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.

Rocket sirens sounded in central Israel for the first time since the war in Gaza restarted on Friday morning, with residents in Rishon Lezion, Holon, Rehovot, Lod, Nes Ziona, Ashdod and other nearby cities and towns in the center.

Hamas' armed wing al Qassam brigades took responsibility for the rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

This is a developing story.

Osama Hamden, a senior official in the Hamas terrorist organization’s Political Bureau, insisted in an interview with Lebanon’s  Bel Moubashar Online that Hamas did not regret the October 7 attack and that a larger “war of liberation is coming.”

The interview, which took place on November 29, was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

The interviewer asked Hamden: “If you could go back in time to October 6, would you still do what you did on October 7?”

On October 7, Hamas committed a large-scale terrorist attack that killed 1200 people, including babies and foreign nationals. The attack was the deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust.

Senior Hamas Official Osama Hamdan: I Promise that a War of Liberation Is Coming Soon – Not Just Another October 7 #Hamas #Palestinians #Israel pic.twitter.com/ILSzPEGDc8

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) December 1, 2023

Hamas terroristscelebrate after handing over hostages, who were abducted by Hamas gunmen during the October 7 attack on Israel, to the International Red Cross, as part of a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel amid a temporary truce, in an unknown location in the Gaza Strip, Novemb (credit: Hamas Military Wing/Handout via REUTERS)

Defending the October 7 massacre and promise of future violence

In response to the question, Hamden answered, “Why do some people assume that we would want to go back on our acts of resistance?”

“So you have no regrets?” the interviewer prompted. 

“Regret for shattering an entire division of the occupation army?” Hamden countered. 

Following this, the interviewer asked Hamden, “You said that if Israelis would make new arrests, after all the prisoners are released from [Israeli] prisons, you would carry out another operation. So, can you promise another October 7?” 

During Hamas’ attack, the terrorists kidnapped over 200 Israelis and foreign nationals to be used as hostages. As part of a Qatari-brokered ceasefire agreement, Israel has released terrorists and criminals in exchange for the release of women and children held by Hamas. 

“I can promise a war of liberation is coming,” warned Hamden, “not just another October 7.”

Hamden also warned that he did not think the war would be “far off” when the interviewer asked if the war was planned for the “foreeable future.”

The full interview can be watched below, however it is only available in Arabic.

On Friday afternoon, the IDF stated that, in the wake of the Hamas-initiated resumption of fighting, the IDF hit over 200 targets in Gaza since 7:00 a.m. that morning.

The military said that, in a joint effort by Israeli ground, air, and naval forces, the IDF targeted areas booby-trapped with explosive devices, tunnel shafts, and other Hamas terror infrastructure.

The aunt of released Israeli hostage Mia Schem said on Thursday that her niece had been "operated on in Gaza by a veterinarian."

"Finally she is with us," said Vivian Hadar, Schem's aunt. "She was traumatized. She is thin and weak. A vet operated on her hand. She did physical therapy for herself. She told them that she was not a soldier and that she has French citizenship. I don't ask her questions and did not dig because when we started asking we saw that it was difficult for her. We are glad that she is with us. It is difficult to see her in this situation."

Hadar added that waiting for Schem "was like Russian Roulette."

"We kept wanting to know if she was on the list or not. Yesterday we thought she was on the list and in the end they said no and it completely paralyzed me. What the families of the hostages are going through is not normal. This must not happen. All the hostages must be returned."

Hadar added that "Her hand is very sore. She knew she needed to give herself hand massages. She doesn't say much. We just came and hugged her. She wants to see as many family members as possible. It's not an easy time. It's not easy what she went through and we're looking forward."

Last year, Yahya Sinwar told a rally in Gaza that Hamas would deploy terrorists and rockets in a fierce strike on Israel, the nation that imprisoned him for 23 years before he was freed and rose to a leadership role in the terrorist group.

The speech by Hamas' leader in Gaza to thousands of cheering supporters bore the hallmarks of crowd-pleasing hyperbole. Less than a year later, Israel discovered it was no idle threat, when Hamas terrorists broke through Gaza's fence, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostage.

"We will come to you, God willing, in a roaring flood. We will come to you with endless rockets, we will come to you in a limitless flood of soldiers, we will come to you with millions of our people, like the repeating tide," he said during his December 14 address.

By the time of the speech, Sinwar and the terrorist terrorists' military leader Mohammed Deif had already hatched secret plans for the October 7 massacre, the deadliest day in Israel's 75-year history. In response, Israel has bombarded and invaded Gaza.

Heard in hindsight, Sinwar's words carry the foreboding of what was to come, an attack Hamas dubbed the "flood of Al-Aqsa," a reference to the mosque in Jerusalem that is one of Islam's holiest shrines and stands on a place revered by Jews as Temple Mount.

Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Friday it was vigilant and ready as a resumption of fighting between its Palestinian ally Hamas and Israel fueled concern that clashes across the Lebanese-Israeli border could also restart.

Rocket sirens went off in several towns in northern Israel near the Lebanese border, sending residents in the area running for shelter. The Israeli military did not immediately give details of what set them off.

In their worst hostilities since a 2006 war, the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel traded fire for weeks across the border after the Hamas-Israel war erupted on October 7. Mirroring the situation in the Gaza Strip, the hostilities ceased last week when Hamas and Israel agreed on a truce that expired on Friday.

"In Lebanon, we are concerned in facing this challenge, being vigilant, and always ready to confront any possibility and any danger that may arise in our country," Hassan Fadlallah, a senior Hezbollah politician, said in broadcast remarks.

PALESTINIANS LIVING in Syria wear Hezbollah flags at a demonstration in Damascus marking the annual al-Quds Day. (credit: FIRAS MAKDESI/REUTERS)

Hezbollah claims to be victim of 'Zionist targeting'

"No one thinks that Lebanon has been spared from this Zionist targeting or that what is happening in Gaza cannot affect the situation in Lebanon," he said.

Hezbollah, part of an Iran-backed alliance including Hamas, mounted near-daily rocket attacks on Israeli positions at the frontier while Israel waged air and artillery strikes in south Lebanon during the hostilities that began on Oct. 8.

Lebanon-based terrorists from Hamas and the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad have also mounted attacks from Lebanese territory.

About 100 people in Lebanon have been killed during the hostilities, 80 of them Hezbollah terrorists. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes on both sides of the border.

"I am worried about the resumption of confrontations here in Lebanon. Hezbollah has linked what happens at the border with what happens in Gaza," said Nabil Boumonsef, deputy editor-in-chief of Lebanon's Annahar newspaper.

"All the while the war in Gaza continues Lebanon will remain threatened by the danger of a major escalation."

Israeli air defense systems intercepted a suspicious aerial target that had crossed from Lebanese territory into Israel, the IDF stated on Friday afternoon.

Israeli rocket and missile alarms sounded in the country's North after the target was initially identified.

President Isaac Herzog convened a series of strategic meetings in Dubai on Friday as part of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), with a primary objective of facilitating the safe return of the remaining hostages from Gaza to Israel.

Herzog kicked off his meetings with the Emir of Qatar, His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Qatar has used its influence to help secure the release of the majority of the Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas and other terrorist groups on October 7. 

Security sources estimate that Hamas leaders Mohammed Deif and Yahya Sinwar were aware of the close surveillance by the Israeli intelligence community and used covert methods to communicate messages.

"No one understood this, not Aman (Military Intelligence), not the Shin Bet, nor the Mossad," admitted a security official. "Otherwise, they wouldn't have left the border unguarded, with no basic response from the ground or air."