War Summary, Day One Hundred and Sixty Six: The IDF and Shin Bet targeted a vehicle in Jenin with a drone strike eliminating three terrorists, the raid at Shifa Hospital is ongoing with 90 terrorists already eliminated in fierce battle and over 600 suspects arrested, and Mahmoud Qawasmeh who was involved in the 2014 kidnapping and murder of three Israeli boys was arrested.
By Mrs. Bruria Efune
War Summary, Day One Hundred and Sixty Six:
134 held captive in Gaza.
112 hostages freed.
11 hostage bodies rescued.
35 hostages confirmed murdered in Gaza.
1,400+ Israelis murdered.
251 fallen soldiers in the battle in Gaza.
6 fallen soldiers in Northern Israel.
3 fallen soldiers in Judea & Samaria.
14,900 injured.
14,120 estimated rockets fired at Israel.
102,100 Israelis displaced from their homes.
1 Jewish nation united in prayer, charity, and good deeds.
Top Headlines:
- Shifa Hospital raid continues, prominent terrorists arrested
- IDF begins strategy of eliminating Hamas leadership in Rafah
- IDF and Shin Bet eliminate terrorist who killed Meir Tamari
A note about rumors: As a rule, IDF soldiers are not allowed to share about ongoing operations inside Gaza, and would get in severe trouble if they did. If you read about an ongoing emergency operation, you can assume it’s based off speculation and assumptions, and not facts. It’s also very unfair to the families of hostages to spread rumors that could cause a painful emotional roller coaster for them. But it is always good to say tehillim (psalms) for our soldiers and hostages.
Hostage Updates:
Negotiations are ongoing, but thus far Israel and Hamas are very far from agreement.
Gaza Front Updates:
Hamas has not successfully fired rockets onto Israeli civilians since Thursday.
Thank G-d, very miraculously, the IDF did not announce the names of any fallen soldiers today.
The raid at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City is ongoing, and is expected to continue for several days. Thus far:
- 90 terrorists were eliminated in fierce combat
- 600 terror suspects were arrested on hospital grounds, of which over half have already been questioned
- 160 confirmed terrorists were brought to Israel, among them senior Hamas and PIJ commanders
- An additional 300 terror suspects are being questioned on hospital grounds
- 3 million dollars worth of cash, in both U.S. dollars and Jordanian dinar belonging to Hamas and the PIJ were confiscated
- A large number of Hamas weapons and RPGs were found
- 3,700 non-patient civilians evacuated to a humanitarian zone south of Gaza City
- Zero civilians harmed
- The IDF delivered 1,800 liters of water, 3.8 tons of food, two generators, and a truck of fuel to the hospital.
A large number of terrorists are still in the hospital, hiding between patients and medical staff. The battles have been incredibly challenging and dangerous for IDF soldiers, who are coming face to face with armed terrorists inside a building which the terrorists are familiar with, but the soldiers are new to. It’s difficult to overstate what a miracle and achievement their success is so far, and the necessity to keep praying for their safety.
A number of senior terrorists have been captured, most of whom the IDF has not yet released their identities, for intelligence purposes. The IDF did announce the arrest of Mahmoud Qawasmeh, who was involved in the 2014 kidnapping and murder of three Israeli boys. Qawasmeh had been arrested from his residence in Judea and Samaria, but was later released in the Gilad Shalit deal and exiled to Gaza, where he returned to his terror planning activities.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi visited the troops at Shifa Hospital, and gave them strong words of encouragement, telling them that the operation is putting strong pressure on Hamas to concede in the hostage release negotiations, due to the high ranking terrorists who are being arrested and the collapse of Hamas’s attempt to reposition in Northern Gaza.
Halevi emphasized that while the terrorists who engage in fire should be eliminated, it’s preferable to capture them alive, due to the valuable intelligence they provide in interrogations.
In other areas in Northern Gaza, the IDF struck a Hamas tunnel shaft which was identified after terrorists used it to launch a rocket towards Sderot–but failed and hit Gaza instead. In the Jabaliya area the IDF identified and struck a cell of six Hamas terrorists.
In Central Gaza the IDF is continuing with targeted operations, and is preparing to expand going operations in some areas where two Hamas battalions are still functioning.
In Southern Gaza, IDF troops are battling Hamas in Qarara, just north of Khan Younis, near Hamad.
Further south, in Rafah, the IDF used an airstrike to target senior officers in Hamas’s “emergency committee.” Five terrorists were eliminated. Of the group, three were heads of the committee in north and east Rafah, and one was the chief operations officer. The terrorists worked in diverting humanitarian aid—either for Hamas troops or for profit and in coordinating Hamas wartime activity on ground.
Reports in Rafah indicate that the IDF is also systematically eliminating community leaders who act to keep Hamas in power.
PM Netanyahu, in reference to his conversation with Biden, said: “While we are preparing to enter Rafah, and it will take some time, we continue to operate with all our might. We continue to operate in Khan Yunis, in the Center camps, eliminating and capturing senior Hamas officials as we did now in Shifa, eliminating many hundreds more terrorists.”
The Biden administration is attempting to talk Israel into alternative methods of operation in Rafah, without a ground invasion.
Gaza Humanitarian Efforts Updates:
77 tons, which are 169,000 pounds of food airdropped over northern Gaza.
189 humanitarian aid trucks were inspected by Israel and transferred to Gaza
Only 120 trucks were distributed within Gaza, out of which 72 were by the UN
Over 200,000 doses of vaccines for Diphtheria, Tetanus, whooping cough, and Hepatitis B donated by UNICEF arrived in Gaza yesterday, March 19. This is in addition to over 1 million doses of a variety of vaccines transferred to Gaza in late December.
Israel is now transferring a significant amount of aid directly from the Kerem Shalom crossing. The IDF and Israeli police set up a series of road blocks and high level security on the roads leading to the crossing, making it near impossible for any protesters to arrive and block the transfer of aid.
Northern Front Updates:
Hezbollah continued to fire missiles on civilian communities Israel’s far north. No physical injuries were reported, but heavy damage has been done to the homes and infrastructure of those communities since the start of the war.
The IDF continued attacking Hezbollah positions in Southern Lebanon, including buildings were terrorists were known to be inside.
Since the beginning of the war, the IDF has been heavily targeting Hezbollah’s weapons stockpiles, and ability to import and move around weapons. Today the IDF released a video demonstrating how Hezbollah stores their weapons in the heart of civilian populations, in order to use the civilians as human shields.
Judea and Samaria Updates:
The IDF and Shin Bet targeted a moving vehicle in Jenin with a drone strike, eliminating three terrorists, amongst them Ahmed Barakat, a Palestinians terrorist who was responsible for the deadly shooting attack which killed Meir Tamari near his home in Hermesh last May. Also in the car was a commander of a local PIJ wing. The two were also responsible for ongoing terror activity in Israel, including bomb attacks against IDF troops.
IDF troops have begun a large-scale counterterrorism operation in Nur-al-Shams, near Tulkarem, which is expected to last through the night. Local Palestinians media reported an Israeli airstrike in the area, targeting two terrorists who were a threat to IDF troops.
Palestinians threw Molotov cocktails at vehicles on the Jerusalem Gush Etzion road between the El Khader junction and the tunnel checkpoint. There are no casualties.
A new poll released by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 71% of Palestinians in Gaza and Judea and Samaria back the October 7 massacres.
International Updates:
Saudi Arabia announced that they will donate $40 million to UNRWA.
The U.S. announced that it is freezing UNRWA donations until 2025.
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