Israel-Hamas War Day 131: What happened in Gaza?

The IDF named Staff-Sergeant Omer Sarah Benjo as the soldier killed by an earlier Hezbollah rocket attack on northern Israel on Wednesday.

Benjo was 20 years old from the town of Ge'a. She served in the 869th Battalion.

The IDF raised her rank to Staff-Sergeant posthumously. Her family has been notified.

Staff sergeant Omer Sarah Benjo was killed by Hezbollah rocket fire in northern Israel. February 14, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkey was ready to cooperate with Egypt to rebuild Gaza as he made his first visit to the country since 2012.

Erdogan and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi held a joint news conference on Wednesday in Cairo after bilateral talks, taking a big step toward rebuilding relations between the regional powers.

Erdogan said the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza topped the agenda of their talks. "We will continue to cooperate and stand in solidarity with our Egyptian brothers to put an end to the bloodshed in Gaza," he said, adding Turkey was determined to step up talks with Egypt at all levels in order to establish peace and stability in the region.

President Erdogan also vowed to boost trade with Egypt to $15 billion in the short term, adding that the two countries were evaluating energy and defense cooperation.

"I'd like to emphasize the continued connection between our peoples over the past ten years while our trade and investment relationship saw steady growth," Sisi said.

Lapid in Egypt to meet Sisi and discuss Hamas hostages. (credit: SHLOMI AMSALEM)

Ankara-Cairo relations

Relations between Ankara and Cairo broke down in 2013 after Egypt's then-army chief, Sisi, led the ouster of the Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi, an ally of Turkey who had become Egypt's first democratically elected president the year before.

The countries mutually appointed ambassadors last year. This month, Turkey said it would provide Egypt with armed drones.

Sisi greeted Erdogan as he emerged from his plane in Cairo with his wife, and they conversed as they walked along a red carpet amid fanfare, live television footage showed.

Erdogan has sought to ease tensions with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Israel since 2021 - though since October, he has publicly sniped with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel's devastating war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.

Egypt, Israel, Qatar, and the United States held inconclusive talks on Tuesday in search of a Gaza truce agreement. Cairo has made clear it will not allow an exodus of Gaza refugees over its border with the shattered Palestinian territory.

Mursi died in prison in Egypt in 2019. Other senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood are jailed in Egypt or have fled abroad, including to Turkey. The Brotherhood remains outlawed in Egypt.

The two hostages that were rescued from Gaza, Fernando Marman and Luis Norbeto Har, were released from the Sheba Medical Center on Wednesday, the hospital said.

The two are in stable condition, according to the hospital, but also said that it was clear that neither of them was treated with the medication promised by France and Qatar. The two had also lost a notable amount of weight. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum hadn't received any indication until the hostages' release from the hospital that the promised medicines were indeed given to them. 

The two had suffered from severe starvation and poor hygiene conditions.

Har also suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, and doctors had to balance his medication before release. The family members have not yet told them about the October 7 massacre and the 131 days of war in Gaza.

Undergoing medical examinations

Marman and Har underwent medical examinations with their family members by their side during their hospitalization. The Sheba Medical Center's virtual hospital will continue to communicate with the released hostages via video calls.

An IDF helicopter returning the freed Hamas hostages Fernando Marman and Luis Norbeto Har. February 12, 2024. (Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit) (credit: SCREENSHOT/IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

"Meeting with the rescued hostages and their medical treatment further illustrated the accumulated damage from 129 days in captivity, and the signs of captivity are evident on their bodies and in their souls," the hospital said. "It is clear now more than ever that every day is an existential danger for the abductees, and they must all be returned now."

Over 130 hostages remain in Gaza as of Wednesday, with many of them needing medical treatment. The hospital said that some of the hostages remaining suffer from asthma or diabetes, with others needing drugs for cardiovascular diseases. Some of the hostages are short-sighted and need glasses, especially in the dark conditions in the Hamas tunnels, where vision is even more difficult than usual.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn't approve of sending an Israeli delegation for follow-up talks with Egyptian intelligence officials in Cairo on Thursday, Walla reported.

Haim Rubenstein, the spokesperson for the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, responded to this development, saying "The families of the hostages were stunned by the decision to thwart the Cairo negotiations. It appears that some members of the cabinet decided to sacrifice the lives of the abductees without admitting it."

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces launched a strike on Tuesday on a cruise missile that was about to be fired at ships in the Red Sea from an area of Yemen controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi group.

This is a developing story.

Iranian pro-government Tasnim News said on February 14 that Hezbollah recently presented evidence that it is using the Iranian-made Almas anti-tank missile. The report says that Iran provided Hezbollah with the missile and claims a recent video released showing a Hezbollah missile attack on Israel has confirmed the use of the missile.

