Israel-Hamas War - What happened on day 69?

Four soldiers from the 603rd Engineering Battalion, Combat Engineering Corps, as well as an additional officer from Golani's 12th Battalion, were seriously injured in battle in the southern Gaza Strip, according to a report by the IDF.

Another three were injured in a separate battle in the southern Gaza Strip.

All were evacuated for immediate medical treatment, with their respective families informed.

IDF's 12th Battalion commander hurt in Gaza fighting

One of the injured was the lieutenant colonel and commander of the 12th Battalion, who had already replaced the previously injured commander.

This came a day after 10 IDF soldiers were killed and six were wounded, marking a series of difficult days in terms of IDF soldier casualties.

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi speaks to Israeli soldiers on December 14, 2023 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Despite those benchmarks, only 12 rocket sirens sounded on Thursday, with no hits, and many of the rockets were in the North, marking a low for rockets from Hamas in the recent time period since the late November temporary ceasefire.

There were at least three rounds of exchanges of fire between the IDF and Hezbollah in the North, with the Lebanese terror group attacking with rockets and anti-tank missiles and the IDF striking back with air strikes and artillery.

However, there were fewer public statements about escalation from the sides as the week wore on.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday told US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan that it will take more than a few more months to finish off the Gaza War with Hamas.

Although this would seem to pit Israel in serious tension with the US timeframe for finishing the war in the coming weeks, the Jerusalem Post has clarified that Gallant was referring to the expected counter-insurgency stage of fighting Hamas.

In other words, Gallant and other defense officials would still stand by the end of January as an expected endpoint for the main invasion will the full volume of multiple IDF divisions involved.

Rather, even after the main invasion is considered concluded and IDF forces in Gaza are reduced to a number which can be maintained over a longer period, it has been expected that the IDF will need to fight smaller battles against insurgents for three to nine months.

The defense minister explained that Hamas had spent years creating its terror forces and infrastructure and that taking all of this vast network apart, would require much longer than the initial full invasion stage.

Gallant thanked the US "for its unqualified support."

Sullivan is visiting Israel at a critical point in the conflict with the Biden administration seeking to decide how much longer it will go on protecting Israel from global pressure for an immediate ceasefire. In addition, the two governments have engaged in a series of unusually public jabs at each other about if and to what extent the Palestinian Authority will be involved in running Gaza once Israel withdraws.

In addition, the defense minister said he discussed with Sullivan the question of how to neutralize the threat posed to Israel by Hezbollah in the North.

Along with that issue, Gallant explained how important it is to create new security realities which will allow Israel's tens of thousands of evacuees from the North to return to their homes.

The US has significantly pressured Israel not to engage in a broader fight with Hezbollah and Jerusalem has hoped that Washington will repay some of its restraint by leaning hard on the terror group to keep its forces farther away from the northern border than it has since the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

After that war, UN Security Council Resolution 1701 mandated that Hebzollah stay out of southern Lebanon, but shortly after, the group systematically violated those limits.

In addition, Gallant said Israel welcomes a global approach to holding off maritime threats from the Yemen Houthis, though he said any attack on an actual Israeli ship would lead to a direct Israeli response.

Trying to bring down Gaza’s top leaders, the IDF distributed flyers across Gaza on Thursday, promising huge rewards to anyone who would provide information on the locations of senior Hamas leaders hiding in the Strip.

The flyers state that $400,000 is being offered for information on Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, and $300,000 for his brother Muhammad Sinwar.

A lower reward, worth $200,000, will be awarded by the IDF to those who provide information on the location of Rafa Salama, the Khan Yunis Brigade commander; for the location of Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas's military wing, the army will give $100,000.

"Confidentiality is guaranteed," the IDF states in the flyer, and a phone number is provided to call.

IDF makes progress in Gaza's north and south

Also, on Thursday, the IDF made slow but steady progress in both northern and southern Gaza.

IDF troops from the 460th Combat Brigade of the 162nd Division operated in the Kamal Adwan Hospital area with the Shin Bet, with scores of Hamas terrorists being killed or detained.

During the operation, the IDF troops located a building close to the hospital that was being used by Hamas terrorists. An exchange of fire took place, in which a number of Hamas terrorists were killed.

Some 70 terrorists surrendered and left the building with their weapons and were detained and taken for interrogation by the Shin Bet.

This was one of several rounds of large-scale surrenders in recent days, though IDF sources indicate Hamas is still far from completely cracking.

Kamal Adwan Hospital is in the Beit Lahiya area north of Gaza City, near the Israeli border.

In mid-October, various media outlets quoted Hussam Abu Safiya, head of pediatrics at the hospital in northern Gaza, saying it did not evacuate despite calls to do so by Israel. The UN had warned at the time that hospitals would run out of fuel in two days on October 15.

The fuel continued to flow despite the warnings. On November 4, CNN reported that “MedGlobal, a US-based organization that supports local health programs for vulnerable populations across the globe, issued an urgent appeal for fuel to power a generator at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.”

