Israel at War: What happened on days 35-36?

Avichay Adraee, the IDF spokesman in Arabic, said on Friday that the rocket that hit Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip was caused by "a failed launch by the terrorist organizations that tried to fire at Israel," he wrote on his X account.  "According to IDF systems, rocket-propelled grenades hit the hospital."

يُستدلّ من تحليل الأنظمة العملياتية التابعة لجيش الدفاع الإسرائيلي أن عناصر تخريبية أطلقت قذائف صاروخية صباح اليوم مستهدفةً قوات جيش الدفاع الإسرائيلي العاملة بالقرب من مستشفى الشفاء في مدينة غزة. وبحسب الأنظمة التابعة لجيش الدفاع، فقد أصابت القذائف صاروخية المستشفى.

وبالتالي،… pic.twitter.com/0SGysrJHP0

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 10, 2023

In another tweet, he wrote "therefore, according to the information available to the IDF, the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip are responsible for launching the failed missile that hit the hospital."

US President Joe Biden and Oman Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said on Friday discussed "the importance of sustained humanitarian access and the importance of protecting civilians, consistent with international humanitarian law, as Israel responds to Hamas’s heinous terrorist attack on October 7," the White House said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that Israel is killing women and children in Gaza, in an interview he gave to the BBC at his official residence.

"De facto - today civilians are being bombed," Macron claimed. "These babies, these women, these old people are being bombed and killed. So there is no reason for it and no legitimacy. So we do plead with Israel to stop."

The French president said that a ceasefire would benefit Israel, but added that Paris recognizes Israel's right to defend itself.

He emphasized that France "clearly condemns" the terrorist actions of Hamas. When asked if he wanted other leaders - including in the United States and Great Britain - to join his calls for a ceasefire, he replied: "I hope so." Jerusalem has since rejected calls for a ceasefire.

"These babies, these women, these old people are being bombed and killed. So there is no reason for it and no legitimacy. So we do plead with Israel to stop."

Emmanuel Macron

Israel has agreed to four-hour humanitarian pauses to allow civilians to move south. The IDF presented videos and recordings showing how Hamas makes it difficult for residents to escape from the fighting centers in the northern Gaza Strip and uses them as human shields.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Emmanuel Macron shake hands at a joint press conference, amid the Israeli-Hamas conflict, in Jerusalem, October 24, 2023 (credit: CHRISTOPHE ENA/POOL VIA REUTERS)

Macron's visit to Israel in October

Macron, who visited Israel last month to show his solidarity with Israel, held that interview a day after a conference in Paris that dealt with humanitarian aid to Gaza. The French president said that the "clear conclusion" of all the governments and agencies present at that summit is "that there is no other solution except first of all a humanitarian truce, beyond a ceasefire, which will allow citizens to be protected who have nothing to do with terrorists."

The French president added "we do share Israel's pain. And we do share their willingness to get rid of terrorism. We know what terrorism is in France." However, he said that there is "no justification" for the ongoing bombings of civilians in Gaza. "It is very important for all of us because of our principles, because we are democracies. It is also important for the medium-long term, for the security of Israel itself, to recognize that all life is important," Macron said.

In an exclusive interview with the British network, which has already received severe criticism for its biased coverage of the war, the president added that it is not his job to judge whether war crimes are being committed.

On the other hand, Macron said that he disagrees that the best way for Israel to "defend itself is to bomb Gaza." According to him, it would create "resentment and bad feelings" in the region that would prolong the conflict.

According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, 11,078 people have been killed since the start of the war, while 1.5 million residents have fled their homes. Hamas does not specify how many of the dead are from the ranks of the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, while according to Israel it is several thousand.

Macron also addressed the tensions in his own country between the Jewish and Muslim communities. He said that France probably has the largest Muslim community in Europe and also a large Jewish community - and that his country and the rest of Europe are experiencing a large increase in antisemitism - all citizens of the republic should be "united against antisemitism," and should "share the pain or the compassion of Palestinians."

The executive director of Israeli media advocacy group HonestReporting said on Friday he accepted as "adequate" the denials by four media organizations that they had no previous knowledge of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, adding he was "so relieved."

Reuters, the Associated Press, CNN and The New York Times issued adamant denials after HonestReporting published an article on Thursday that questioned whether Palestinian photojournalists had tipped off the four outlets, which had used their images.

HonestReporting's Gil Hoffman told Reuters his organization had not claimed to know that there had been any prior knowledge by the news groups of the Hamas attack.

"I was so relieved when all four of the media organizations said they didn't have prior knowledge," Hoffman said in an interview by telephone about the article.

"We raised questions, we didn't give answers," he said. "I still very much think that the questions were legitimate and the answers were adequate from the media organizations themselves."

(credit: JPOST STAFF)

He added that there was nothing "problematic" with the two photojournalists from whom Reuters acquired images.

Reuters said it acquired photographs from two Gaza-based freelance photographers who were at the border on the morning of October 7 and with whom it did not have a prior relationship.

HonestReporting also distanced itself from Israeli government accusations that were sparked by its article.

