Israel at war: What happened on days 56-57?

The IDF 551st Brigade combat team completed a mission in Jabalya, in the Gaza Strip, on Saturday, having killed Hamas terrorists and destroyed terror infrastructure, the IDF said.

The neutralized infrastructure included tunnels and subterranean structures.

During the operation, which had began before the initiation of the now-ended cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, IDF troops identified and destroyed a Hamas terror tunnel which extended tens of meters below the surface of the earth.

A Hamas tunnel in a school

The tunnel had been located in the courtyard of a school compound.

Another tunnel was located and destroyed in the home of a Hamas naval force activist, the IDF stated.

Soldiers of the 551st Brigade, along with Israeli special forces, also worked to eliminate subterranean infrastructure north of Jabalya, where Israeli troops subsequently Isolated and secured a an area to facilitate further IDF activity.

Also, along with the air force and artillery units, IDF troops destroyed numerous pieces of Hamas combat equipment, including weapons, explosives, launchers, and ammunition.

Dec 1 (Reuters) - The United States is working on a plan with Israel to minimize harm to civilians in any military operation in southern Gaza, a senior US official said on Friday as Israel's military resumed its bombardment of the territory following the collapse of a week-old truce with Hamas.

Friday's bombing was most intense in the southern areas of Khan Younis and Rafah, however, medics and witnesses said. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have been sheltering there because of fighting in the north. Houses in central and northern areas were also hit.

By the evening, Gaza health officials said Israeli air strikes had killed 184 people, wounded at least 589 others and hit more than 20 houses.

Israel's government agreed that any operation in the south will not look like it did in the north and its military will designate areas where civilians will not be harmed, the official said following US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's trip to the region, where Washington's top diplomat met with Israeli officials.

The official added that the US expects there will be no full-scale assault on Khan Younis and Rafah as there was on Gaza City.

A house destroyed in an Israeli strike lies in ruins after a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel expired, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, December 1, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/FADI SHANA)

Washington has urged Israel to narrow the zone of combat and clarify where Palestinian civilians can seek safety in southern Gaza, officials have said.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity on Friday, said entire neighborhoods in southern Gaza will be designated as zones that are safe for civilians, though some may still have to leave their homes if they are in areas where Hamas fighters are deeply embedded.

The United States will continue to talk with Israel about how to implement the measures, said the official.

Israel aims to destroy Hamas

Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas in response to the Oct. 7 rampage by the militant group, when Israel says gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages. Hamas, sworn to Israel's destruction, has ruled Gaza since 2007.

In addition to those who planned the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel needs to eliminate Hamas' battalion-level leadership, said the official.

Israel's assault has laid waste to much of Gaza. Palestinian health authorities deemed reliable by the United Nations say more than 15,000 Gazans have been confirmed killed and thousands more are missing and feared buried under rubble.

Blinken on Thursday told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel's military operations in southern Gaza must not repeat the massive loss of civilian life and displacement seen during its offensive in the north.

Israel must officially declare its withdrawal from talks to resume the humanitarian truce in Gaza, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Friday afternoon, arguing that the IDF cannot be fighting a "semi-war."

Speaking following a phone conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Smotrich said he called on the prime minister to "cease all contact with the Nazi enemy," Hamas, and mediators such as Egypt and Qatar.

"We cannot allow for a scenario in which the IDF is fighting a 'semi-war,' wary of a potential sudden halt to operations due to Hamas manipulations to reinstate a truce, putting an end to the IDF's activities to eliminate it," the finance minister warned.

Smotrich, who initially called to vote against the hostage deal with Hamas, later voted for it in a cabinet meeting last week. The finance minister argued that, despite his "delight for the hostages who have returned home, the humanitarian truce has exhausted itself.

Minister of Finance and Head of the Religious Zionist Party Bezalel Smotrich leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, October 23, 2023 (credit: OREN BEN HAKOON/FLASH90)

No appeasing Sinwar

"The Nazi enemy continues to commit war crimes on civilians and hostages," Smotrich added. "Agreeing to another halt would be a terrible mistake which conveys weakness, we cannot be played with by Yahya Sinwar."

He followed this up by saying that "the enemy must be looked at only through the intentions and activity of the fighter planes, artillery, and ground entry."

Smotrich called on the government to officially announce the end of the truce and do so "explicitly and publicly," calling for a return to full fighting until Hamas is destroyed and all the hostages are returned. The Israeli minister has regularly called for the return to hostilities and a return to active combat, decrying attempts and diplomacy, putting little trust in Egypt and Qatar.

The Commander of the Home Front Command, Maj.-Gen. Rafi Milo, signed a temporary sealing order for two houses belonging to the terrorists Murad Nimer and Ebrahim Nimer who lived in east Jerusalem, Hebrew media reported late Friday night.

The terrorists carried out the shooting attack at the entrance to Jerusalem on Thursday in which four Israelis were murdered and others were injured. 

Israel launched an air attack on the vicinity of Damascus late on Friday, Syrian state media reported.

This is a developing story.

Hezbollah launched eight rockets into northern Israel late Friday night, taking responsibility shortly after the attack.

Sirens sounded in the northern moshav of Dishon as a result.

No casualties or damage has been reported.

This is a developing story.

The White House said on Friday it believed Israel will allow humanitarian aid trucks to enter Gaza after a lull due to resumed fighting between Israel and Hamas terrorists, but the number of deliveries will likely be reduced.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby, citing reports from Israel, said Israel had agreed to resume letting truck deliveries through at the urging of the United States.

But he said truck deliveries would likely be reduced to dozens a day rather than the hundreds of trucks that were getting into Gaza daily during a week-long pause in fighting that ended on Thursday.

Kirby said Gaza needs much more aid, but that the decision to resume aid deliveries, after stringent inspections, "looks like a good sign going forward."

Hamas broke the truce to attack Israel on Friday morning. The Islamist terror organization used the pause in fighting to see how far it could push Israel in delaying hostage transfers and also turn the hostage transfers into a media event.

It purposely paraded hostages for the cameras and used this to bolster its image. Hamas was trying to show that, despite fifty days of war after its attack on October 7, it was intact.

Hamas has lost fighters, but it is still able to control large swaths of the Gaza Strip.

It has more than fourteen battalions that have not been engaged in heavy fighting. It has lost key mid-level commanders, but its leadership is mostly intact. As such, it showed during the pause in fighting that it could emerge above ground as if it was conducting business as usual. It paraded the hostages with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another terrorist group.

This was all about imaging for Hamas.

Israeli hostages held by Hamas were "grateful" to their terrorist captors as they were being released, Al Jazeera geopolitical and security analyst Zoran Kusovac claimed in a Friday segment published by the Qatari state-run media giant.

The Al Jazeera video features footage published by Hamas. Chyron banners overlaid onto the footage note that the Hamas videos show the hostages smiling and sharing high-fives with their captors.

'Grateful for those who had their lives in their hands'

“I think this could be described as psychological, emotional release. So, finally, they're being released and, in that moment, when they are leaving, they're certain that they have survived, they suddenly feel grateful to these people who had their lives in their hands and [haven’t] harmed them.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Al Jazeera English (@aljazeeraenglish)

Former hostages, however, have reported that Israeli hostages were indeed abused.

 The White House blamed Hamas on Friday for the failure to extend a humanitarian truce in Gaza, saying the Palestinian terrorist group had failed to produce a list of hostages that would have enabled the pause to be extended.

"It's because of Hamas that this pause ended," White House spokesman John Kirby said. "The onus is on Hamas." In a briefing, Kirby also corrected his previous tally of the number of American hostages released by Hamas so far from six to four.