A 60-hour military operation in Jenin led to the arrest of tens of wanted terrorists Thursday evening, according to the IDF and the Shin Bet. This came as a joint operation between the Border Police, IDF, and Shin Bet.

Security forces carried out an extensive counter-terrorism operation under the guidance of the Menashe Brigade inside Jenin's refugee camp and within the city.

Security forces swept buildings and detained suspects for questioning, leading to the arrest of about 60 wanted terrorists. Investigations are to be opened by security forces, who also confiscated hundreds of explosives, terrorist funding amounting to more than NIS 100,000, more than 50 types of weapons, and so on.

More underground tunnels and shafts were uncovered, including cargo laboratories and observation posts. Many parts of this terrorist infrastructure have been destroyed.

Mousa Abu Marzouk made comments in an interview with Al-Monitor this week. The comments were portrayed as Hamas considering “Israel recognition.”

In fact, nothing of this sort has taken place, and it is part of the Hamas attempt to portray itself as moderate in English while it not only commits genocidal acts when it has the power, but it pushes global extremism against Israel and Jews. Selling Hamas as willing to moderate is one phase in the strategic agenda of the group as it has its sights set on the West Bank and the region.

The comments by Abu Marzouk were characterized as a “shift” for Hamas by Al-Monitor. “In an interview with Al-Monitor, senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk suggested the militant group would adhere to the Palestine Liberation Organization’s stance on Israel.”

Pumping seawater into Hamas’s 480-kilometer vast underground tunnel network could destroy Gaza’s only source of water and cause harm to local and Israeli agriculture, according to at least one expert.

Clive Lipchin, director of the Center for Transboundary Water Management at the Arava Institute, told The Jerusalem Post that using seawater to help destroy Hamas’s underground labyrinth is an effective military technique but not one without environmental impact.

“If we flood the tunnels with seawater, the question is to what degree that seawater will infiltrate into the groundwater,” Lipchin explained. “The concern is that the seawater would mix with the groundwater and increase the salinity of the groundwater. 

“This groundwater, which comes from the coastal aquifer, is the only water source accessible to Gazans within the territory of the Gaza Strip.”

Even before the war, the groundwater in Gaza was scarce and polluted because of over-pumping that led to seawater intrusion, agricultural run-off, and wastewater contamination. 

Four soldiers from the 603rd Engineering Battalion, Combat Engineering Corps as well as an additional soldier from Golani's 12th Battalion were seriously injured in battle in the southern Gaza Strip, according to a report by the IDF.

Another three were injured in a separate battle in the southern Gaza Strip.

All were evacuated for immediate medical treatment, with their respective families informed.

More Israelis, 43%, have panned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s treatment of US President Joe Biden than support it, 36%, according to a Maariv/Jerusalem Post poll conducted this week.

The poll was conducted by Panel4All.co.il among 510 Israelis on December 13-14 and was published on the same day that US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan arrived in Israel to discuss the continued timeline for the Gaza war.

Disagreement over Gaza's future

It comes as the two leaders, who are long-term friends historically known for being diplomatically at odds, have had a very public disagreement over the future of Gaza after Israel’s military campaign to oust Hamas from the enclave is over.

The spat comes amid Netanyahu’s dramatic slide in the polls since last year’s elections when his party received 32 mandates.

Israeli drones launched an attack on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, according to reports by Al-Manar Lebanese media outlet.

No casualties have been noted, according to Lebanese reports.

Four members of the Islamist terrorist group Hamas have been detained on suspicion of planning attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe, German prosecutors said in a statement on Thursday.

Three of the suspects were detained in Berlin and another was detained in the Netherlands, according to the prosecutors.

"Following the terrible attacks by Hamas on the Israeli population, attacks on Jews in Jewish institutions have also increased in our country in recent weeks," said German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann in a statement on the detentions.

"We must, therefore, do everything we can to ensure that Jews in our country do not have to fear for their safety again," he said.

European authorities have warned of an increased risk of attacks by Islamists radicalized by the Israel-Hamas war.

All telecommunications and internet services in the Gaza Strip have gone down as a result of "the ongoing aggression," Gaza's main telecommunications companies Paltel and Jawwal said on Thursday.

The State of Israel's collapse is imminent, Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps chief Hossein Salami said in a Thursday evening address.

Salami was quoted by Islamic Republic state media as claiming that Zionists "are so weak that they cannot bear the existence of Palestinian women and children," a "clear sign" of the "collapse of the fake Israeli regime," he added.

The IRGC chief continued, saying that Israel's war in Gaza had triggered a global aversion to Israel. "The world’s hatred of Zionists is not confined to Muslims anymore," Salami was quoted as saying.

"People have rallied against Zionists even next to the White House and in the streets of London and Europe," referencing anti-Zionist marches that have taken place across the globe following Hamas's October 7 massacre of Israelis.