Israel at war: What happened on day 17?

Two captives out of the 222 hostages Hamas abducted on October 7 were released from Gaza to Egypt on Monday night, Israel confirmed.

Nurit Cooper, 80, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, both from Kibbutz Nir Oz, were released to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which took them to the Rafah crossing where they were met by Israeli officials. 

Their husbands, also in their 80s, remain in captivity.

The women had been freed after 20 trucks of humanitarian aid entered Gaza, and amid reports that Qatar separately had secured the release of some 50 hostages with foreign passports. These two women were both Israeli and were not part of that deal.

“We decided to release them for compelling humanitarian and health reasons,” Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida said.

Hamas did this “despite the occupation committing more than eight violations of the procedures that were agreed upon with the mediating brothers for the occupation to adhere to during this day to complete the handover process,” Ubaida said.

The Hamas announcement came shortly after i24News reported Monday evening that representatives of the ICRC were on their way to Gaza to redeem the hostages and against the backdrop of a report by The New York Times on Monday that said Hamas was exploring the possibility of releasing hostages who hold foreign passports.

The Times cited an Israeli military official who mentioned that Qatar is actively engaged in mediating negotiations for the release of these hostages, separate from those who are exclusively Israeli citizens. The Israeli official cited in the Times reportedly made this claim based on discussions between the United States and Qatar.

The Wall Street Journal later said that negotiations for the release of a group of 50 captives in Gaza failed because Hamas conditioned their release on the supply of fuel to the Gaza Strip, which Israel has refused to allow because it said Hamas uses the fuel to launch rockets at Israel. 

Efforts on multiple fronts

According to KAN News, conversations are occurring on multiple fronts, including via several intermediaries, from former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen to Ronen Levi, who served for almost 30 years in the intelligence and defense communities and has connections in Qatar and other Gulf countries. 

Several media new sites speculated that Israel has held off from embarking on a military ground campaign in Gaza to allow for further negotiations for the release of the hostages.

In Washington, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said US President Joe Biden and his administration were committed to ensuring that all the hostages would be freed.

“We’re going to [work] with our partners to do everything we can to get hostages out,” he told reporters at the Foreign Press Center. “They should be released immediately; there’s no reason for them to be held in the first place.”

John Kirby, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, answers questions during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, US, February 17, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/EVELYN HOCKSTEIN)

In a briefing at the White House, Kirby dismissed questions about the possibility of a ceasefire in exchange for the hostages. Hamas could at any moment simply release all of them, he said.

“Here’s an idea: They [Hamas] can release them all now,” Kirby said. “They can let them go now, because they can release them all now. Just let them go now, because these people did not do anything wrong. They are just innocent civilians caught up in this conflict. Let them go now.

“Now, I recognize that is not going to happen, which is why we are going to keep working with our partners in the region to do what we can to get them released.”

At the Foreign Press Center briefing, Kirby also appeared to dismiss reports linking the absence of an Israeli ground campaign with the hostages, noting that he "won’t speak for the Israelis and what they will or won’t do on the ground.  All I can tell you is that we have been working – and I don’t mean – and this is not an exaggeration – we’ve been working by the hour since the moment we found out that Americans were being held hostage to get them released."

IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari gives a statement to the media in Tel Aviv on October 16, 2023. (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/FLASH90)

During an evening briefing, IDF Spokesman R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari said that the IDF's delay in entering Gaza was due to "strategic considerations" and that Israel was "looking at the situation in the entire Middle East."

Kirby reiterated the Biden administration’s strong support for Israel’s campaign against Hamas in light of the October 7 attack, in which more than 1,400 civilians and soldiers were killed. An estimated 5,000 Palestinians have been killed in IAF airstrikes on Gaza and failed Palestinian rocket launches.

First hostages released last week

Judith Tai Raanan and her daughter Natalie Shoshana Raanan, US citizens who were taken as hostages by Palestinian Hamas militants, walk while holding hands with Brig.-Gen. (Ret.) Gal Hirsch, Israel's Coordinator for the Captives and Missing, after they were released by the militants. (credit: Government of Israel/Handout via REUTERS)

Last Friday, Hamas released two American-Israeli hostages, Judith Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natalie, 17.

The terror organization said they were released on humanitarian grounds. The mother and daughter were transferred from Hamas to the Red Cross, then to the Israeli border and into Israeli hands. They were met by Brig.-Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch, the country's coordinator for hostages and missing persons and a team of security officials.

Until now, the Red Cross has not been allowed to meet with the hostages nor deliver the medications earmarked for them, the organization said. However, on Monday, the Red Cross confirmed it had assisted in the release of the captives.

"Our role as a neutral intermediary between the parties to the conflict makes our work possible," the organization said. "We are prepared to visit the remaining captives in captivity and assist in any future releases. We are pleased that those who have been released will soon be reunited with their families and loved ones."

Iran could send a direct missile to Haifa "without hesitation," deputy chief of the IRGC Ali Fadavi said on Monday morning, threatening direct combat between Israel and the Islamic Republic.

Fadavi, the deputy commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards, said that "if it is necessary and [the order is given]," Iran will strike Israel's northern city "without hesitation."

Speaking to Iranian students at the University of Tehran, Fadavi replied to a question on Iran taking direct action against Israel, answering: "Some of you young people consider practical action to be a direct missile to Haifa, of course, if it is necessary, this will be done, and it will be done without hesitation."

