We present here a diary of reported news from Israel and elsewhere about the Israel-Hamas war of 2023, known in Israel as Swords of Iron. Our sources include the IDF Spokesman, Israeli Kan TV/radio service, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office on Twitter/X (@IsraeliPM) and other sources considered reliable…
Friday/Saturday November 10-11 2023
- The ground campaign in Gaza continues. Skirmishes continue on the Israel-Lebanon border. Friction continues on the West Bank. Hamas missile attacks into Southern and Central Israel continue.
- 1,400 Israelis murdered since October 7, including 356 soldiers. 239 held hostage by Hamas, four hostages released, one rescued (Jerusalem Post and others).
- List of Israel’s fallen: https://jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-763187.
- Quelling rumors – statement from the IDF X/Twitter account Nov 11, 2023: “There is no shooting at the hospital and there is no siege. The East Side of the hospital remains open.”
- The IDF spokesman announced Saturday evening (Nov 11, 2023) that the IDF is in telephone discussions with the Shifa Hospital about safe passage to a safer hospital for children tomorrow.
- French President Emanuel Macron told the BBC in English: “De facto – today, civilians are bombed – de facto. These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop.”
- Statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron: “The responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas – ISIS and not with Israel. The responsibility for any harm to civilians lies with Hamas – ISIS and not with Israel. It must be remembered that Israel entered the war due to that terrorist organisation’s brutal murder of hundreds of Israelis and holding hostage more than 200 Israelis. While Israel does everything in its power to avoid harming civilians and urges them to leave the battle areas, Hamas – ISIS is doing all it can to prevent them from moving to safe areas and uses them as human shields. The crimes being committed today by Hamas – ISIS in Gaza will be committed tomorrow in Paris, New York and all over the world. The leaders of the world should be condemning Hamas – ISIS, not Israel.” (Israeli PM’s Office on X/Twitter).
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded quickly to Mr Macron’s comments, saying nations should condemn Hamas, not Israel.
- Later at a televised press conference on Nov 11, 2023, PM Netanyahu described Macron’s words as “factually and morally wrong”.
- “Hamas’s goal is not to run Gaza and to bring it water and electricity and such,” said Mr. al-Hayya, the politburo member. “Hamas, the Qassam and the resistance woke the world up from its deep sleep and showed that this issue must remain on the table.”……..”I hope that the state of war with Israel will become permanent on all the borders, and that the Arab world will stand with us,” said Taher El-Nounou, a Hamas media adviser, (New York Times Nov 9, 2023).
- On October 7, 32 Thai farm laborers were murdered and 23 were kidnapped, according to Thai government figures, among the total of around 1,400 people killed by the invaders and around 240 who were abducted to Gaza (Times of Israel Nov 9, 2023)
- Hostages in Gaza include “dozens of laborers from a half-dozen countries as far apart as East Africa and Southeast Asia. Among the known hostages are 23 Thai farmers, two Tanzanian dairy workers, and caregivers from Sri Lanka and the Philippines. The search to find them has become a crash course in hostage diplomacy for governments on the margins of global power. In this mass abduction, there has been no formal master list of hostages held, because Hamas and the other Palestinian groups holding captives haven’t provided one. Proofs-of-life have emerged as a trickle, starting with Israeli or European captives. To solve the riddle of a single student farm worker’s disappearance, a small number of Nepali diplomats, local volunteers….have had to piece together fragments of evidence and contradictory clues from an overwhelmed Israeli bureaucracy” (Wall Street Journal Nov 11, 2023).
- Around 300,000 pro-Palestine protestors demonstrated in London
- The day after the war: PM Netanyahu said there will be no more Hamas, no settlement by Israel, no control by the Palestinian Authority over Gaza, but there will be security control as long as necessary (Televised press conference on Nov 11, 2023).
- War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz said there is no more justified war, they use children as a human shield, the situation requires the removal of Hamas from power. How dare world leaders tell Israel what is legitimate. Leaders who shook hands with the Iranian leader today know what has happened and what may happened (comment: this refers to Saudi Arabia and past attacks on its oil refineries). (Televised press conference on Nov 11, 2023).
Thursday November 9, 2023
- The ground campaign in Gaza continues. Skirmishes continue on the Israel-Lebanon border. Friction continues on the West Bank. Hamas missile attacks into Southern and Central Israel continue.
- 1,400 Israelis murdered since October 7, including 351 soldiers. 239 held hostage by Hamas, four hostages released, one rescued (Jerusalem Post and others).
