay his last respect. “The principal and I were very close. We would speak about almost everything. He always listened to us and supported us and was very, very fun.”

WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone with Qatar Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Saturday to discuss efforts to evacuate critically wounded people from Gaza, increase humanitarian aid into the territory and ensure hostages are released, a US spokesperson said on Sunday.

The Palestinian Authority can’t rule Gaza once the war is over, but neither does Israel plan to build its settlements there, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the media in a series of interviews over the weekend.

“Gaza has to be demilitarized and Gaza has to be de-radicalized,” Netanyahu told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday morning.

BRUSSELS, Nov 12 (Reuters) - The EU's top diplomat on Sunday called for immediate pauses to the fighting in the Gaza Strip to enable the evacuation of hospital patients who require urgent medical care, saying the bloc was gravely concerned about the humanitarian crisis there.

"These hostilities are severely impacting hospitals and taking a horrific toll on civilians and medical staff," European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement.

"Hospitals must (...) be supplied immediately with the most urgent medical supplies, and patients that require urgent medical care need to be evacuated safely," he added. "In this context, we urge Israel to exercise maximum restraint to ensure the protection of civilians."

Israel's government is split on who should control Gaza after the Swords of Iron War ends with ministers having given differing opinions for weeks.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed a stance that he has repeated a few times in recent days.

With a prophet's eye and a folksy way of putting things, former President George W. Bush predicted a month ago, soon after the October 7 massacres, the diplomatic predicament Israel would soon find itself in.

“We need to support Israel, no ifs and buts. This is an unprovoked attack by terrorist people willing to kill innocent people to achieve an objective,” he said. “Don’t be surprised if Israel takes whatever action is necessary to defend herself, and it's going to be ugly for a while.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the ministers in his government to tread carefully when making public statements during a government meeting on Sunday after a second minister in the space of a week made a controversial statement.

"If you don't know or understand, don't comment," he told them. "We need to be sensitive."

Since October 7, The Jerusalem Post has visited four different IDF locations on the southern front, two air force bases, and embedded with a navy fast boat off the coast of Gaza during a real-time attack on Hamas terrorists (the Post has also visited the North and attended countless briefings, but what is listed are visits related to the status of the battle in the field in the South.)

Israeli security forces delivered 300 liters of diesel fuel to Shifa Hospital in Gaza early Sunday morning and later received intelligence indicating that Hamas had intercepted the delivery, according to a Sunday night IDF statement.