View attachment 5970649Gaza Report / Friday, February 16
Last week, IDF forces encountered a Hamas company commander in the Zeytun neighborhood in eastern Gaza_City who came out of a tunnel with three of his men and surrendered. They all looked exhausted. During the initial interrogation, the man was told that his battalion commander had already been eliminated weeks ago. "What?" he was amazed to hear. "Why didn't you say? If only you had announced this to us a week ago, you would have saved us a week of suffering in the tunnel. We stayed downstairs only out of fear of him." (Alon Ben David, Maariv).
The only places where Hamas is winning this war is here on Twitter and in the fantasies of some Gazans. The story from Zeytun you just read repeats itself all over Gaza. Exhausted terrorists coming out of the tunnels and surrendering, telling the IDF they are out of air, out of water, have not heard from their commanders in weeks. This is how a collapse of a military organization looks like.
Only 6 out of 24 Hamas battalions are still functioning. The only thing that keeps them from being annihilated is a decision by the Israeli government. When Netanyahu gives the army a green light to enter Rafah, their fate is doomed.
The next weeks will be significant.
No news from Hamas regarding the Israeli hostage deal. It still wants #Israel to declare it has lost (meaning: withdraw from Gaza and stop all military activity) and then it might do Israel a favor by releasing the hostages during a period of 4 months.
Some believe that Sinwar is trying to buy time until Ramadan begins. This religious month is always considered to be a tense time with escalation potential. Israel always tried to lower the flames in previous years, but 2024 will be a different story. Benny Gantz, a senior minister: "it's either our hostages will return, or Israel will enter Rafah, even during the Ramadan."
The IDF entered Naser hospital in Khan Yunis. An interrogated terrorist spoke about 10 hostages who were held there, but none has been discovered so far, nor any bodies. However, dozens of terrorists were arrested, many of them participated in the October 7 massacre, and large amounts of weapons and ammunition.
In Gaza City, a high level commander in the Shati battalion, was killed from the air. Ahmed Rol participated in the October 7 invasion, and later held the captive Noa Marsiano, who was murdered by her captors inside al-Shifaa hospital.
Kibutz Nir Oz officially informed that Yair Yaacov, 59 , who was known to be hostage, was murdered on the day of the attack and his body is held in Gaza. His wife and two young children (13 and 17) were also kidnapped but released.
The number of live hostages is decreasing every day. Hamas's leverage is shrinking, and Israeli forces are getting closer and closer to its last hiding places.
Israeli foreign minister and minister for internal affairs denied entry into Israel from Francesca Albanese, the special envoy to the Palestinian territories on behalf of the UN Human Rights Council. This was done following her outrageous statement that "the victims of the October 7 massacre were not murdered because of their Jewishness, but in response to Israeli oppression."
She can use Zoom instead. The outcome will be anti Israeli just the same.
The Israeli government confirmed: Al Jazeera's offices in Israel will be closed. Good riddance.
Mike Pompeo, Trump's secretary of defense, visited Israel and met with first responders, politicians and... IDF soldiers. Pompeo does not apologize for his support to Israel, on the contrary. Israel is the West's "canary in the mine". If the war ends with anything that is not an unquestionable defeat to Hamas, the waves of radical Islam will reach Europe and America in no time. If you fancy Shariyah in your neighborhood, this paragraph is not for you.
https://x.com/AvniItamar/status/1758539809100894669?s=20