The report says, “from the beginning of the war until now, Hezbollah has adopted a specific strategy to confront the Zionist regime, which is based on the use of guided anti-armor missiles.” Hezbollah has used various types of anti-tank guided missiles since it began attacking Israel on October 8.

Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 and Hezbollah then joined the attack. Since then, thousands of missiles and rockets have been fired at Israel.

According to Tasnim Hezbollah has used missiles to target “Israel’s surveillance and telecommunication equipment….Lebanon’s Hezbollah has used a significant number of guided anti-armor missiles against Israel since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa storm operation, which shows their considerable power.”

The report says that Iran has supplied Hezbollah with a number of types of missiles via the IRGC. It also says that “Israel does not have correct information about Hezbollah’s anti-armor missiles.” The Almas missile was developed, Tasnim says, in an Iranian attempt to copy the Israeli Spike missile.

Upgraded Qiam missile on launcher at Iran's 2019 Sacred Defense Parade, held at the mausoleum of Imam Khomeini south of Tehran (credit: VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

Iranian 'copycat' missile

Oddly, Iran credits Israel in this regard with having a superior missile that Tehran sought to copy. According to the report, the Almas missile comes in several types, with ranges out to 8km. Other missiles, the report says, have longer ranges depending on the type of target.

“This missile, which is made by our country’s defense industry, was designed and produced based on a ‘top attack’ anti-armor missile.” Hezbollah’s use of the Almas was reported in January by several other news outlets. Hezbollah’s claims of new missile capabilities is clearly designed to have it test these Iranian systems to see how well they work.

Iran has done the same thing with the Houthis, exporting systems to Yemen and using the Houthis as a test bed. In essence, the numerous attacks on Israel by Hezbollah are now being watched closely by Iran to see which weapons work and how they work. The article clearly reveals this Hezbollah-Iran strategy and how new weapon systems are designed to underpin Hezbollah’s threats to Israel.

The Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday that more than 5,500 IDF soldiers have been wounded during the ongoing war since October 7.

In addition, the ministry said that around 20,000 are expected to be injured in 2024 and that it is making preparations for managing an increased influx of wounded soldiers in terms of providing financial and emotional assistance.

There are around 62,000 injured soldiers being assisted by the ministry from all prior wars, such that an influx of 25,000 in only slightly more than a year will radically change the picture of the ministry’s work on the issue.

In order to cope with the extreme increase in the volume of wounded soldier cases, the ministry has suspended a committee that normally does a more serious vetting of applications (and often disqualifies many or at least delays acceptance) for at least a year.

During this emergency period, files are expected to be processed within only one week (80% already are), whereas in the past it could have taken many weeks, months, or even longer.

Also, each soldier has an individual representative he or she can call directly by cellphone to ensure the file is not lost in red tape and bureaucracy.

A military helicopter sits on the helipad of the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov) as a soldier returns with an empty stretcher after dropping off an injured soldier (credit: CLODAGH KILCOYNE/REUTERS)

Care for soldiers with PTSD

The ministry also said it has opened up much larger services for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Forty-six percent of those wounded are reservists between the ages of 21 and 30; 36% are between 31 and 40; and 18% are over 40.

Seventy percent of the total are reservists; 7% are career officers; 10% are mandatory service soldiers; and 13% are from the police or other security forces.

The largest group of wounded comes from Tel Aviv, followed by Jerusalem, Beersheba, and Ashkelon.

Despite the progress, anecdotal evidence has given the ministry more of a mixed review. The new, streamlined procedures are sometimes said to be working very well but some major gaps still exist in some cases.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched a simulation of destroying Israel's Palmahim Air Base on Monday, Iranian state media Tasnim reported.

The IRGC celebrated "Guards Day," the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution 45 years ago, by blasting ballistic missiles at a simulation version of one of Israel's bases for the Israel Air Force.

Deadly rocket fire targeting northern Israel on February 14 illustrates that Hezbollah is not deterred and is escalating attacks on Israel, seeking to target communities deeper inside Israel. Israel evacuated 80,000 people from northern communities in early October because of Hezbollah attacks. 

Hezbollah believes it has impunity to attack Israel and has launched more than 2,000 rockets at Israel. Rockets fired by the Iranian-backed terrorist group wounded a woman and her son on February 13. So far, there has been no attempt to fully deter and prevent Hezbollah’s attacks. Instead, Israel prefers precision and proportional response.

While some official probes are weeks away and others are months away, one of the most profound debates that is already ongoing within the highest levels of the defense establishment is when deterrence against Hamas failed, The Jerusalem Post understands.

Put differently, when did the “concepcia” or conceptual framework for understanding to what extent Israel could keep Hamas “contained” through a mix of limited use of force and economic incentives fail?