Israel at war: What happened on days 28-29?

Israeli forces will reach Hamas terror leader Yahya Sinwar and will kill him, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed on Saturday evening briefing on developments in Operation Swords of Iron.

Further, Gallant said that "by the end of the war, there will be no Hamas in Gaza. There will be no threat to Israeli civilians from the Strip."

Israel intensified its ground operation in Gaza over the weekend, successfully targeting and dismantling vital Hamas elements, including their critical infrastructure and personnel.

France will host an international humanitarian conference for the civilian population in Gaza on Nov. 9 as it looks to coordinate aid for the besieged Palestinian enclave, three diplomatic sources said.

While Paris has offered its support for Israel over a deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas terrorists, there has been growing concern over civilian casualties that have soared under Israel's retaliatory bombardment that has seen thousands killed, wounded and displaced in Gaza.

Who will be attending?

President Emmanuel Macron confirmed to reporters in Brittany that the conference would take place.

The conference will be at head of state, government and foreign minister level. Key regional stakeholders such as Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf Arab countries will be invited as well as the main Western and European powers. International institutions and organizations will also be present, the diplomats said.

Senior Hamas Official Ali Baraka, in an interview with a Lebanese YouTube channel on November 2, praised North Korea’s ability to strike the United States and insisted that “One day, the United States will be a thing of the past.” 

“The United States was established by Britain and global Freemasonry, and it will collapse like the USSR did,” he said in the interview, which was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute. “America will not remain powerful.”

Senior Hamas Official Ali Baraka on Reports of Kim Jong Un’s Support for Hamas: Unlike Iran, North Korea Is Capable of Striking the U.S.; One Day, Russia, China, And All America’s Enemies May Join the War and Turn the U.S. into a Thing of the Past #Hamas #NorthKorea #Iran pic.twitter.com/tH3N7EoopI

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) November 3, 2023

A rocket launched by Hamas from Gaza fell onto the grounds of a Sderot kindergarten on Friday, according to a spokesperson for the Sderot Municipality.

No injuries were reported, but the property has sustained damage.

An IDF tank struck two anti-tank launchers, as well as a Hezbollah outpost in Lebanon on Friday evening, according to the IDF spokesperson's office.

This is a developing story.

In the four weeks since Operation Swords of Iron began, many businesses, especially those down South, have been affected and require aid from the government to keep existing. On Thursday, the Knesset voted in the first reading of a draft for an economic aid plan for businesses, but behind the plan lies a fierce political face-off.

On one side, stands Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Finance minister is Smotrich’s first role in finances, and he has no background in finance management or business. Even so, the Religious Zionist Party leader’s ministry is the one responsible for allocating the funds, but in recent weeks, the ministry has faced heavy criticism, as many accused it of being absent and out of touch with the people who require the aid.

Last week, the Finance Ministry presented an outline for economic aid during a Finance Committee meeting at which neither Smotrich nor the ministry’s director-general, Shlomi Heizler, were present.

The outline was heavily criticized throughout the meeting for a number of issues it held, including a 7-km. limit, in which businesses up to 7-km. from the Gaza border would be compensated more thoroughly than those outside that range, despite many businesses further out requiring the aid just as much. Representatives from the business sector who were present at the meeting also said the compensation system dictated in the outline was not sufficient for the sector’s needs.

On the other side of the conflict stands Economy Minister Nir Barkat.

The richest politician in Israel, Barkat has experience running his own businesses and was mayor of Jerusalem between 2008 and 2018. 

The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah warned the United States on Friday that preventing a regional war depended on stopping the Israeli attack on Gaza, and there was a realistic possibility of fighting on the Lebanese front turning into a "wide war."

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in his first speech since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on Oct. 7, also threatened Israel's main ally the United States, hinting his Iran-backed group was ready to confront US warships in the Mediterranean.

Nasrallah went on to claim that the October 7 massacre was carried out by Israeli forces on Israeli civilians, adding that there was no evidence of Hamas beheading babies.

In the speech, he claimed that "brothers from Hamas" had planned the October 7 attack alone, and they hid it from their other terrorist allies. Despite the secrecy, the terrorist leader insisted that the attack did not upset anyone in the "resistance axis."

Nasrallah, in further praise of the attack, stated that the Al-Aqsa flood had exposed Israel's weakness. The attack took the lives of 1400 people, including the lives of civilians and Arab Israelis.

Some 260 IDF soldiers were evacuated from the Gaza Strip by the 669 Search and Rescue Unit following wounds sustained during the army's ground operation in the strip, according to Israeli media.

The evacuation, carried out in cooperation between medical teams and helicopter squadrons in the Air Force, was met with fire by Hamas terrorists deep into the territory.

Teams of rescuers rushed the wounded into emergency vehicles in order to be evacuated to hospitals throughout Israel.

Raw Footage: 669 Unit Rescues Wounded from Gaza.

Since the beginning of the war, the unit, along with other units, has operated in Gaza under constant fire, rescuing and treating IDF soldiers.

So far, they have carried out 150 ground and rescue operations, evacuating 260… pic.twitter.com/HlzsdrlciR

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 3, 2023

IDF reservists eliminated a group of terrorists found coming out of a tunnel shaft in the Gaza ground operation, according to a statement by the IDF.

The ground activity continues, IDF fighters identified terrorists coming out of a tunnel shaft and directed an aircraft which eliminated the terrorists in the last few hours.

In another battle, a number of terrorists came out of a shaft inside a house and fired at our forces, the forces returned fire and eliminated a number of terrorists.