War Summary, Day 666: Hamas releases horrific videos of hostages, Canada, UK, France, take steps to “recognize Palestine”, Beit Hanoun Hamas battalion surrenders, city finally flattened, IDF floods Gaza with aid, no signs of famine, Hamas hijacks most UN aid, Iran refusing to negotiate nuclear deal, Houthis launch missile at Jerusalem, IDF destroys large Hezbollah weapons facilities.

By Mrs. Bruria Efune

50 held captive in Gaza.
28 hostages confirmed murdered held in Gaza.
148 living hostages rescued.
57 hostage bodies rescued.
1,916 Israelis killed.
459 fallen soldiers and police in the battle in Gaza.
88 fallen soldiers in Northern Israel.
18 fallen soldiers and police in Judea & Samaria.
32,357 estimated projectiles fired at Israel.
1 Jewish nation united in prayer, charity, and good deeds.

Top Headlines:

– Hamas releases horrific videos of hostages
– Witkoff preparing an “all or nothing deal”
– Canada, UK, France, take steps to “recognize Palestine”
– Hamas celebrating victory, refuses to disarm
– Sirens in Sderot and border towns
– Beit Hanoun Hamas battalion surrenders, city finally flattened
– IDF floods Gaza with aid, no signs of famine
– Hamas hijacks most UN aid
– Hamas threatens Gazans who collect from the GHF
– Iran refusing to negotiate nuclear deal
– Houthis launch missile at Jerusalem
– IDF destroys large Hezbollah weapons facilities
– Hezbollah on high alert, possibly preparing for war
– Weapons confiscated, terrorists arrested in Judea & Samaria

Hostages:

Skip the next three paragraphs if you are sensitive.

Since Thursday, the PIJ and Hamas released two horrific videos of hostages Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David. Both appear severely malnourished and skeletal. Evyatar was filmed while forced to dig a grave, which he is told to say would be for himself.

The horror of these videos is twofold. One, that evil like Hamas exists, and two, that Hamas knows they can put out such videos to torment Israel, and the world will continue to believe that Hamas are the good guys.

Note: I looked through all international news sites, and specifically at their MidEast sections, and none shared the shocking image of a skeletal Evyatar being forced to dig his own grave. Instead the headlines are that Hamas is refusing to lay down their weapons until a Palestinian State is established—framing Hamas as heroes.

***

U.S. Envoy, Steve Witkoff visited Israel, and toured humanitarian aid operations in Gaza. In Israel, he met privately with families of hostages.

According to Axios, Witkoff told the families that the U.S. and Israel are working on a new hostage deal proposal, which will be an “all-or-nothing deal for all 20 living hostages.” Explaining that “President Trump now believes everyone must come home at once.” (Note: Trump expressed this belief back in February, when Hamas began to collapse the previous hostage deal.)

As usual, Witkoff told the families that he’s optimistic about making a deal, stating: “I don’t have perfect news, but I believe we’ll succeed.”

***

According to Amit Segal, Israel and the U.S. are preparing to give Hamas an ultimatum, in which they must agree to the:

– Demilitarization of the Gaza Strip
– Release of all hostages
– A temporary US-led administration in Gaza

Otherwise, if Hamas does not comply, Israel will launch a military operation to defeat Hamas. According to News 12, if Hamas refuses, then the Trump administration will give Israel the green light to take any military action in Gaza. (Again, this should sound familiar.)

Last week, Finance Minister Smotrich told a right-wing conference: “I state clearly and unequivocally: There will be no further negotiations with Hamas over a partial deal. The only possible deal is its complete surrender—the unconditional return of all our hostages, disarmament, the demilitarization of Gaza, the expulsion of Hamas leaders, and the option for anyone who wishes to leave Gaza to do so.”

***

Hamas is showing no signs of readiness for such an agreement. Instead, Hamas is celebrating victory after France, Canada, the U.K., and other countries took steps to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian State. Senior Hamas official, Razi Hamed told Al Jazeera:

“The initiative by several countries to recognize a Palestinian state is one of the fruits of October 7th. We have proven that victory over Israel is not impossible, and our weapons are a symbol of Palestinian honor.”

He added, “We adhere to the weapon of resistance. We will not hand over even a single bullet.”

Kan News reports that Hamas is preparing for possible IDF rescue operations, and has moved all hostages into secure underground tunnels.

Gaza:

Thank G-d, the IDF did not report any fallen soldiers in recent days!

Hamas’s capabilities are severely degraded, but they are still able to terrorize Israeli residents of Sderot and the smaller towns along Gaza’s border. Fuel from recent humanitarian aid deliveries may be assisting in the effort. Sderot had a siren on Friday, and Kibbutz Nirim after Shabbat at 1:00 am. In both incidents, one rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome.

***

Between Friday and Shabbat, Israel’s Air Force struck over 130 terror targets in Gaza.

Today the IDF confirmed that on July 24th, Salah al-Din Za’ara, the deputy commander of Hamas’s Al-Furqan Battalion, was eliminated.

There are now four IDF divisions operating inside Gaza.

Last week, the IDF withdrew Division 98 from Northern Gaza, where they had been operating in the Shejaiya and Zeitoun neighborhoods of Gaza City. The division is now preparing for their next mission.

Division 162 is continuing to operate in Northern Gaza, including neighborhoods of Gaza City, and finishing up in Beit Hanoun.

After nearly two years and several painful battles, the IDF says that the Beit Hanoun battalion has surrendered. The IDF released documentation of several terrorists emerging from a tunnel and surrendering. The terrorists then showed the troops a nearby weapons storage facility, which was well-stocked with weapons, tunnel equipment, food, water, and hygiene supplies.

