Israel-Hamas War: What happened on Day 118?

The United States was hopeful that Hamas would agree to free the hostages as Qatar, which is mediating the deal with Egypt, hinted at positive progress that could lead to a pause in the Gaza war.

“We hope that Hamas...will agree to a pause,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington. 

“We have pursued this pause intensively. We have made clear it is a priority of the United States, other countries have made clear it a priority for all of these same reasons,” Miller said.

He added that such a pause would help with the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza.

US PRESIDENT Joe Biden speaks during a news conference at a NATO summit last month in Brussels. Biden declared the US will inject 15 BCM of natural gas to the world market in 2022, with more to come in the future. (credit: EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/REUTERS)

Qatar: No deal yet, Hamas 'positive' over Paris proposal

A Qatari official told Reuters that Hamas indicated it viewed a proposal for a hostage deal positively. "There is no deal yet. Hamas has received the proposal positively, but we are waiting for their response," the official said.

At the prayer breakfast in Washington, US President Joe Biden said, “I’m engaged on this day and night and working, as many of you in this room are, to find the means to bring our hostages home, to ease the humanitarian crisis, and to bring peace to Gaza and Israel.”

He said, “I also see the trauma, the death, and destruction in Israel and Gaza. And I understand that the pain and passion felt by so many here in America and around the world.”

A Haifa appeals court approved the termination of an Arab-Israeli nurse who was fired from Emek Medical Center in Afula after expressing support for Hamas, according to the Israeli court system.

The nurse was arrested after expressing support for Hamas, according to Israeli media. She was fired from their position as a result but appealed the case.

Local authorities threw away the case and deemed the termination was valid.

President Biden's new executive order is a signal to the whole world how seriously he takes settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday aboard Air Force One.

The order is a direct answer to the dramatic increase of violence we've seen from settlers to Palestinians in the West Bank since Oct. 7, Kirby said. 

According to Kirby, there are no plans at this time to target Israeli government officials. While Kirby said the administration did inform the Israeli government of the order before it was announced, he skirted around answering if Biden told Netanyahu directly. 

Entities who have benefitted from Qatari funding are among those advising families of Gaza captives recently, according to a new report published by Politico. This move has raised flags as Qatar has served as one of the primary mediators between Israel and Hamas.

The role played by Qatar in this scenario also appears contradictory - Qatar is the home to Hamas political leadership, and Hamas is currently holding more than 130 hostages in an unknown location in the Gaza Strip. 

Families of captives have turned to every channel possible to spread the word about their loved ones held by Hamas. In January, the Bring Them Home movement with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum enlisted the services of acclaimed New York public relations firm BerlinRosen to continue their campaigns.

The families are constantly working to keep their relatives in both Israeli and international media sources. Jay Footlik, a consultant for Qatar, has met with captive families in both Washington DC and Israel in preparation for their meetings with officials from Qatar, POLITICO reported.

Footlik's ThirdCircle Inc., a consulting firm, has been helping to arrange trips to Qatar for American officials on behalf of the Qatari Embassy, paying the firm roughly $40,000 monthly, according to information obtained by American media, citing documentation from the US Justice Department.

Families of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza hold up photographs of their abducted family members, outside the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv, October 26, 2023. (credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)

Footlik is a former special assistant to the Clinton administration. His longstanding relationship with Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe helped pave the way for Footlik to connect Qatar with hostage families, according to the POLITICO report.

Hostage families believe Netanyahu stoked tension with Qatar

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or his associates intentionally stoked tensions with Qatar by leaking a tape in which he insulted Doha’s efforts to negotiate a deal, the families' campaign to free the hostages said in a sharply worded statement on Thursday morning.

"All conversations that take place in meetings with the Prime Minister are recorded by his office and his associates present at the meeting,” the campaign’s spokesperson, Haim Rubinstein, said. “The families participating in the meeting had their phones taken at the entrance,” he added.

“The decision whether to leak information concerning the deal and its intermediaries is the Prime Minister's office,” Rubinstein stated.

