Israel at War - What happened on day 27?

Over 130 terrorists have been killed by the IDF during recent ground operations in Gaza, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said on Thursday.

The IDF also took out terror infrastructure in Gaza and destroyed many weapons caches alongside Hamas operating bases.

"IDF fighters continue to wage fierce battles against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip," the IDF spokesperson said.

The IDF struck Hamas bases using a combination of air, ground and sea forces.

Israel has "unique" solutions to the problem of Hamas's underground tunnel system inside Gaza, Defense Minister Yoav Minister said on Thursday evening.

Gallant added that the IDF has the capbilities to "reach all the tunnels and destroy them underground."

The defense minister further noted that Israeli forces are in the midst of "tough battles" inside the Strip, but that Israel has a "distinct advantage."

Lt. Col. Salman Habaka, 33, who had been determined not to return to his wife and two-year-old son, until safety was restored to southern Israel, was killed on November 2nd in northern Gaza.

“We will stay here as long as we are needed,” he had told The Jerusalem Post, in a telephone interview from the southern border during the first week of the war.

“We will not leave here until we have ensured that the security of the communities here has been restored to what it was” before the Hamas infiltration into the south on October 7, he had said.

During that attack, Hamas had killed 1,400 people and taken over 242 captives.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said he would discuss concrete steps to minimize harm to men, women and children in Gaza during his trip to Israel and the Middle East, as he said in recent days they have seen Palestinian civilians continuing to bear the brunt of the conflict.

Speaking to reporters before departing Washington, Blinken said the United States is determined to prevent escalation on all fronts, including southern Lebanon, the West Bank or elsewhere in the region.

In the span of three turbulent weeks marked by the Swords of Iron Operation and war with Hamas, the sense of solidarity that American Reform Jews traditionally held for Israel has notably dwindled, plunging from a substantial 72% during the first week of the war to a mere 59% during the third week. This pronounced dip, as highlighted in a survey by the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) and the World Zionist Organization (WZO), casts a spotlight on the shifting sentiments within a key Jewish demographic in the United States. Once steadfast allies, Reform Jews are now grappling with complex feelings of disconnection from a nation that has been central to Jewish identity and unity.

Let’s just understand the data before we try and understand what has gone wrong with the relationship of the largest religious-affiliated Jewish stream in America, and Israel: According to the survey, the proportion of Reform Jews who said the events will make them feel closer to Israel dropped from 72% in the first week of the war to 59% in the third week. The main change is expressed in a significant rise in the percentage of those who believe that the events "will not change" their relationship with Israel.

The IDF’s intelligence target bank efforts have led to striking over 11,000 targets in Gaza since the war started on October 7, a senior IDF intelligence official said on Thursday.

Further, the senior official said that on the first day of the invasion last week, the highly advanced artificial intelligence (AI) led target bank helped IDF fighters target and destroy 150 tunnel targets in one day.

Unlike in the past, 90% of the targets hit due to the mix of efforts by the AI and hundreds of IDF intelligence officials are being generated and struck in real-time.

While IDF intelligence has been using forms of AI for even longer, the program took a quantum leap forward in 2019.

The son of State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman, Hagai, was seriously wounded during an operational activity in the Gaza Strip, according to a press release by the State Comptroller's Office.

After hearing of the massacre on October 7, Hagai, an armored unit soldier in the reserves, received his reserve call-up and returned to Israel from a private vacation abroad, on Sunday and reported to the reserves immediately.

US Intelligence has learned that the pro-Russian Wagner Mercenary Group may be supplying Hezbollah, the Lebanese Iran-backed terror organization, with an air defense system, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

US officials said that the White House is still yet to confirm if the SA-22 system, uses antiaircraft missiles and air defense guns to intercept aerial threats like aircraft and drones, the WSJ reported.

The White House is concerned about this prospect and has been monitoring conversations between Wagner and Hezbollah, according to the report.

Iranian Jews have been receiving phone calls since the beginning of Israel's war in Gaza, threatening them and demanding that they break off contact with family members in Israel, according to a report from UK-based Iran International.

Following these threats, many Iranian Jews began leaving family group chats with Israeli relatives and even blocking their phone numbers.

Jews living in Shiraz and Tehran specifically, have received phone calls telling them to cease any electronic communication with their relatives after a committee headed by the country's attorney general “criminalized any action aimed at confirming, strengthening and consolidating Israel in cyberspace.”

Using Israeli-owned social media platforms was also banned, according to the report.

According to Iran International, Iranian Jews have also held some small protests in synagogues declaring that Judaism must be differentiated from Zionism.