War Summary, Day 445: Sinwar’s brother collapses negotiations in Gaza, IDF will indefinitely hold the Philadelphi Corridor, Yemen upticks attacks on Israel, two high-ranking Jewish brigaders unharmed after bomb explodes under their vehicle in Shomron, and Mossad director encourages Netanyahu to attack Iran.
By Mrs. Bruria Efune
Chanukah Light Number One
100 held captive in Gaza.
37 hostages confirmed murdered held in Gaza.
117 living hostages rescued.
38 hostage bodies rescued.
1,789 Israelis killed.
393 fallen soldiers and police in the battle in Gaza.
86 fallen soldiers in Northern Israel.
14 fallen soldiers and police in Judea & Samaria.
30,668 estimated projectiles fired at Israel.
88,000 Israelis displaced from their homes.
1 Jewish nation united in prayer, charity, and good deeds.
Thank G-d, we have two days with zero war fatalities!
Hostages:
Negotiations appear to have completely fallen apart again, as Hamas returned to their demand for a complete end to the war as part of any agreement. Sources in Israel Hayom pin the blame in Yahya Sinwar’s brother, Mohammed, who is refusing to hand over a list of which hostages would be released in the deal, and backtracked on all other concessions (likely with Qatar’s encouragement). Mohammed took over as the leader of Hamas in Gaza after his brother was eliminated by IDF forces.
Israel’s negotiation team returned from Qatar, and is waiting for Hamas to go back to the original agreement framework. Of course, Hamas is pinning the blame in Netanyahu.
Meanwhile, on a visit to the Philadelphi Corridor in Gaza, Defense Minister Israel Katz stated ”Security control in Gaza will remain in the hands of the IDF. There will be no Hamas in power here, and no Hamas in the military here; in Gaza too, we will ensure that there will be buffer zones and control positions—and with that, we will work to release all the hostages home and defeat Hamas.”
Gaza:
On Wednesday evening, Hamas fired a rocket at Netiv Ha’asarah, on Israel’s border. The rocket was intercepted, and no injuries were reported.
There are currently three divisions operating in Gaza. The 162nd Division is in Northernmost Gaza, particularly the Jabaliya area. The 99th Division is in the Netzarim Corridor, which is used to launch small-scale operations in Gaza City, Central Gaza, and Khan Younis. The 143rd Division (aka the Gaza Division) is operating in Rafah, along the Philadelphi Corridor, and in the buffer zone which stretches along the length Gaza’s border with Israel.
The IDF’s Gaza Division, together with the elite Yahalom unit, are still at work locating, raiding, and destroying Hamas tunnels all over Gaza. In recent days, they destroyed one tunnel in Southern Gaza, and one in the center, spanning a total of 2 kilometers underground. The tunnels both had various brunches and multiple exit shafts, some of which were booby-trapped. A large number of weapons were also found inside the tunnels.
Troops completed a limited operation at the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza. Hamas terrorists had been using the hospital as a base for launching attacks against the IDF, including with anti-tank missiles and planting explosives. Five Hamas terrorists were eliminated during the operation, and several more were captured—including one who participated in the October 7th massacre. The operation was carried out based on IDF and Shin Bet intelligence, and the soldiers took precautions to protect civilians by facilitating evacuations of patients, medical staff, and civilians both before and during the operation, and had previously warned the Gazan Health Ministry about terrorist activity in the hospital.
An airstrike targeted a primed Hamas rocket launcher, which was positioned next to a UN building in Gaza City’s Shati neighborhood. The IDF gave evacuation warnings before the airstrike. Another airstrike eliminated three terrorists in Gaza City, who were preparing to launch a drone strike against IDF troops nearby.
Several more airstrikes were carried out in Gaza over the last two days, including to eliminate terrorists who posed a threat to troops on ground, and to destroy anti-tank missile launch posts and other Hamas infrastructure.
Yemen:
The Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen launched three attacks against Israel in the last two days.
In the early morning hours of both Tuesday and Wednesday, millions of Israelis in Central Israel were woken up by sirens triggered by ballistic missiles launched from Yemen. Both missiles were intercepted outside Israeli airspace, and above the atmosphere. In Wednesday’s incident, shrapnel from an interception landed inside a home in Be’er Yaakov.