He spoke in response to a story on Channel 12, which featured a leaked recording from the closed-door meeting held with the family earlier this week in which Netanyahu could be heard referring to Qatar as a “problematic mediator.”

Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.

Two former senior Shin Bet officials have told the Jerusalem Post their views about the when, what, and how a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 failure to prevent Hamas’s catastrophic invasion of southern Israel should take place.

Currently, opposition officials have been calling for the commission to already be established, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman has tried to establish his own parallel inquiry, and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gn. Herzi Halevi tried to establish an external review of national security issues relating to October 7.

Halevi and a number of defense chiefs have taken responsibility for the failure and signaled they will resign when they feel the current war is far enough along.

In contrast, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fought hard against establishing any commission anytime in the foreseeable future and has tried to blame anyone other than himself for the October 7 failure.

Ex-Shin Bet chiefs: Probe must be delayed until hostage, Hezbollah issues over

Into all of this dicey politics enter former Shin Bet head of the counterterrorism division for Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria Arik “Harris” Barbing and former top Shin Bet official Shalom Ben Hanan, who retired in 2022 after 27 years in the agency at the equivalent rank of a major general in charge of a whole division in comparison to IDF ranks – both of whom have no interest in the politics and are razor-focused on security only.

Barbing said that the commission is crucial and should never be delayed by politics, but must be delayed until the issues of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the tensions with Hezbollah in the North are resolved.

NEW YORK - The State Department released the names of four individuals who will be sanctioned under President Joe Biden's executive order issued Thursday aiming to quell violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. 

"The United States has consistently opposed actions that undermine stability in the West Bank and the prospects of peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike. This includes attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and Palestinian attacks against Israelis," according to the State Department.

"There is no justification for extremist violence against civilians, whatever their national origin, ethnicity, or religion."

According to the State Department, Chasdai initiated and led a riot, which involved setting vehicles and buildings on fire, assaulting Palestinian civilians, and causing damage to property in Huwara, which resulted in the death of a Palestinian civilian.

Who are the West Bank settlers sanctions by the United States?

Shalom Zicherman, according to video evidence, assaulted Israeli activists and their vehicles in the West Bank, blocking them on the street and attempting to break the windows of passing vehicles with activists inside. The State Department said Zicherman cornered at least two of the activists and injured both.

Einan Tanjile was involved in assaulting Palestinian farmers and Israeli activists by attacking them with stones and clubs, resulting in injuries that required medical treatment, the State Department said. 

The State Department said Yinon Levi led a group of settlers who engaged in actions creating an atmosphere of fear in the West Bank. Levi regularly led groups of settlers from the Meitarim Farm outpost that assaulted Palestinian and Bedouin civilians, threatened them with additional violence if they did not leave their homes, burned their fields, and destroyed their property. According to the State Department, Levi and other settlers at Meitarim Farm have repeatedly attacked multiple communities within the West Bank.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced on Thursday night that Hamas forces in Khan Yunis have been officially defeated.

He said that after additional gains by the IDF in Khan Yunis, 10,000 Hamas fighters have been killed and 10,000 wounded, up from around 9,000 killed and around 8,000 wounded around a week and a half ago.

If true, along with the close to 2,500 Hamas terrorists who have been arrested, the percentage of Hamas forces out of commission would now be up to between 56-75%, up from 48-64% around 10 days ago, presuming Hamas' forces pre-war were between 30,000-40,000.

Gallant's statement that the IDF has completed taking apart Hamas's remaining battalions in Khan Yunis, including in the western part of the terror group's southern Gaza capital, would also seem to be a week or a couple of weeks ahead of IDF statements.

Earlier this week, the IDF said it was on the verge of taking apart Hamas's final Khan Yunis battalion in the western section but appeared to suggest that it could still be some weeks before the process was complete.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visits IDF soldiers in Khan Yunis, Gaza on February 1, 2024 (credit: ARIEL HERMONI/DEFENSE MINISTRY)

It was unclear if some additional dramatic progress had been made in the last few days or if Gallant was projecting a bit forward by a week or so.