- Representatives of AP (ASSOCIATED PRESS), REUTERS, CNN and the NEW YORK TIMES photographed the October 7 massacre according an HonestReporting article headed “Photographers Without Borders”. Here are some excerpts. “Is it conceivable to assume that “journalists” just happened to appear early in the morning at the border without prior coordination with the terrorists? Or were they part of the plan?…Either way, when international news agencies decide to pay for material that has been captured under such problematic circumstances, their standards may be questioned and their audience deserves to know about it. And if their people on the ground actively or passively collaborated with Hamas to get the shots, they should be called out to redefine the border between journalism and barbarism.” Read in full at HonestReporting.com: https://honestreporting.com/photographers-without-borders-ap-reuters-pictures-of-hamas-atrocities-raise-ethical-questions/.
- The Israeli government has requested urgent clarification from the news organizations mentioned in the HonestReporting article (Kan Radio and others).
- The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said on X/Twitter: “The National Public Diplomacy Directorate in the PMO views with utmost gravity that photojournalists working with international media joined in covering the brutal acts of murder perpetrated by Hamas terrorists on October 7th in the communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip….These journalists were accomplices in crimes against humanity; their actions were contrary to professional ethics.”
- Knesset Opposition Leader Yair Lapid asked whether these journalists will be dismissed? (Kan Radio)
- The IDF found a Hamas weapons production and storage facility next to a children’s bedroom in a residential district close to schools in the Sheikh Radwan district in Northern Gaza (Ynet).
- Israel has begun broadcasting footage of the October 7 atrocities to parliaments abroad, including those of the UK and Portugal.
- A drone attack was reported on a school in Eilat at the Southern tip of Israel. No casualties were reported (Kan radio).
- Israel is to continue allowing a daily humanitarian pause of 4 hours or more for Northern Gaza residents heading to South Gaza (Kan radio). The White House says 150 supply trucks a day would arrive in Gaza daily (London Times).
- The Islamic Jihad released pictures of two hostages held, Hanna Katzir aged 77 and Yagil Yaakov aged 12 (Jerusalem Post and others).
- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has agreed to take control of Gaza after the war if the Biden administration commits to promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state (Jerusalem Post and others).
Wednesday November 8, 2023
- The ground campaign in Gaza continues. Skirmishes continue on the Israel-Lebanon border. Friction continues on the West Bank.
- 1,400 Israelis murdered since October 7, including 350 soldiers. 240 held hostage by Hamas, four hostages released, one rescued (Jerusalem Post and others).
- The Israeli cabinet is to discuss granting work permits to West Bank Palestinian workers in the Israeli agriculture and construction sectors (Kan Radio).
- The end game after the war? Multiple reports suggest that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu wants Israel to retain security control over Gaza, US President Biden doesn’t want Israel to re-occupy Gaza, and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken wants “Palestinian-led governance and Gaza unified with the West Bank, under the Palestinian Authority” (video clip posted on Kan X/Twitter). Time will tell.
- IDF soldiers found a synagogue in Gaza: https://www.jpost.com/judaism/article-772218
- For the 4th day in a row, the IDF opened an evacuation corridor for civilians in northern Gaza to move southwards. Since 10:00 am today, thousands of Gazans passed through. The corridor will be open until 14:00 so that Gazans in the north can evacuate for their safety (IDF X/Twitter). In fact the 14:00 deadline today was extended by several hours. The IDF published pictures of Gaza civilians streaming south waving white flags escorted by the IDF. This shows IDF humanity and helps remove Hamas’ human shields.
- UK PM Rishi Sunak said the London Metroplitan Police would be held accountable for any “serious disorder” after “the Met” refused to ban a pro-Palestinian march simultaneous with the annual Armistice Day commemoration on November 11. It commemorates the end of World War and other wars Britain has fought and suffered casualties in (The Times, The Telegraph and others).
- Speculation is swirling of a hostage deal apparently pending, ranging from one dozen to several dozen hostage in return for a few hours or a few days truce. PM Netanyahu and families of hostages have said all hostages should be released (Kan TV). Israelis, including PM Netanyahu and Minister Yoav Kish, turned down calls from the USA, Qatar and others for a ceasefire for as long as 3 days, or before the release of hostages (Kan Radio).
- The IDF Spokesman claims Hamas is losing its grip on Northern Gaza, attacking terrorists, destroying tunnels, capturing weapons. There is no ceasefire, only pauses to let Gaza civilians in North Gaza move South.
Tuesday November 7, 2023
- The ground campaign in Gaza continues. The IDF has surrounded Gaza City and is tightening its hold. Skirmishes continue on the Israel-Lebanon border. 1,400 Israelis murdered since October 7, including 347 soldiers. 240 held hostage by Hamas, four hostages released, one rescued (Jerusalem Post, BBC and others).