"There are those who took our story and pretended that they knew the answers - the Israeli government, cabinet ministers, various Twitter personalities - we didn't claim to know," Hoffman said.

Reacting to the HonestReporting article posted on X, the Israeli Foreign Ministry had described the use of the various images by the four news groups as "a serious violation of journalistic ethics."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office wrote on X: "These journalists were accomplices in crimes against humanity; their actions were contrary to professional ethics."

Danny Danon, a member of Netanyahu's Likud party and a former Israeli envoy to the United Nations, wrote on X after the release of the HonestReporting article that the Palestinian photojournalists should be eliminated.

"We will hunt them down together with the terrorists," he wrote.

Hoffman said he had been "shocked" to read Danon's comments. He also said: "There are clearly things in the prime minister's office statement that are not based on fact. We did not say anything firmly."

Danon and Israel's government did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment in response to Hoffman's remarks.

"We are deeply concerned about the irresponsibility of HonestReporting in publishing such damaging accusations. Its executive director has accepted that there is no evidence to support the incendiary insinuations in the report," Reuters said in a statement.

"The baseless speculation in HonestReporting's post, presented as 'raising ethical questions,' has posed grave risks to journalists in the region, including those working for Reuters," the news agency added.

The AP, CNN and The New York Times referred back to their previously published statements, which included denials that they had any prior knowledge of the October 7 attack.

Ideological prejudice

Hoffman, who was a veteran reporter with the Jerusalem Post newspaper before joining HonestReporting, defended his group's decision to post its article without first seeking comment from any of the news organizations it had named.

He said that after the article was posted he had asked his team why they had not sought comment before publication.

"They said 'well we do not claim to be a news organization'," he said. "With media monitoring it's more effective (to ask for a response) afterwards, in general."

HonestReporting describes itself on its website as "a charitable organization" with a mission "to combat ideological prejudice in journalism and the media, as it impacts Israel."

Hoffman said he thought international media coverage of the ongoing war against Hamas was no longer giving prominence to the October 7 events, when Hamas killed around 1,200 people and kidnapped a further 244, according to an Israeli tally.

Israel's counteroffensive in Gaza since then has killed more than 11,000 people, according to Palestinian figures.

"(Our) article for two days now has returned the international public discourse to October 7. That alone is a very important accomplishment," he said.

Despite HonestReporting's suggestions that the Palestinian photojournalists had secured their images in coordination with Hamas, he said he was "happy" their pictures had been published. "Absolutely I want the world to know what happened on October 7," he said.

After speaking to Reuters, HonestReporting issued a statement saying: "We unequivocally condemn calls for violence or death threats aimed at bona fide media workers."

A spokesperson for Israel's foreign ministry said on Friday that the death toll from the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel had been revised to around 1,200 from a previous government estimate of 1,400.

"Around 1,200 is the official number of victims of the October 7 massacre," spokesperson Lior Haiat said in a written statement.

Haiat said the figure had been updated on Thursday. He did not provide a reason for the revision.

The death count, which includes foreigners, "is not a final number. It (is) an updated estimate. It might change when (they) identify all the bodies," Haiat said.

Tom Hand has gone from hoping his daughter Emily had died quickly after she went missing during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel to agonized thoughts of her spending her ninth birthday as a hostage in a tunnel in Gaza.

Emily had been on a sleepover at a friend's house in Be'eri, one of a ring of kibbutzes around the Gaza Strip targeted by Hamas in an attack that began in early morning and ended hours later with 1,400 people killed and about 240 taken hostage by Israel's count in the deadliest day of its 75-year-old history.

"Unofficial reports came in that she was found dead in the kibbutz," said Hand, who is now living in a hotel on the Dead Sea with others evacuated from Be'eri. "I was relieved. I was relieved that she was dead and it was all over, it would have been pretty quick."

More than 100 people were killed in Be'eri over more than 24 hours. Many were shot with their families or found dead with their hands bound. Rescue workers said some were burned alive. He had been at home and the gunmen never reached his house.

"You try to imagine the, the best, you know. You hope that it was quick," Hand said. "Crazy thought, for a parent to say but, yeah, it was a relief thinking that she wasn't in Gaza."

Thomas Hand, the father of Irish-Israeli Emily Hand, 8, who was announced dead following the October 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, then later confirmed as one of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip, speaks to Reuters, November 10, 2023.  (credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)

A 64-year-old Irish immigrant who came to Be'eri in 1992 as a 32-year-old volunteer, Hand worked as a printer in the kibbutz, where he met Emily's mother Liat.

Liat died when Emily was just 2-1/2 years old but the family had remained in the kibbutz where Hand's first wife Narkis also lived. She was killed on Oct. 7.

For weeks, Hand believed that Emily had also died in the attack before he was told by the army that her body had not been found. Then he knew she had been kidnapped and was probably being held in a network of tunnels built by Hamas.

"So now I know she is in Gaza and she's alive. She's going to be 9 in the tunnels," he said. "She won't even know it's her birthday. She'll have no idea of night or day or time."

"There'll be no birthday party, no birthday cake, no friends around. But you know, yeah. Now we hope, now we pray."

