War Day 75: IDF Takes Full Control of Jabaliya, 3 Soldiers Killed

War Summary, Day Seventy Five: The Isreali Defense Force took complete control of the city of Jabaliya, three IDF soldiers were killed, almost 3,000 Israelis were significantly wounded since the start of the war.

By Mrs. Bruriah Efune

War Summary, Day Seventy Five:

129 held captive in Gaza.
110 hostages freed.
11 hostage bodies rescued.
20 hostages confirmed murdered in Gaza.
1,300+ Israelis murdered.
132 fallen soldiers since entering Gaza.
7,800 injured.
11,580 rockets fired at Israel.
187,533 Israelis displaced from their homes.
1 Jewish nation united in prayer, charity, and good deeds.

Hostage Updates:

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) published a video of two hostages, Elad Katzir, 47, and Gadi Mozes, 79, in which they plea to be released. Both men are from Kibbutz Nir Oz, and their family members say they look significantly thinner, older, and worn out in the videos. The IDF requests that such videos not be watched or shared, out of respect to the hostages and their families, and also not to assist in psychological terrorism.

President Isaac Herzog said to ambassadors from around the world, “Israel is ready to hold another humanitarian truce in order to allow the release of hostages. The responsibility rests fully on Sinwar and the Hamas leadership.”

The Prime Minister of Qatar met with the Mossad director and the US Central Intelligence Agency on Monday to discuss the steps to release hostages. The meeting was positive but no deal is imminent. The three met in Warsaw, Poland, and discussed a similar deal to the earlier temporary ceasefire and release of terrorists in exchange for hostages.

Meanwhile, Senior Hamas official, Bassem Naim, once again stated that “there is no negotiation regarding the hostages without the end of the aggression in Gaza first. The organization [Hamas] is open to any initiative that will lighten the burden with us.” He also attacked America and accused that “America is complicit in the Zionist crimes against our people.”

Israel will not agree to a complete end in the fighting, and won’t begin a temporary ceasefire without a hostage-release agreement first.

Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh is expected to arrive in Egypt tomorrow to discuss a ceasefire.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, met with representatives of the families of the abductees, in Tel Aviv. Netanyahu said to the families, “We are committed, I am personally committed, to the release of all the abductees. Rescuing them is a supreme task. Just now I sent the head of the Mossad to Europe twice to promote a process for the release of our hostages. I will spare no effort on the subject and the demand is to bring everyone.”

The meeting that took place tonight is part of a series of meetings with families of abductees held by the Prime Minister. The meetings are held in a forum that will allow an in-depth and personal dialogue between the Prime Minister and the families. The meetings will be accompanied by the person in charge of the abducted and missing, Brigadier General Gal Hirsch.

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari reiterated today that a deal isn’t the only way to free hostages, and “The IDF invests a lot of resources and intelligence to locate live hostages.”

Gaza Front Updates:

Today Hamas fired rockets twice at Sufa, in the Gaza Envelope, and one large barrage to the wider Tel Aviv area. No hits or injuries were reported.

The IDF announced the names of three heroes who fell in battle in Gaza:

Master Sgt. (res.) Daniel Yacov Ben Harosh, 31, from Alon
Cpt. (res.) Rotem Yoseff Levy, 24, from Oranit
Sgt. First Class (res.) Maoz Fenigstein, 25, from Susya

War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz met with representatives from the Gaza Envelope communities, and later spoke about their determination for the war against Hamas to be completed. “They are strong and determined and their message: that we continue until the return of the kidnapped and the removal of the threat of Hamas, so that they can return to their homes [in security]. And we as the leadership are committed to ensuring that the process of returning them to their homes begins soon. It will be a complex process that we will manage responsibly,” he said. “The entire country is mobilized for this effort. Even when we move to the next stage in the fighting, the IDF soldiers will continue to operate in the depths of the [Gaza] Strip, until we achieve all our goals.”

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant toured the Gaza border, and remarked, “Khan Younis has become the new capital of terror. We will not let up in our action there until we get to the senior Hamas officials. The ground operation will expand to additional areas.”

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says the military has deployed an additional brigade and combat engineering forces to southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, “to improve operations.” Heavy fighting and intense bombing were reported in Khan Younis late Monday night, leading into the morning.

Hagari also commented on the vastness of Hamas’s tunnel network, and the IDF efforts to destroy it, and emphasized, “We must dismantle Hamas, and we will take as long as needed.”

The 162nd Division has taken full control of the Jabaliya neighborhood of Gaza City, and dismantled Hamas’s military capabilities in the neighborhood. Division commander, Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen, says his troops broke Hamas’s operational abilities in the neighborhood, and added,“Jabaliya is not the Jabaliya it used to be. We killed hundreds of terrorists in Jabaliya and arrested around 500 suspects in terror activities, some of whom took part in the events of the October 7th.”

