"Amit Buskila (28), Yitzhak Gelernter (56) and Shani Louk (23) were escaping the Nova music festival when Hamas arrived. On their escape route they encountered more terrorists, were murdered viciously and their bodies were taken to Gaza. Footage from that day showed Shani's body paraded on a pickup through Gaza in display, and how she was spat on and hit by the innocent by-standers. In a complex operation their bodies were located today inside a tunnel shaft in Rafah along other bodies Hamas dumped there, and were returned to Israel for burial.
The intelligence regarding the location of the bodies was gathered from interrogations of innocent Hamas terrorists captured by the IDF.
Two Thai hostages workers held by Hamas are dead, the IDF informed their families. This brings the official number of affirmed dead hostages to 40. We can only assume the number is much higher, and that Hamas is slowly losing its remaining bargaining chips.
Question: dead Thai workers can't be used to pressure Israel. Why not just release them to their families so they could bring them to burial and find closure?
Rafah operation: UNRWA reported 630,000 people have already evacuated Rafah to the safe zones in Khan Yunis and along the coast (the IDF estimates the number is 800,000). This is much quicker than Israel wished for and that allows the IDF to push west. Seems like Palestinians totally trust Israel now, and leave even before receiving an official warning.
The commando brigade joined the operation, bringing the number of brigades in Rafah to 3 (under division 162). One of the main efforts is clearing the Philadelphi corridor and widening it, in order to put distance between the civilians and the border wall (Egypt is terrified Gazans will breach the wall) and uncover the tunnels running under it. I'm sure Rafah holds many secrets both Hamas and Egypt prefer they stay buried.
The Rafah crossing is still closed since the first day of this operation. Israel controls the Gazan side, but Egypt refuses to open it from the other. Why? That's because no one wants to be portrayed as going behind Hamas' back by working directly with Israel. So nothing goes in (aid) and nothing goes out (people).
Egypt loses millions from taxes and crossing fees it charges, Gaza gets no food through its biggest crossing... but who cares? Israel was even willing to let PA officials run the Gazan side under Israeli supervision, but they just said "no, thanks" (for the same reason).
This shows you how easy it is to talk about "the day after", but how hard it will be to implement. I'll cover this topic in depth in one of the future report. It's very interesting, stay tuned.
Jabalya operation (northern Gaza): the 98th division eliminated ~200 terrorists so far and captured 40. Jabalya is a one of the few places the IDF has not maneuvered in yet, and the commanders say it's one of the densest and most violent places they encountered. The IDF estimates there are hundreds of terrorists in this area.
Zeytun operation (south of Gaza City): Hamas managed to rebuild a new terror complex, stretching between 2 clinics and 3 schools, with hundreds of combatants, thousands of weapons, a little munition manufacturing factory and... tons of humanitarian aid they hijacked for themselves.
Hamas prepared well for this attack, but was surprised when it came. Most terrorists escaped without their weapons and dozens were killed. 4 IDF soldiers were killed from an explosive device. It could have been 20, but their commander decided they would cross the street in small groups, instead of the whole unit together.
The total casualties on the Israeli side were 5 dead soldiers and 19 wounded. Hamas lost 90 people (many other injured) and 300 assets, including tunnels, HQ and launching sites.
Mahmud Abbas, PA chairman, in the 33rd Arab Summit in Bahrain: "The military operation Hamas committed on October 7 was an independent decision by Hamas, and it gave Israel plenty of excuses to attack Gaza."
We're still waiting for Abbas to condemn the October 7 attack, but while he ponders about it Hamas responded: "We are sorry about Abu-Mazen's words about the heroic "Al-Aqsa Flood". The enemy does not need excuses to commit its crimes. Al-Aqsa flood is the most important chapter in the Palestinian struggle against the occupation, it put the Palestinian issue back on the world agenda and reached strategic goals: we are close to freedom and self determination."
Funny, they could reach freedom without devastating Gaza for the next decade, just by building a peace loving nation in the Strip. They had 19 years to do it... and yet here we are.
In a press conference with the Greek PM, Turkey's president Erdogan claimed that over 1,000 Hamas militants are treated in Turkey. He also faced Kyriakos Mitsotakis and said: "I don't see Hamas as a terror organization". The Greek replied: "let's agree to disagree".
Speaking of Turkey, Erdogan was counting on a ceasefire that America will forced on Israel (remember the arms embargo?) as excuse to stop the commercial ban he declared with so much hubris. Turkey's commerce with Israel isn't balanced and 76% of it is export. That means Turkey's manufacturers are facing loses in billions and for a country with soaring inflation it's catastrophic. The Israeli commerce chamber announced that 80% of Israeli importers already found an alternative to Turkish goods.
In addition to that, Israel imposed a 100% tariff on imports from Turkey until the end of Erdogan's term. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich decided to promote tariffs on imports from Turkey in response to Erdogan's measures against Israel. You hurt me, I'll hurt you back.
The US Army finished connecting the humanitarian dock to the shores of Gaza (without a single American shoe touching ground, they said) and the first trucks started rolling on it this morning. Hamas, as you can imagine, would sink this floating thing if it could and already tried targeting it with mortar shells a few times. Hamas does not want aid that it can't control, as it undermines its position as King of the Strip. This is exactly why Israel took over the Rafah crossing and why it supports this dock."