Beyonce, Disney: 'I've got to give her fun'

Since the Oct. 7 attack, Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip in a campaign of bombardment that Gaza authorities say has killed more than 11,000 people and launched a ground operation to destroy Hamas. The government and military have vowed to bring as many hostages back as possible.

Now that Hand has learned that Emily was alive, he said he had been forced into a complete mental shift to think: "OK, we're going to get her back, we're going to get her back. We're going to get them all back."

He said Emily was a fan of the American singer Beyonce and he focused on staying strong enough to bring her home and thinking of ways to bring her enjoyment.

"I'll make sure I'll get her to the next Beyonce concert. Bring her to Disney World, I'll spend all my money, every penny I've got to give her fun to make up for everything that she's lost and everything she's going through," he said, fighting tears. "I'm going to give her the world."

"We're all waiting for her," he said. "We know we're going to get you back. Be strong every day and wait, we're coming to get you. We're coming to get you home. We're going to bring you home."

The Iranian militia operating in Syria, which, according to the IDF's assessment, launched the drone that hit the school in Eilat on Thursday, launched another aircraft that was intercepted.

The assessment of the IDF on Friday, a day after the drone explosion in Eilat, is that Iran and Hamas were striving for the development of a regional war.

So far the operational developments have been contrary to the expectations of Hamas, but after the attacks from Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Judea Samaria, and Gaza, the IDF is preparing for the development of additional arenas from which threats will be launched against Israel.

At the same time as the developments in Gaza, the pressure exerted by the IDF on terrorists in the tunnels, which reduces the rate of firing of rockets, as well as the evacuation of several hospitals to the south of the Strip - interested parties such as China and Russia continue to promote their regional interests, within the framework of the tensions between the powers.

The American side is expressed in an air and sea convoy of equipment being transferred to Israel and in professional discussions about the combat methods and the operational experience gained by the American army fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Palestinians, are seen on the day of Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly's visit to the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt, October 31, 2023. (credit: MOHAMED ABD EL GHANY/REUTERS)

American generals realized that the scope of the tunnels in Iraq was not comparable to the enormous scope of tunnel shafts and tunnels in Gaza. The IDF also said that the US transfers intelligence to the IDF in places where they are specialized.

The "Imam Hussein Brigade"

The "Imam Hussein Brigade" was established in 2016, and it is headed by a man who calls himself Dou Al-Fakkar, a son of the Shiite village of Hanawiya in southern Lebanon.

In its first years, the division operated mainly in Syria, under the direction of the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, who was eliminated in 2021, and since then, Alfakar's status has risen even further.

Today, the militia he heads has 6,000 operatives of various nationalities, most of them Shiites, from Nigeria, Mali, Niger, Lebanon, and Afghanistan who were recruited, trained, and trained for a religious war in exchange for a salary of hundreds of dollars every month and new and advanced weapons.

In addition to drones, for the first time in history, an interception was carried out by the "Arrow-3" air defense system. The system intercepted a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis in Yemen. The interception was carried out in the Red Sea far from Israeli territory.

It joined the first operational interception of the "Arrow-2" system "Last week. The Houthis claimed that they had launched several ballistic missiles at Israel. The Patriot system was also used to intercept a missile that was launched towards the Negev.

Ziv Medical Center announced that two men wounded by a drone infiltration earlier on Friday were being treated for their injuries, according to a spokesperson.

One of the men is in serious condition and is undergoing a "life-saving" operation currently. The second man is in a moderate condition and is undergoing treatment as well.

A third person was also brought in for treatment after a missile attack in the Menara area near Lebanon.

The IDF responded by striking Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.

The IDF announced Friday night that the 401st Brigade had destroyed Outpost "Badr" of Hamas's Shati Battalion, leading to 150 terrorists being killed in the terrorist stronghold.

The combat team of the 401st Brigade attacked the area of the Shati Battalion and during the days of fighting, the IDF eliminated about 150 terrorists and gained control over Hamas's strongholds in the northern Gaza Strip.

In the last few days, fighters of the 401st Brigade gained control of Outpost "Badr", the main outpost of the Shati Battalion located near a refugee camp and civilian buildings.

IDF's 401st Brigade clearing Outpost ''Badr'' in the Northern Gaza Strip, November 10, 2023. (credit: IDF SPOKESMAN’S UNIT)

Multiple sites targeted

As part of the raid on the outpost, the forces of the 401st Brigade destroyed military headquarters and launch positions, this outpost is the last remaining outpost on the Shati border and it too was destroyed.

IDF also found and destroyed a site for the production of munitions, launch stations, and an underground network inside the "Ship" outpost.

The division operated at the "Blue Beach" hotel located on the coastal part of the north of the Strip.

About 30 Hamas terrorists barricaded themselves in this hotel and fired several anti-tank missiles at IDF forces. After the takeover, it was found that the terrorists used the hotel rooms as a protective shelter and to plan attacks above and below ground.

Chairman of the Political Bureau for the Hamas terrorist organization Ismail Haniyeh's granddaughter was killed in an IDF attack in Gaza, according to Palestinian media reports.

This is a developing story.