Israel-Hamas War: What happened on Day 169?

Hostile aircraft intrusion sirens sounded in the Golan on Sunday morning.

IDF St.-Sgt. Lior Raviv, 21, from Rishon Lezion fell in battle in the northern Gaza Strip, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said Sunday morning.

Raviv served in the 932 Battalion in the Nahal Brigade.

US forces, including the USS Carney, engaged six Houthi drones in the Red Sea Saturday morning, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement early Sunday. 

Five crashed into the Red Sea, and the other flew inland toward Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, CENTCOM said. 

The statement, posted to X, added that the drones “presented an imminent threat to US, coalition, and merchant vessels in the region.” 

MARCH 23 RED SEA UPDATE

From 2:50 to 4:30 a.m. (Sanaa time)
March 23, the Iranian-backed Houthis launched four anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBM) into the Red Sea in the vicinity of M/V Huang Pu, a Panamanian-flagged, Chinese-owned, Chinese-operated oil tanker.

At 4:25 p.m.… pic.twitter.com/n1RwYdW87E

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 24, 2024

The engagement was one of three separate incidents of Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea on Saturday morning, CENTCOM reported.

In the first incident, which occurred from 2:50 to 4:30 am Sana’a time, according to CENTCOM, Houthis launched four anti-ship ballistic missiles into the Red Sea in the vicinity of M/V Huang Pu, an oil tanker that is Chinese-owned but Panamanian flag.

The spokesman of the Houthis meets with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. August 2019 (credit: KHAMENEI.IR)

A fifth ballistic missile fired at M/V Huang was detected at 4:25, but the ship’s distress call did not lead to assistance in time. 

A fire broke out on board, which was extinguished within 30 minutes, and the ship “suffered minimal damage,” according to CENTCOM. 

No casualties were reported, and the vessel continued on its course.

Houthi attacks have led to deaths, economic damage

The Iranian-backed Houthi group in Yemen have been launching attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 opened a war between Israel and the terrorist group governing Gaza. 

On March 7, the attacks claimed their first fatalities, when a missile strike hit a Barbados-flagged cargo ship, killing three sailors, two of whom were Filipino, and the other Vietnamese.

Alleged Israeli airstrikes targeted sites in the Qalamoun Mountains, north of Damascus on Saturday night, according to initial Syrian reports.

This is a developing story.

The IDF targeted a workshop in which Hezbollah was storing weapons in Baalbek in the Beqaa Valley, about 100km from the Israeli-Lebanese border, on Saturday night, according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

معلومات اولية عن سقوط ٣ جرحى، ولا شهداء خلافاً لما اوردنا سابقاً #بعلبك pic.twitter.com/IXStezQZ6i

— Bachir Khodr (@BachirKhodr) March 23, 2024

The governor of Baalbek, Bachir Khodr, posted on X that initial information indicated that three people were wounded in the strike. The strike reportedly targeted a house in the al-Asira neighborhood of Baalbek, with Lebanese media reporting that the targeted site was located near the home of a senior member of Hezbollah.

Shortly after the strikes were reported, rocket sirens sounded in the Upper Galilee and the Golan Heights, with the IDF saying about 50 rockets were fired from Lebanon. Some of the rockets were intercepted, while the others fell in open areas. The IDF responded quickly by targeting the sites where the rockets were fired from.

Hezbollah took responsibility for the rocket fire.

Additionally, shortly after the strikes in Lebanon, alleged Israeli airstrikes were reported in the Qalamoun Mountains in Syria, north of Damascus. A fire erupted at one of the sites reportedly targeted in the strikes, according to Syrian media.

Thousands of Israelis have joined protests in Tel Aviv and Caesarea, demanding that a deal be reached in Qatar for the release of hostages, Israeli media reported on Saturday.

According to reports, multiple protestors lit fires on the highway in Tel Aviv, and one was even arrested on suspicion of lighting a tire on fire.

Israel Police stated that police were deployed in large forces in order to secure the planned protest and maintain the peace.