He also claimed that the IDF is lying about the Iron Dome's successful interception rate, claiming it to be just 30%.

"America created Israel for its security, and if it feels insecure, it will easily sacrifice it," Fadavi added.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell joined calls on Monday for a pause in the war between Israel and Palestinian terrorists Hamas to let more aid supplies into Gaza.

"Now the most important thing is for humanitarian support to go into Gaza," Borrell told reporters as he arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

Borrell said the ministers would discuss the call from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a pause to allow much more humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians to enter Gaza.

"I cannot anticipate the result of the meeting but it is certainly something which the ministers will have to discuss ... The Secretary-General of the United Nations asked for it very much," Borrell said.

"Personally, I think a humanitarian pause is needed in order to allow humanitarian support to come in and be distributed," he said.

Israel struck 320 Hamas terror targets in the Gaza Strip over the last day and also struck a terrorist cell in Lebanese territory, along with an anti-tank missile launch post overnight.

The strikes come on the seventeenth day of the war dubbed Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas in Gaza. Hamas carried out a mass attack on October 7, murdering more than 1,000 civilians and killing 300 soldiers and dozens of police and members of local security forces.  

The IDF has continued to strike at Hamas from the air. While there has been discussion of a ground invasion and Israeli officials say that Hamas will be removed from the Gaza Strip, for now, the air campaign continues to inflict damage.

“Over the past day, the IDF continued to strike terror infrastructure and military targets in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said. “Following Shin Bet and IDF intelligence, the terror targets struck included tunnels containing Hamas terrorists, dozens of operational command centers, some of which concealed Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists, military compounds, and observation posts.” 

In his interview with Sky News, President Isaac Herzog said that claims that Israel had blocked all water, electricity, and fuel from entering the Gaza Strip are "part of the distorted information.

"It was Hamas missiles which broke down electricity infrastructure in Gaza, nothing to do with us. We only supply 7% of the water [in Gaza], there is fuel for humanitarian needs, and it is under UNRWA.

"We are following the humanitarian situation very closely on the hour."

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit unveiled aerial images on Sunday captured during the Swords of Iron war, providing evidence of Hamas's strategy of initiating rocket attacks in close proximity to civilian locales from within the Gaza Strip.

According to the IDF Spokesperson, these attacks are strategically launched near vulnerable public areas, including schools, kindergartens, and mosques, indicating a deliberate exploitation of these non-combatant populations. 

An aerial view of an area containing a Hamas rocket launch site, in the vicinity of schools, in a location given as Gaza in this handout image released October 22, 2023 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

The rocket attacks are directed toward Israeli territory, underscoring Hamas's intent to inflict damage and chaos on civilian lives in Israel.

An aerial view of an area containing a Hamas rocket launch site, in the vicinity of schools, in a location given as Gaza in this handout image released October 22, 2023 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

"Since the beginning of the war, the terrorist organization Hamas has been firing rockets from the Gaza Strip while cynically exploiting the uninvolved population and civilian sites such as kindergartens, schools, and mosques, and launching into the territory of the State of Israel with the clear intention of harming the citizens of the country," the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said in their statement.

An aerial view of an area containing a Hamas rocket launch site, in the vicinity of a mosque, in a location given as Gaza in this handout image released October 22, 2023 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Israel has destroyed over 320 terror targets across the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, the IDF and Shin Bet said Monday morning in a joint statement.

Operational tunnels in use by Hamas, as well as dozens of headquarters where the IDF said Hamad and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists were hiding, were among the targeted Gaza infrastructure.

The IDF also said it destroyed that it destroyed dozens of mortar and anti-tank launchers located within the Strip, as part of efforts to eliminate threats to ground forces who will take part in the Israeli military's planned incursion into Gaza.

צה"ל תקף ביממה האחרונה למעלה מ-320 מטרות ברחבי רצועת עזה.

ביממה האחרונה צה"ל המשיך לתקוף בעוצמה תשתיות טרור ומטרות צבאיות בשטח רצועת עזה >> pic.twitter.com/PjffLcwX7b

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 23, 2023

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian spoke with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh overnight, according to Iranian media.

Tasnim News noted that Hamas announced the call, the Iranians said. They also “discussed and exchanged opinions on the latest developments related to the continuous aggression of the Zionist regime in the Gaza Strip.” 

They discussed “all the ways to stop the brutal crimes committed by the enemy in Gaza.” 

Iran’s Foreign Minister met the Hamas leader in Doha, where the Hamas leadership resides, a week ago. At the time, Iran pledged cooperation with Hamas.

Iran is concerned about Hamas losing control in Gaza

The conversation between the two officials is important. It shows how Iran coordinates with Hamas. However, the relatively short readout in Iranian media illustrates that Iran may be growing concerned about the position of Hamas in Gaza.

Hezbollah continued to attack Israel in the North with rockets, anti-tank missiles, and gunfire on Friday and Saturday, killing an IDF soldier and wounding at least two foreign workers on the Israeli side.

Corporal Tamir Barak, 19 years old from Kibbutz Nir Eliyahu, was later identified as the soldier murdered by Hezbollah fire.

The IDF responded using aerial strikes, artillery, infantry, and other means to widely attack Hezbollah positions on the border several times over the weekend, including in the Mount Dov area.