The IDF itself still has not announced full operational control in Khan Yunis as it did in northern Gaza in late December and early January.

Gallant vows to rout Hamas in Gaza's Rafah

The defense minister also vowed to rout Hamas in Rafah, where to date, the military has avoided using ground troops so as not to alienate Egypt.

However, an increasing number of top officials have suggested to the Jerusalem Post that Hamas's top leaders and many hostages may have moved from Khan Yunis to Rafah.

Hamas has given its initial approval for a ceasefire and hostage deal in the Gaza Strip, the Qatari foreign ministry announced on Thursday evening.

Israel had also agreed to the proposal agreed to in talks in Paris, Doha added.

Hamas 'unlikely' to reject Gaza hostage deal, will demand war's end

Hamas was unlikely to reject a Gaza ceasefire proposal it received from mediators this week but will not sign it without assurances that Israel has committed to ending the war, a Palestinian official close to the talks said on Thursday.

Hamas has given its initial approval for a ceasefire and hostage deal in the Gaza Strip, the Qatari foreign ministry announced on Thursday evening.

Israel had also agreed to the proposal agreed to in talks in Paris, Doha added.

This is a developing story.

As the war in Gaza continues, tensions in the West Bank are reaching a boiling point, according to a report in the New York Times. 

Since the war with Hamas began on October 7, Palestinian-owned shops in Huwara, the West Bank, have been shuttered, and roads have been closed by the IDF. A Palestinian shop owner showed the NYT reporter the total of NIS 130, or about $35, that remains in his cash register, with Al Jazeera playing in the background. 

The NYT reporter described the images on Al Jazeera as a hypnotic, incessant reel of children dying, flattened homes, dazed Gazans sobbing, dust and debris, and desperation and death. The reporter said that this is the “daily diet of Palestinian rage.”

He said, “We are caught. [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir arms the settlers with automatic weapons and tells them to do what they like, and where are we supposed to go?” 

Palestinians in Huwara recently maneuvered a front-end loader back and forth to clear rocks and rubble that the IDF used to block the roads so they could move more freely throughout the city. Sami Sosa, an American citizen living in Huwara, believes that the IDF will rebuild the barrier, reported the New York Times. 

Palestinians walk near cars burned in an attack by Israeli settlers following an incident where a Palestinian gunman killed two Israeli settlers near Huwara in the West Bank, February 27, 2023. (credit: AMMAR AWAD/REUTERS)

In Huwara, tensions have always been high. Yitzhar, a Jewish settlement with a population of 2,000, is on a hill above Huwara. On October 5, a 28-year-old Palestinian named Jamal Mahmoud Majdoub opened fire on a Jewish couple driving down Huwara’s main street. The couple escaped unharmed, but the Jewish residents of Yizhar retaliated, shooting dead a 19-year-old Palestinian, Labib Dumedi, the next day. 

In February 2023, in response to Palestinian terrorists murdering two Israeli brothers, Jewish residents violently rampaged through Huwara, torching cars, homes, and businesses to the ground.  

Since October 7, tensions have only increased. The New York Times describes the players in this situation as a weakened Palestinian Authority, a voiceless Palestinian people, armed settlers living in explosive proximity to three million Palestinians, and an Israeli military and the armed settlers with an ambiguous mission coexisting in the vacuum of putative but ever-more-inconceivable Palestinian statehood. Palestinians in Huwara view the IDF as the settler’s army.

The Palestinian prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, said of the situation to the New York Times, “I have never seen such a terrible situation since I became aware of this Palestinian-Israeli reality.” Shtayyeh directs policies set by Abbas. “We are not far from an explosion. Israel has lost balance and is behaving like a wounded bull. They’re acting in a mood of revenge, killing for the sake of killing.”

Continuous back and forth between Israelis and Palestinians in Huwara

After the violence on October 5, hundreds of Palestinians gathered to mourn the death of the killed Palestinian Dumedi. Zvi Sukkot, an Israeli from Yizhar and a member of the Knesset, erected a Sukkah on Huwara’s main street, which acted as a roadblock.