Israel Police added that they approved the request to hold the protest on a lawn near the Sarona compound on Kaplan Street, Tel Aviv, in accordance with the conditions established with the organizers.

Israelis gather in Tel Aviv for the release of Gaza hostages on November 25, 2023 (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)

"Part of Kaplan Street was closed to the protestors, with the aim of balancing the freedom to protest legitimately and the freedom of movement with minimal disruption to routine," said Israel Police.

"Despite the approval and a regulated area for the protest established in dialogue with the organizers, and at the same time as the police approved the protest, several protesters gathered illegally on Menachem Begin Road. They began to violate the peace by lighting fires on the road."

"At this stage, some of the protestors did not listen to the policemen's instructions and instead blocked the Ayalon road, which posed a real risk to human life. In light of the order violations, the police repelled the violators using means to disperse demonstrations."

Yair Golan speaks at a protest in Caesarea

In Caesarea, former deputy chief of staff and head of the new political party, "The Democrats," Yair Golan, arrived at a protest center and delivered a speech saying, "How can we engage with you when the country is deteriorating into an abyss, the hostages are languishing in the captivity of Hamas, the best of our allies around the world are turning their backs on us, the displaced have not yet returned to their homes, the ruins of the destruction in the south and north have not yet been restored, and the murdered are still buried in temporary graves far from their homes that turned into a death trap?"

"How can we engage with you when our beloved country becomes a third-world country, not liberal, democratic, or free in the eyes of the world?" 

These protests come following ongoing talks in Qatar between an Israeli delegation and Hamas officials, with Qatari, American, and Egyptian mediators.

According to the latest reports, Israel has agreed to a compromise on the amount of Palestinian prisoners it is willing to release, and all relevant parties are awaiting Hamas's response.

The United Nations Security Council is expected to vote Monday on a resolution calling for a temporary ceasefire to the Gaza war for the month of Ramadan that would convert to being a permanent one, based on a draft text from Friday seen by The Jerusalem Post.

The new text was put forward after a resolution authored by the United States failed to pass the Security Council on Friday, even though it had the support of 11 out of the 15 council members.

Russia, China, and Algeria voted against the text, while Guyana abstained.

The Russian and Chinese votes were more than enough to sink the resolution because those two superpowers are among five permanent council members who have veto power at the council.

The US resolution had also called for an immediate six-week pause to the war and the release of the remaining 134 hostages.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., March 11, 2024. (credit: David Dee Delgado/Reuters)

The Biden administration had hoped the resolution would shore up negotiations for a hostage deal taking place Friday in Qatar.

“We’ll continue to work toward a deal alongside Qatar and Egypt, and we will work with any council member that is seriously interested in adopting a resolution that will help make that deal possible,” US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the UNSC after the vote.

No condemnation of Hamas

The new text also calls for the release of the hostages, but it doesn’t mention Hamas. The American text had condemned the terror group for its attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which over 1,200 people were killed and 253 people taken hostage. Many of the victims were burned, dismembered, raped and tortured.

Thomas-Greenfield said she was stunned by Security Council’s failure to adopt the American text, particularly given that the 15-member body has yet to condemn the October 7 attack.

“Russia and China still could not bring themselves to condemn Hamas as terrorist attacks on October 7. Can we just pause on that for a moment?” she said.

“Russia and China refuse to condemn Hamas for burning people alive, for gunning down innocent civilians at a concert, for raping women and girls, [and] for taking hundreds of people hostage,” the ambassador said, adding that “This was the deadliest single attack on Jews since the Holocaust.”

US ambassador to the UN says resolution's failure is "outrageous"

THOMAS-GREENFIELD said that the failure to adopt the resolution was “really outrageous, and it’s below the dignity of this body.”

She further charged that Hamas aside, Moscow and Beijing took this step purely because it was authored by Washington.

“This is not just cynical, it’s also petty. Russia and China simply did not want to vote for a resolution that was penned by the United States because it would rather see us fail than to see this council succeed,” she charged.