- On the Palestine side, more than10,000 deaths are reported by the Hamas-controlled health authorities, but this does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The Israeli military has carried out thousands of airstrikes in Gaza, bringing down high rises, transforming neighborhood blocks into rubble and prompting more than half the Gaza strip’s 2.2 million residents to flee their homes (Wall Street Journal and others).
- Israel has set itself a very ambitious objective to make sure the October 7 massacre can never happen again (BBC World Service).
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has once again rejected the idea of a cease-fire in Gaza unless hostages are released, and also addressed Gaza’s future after the war in an interview with ABC News: there’ll be no cease-fire, general cease-fire, in Gaza without the release of our hostages…As far as tactical little pauses, an hour here, an hour there…But I don’t think there’s going to be a general cease-fire…It’ll hamper our effort to get our hostages out because the only thing that works on these criminals in Hamas is the military pressure that we’re exerting”. As for the future, Netanyahu said: “I think Israel will, for an indefinite period will have the overall security responsibility because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it. When we don’t have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine…We are having conversations with our Israeli counterparts about what governance in Gaza should look like post-conflict and I don’t believe that any solutions have been settled upon one way or the other”. (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/netanyahu-abcs-muir-cease-fire-release-hostages/story?id=104661239)
- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children. Hundreds of girls and boys are reportedly being killed or injured every day…The way forward is clear. A humanitarian ceasefire. Now. All parties respecting all their obligations under international humanitarian law. Now. This means the unconditional release of the hostages in Gaza. Now. The protection of civilians, hospitals, UN facilities, shelters and schools. Now. More food, more water, more medicine and of course fuel – entering Gaza safely, swiftly and at the scale needed. Now. Unfettered access to deliver supplies to all people in need in Gaza. Now. And the end of the use of civilians as human shields. Now. None of these appeals should be conditional on the others.” (https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/press-encounter/2023-11-06/secretary-generals-press-conference-the-middle-east).
- Guterres did try to balance his remarks by saying “I reiterate my utter condemnation of the abhorrent acts of terror perpetrated by Hamas on 7 October – and repeat my call for the immediate, unconditional and safe release of hostages held in Gaza. Nothing can justify the deliberate torture, killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians.”
- Comment: The mood in Israel is that Guterres is mistaken – if Israel is to obtain the release of hostages, or even word from the Red Cross about their condition, it must make any pause or cease-fire conditional of the hostages. See PM Netanyahu’s remarks overnight to ABC News…
- Netanyahu called for Red Cross access to the hostages: “We want the release, the unconditional release of our hostages immediately. We want that information. We want that access to the Red Cross” (IsraeliPM X/Twitter account)
- South Africa recalled all its diplomatic staff to Israel because of a now discredited remark on November 5, 2023, by heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu that using an atom bomb is an option. Russia also questioned this remark (BBC and others). Comment: Israelis found the remark abhorrent and PM Netanyahu immediately suspended Amichai Elihau. The PM’s Office said on X/Twitter: Minister “Amihai Eliyahu’s statements are not based in reality. Israel and the IDF are operating in accordance with the highest standards of international law to avoid harming innocents.”
- PM Netanyahu met today, at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, with Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov (IsraeliPM X/Twitter account).
- In a California pro-Israel demonstration, 69 year old Paul Kessler was pushed to the ground by an anti-Israel demonstrator and died. The matter is being treated as homicide (Kan Radio, BBC World Service)
- US President spoke with Israeli PM Netanyahu: The two leaders discussed the possibility of tactical pauses to provide civilians with opportunities to safely depart from areas of ongoing fighting, to ensure assistance is reaching civilians in need, and to enable potential hostage releases. (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/11/06/readout-of-president-bidens-call-with-prime-minister-netanyahu-of-israel-8/)
- US Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa of Bahrain. The leaders discussed the latest developments in Gaza and their shared commitment to facilitating the increased, sustained delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance to civilians. The Vice President reiterated the importance of protecting civilian lives and respecting international humanitarian law as Israel defends its citizens and combats terrorism following Hamas’s horrific terrorist attack on October 7. The Vice President made clear it is critical to ensure that Palestinians are not forcibly displaced outside of Gaza…..The Vice President also discussed steps taken to strengthen U.S. posture in the Middle East region to bolster regional deterrence efforts. (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/11/06/readout-of-vice-president-harriss-call-with-crown-prince-salman-bin-hamad-al-khalifa-of-bahrain/).
