Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 96?

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was optimistic about the possibility of a hostage deal amid reports that Qatar had placed a new proposal on the table that would include exiling Hamas leadership and an IDF withdrawal from the enclave.

“As you know, we succeeded before in the midst of this conflict and getting more than 100 hostages out,” Blinken said in an interview with NBC tapped on Tuesday.

“And it’s my belief that they [Hamas] can and will engage on this. And that’s something we’re intensely focused on with Qatar and with Egypt.”

He spoke after a stop in Qatar en route to Israel and before his expected arrival in Egypt later on Thursday.

The US has worked with Qatar and Egypt to mediate a deal for the release of the 136 captives seized during the Hamas-led attack on October 7 and held since then in Gaza.

Likud MK Nissim Vaturi doubled down on comments from late November, in which he said that "Gaza must be burned," in an interview with Kol BaRama radio on Wednesday morning.

Asked about the storm caused by his previous comments in late November, the Likud member refused to retract his original statement, saying, "Hamas came and burned us, our children, in the Gaza border.

"Not that I am comparing us to them, but when the people want to stand up and protect their children from such horrible acts of the Holocaust, you come and enter with all your might, and that's what we did.

"I said 'burn Gaza,' burn, what do you mean? Go in and tear them apart. There is not even a thought here, there is no consideration. That IDF soldiers will not think for one second and get hurt because we have to be humane," he added. 

"When the people want to stand up and protect their children from such horrible acts of the Holocaust, you come and enter with all our might, and that's what we did."

MK Nissim Vaturi

Israeli forces operate in the Gaza Strip on January 10, 2024 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

The United States warned Iran and its proxy group the Houthis of “consequences” if they continue to target Red Sea shipping routes after its naval forces together with the British shot down 21 drones and missiles launched at them by the Yemeni-based militants on Tuesday.

“If this continues there will be consequences for the Houthis' actions,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters as he prepared to leave Bahrain on Wednesday night.

“We have also repeatedly tried to make clear to Iran that the support, as other countries have as well, that the support they are providing to the Houthis including for these actions needs to stop.

“It’s not in their interest to have the conflict escalated,” Blinken said, adding that “we are not the only ones who have sent that message to Iran.”

Bahrain is part of a coalition of some 20 countries, including Great Britain and the US, which through Operation Prosperity Guardian are working to preserve those shipping routes.

Houthi Military Spokesman, Yahya Sarea, gives a statement during an exhibition of surface-to-air missiles in an unidentified location of Yemen, in this undated handout photo released by the Houthi Media Office on February 23, 2020. (credit: HOUTHI MEDIA OFFICE/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)

Blinken: Int'l community must come together to respond

“Thousands of ships have had to divert” and “take longer routes” which is harming the global supply chain and raising the prices of commodities, he said. Then there are the 25 hostages the Houthis have seized as part of their attacks on ships in the last months, he added.

“This represents a clear threat to the interests of countries around the world and it's important that the international community come together to respond, “Blinken said.

He issued a similar warning while speaking with reporters in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

British Defence Minister Grant Shapps said it was the largest attack in the area by the militants to date as the three-month-long war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza spills over into other parts of the Middle East.

"This is an unsustainable situation," Shapps told reporters, adding "Watch this space" with regards to further possible action by Britain and its international partners.

"This cannot continue and cannot be allowed to continue.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

Christians throughout South Africa have risen against the government's decision to take Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on charges that it is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

"The African National Congress government and their allies' decision to take Israel to the International Court of Justice has brought us to a place where, like the time of Queen Esther in the Bible, we cannot keep silent," said Tshego Motaung, head of the Healing of the Nations prayer movement in an article published on the South African Christian website Gateway News. "We cannot keep silent when a government that has failed on its domestic mandate wants to rise as a hero in the global political arena."

Her article, published on Tuesday, came on the heels of an open letter by dozens of faith-based organizations in opposition to the case. 

"We, the South African Christian leaders, strongly oppose the decision by the South African government to launch the case against Israel and demand it be rescinded immediately," the letter read. 

"We had hoped and prayed that our government would use its influence as a peacemaker to bring about a meaningful and lasting peace in the Middle East," the letter continued. "Regrettably, it has elected not to do so and instead has chosen sides. We, as Christians, deplore the loss of innocent lives, be it the Jews, Palestinians, Christians, or any other people, but are strongly opposed to the decision."

The singer, Idan Amedi, still in Sheba hospital, asked to convey a message through minister Chilli Tropper, who visited him on Wednesday: "I will be fine; what is important is that we stay strong together," according to reports by Israeli media. 

Tropper, who visited Amedi at Sheba Hospital, told the media that Amedi wanted to thank the people of Israel for their concern and convey a unifying message.

The singer, who serves as a soldier in the Engineering Corps, was seriously injured on Monday during the fighting in the Gaza Strip. He has since been recovering from several surgeries to remove the shrapnel in his body.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Wednesday that providing more aid to Palestinians in Gaza requires a "decisive stance" from the international community to push for a ceasefire, according to an Egyptian presidency statement.

Jordan's King Abdullah and al-Sisi stressed at the end of an Arab summit in Aqaba that pressure should be increased to end Israel's "aggression" against Gaza and protect civilians there.

In a palace statement, both leaders - who attended a three-way meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas - said they rejected any Israeli plans to separate the fate of Hamas-ruled Gaza from the West Bank, adding the two entities were the basis of a future Palestinian state.

Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and the Defense Ministry successfully completed an experiment in the Rafael-made SPYDER All-in-One air-defense system on Wednesday, the Defense Ministry said.

In an experiment carried out in Israel last week, scenarios simulating actual and potential future threats were enacted. The experiment included an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) interception under operationally challenging circumstances, which was hit directly and accurately. 

The defense system is already operational in many militaries around the world and provides air defense solutions for various threats, such as drones, planes, helicopters, and even tactical ballistic missiles (TBM).

According to Rafael, the system includes two types of missiles: the PYTHON-5 and the I-DERBY. The All-in-One SPYDER is the new generation in the defense system, essentially a fusion of the main functions of diverse systems into one 8x8 vehicle. 

New upgrades reflect potential threats 

The new UAV interception capabilities can be added to another recent addition in SPYDER - an upgrade tailored to defend against ballistic missile attacks. 

Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Air & Missile Defense Systems Division Brig. Gen. (Res.) Pinhas Yungman said that the extension of the defense system to the ballistic missile defense is of prime importance. 

According to the company, "The system provides effective protection of valuable assets and first-class defense for forces located in the combat area. SPYDER’s open architecture allows external components to be easily integrated and flexibly combined, affording different configurations with various ranges and capabilities based on customer needs and priorities.

"Its autonomous capabilities can detect threats while on the move and enable a 360° launch within seconds of the target being declared hostile, in all-weather, multi-launch, and net-centric capabilities. All the SPYDER systems have multiple target engagement capabilities for handling saturation attacks."

Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this article. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday there will be consequences for continued attacks on commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea by Yemen-based Iran-backed Houthis and that it had been made clear to Iran that support being provided needs to stop.

"We've also repeatedly tried to make clear to Iran, as other countries have, as well, that the support that they're providing to the Houthis, including for these actions, needs to stop," Blinken told reporters.

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, met with the incoming UN coordinator for humanitarian issues and Gaza reconstruction, Sigrid Kaag, on Wednesday.

Ambassador Erdan expressed to Kaag his criticisms of the UN agencies' conduct in Gaza and their frequent public statements specifically against Israel, while the IDF allows the introduction of extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza, while Hamas is the one that is thwarting its transfer to the population of Gaza.

Ambassador Erdan emphasized to Kaag that since he took office three years ago, he has repeatedly warned about Hamas' use of the UN facilities in Gaza, and nothing has been done and criticized the organization for their "disregard for the digging of the Hamas tunnels in front of the eyes of the UN agencies in Gaza, led by UNRWA, including the use of their facilities to store weapons and the employment of teachers who are actually also operatives of the terrorist organization Hamas."

The governments of Germany and Hungary approved citizenship via passports to Israeli hostages seized by the Hamas terrorist movement, The Jerusalem Post can exclusively reveal.

The Post has learned that some of the hostages who received German and Hungarian passports were freed in exchange for Israel’s release of convicted Palestinian terrorists and criminals.

Some of the hostages who were provided with Hungarian or German citizenship are still being held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Israelis who received passports have family members who were born in the central European countries.

Dual citizenship could play a role in the complex negotiations to rescue the hostages because of the intervention of foreign states seeking to protect their citizens. It is unclear when the hostages were provided with the German and Hungarian passports.

Foreign countries that issue passports to hostages in Gaza could provide a layer of protection to the victims. Take the example of Sweden in 2018, in which the Scandinavian nation awarded citizenship to the Iranian hostage Ahmadreza Djalali, a medical doctor and lecturer at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

People protest calling for the government to find a solution to have the hostages released, outside Hakirya Base (Military Defense Headquarters) in Tel Aviv, January 4, 2024. (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/FLASH90)

Israel, Germany, Hungary all declined to comment 

Djalali was arrested in 2016 in Iran and later convicted of espionage, in what was widely condemned as a show trial. He has not been executed and it is unclear if his Swedish citizenship is impeding Tehran’s desire to execute him.

On November 8, Hamas was holding hostages from at least 28 countries.

When asked about European countries awarding Israelis passports, a spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry told the Post “We will not comment on this.”

The German foreign ministry declined to comment. Hungary’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Post press query.

In late October, Fox News Digital reported about American organizations that urged Germany, Austria, and the United States to issue passports to hostages.

Yigal Carmon, the president and founder of the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute, told Fox News Digital concerning Austria and Germany, "They should do what Raoul Wallenberg and others did during WW2. Now it is the time that the governments should be Wallenberg and save Jews because Hamas said they will only release hostages with double citizenships."

Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat who saved the lives of at least 20,000 Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust. Wallenberg issued "protective passports" to the Jews who were identified as Swedish subjects to be repatriated. 

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the New York City-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL), told Fox News Digital at the time "The idea of issuing emergency citizenship and passports to hostages is not just a good idea for Germany and Austria, but is one that other nations, including the United States, should explore immediately. It is a moral imperative to utilize every tool in the toolbox to get these hostages out of the hands of Hamas terrorists and to safety."

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action at the SWC, told Fox News Digital, "Every effort must be made to release innocent Israelis taken captive by Hamas. While the European Union meets to discuss the so-called humanitarian pause, Germany and Austria should work to strengthen their show of support for Israel and grant dual citizenship as soon as possible."

The Wiesenthal Center, which was named after the legendary Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, wrote that the terrorist group Hamas "announced they will deal separately with Israelis who have joint citizenship."