Many of the Hamas terrorists captured in in Jabaliya were hiding in hospitals and schools. In addition to those captured, the IDF estimates that around 1,000 Hamas terrorists have been eliminated in Jabaliya. Jabaliya is home to at least 70 of the estimated 1,500 terrorists who took part in the October 7th ground attacks, and so far the IDF destroyed the homes of 57 of them. The IDF also destroyed Hamas training grounds, command centers, weapon production plants, and tunnels in Jabaliya.

The Division also found Hamas intelligence materials during operations in Jabaliya, which assisted the troops in further operations.

Shejaiya continues to bring the most difficult battles, but the IDF is steadily advancing and hopes to complete the neighborhood’s capture in the coming days. In Shejaiya today soldiers of the Combat Engineering Corps’ elite Yahalom unit located a bomb hidden inside a health clinic, and the Bismalch Brigade discovered many hidden Hamas weapons.

In an unidentified area of Gaza City, troops located and destroyed a tunnel shaft near the coast, which they exploded. After the tunnel was exploded, a group of Hamas operatives were spotted fleeing to a nearby building, so the IDF troops called for an air strike, and the IAF eliminated them.

The IDF and Shin Bet announced that Subhi Farwanah was eliminated in an air strike in Rafah, Southern Gaza. Farwanah was a prominent money exchanger, and one of the few who was able to transfer money to Hamas’s military wing undetected, even during the war. Farwanah has transferred tens of millions of dollars to Hamas’s military wing over the last few years. Hamas’s military wing depends on transferred funds to be able to fight. The funds come from Iran and other countries, and are “cleaned” to avoid international eye, by Farwanah and other money exchangers.

Gaza Humanitarian Efforts Updates:

Egypt allowed the evacuation of 192 Palestinian children and chaperones from Gaza to Turkey through the Al-Arish airport.

127 humanitarian aid trucks were inspected and transferred to the Gaza Strip today, coordinated by the IDF.

Today, President Isaac Herzog hosted ambassadors & diplomats from over 80 countries for a briefing in which he urged the international organizations to improve the delivery of aid inside Gaza. Col. Elad Goren, head of COGAT’s civil department, provided updates regarding Israel’s humanitarian efforts.

The IDF published a video of Ahmad Kahalot, Director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, who was arrested and taken to Israel for intelligence purposes. In the video he described how the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades terror group used the hospital as military headquarters, and hid at least one hostage in it. He said that many employees in the hospitals–including doctors and nurses—were actually terrorists. The terror group even had their own “ambulance” used for transportation of terrorist needs, and refused to lend it to the hospital when it was desperately needed.

Removing terror groups from Gaza will allow Gaza civilians a safer reality in the long-term.

Northern Front Updates:

Hezbollah launched a heavy missile attacks on northern Israel, and sent three attack drones into the territory. All drone threats were removed by IDF air-defense, as were most missiles. Two IDF reservists were moderately wounded by missile fire near Malkiya.

The IDF shelled Hezbollah targets and removed “threats” in southern Lebanon with artillery fire, and carried an airstrike against a terror cell operating on the Lebanon border.

According to Hezbollah, the IDF has eliminated 114 of their terrorists in Lebanon since the start of the war, including three today.

Houthi War Fronts Updates:

The Houthis in Yemen continued to attack ships in the Red Sea today.

A senior US military official said at least 12 commercial and merchant vessels in the Red Sea have been attacked by the Houthis over the last month—a scale not seen in “two generations.”

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced a new multinational naval task force comprising the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Norway and others, to “tackle the challenge posed by this non-state actor” that “threatens the free flow of commerce, endangers innocent mariners, and violates international law.”

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a Houthi spokesperson, told Al Jazeera on Monday that the group would confront any US-led coalition in the Red Sea.

Judea and Samaria Updates:

Overnight, the IDF operated in the West Bank town of Aqraba to demolish the home of Osama Bani Fadl, a Palestinian terrorist who murdered Shay Silas Nigreker, 60, and his 28-year-old son Aviad Nir, in Huwara in August.

The IDF arrested terror suspects in Chevron (Hebron) last night.

General Updates:

2,816 Israelis are significantly wounded since the outbreak of the war, including 18% who are dealing with forms of PTSD. The head of the rehabilitation department, Limor Luria, presented the figures of the injured to the Labor and Welfare Committee in a dramatic meeting, and warned: “If we don’t get additional resources and workers, we won’t be able to take care of everyone.”

The ‘Yildota’ organization for socio-educational change in early childhood, announces the opening of a dedicated hotline, on a voluntary basis, whose purpose is to support and provide answers to the education and teaching staff on the ways in which it is possible to explain and mediate to preschool children the issues of war, hostages, sirens, and the complex situation in which the nation of Israel finds itself. The telephone number of the children’s educational hotline is: 0559448775.