“Let’s be honest,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “For all the fiery rhetoric, we all know that Russia and China are not doing anything diplomatically to advance a lasting peace or to meaningfully contribute to the humanitarian response effort.”

Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said the resolution was “exceedingly politicized” and contained an effective green light for Israel to mount a military operation in Rafah, a city on the southern tip of the Gaza Strip where more than half of its 2.3 million residents have been sheltering in makeshift tents.

“This would free the hands of Israel and it would result in all of Gaza and its entire population having to face destruction, devastation or expulsion,” Nebenzia told the meeting.

He said several non-permanent members of the Security Council had drafted an alternative resolution and that there was no reason for members not to support it.

China’s UN ambassador Zhang Jun said the text proposed by the US was unbalanced and criticized it for not clearly stating its opposition to a planned military operation by Israel in Rafah in southern Gaza which he said could lead to severe consequences. He said Beijing also supported the alternative resolution.

Washington previously vetoed three draft resolutions, two of which would have demanded an immediate ceasefire.

Statements by Israel Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan

ISRAEL AMBASSADOR to the UN Gilad Erdan urged the UNSC to “hold Hamas accountable” and “condemn Hamas.”

Had the US resolution passed, Erdan said, “it would have marked a moment of morality for the UN – a place where good is evil, and justice is injustice. It would have been the very first time that this council – or any UN body – condemned Hamas and their brutal massacre.”

”Yet sadly, for purely political reasons, this resolution didn’t pass, and terrorists can continue benefiting from this council whitewashing their crimes.”

Erdan called the council’s decision to not condemn Hamas “a stain” that will never be forgotten.

He accused the UN of dedicating discussions only to the situation in Gaza and ignoring Hamas’s terrorist tactics, like exploiting civilians and allegedly falsifying statistics.

“Every civilian death in Gaza is tragic, but the only party to blame is Hamas. Yet the Security Council refused to hold Hamas accountable for deliberately putting Gazans in the line of fire,” Erdan said. “Condemn the tunnels under schools! Condemn the exploitation of hospitals for terror! Hold Hamas accountable!”

Erdan ended his speech by tying Saturday’s holiday of Purim with messaging to the current regime in Iran.

“The very same faith and conviction that the Jews of Persia displayed, has been carried with us to this day,” the ambassador said. “This is why we have survived and thrived, despite all of the decrees and racist resolutions against us throughout history. Many have tried to destroy us, but all have failed, because we will never surrender and we will always fight for our existence.”

Erdan added, “And if we are successful – if the hostages return home and Hamas is dismantled – then just as it says in the megillah, the text that we read on Purim: ‘The Jewish people had light and joy, gladness, happiness and honor.’”

After the vote, Palestinian Authority Ambassador Riyad Mansour said the US resolution was “one-sided” and that he rejected the framing of “what is happening as a terrorism issue. It is a genocide against the entire Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

Israel is considering Hamas's demand for a commitment not to assassinate the organization's senior officials if they are exiled from the Gaza Strip, Kan reported Friday. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously stated in November that he had told the Mossad “to act against the heads of Hamas wherever they are.”

Israel would agree to this in exchange for an agreement that would include the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip and the release of all the hostages, according to the Kan report. 

Hamas is simultaneously demanding the withdrawal of IDF forces from Gaza. 

The proposal is backed by the United States as part of the next phase of a hostage deal in which Hamas would release 40 hostages in exchange for a six-week ceasefire.

David Barnea, the head of the Israeli Mossad attends an honour guard ceremony for Israel's incoming military chief Herzi Halevi at Israel's Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel January 16, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)

An Israeli senior official told Kan that an offer is being considered, "including a commitment not to harm the exiled senior officials." 

Deals on the table

During the hostage negotiations, Hamas officials said they would only release the remaining hostages in Gaza as part of a ceasefire. Netanyahu has said that he will not accept any deal that would leave Hamas in control of Gaza. 