The city of Bet Hanoun is now almost entirely flattened, other than a few buildings which are either being saved for inspection, or have been found not to be in use by Hamas. Troops are continuing to search for any remaining tunnels and shafts.

Divison 99 is operating along the Netzarim corridor, in both the north and center of Gaza. They are primarily destroying Hamas infrastructure above and below ground, but occasionally find and eliminated terrorists—most recently with tank fire.

Division 36 continues to work in Khan Younis, primarily around the new Magen Oz Corridor, which they are now using similarly to the Netzarim Corridor, as a spring base from where to launch operations. Troops recently located weapons caches and a long tunnel around the corridor, and carried out an intelligence-base arrest of a senior terrorist deep inside Khan Younis.

The Gaza Division is operating in Rafah and Khan Younis, as well as along the buffer zone.

Last week, footage leaked t social media, showing an attempt by Hamas to carry out a large-scale attack on IDF forces in Khan Younis, with an unusually large squad of 12 terrorists. The terrorists, who hid along a road underneath blankets, attempted to ambush IDF soldiers, and may have been aiming to kidnap.

IDF troops spotted the terrorists when they used an FPV drone (thanks for donating!) to scout their route ahead. The troops called an airstrike to eliminate the terrorists, but the terrorists fled back to a nearby tunnel before they could be hit. The terrorists also had a small drone, which they used to gather intel.

Humanitarian Aid:

Israel is flooding Gaza with humanitarian aid (mostly donated by other countries).

On Thursday:

– Over 210 trucks entered Gaza and are now awaiting collection and distribution, along with hundreds of others still queued for UN pickup.
– Over 200 trucks were collected and distributed by the UN and other international organizations.
– 4 tankers of UN fuel entered for the operation of essential humanitarian systems.
– 43 pallets of aid were airdropped in cooperation with the UAE, Egypt and Jordan.

These numbers have been rising daily, though most recent data hasn’t been updated yet.

Daily airdrops of aid continue to increase, as do countries joining in. On Friday, 90 pallets of aid were dropped, and today 126 were dropped in collaboration with Spain, France, and Germany.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) continues to distribute between 1.5 to 2 million meals per day, without allowing Hamas to profit.

In contrast, the UN reports that between May 19th to July 29th, a whopping 87% of 2,010 UN trucks of food were “intercepted” either by crowds or “armed actors” (aka, Hamas).

Hamas has published explicit threats to Gazans who collect aid from the GHF.

***

Last week, work began to connect the Emirati water line from the desalination plant in Egypt to the Al-Mawasi area along the coast. The line will serve around 600,000 residents and operate independently of Israeli water pipelines. Work is expected to take several weeks.

Also last week, 180 patients and caregivers exited Gaza through the Kerem Shalom Crossing to either the Ramon airport or Allenby Bridge Crossings, for treatment in the EU and Jordan.

Over the past year, the IDF facilitated the exit of over 3,700 Gazans, most of them patients and their caregivers, through the Kerem Shalom crossing for treatment in a third country.

***

The IDF’s COGAT Division pointed out yet another instance of Hamas using a photo of a chronically ill child to push the “starvation” narrative, and blame Israel. Again, the photo was blindly shared by many international media outlets.

COGAT identified the child in the photos as 14-year-old Abdul Qader al-Fayoumi, who was treated in Israel back in 2018 for a genetic disease.

While children suffering from genetic diseases are a tragedy, Gaza has yet to produce any evidence of actual famine.

***

Hamas is continuing with daily claims that the IDF shot at Gaza civilians who were collecting aid at GHF sites, or raiding aid trucks in Northern Gaza. The IDF says that troops did not shoot at anyone in the vicinity.

Last week, on Thursday, troops identified a crowd of thousands of Gazans near humanitarian aid trucks entering Gaza from the Zikim Crossing. The crowd was dangerously close to troops who were operating in the area. The troops fired warning shots, but not in the direction of the civilians. No Gazans were identified hurt from the IDF fire. The full incident was captured on camera.

A military official says that an initial probe found that “gunfire was heard from within the crowd and there were internal clashes among Gazans within the crowd, in addition to several incidents of people being run over by the aid trucks.”

Iran:

Iran is now bizarrely demanding U.S. compensation for war damages as a precondition to starting nuclear talks (Times of Israel). Trump told media that “Iran hasn’t been saying the right thing, and isn’t speaking very nicely.”

Yemen:

On Wednesday night, the Air Force intercepted a UAV launched by the Houthis in Yemen. No sirens were activated.

On Friday night, the Air Force intercepted a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis. Sirens were activated in the extended Jerusalem area, and areas down to Arad.

Judea & Samaria:

In a series of operations this week, Israeli security forces located and confiscated 30 weapons found in the possession of terrorists and their associates.

In overnight operations at the end of last week, forces arrested 16 wanted terror suspects, including 9 who were suspected to be involved in throwing large stones at Israeli civilians driving in the Judea area.

Lebanon:

On Thursday, Israel’s Air Force carried out a series of strikes in the Bekaa region and southern Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah infrastructure for the production and storage of strategic weapons.

Amongst the targets: An explosives production facility used to develop weapons, and an underground site for the production of missiles and storage of strategic weapons.

There are continued reports (in Al Hadath, and reported by outlets such as Kan 11) that Hezbollah is on high alert, and warned local authorities to prepare for possible renewed fighting with Israel.