Israel-Hamas War Updates: Week Five

Dispatches from Israel provided by Forbes Israel.

On October 7, Hamas, a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel, and which has ruled Gaza since it overthrew the lawful Palestinian Authority by force of arms in 2007, carried out a massacre in Israeli towns, villages and army bases near the Gaza-Israel border. In this attack, Hamas killed an estimated 1,400 people and took more than 200 hostages. Israel soon after began a bombing campaign in Gaza as a prelude to a ground invasion, which began some three weeks later, for the purpose of ending the threat of violence by Hamas.

Israel

Gaza City surrounded: Since Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, and since the ground invasion began, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have surrounded Gaza City. “We have advanced another significant step and the forces are now at the heart of a ground operation in the northern Gaza Strip,” said Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, in a statement to the media. “The IDF fighters have been operating in Gaza City for the last few days, encircling it from several directions,” Halevi said.

The IDF has attacked more 2,500 targets in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the ground operation. According to IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari, “The IDF forces continue to eliminate terrorists in face-to-face battles and direct aircraft to destroy terrorist infrastructures, weapons warehouses [and] observation posts… in the Gaza Strip.”

Israel-Hizbollah border clashes escalate: The IDF has attacked Hezbollah military positions in response to the firing of mortar shells and rockets aimed at IDF positions from Lebanese territory. Hezbollah took responsibility for firing a short-range ballistic missile towards northern Israel. A Lebanese news site close to Hezbollah released a video showing an attack on an Israeli border post.

Barrages of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip over towns and cities in Israel continue. Along with continued heavy rocket fire on areas near the border of the Gaza Strip, Hamas has fired heavy volleys at Beer Sheva, the most populous and largest city in southern Israel, as well as at the cities of Gush Dan, Israel’s dense metropolitan area. On Saturday, Hamas claimed responsibility for firing a missile carrying a 250 kg warhead towards Eilat, the southern Israeli city housing refugees evacuated from border settlements after the October 7 massacre. The “Arrow” system air defense system intercepted the missile.

Attacks on the south. The Houthi group took responsibility for recent drone and ballistic missile attacks on the city of Eilat. All were intercepted. That was the third attack by the Iran-backed group on Israel. Earlier, the Yemeni militia tried to attack Eilat with two drones intercepted by the Israeli Air Force “far from the Israeli border.” A few weeks ago, the Pentagon confirmed that the American warship USS Carney intercepted three cruise missiles and about a dozen drones fired from Yemen, probably aimed at Israel.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have already left their homes in the north of the Gaza Strip and moved south. Thousands of them are staying in tent cities set up by UNRRA, the United Nations aid agency, where humanitarian aid enters from the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border. According to US special envoy David Satterfield, between 800,000 and one million Gazans have moved from the north to the south. Between 350,000 to 400,000, according to his estimate, still remain in northern Gaza. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently confirmed that the scope of the humanitarian aid has increased and currently stands at about 100 trucks a day.

Thousands of people held a “Shabbat Welcoming” ceremony in front of the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv last Friday, calling for the immediate release of the hostages held in Gaza for the past month. The ceremony was attended by representatives of Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of 20 southern Israeli towns attacked by Hamas terrorists, leaving a quarter of its residents dead or missing. Before the massacre on October 7, about 400 people lived on the kibbutz. Of them, 27 were murdered that day and 74 are now held hostage by Hamas. The youngest of the hostages is only 10 months old; the oldest – age 85. About a third of all the hostages currently in captivity in Gaza are residents of the kibbutz, including 13 children.

World.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky to visit Israel. According to a report in Israel, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is expected to pay a visit to Israel soon. Zelensky will visit Israel in the next several weeks following delays caused by “security reasons.” However, the visit may have been postponed due to leaks to media.

Since the terrorist attack of October 7, a number of leaders and heads of state have come to Israel for solidarity visits, including the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, the Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, and the President of the United States, Joe Biden, who was the first American president to visit Israel in time of war.

New wave of antisemitism around the world: In the city of Lyon, France, a Jewish woman was stabbed on the doorstep of her home Saturday by an unknown attacker who fled. A swastika was found painted on her door. A special report published this week by the Jewish Agency indicates a dramatic increase of about 500% in the number of anti-Semitic events in the world in the three week period beginning October 7 compared to the corresponding period last year. The report also found an increase of about 400% in anti-Semitic discourse on social networks, including a jump of 1,180% in anti-Semitic discourse that includes calls for violence against Israel, Zionists and Jews.

Culture.

Hollywood continues to be divided between those who support Israel’s right to self-defense and those who attack Israel and call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Last week, actress and director Angelina Jolie expressed sympathy for the pain of both sides. A few days later, Jolie issued another post in which she accused Israel of “deliberate bombing of a trapped population” and called Gaza ” an open-air prison” that is quickly turning into ” a mass grave.”

In response, Jolie’s father, Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight, posted a video in which he said that he is “very disappointed” by the words of his daughter. Said Voight, “Israel was attacked by inhuman terror on innocent babies, mothers, fathers, grandparents, and you fools call Israel the problem?”

By Itai Zehorai, Alan Sacks