One recent framework for a proposed deal was a phased release of the remaining hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, with the goal of a ceasefire, a senior Western diplomat and a regional diplomat told The New York Times. 

Israeli officials have suggested they might consider a permanent ceasefire if Hamas’s Gaza leadership leaves the Strip and goes into exile, the two diplomats told the NYT.

Hamas officials have rejected leaving the Strip, according to the report. “Hamas and its leaders are on their land in Gaza,” Husam Badran, a senior Hamas official, said in a text message. “We won’t leave.”

An Israeli delegation is in Qatar for hostage negotiations and has agreed to an American compromise on the number of Palestinian prisoners who will be swapped for each Israeli hostage. They are waiting for a response from Hamas, Israeli media reported Saturday night.

Israel is willing to defy the United States on Rafah if it has to, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said as top Israeli officials are prepared to head to Washington this week to discuss the controversial military operation in southern Gaza.

“There is no way for us to defeat Hamas without going into Rafah and eliminating the rest of the battalions there,” Netanyahu said on Friday after he met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Tel Aviv. Blinken made his sixth trip to the region since the start of the war.

The two men discussed the growing tension between their governments over the Rafah operation, which the US opposes and which Israel insists is the only way to win the war.

Netanyahu stood his ground in the conversation and told Blinken, “I hope we will do it with the support of the USA, but if we have to we will do it alone.”

Blinken pushed back at Netanyahu’s words in a brief conversation with reporters Friday while he was in Israel.
“We share Israel’s goal of defeating Hamas, which is responsible for the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Blinken said as he stood on the tarmac at Ben–Gurion International Airport.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken talks to a senior staff on a C-17 Globemaster as he departs Jeddah for Cairo, Egypt, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia March 21, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/POOL)

"As we’ve said though, a major ground operation in Rafah is not the way to do it. It risks killing more civilians. It risks wreaking greater havoc with the provision of humanitarian assistance. It risks further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardizing its long-term security standing.”

He spoke about the issue with the war cabinet and is expected to hold further talks in Washington with the Israeli delegation led by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi. He will also meet separately with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant who will also be in Washington, where he will also speak with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

“I will meet again with Israeli officials in Washington to discuss a different way we can achieve this objective,” Blinken stated.
In Tel Aviv, Netanyahu assured Blinken that he “greatly appreciates the fact that for more than five months we have been standing together in the war against Hamas.

“I also told him that we recognize the need to evacuate the civilian population from the war zones and of course also take care of the humanitarian needs and we are working to that end,” he said.

Blinken said he would meet Israeli officials in Washington “to talk about a different way of achieving these objectives, objectives that we share, of defeating Hamas and ensuring Israel’s long-term security.”

In Puerto Rico, US Vice President Kamala Harris said she didn’t believe it was possible to safely evacuate civilians from Rafah. “There is nowhere for those people to go and be safe,” she said.

At the White House US National Security Communications spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that he was not discouraged by Netanyahu’s comments that Israel would conduct a Rafah operation despite US objections.
“So we believe there’s time and space to have these discussions,” he stated.

Kirby maintained the purpose of the meeting was not for the US to tell Israel what to do.

US-Israel defense cooperation

“We want to make sure that they make those decisions fully informed with our lessons learned from urban warfare in this kind of fighting in places like Iraq and Afghanistan,” Kirby said. “Now, do they have to listen to our advice and counsel? No, but we have seen in the past where they have taken some of it on board. We hope they take this” advice, he said.

“We believe that a major ground offensive is a mistake” and would be a “disaster,” he explained, pointing to the over 1.3 million Palestinians in that area, many of whom had sought refuge there to escape bombings in the northern part of the enclave.

Kirby pushed back, however, at questions as to whether the Biden administration would halt military sales to Israel should its army head into Rafah over US objections. He stressed that the US would ensure that Israel could defend itself.