“As a member of the Knesset, my role is to ensure security, so I put up the sukkah,” Sukkot told the New York Times. “Jewish presence anywhere is not a reason for violence. An Israeli couple had been attacked.”

Nazi flags and PLO graffiti adorn a wall in Huwara, West Bank, October 24, 2023 (credit: COURTESY OF THE SAMARIA REGIONAL COUNCIL.)

Of his home in Yitzhar, he told the New York Times that he stands at the place where God’s promise of the land to Abraham was made. “This is where the Jews became a people. Of course, we belong here.” Residence in the West Bank is highly controversial. His wife said that when her father came to live in the northern part of the West Bank, he “saw the Bible before his eyes.”

Her father was killed by Palestinian terrorists in Nablus at the beginning of the second intifada in 2000 while visiting Joseph’s Tomb when he was 36. She told the NYT, “We always knew we were facing people who are killers. Nobody listened to us. It's hard to grasp the magnitude of October 7, but it's not a surprise to me. We left Gaza in 2005, and look what happened. If we left here, the same thing would happen in Tel Aviv.” The Sukkots believe that Palestinian terrorists do not care about the settlements in the West Bank but will only be satisfied with having the whole state of Israel, and even the whole world, and without Jews. 

When the reporter asked the Sukkots about the three million Palestinians in the West Bank wanting the same land and frequently getting displaced, they responded, “What should Palestinians do? Go to work, raise their children, and if they could stop killing us, that would be great! There is no reason to kick anyone out, but if someone fights us, we won’t apologize for fighting bank.”

Discussions with Palestinian residents of Huwara

In Nablus, the NYT interviewed Sara Abdullah, a 26-year-old who carried out a potentially suicidal attack on Israelis at the southern Huwara checkpoint on June 9. “Nobody told me to do it – I decided because I was so angry about what had happened. I chose Huwara because it is close, and there are many Israeli settlers and Jews at the checkpoint.” 

Abdullah described their lives as Palestinians as “children without a childhood, young men without prospects, living a life of harassment and humiliation.” She says that it is evident that in these circumstances, people will consider risking their lives to attack Israel. She told the New York Times that every Palestinian family has relatives imprisoned, killed, or maimed by Israel. 

She said, “There are so many children who have no mother or father because of the occupation. They would have grown up to be proud of what their mother had done.” She stabbed a female Israeli soldier at the checkpoint in Huwara as close to the neck as she could. The soldier pushed her away, and the blade did not penetrate deeply. 

Abdullah is facing a possible eight-year sentence. On October 7, she and her family celebrated “like any Palestinian.” She was freed from prison in an exchange of Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners. Abdullah told the New York Times that she would not do what she did again because she suffered a lot. She said that she is “proud” that Hamas forced Israel to release them and that “Israel had all the power before. Who cares that a lot of their civilians were killed?”

Her uncle interjected in the interview and said, “No. Some Israelis are human, and I hope we can live with them one day. I am happy to talk about our future. But when they elect a right-wing fascist government, it becomes difficult.” 

Abdullah said, “We will continue to be knives in their necks. We cannot share the land. We did not come and break down the door and take their homes.” She says that she is waiting for her land to be liberated.

Her uncle insisted, “The bloodshot on both sides is wrong. But they don’t want peace. Who killed Rabin? Us or them?” 

While speaking with the owner of a small supermarket in Huwara, the owner, Ahmad Odeh, told the New York Times regarding the terror attack on October 7, “When I saw what was happening, happiness filled my entire body, even if all of Gaza is destroyed. I was happy because of everything done to us and our children in Jenin, in Nablus, in Tulkarm, in Ramallah. But this won’t change anything in the conflict. The achievement will be zero.” 

The New York Times reporter said that not a single Palestinian in the West Bank would offer unequivocal condemnation of the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, and believes that October 7, 2023, will go down in Palestinian history as a day of liberation as a day of heroic resistance to occupation. 

For Israelis, the day will be commemorated as a Palestinian crime against humanity that summoned from the collective Jewish subconscious images of Jew slaughter through the ages, culminating in the Holocaust, the New York Times reported.