- Vice President Kamala Harris spoke today with President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Vice President reiterated the importance of protecting civilian lives and respecting international humanitarian law, as Israel defends its citizens from Hamas terrorism. They discussed the urgent humanitarian crisis in Gaza and discussed ongoing efforts, including through recent initiatives announced by the UAE, to increase the flow of food, water, and medicine to civilians in need….They also discussed the importance of deterring threats from any state or non-state actor, especially those seeking to expand the conflict, and the Vice President condemned recent attacks by Iranian-backed militias across the region (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/11/06/readout-of-vice-president-harriss-call-with-president-mohamed-bin-zayed-of-the-united-arab-emirates/)
- Read about the day WhatsApp changed from a messaging app to a lifesaver in war https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/skkl1100gfa?utm_source=calcalistech.com&utm_medium=Share&utm_campaign=mail&utm_term=skkl1100gfa&utm_content=Article%20Side
- Deputy political leader of Hamas, Moussa Abu Marzouk told the BBC that “women, children and civilians were exempt” from Hamas attacks.. “only conscripts…or soldiers” were killed, he claimed. As for the Israeli hostages, he told the BBC “We will release them, But we need to stop the fighting”. Comment: Not correct. This author has visited the IDF camp and seen the corpses of many men, women and children taken there for identification before burial.
- King Charles III condemned the “barbaric acts of terrorism against the people of Israel” on October 7 in his annual speech opening the British Parliament. He said the UK government will support humanitarian support into Gaza, peace and stability in the middle east and zero tolerance of antisemitism in the UK.
Monday November 6, 2023
- The ground campaign in Gaza continues. Skirmishes continue on the Israel-Lebanon border. 1,400 Israelis murdered since October 7, including 347 soldiers. 240 held hostage by Hamas, four hostages released, one rescued (Jerusalem Post and others).
- Hezbollah launched barrages of grad missiles at Kiryat Shmona in Northern Israel. No casualties were reported. Most residents there have evacuated and local authorities called for remaining residents to do so as soon as possible (Kan radio and others).
- The IDF is preparing to issue winter clothing to its troops in action. Currently the weather in Israel is sunny, temperature 27 celsius (81 fahrenheit). (Kan radio and others).
- In East Jerusalem two Police personnel were stabbed, one died (Sgt. Elisheva Rose Ida Rubin), after immigrating from the US to Israel in 2021 (Kan radio and others).
- Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said (in a recorded Kan Israeli TV appearance) that Hamas officers are being systematically eliminated and replaced, then their replacements are eliminated.
- The buzz phrase at Israeli mission control is “2-3, Sha-Ger” (“Shager” is Hebrew for “Launch”). (Kan TV).
- Donors to Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza are disgusted by the way they are used as terror command and control centers by Hamas (IDF Spokesman)
- President Biden spoke with PM Benjamin Netanyahu regarding a humanitarian pause. Israel’s clear position is yes only if all its hostages are released. Biden is pressing for a less than ideal deal. CIA Director William Burns is in Israel to purse such a less than optimal deal (Kan TV).
- The Thailand government says it has received signs that Thai citizens held as hostages by Hamas are still alive (Kan TV).
- The US has reported sending a heavily armed submarine to support the US naval presence in the Middle East (Kan radio).
Sunday November 5, 2023
- The ground campaign in Gaza continues. Skirmishes continue on the Israel-Lebanon border. Since October 7, 1400 Israelis have died including 345 IDF soldiers. And 241 Israelis were taken hostage in Gaza. Friction reported on the West Bank, a terrorist was neutralized in Abu Dis, East Jerusalem.
- In the last 16 days, 568 supply trucks have entered Gaza from Egypt and another 75 are on the way according to reports in Qatar (Israel Kan News).
- Many houses vacated by people moving to southern Gaza are booby-trapped, according to IDF troops in the field.
- Many houses in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza bordering Israel, contain entrance shafts to the “Metro” underground tunnel system, according to IDF troops in the field.
- The IDF Spokesman gave a press conference in English and played intercepted Hamas messages explaining that Hamas has 10,000 liters of fuel underneath hospitals in Gaza. Also that the tunnels and hospitals are for defense of Hamas operatives not civilians. The IDF will send the evidence to US and UK intelligence agencies for verification.
- The IDF Spokesman also presented video (TV) pictures of Hamas terrorists shooting from the Qatari hospital in Gaza and tunnel entrances to the Qatari and Indonesian hospitals.
- PM Benjamin Netanyahu suspended heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu of the Otzma Yehudit party. He was asked in a radio interview whether an atom bomb should be dropped on Gaza and replied this is an option. Israelis found the idea abhorrent and want to see the Minister fired not just suspended. The PM’s Office said on X/Twitter: Minister “Amihai Eliyahu’s statements are not based in reality. Israel and the IDF are operating in accordance with the highest standards of international law to avoid harming innocents. We will continue to do so until our victory.”
- Hamas terrorists fired mortars and anti tank missiles at IDF troops who operated to open the Salah Al-Din humanitarian route for the evacuation of residents from northern Gaza southwards (Israeli PM Office on X/Twitter)