“We’re going to continue to approach this with Israel as we have in the past, which is to make sure that they have the tools they need to defend themselves against a still viable threat, while at the same time using the strength of the relationship between the United States and Israel,” Kirby said.

The White House has not yet seen a credible plan for the evacuation of Palestinian civilians from Rafah, Kirby said, adding that this would be part of the conversations US and Israeli officials would have this week in Washington.
Kirby did not comment on whether President Joe Biden would take part in those talks.

Rafah is only one of the topics of dispute between Jerusalem and Washington. The US has also taken issue with Israel’s handling of humanitarian assistance to Gaza, warning that the IDF has not done enough to prevent a hunger crisis in the enclave.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said on Friday that seven million pounds of food had entered Gaza on Thursday. The two governments are also at odds over plans for Gaza once the war is over.

Gallant is expected to discuss these issues in Washington. According to his office, he will also speak about the “importance of maintaining and further deepening the important cooperation between the defense establishments of both countries, as well as topics related to force build-up and maintaining [Israel’s] qualitative military edge.”

An earthquake rattled Israel’s North on Saturday, with a magnitude of 3.8 on the Richter scale, occurring at a depth of more than 17km.

The quake was confirmed by the Energy and Infrastructure Ministry, which cited the National Geological Institute. 

Residents of Haifa, the Sharon region, and the Lower Galilee reported shaking windows, but the municipality said that no damage was reported as result of the quake, and there are no known injuries as a result of it.

It came following another, magnitude 3.4 earthquake just over a week ago, triggering alarms at several locations throughout the Jordan Valley, prompting orders that residents evacuate.

“It really felt like a wave,” one resident testified. “It sounded likes something moving far away, and then the ground moved with the chair and things on the table started shaking.”

Members of the Knesset Honor Guard, Home Front Command, Firefighters, IDF and Israel's Magen David Adom Emergency Medical Services participate in an emergency drill simulating an earthquake near Ashkelon, on December 19, 2019. (credit: YANIV NADAV/FLASH90)

Israel Police repeat earthquake guidelines

The Israel Police reminded Israelis of what to do when an earthquake strikes.

Those who are inside are instructed to leave the building if possible. If they cannot exit the building in a few seconds, then they are advised to enter their protected room (also used for rocket attacks) and to keep the door and the windows open, or to enter the stairwell and descend to the building’s exit. 

If none of these is possible, one is advised to sit in an enclosed corner, or under something sturdy, and cover one’s head with one’s hands.

Those who are outside are advised to remain in an open space and to distance themselves from buildings, trees, power lines, and anything that might fall and pose a danger to them. 

Those who are driving are instructed to stop their car on the side of the road and remain inside it until the earthquake stops. One must avoid stopping underneath a bridge or at an interchange.

Anyone near a beach should remove themselves at least one kilometer from the beach. If it is not possible to leave the beach, one should go up to the fourth floor or higher of a nearby building. 

Israel is due for a large earthquake

Israel has small earthquakes regularly, but is largely believed to be ‘due’ for a major one.

A report by the State Comptroller in January stated that “a strong earthquake in Israel is a matter of time,” and that “the state is still not adequately prepared.”

Only 3.5% of vulnerable buildings have been reinforced, and only about 5% of schools are reinforced. About 40% of hospitals are reinforced.

The Joint Inter-Ministerial Committee for Earthquake Preparedness operates with three permanent employees, and it lacks the legal authority to enforce its directions.

Israel is located on a fault line

Israel, which is situated along the Syrian-African fault line, has a history of major earthquakes roughly once every hundred years, according to experts, although the degree to which earthquakes are cyclical is disputed.

The last major earthquake to strike Israel was in 1927, with an epicenter near Jericho. 

Measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale, the quake killed almost 500 people and injured an additional 700. 

Ninety years prior, another large earthquake, on January 1, 1837, measured a magnitude 6.5 on the Richter scale and struck in the Galilee near Safed. It killed an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 people due to a subsequent landslide.

Anna Ahronheim and Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman contributed to this report.