The shrapnel illustrates why sirens for ballistic missiles are triggered in such a large area. Even though the missile was intercepted before entering Israeli airspace, the shrapnel continued the momentum towards the targeted area.
On Wednesday, a drone launched by Yemen struck an open area near Ashkelon, after a long journey circling Southern Israel to enter via the Mediterranean Sea. Sirens sounded in Ashkelon and surrounding towns during the incident, but no injuries were reported.
The Houthis claimed to have launched two drones, one at Ashkelon, and one at Tel Aviv. No drone appeared in Tel Aviv.
The Houthis also issued an official statement claiming that they thwarted an operation by the Mossad and the CIA in Yemen. They claim to have arrested several spies recruited to gather intelligence on the sites of Houthi missile systems, drones, and naval forces, in addition to the whereabouts of the Houthi leader, Abd al-Malik al-Houthi. Terror groups frequently make such claims, along with false arrests, in order to scare locals away from spying.
Judea & Samaria:
On Tuesday, IDF troops began an operation in terror heavy Talkerem and neighboring Nur Shams, in Samaria.
Amidst the operation, the IDF carried out a drone strike against a group of armed terrorists in Nur Shams. Three more drone strikes in Tulkarem eliminated at least 6 armed terrorists. Several more wanted terrorists were detained.
During the operation, a bomb detonated against a vehicle carrying two high ranking IDF commanders, Col. Ayub Kayuf and Brig. Gen. Yaki Dolf, along with other soldiers. Col. Ayub Kayuf, was lightly wounded when shrapnel hit his arm. The others were unharmed.
Iran:
YNet reports that Mossad Director Dadi Barnea has called for striking Iran, in response to attacks from Yemen. PM Netanyahu usually adopts Barnea’s advice.
Lebanon:
The IDF estimates that at least 44 Hezbollah terrorists have been eliminated by the IDF during the ceasefire, after each of them were identified carrying out terror activity in violation of the ceasefire.
Since the start of the war, the IDF estimates eliminating 3,800 Hezbollah terrorists, and wounding thousands more.
The IDF now assess that Hezbollah is no longer able to carry out major attacks against Israel. Part of this is attributed to Israel destroying about 70% of Hezbollah’s strategic weapons, and 75% of its long-range missiles. Although the key word here is major—Hezbollah still has the ability to harass Israel with smaller attrition-style attacks.
The IDF invited journalists to view a display which includes 85,170 individual items captured from Hezbollah, including:
6,840 RPG rockets and anti-tank missiles with their launchers
9,000 explosive devices and grenades
2,250 unguided rockets and mortars; 2,700 assault rifles
2,860 other guns including sniper rifles
60 anti-aircraft missiles.
20 Hezbollah vehicles
60,800 pieces of electronic equipment, communication devices, computers, and documents
300 pieces of surveillance equipment
Most of the Hezbollah weapons are from Russia and Iran, some were produced in Lebanon. A small number of the weapons meet IDF standards, and will be used by the army.
This vast amount of weapons only accounts for items that soldiers brought back from border towns in Lebanon, which is a fraction of what was destroyed in controlled explosions and airstrikes.
Other:
– The Defense Ministry signed a multi-billion shekel contract with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to increase production of Arrow 3 interceptor missiles. The deal will provide the IDF with a significant number of additional Arrow 3 interceptors, which are designed for exoatmospheric interception of ballistic missiles. The contract comes amid escalating ballistic missile threats, as the system has been actively employed against both Iranian-backed Houthi attacks from Yemen and direct Iranian launches against Israel in April and October.
– FEWS NET, a USAID-funded organization, published a report warning about advancing famine in northern Gaza. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew criticized the report on social media, calling it “irresponsible” and claiming it contained inaccurate information. Within hours of Lew’s criticism, FEWS NET removed the report from their website. A USAID spokesperson confirmed the removal, citing issues with population data and methodological limitations due to data availability constraints.
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VIDEO:
It says: “Mohammed [Sinwar] … backtracked on all other concessions (likely with Tara’s encouragement).”
My guess is that it means Qatar’s encouragement.