Israel at War - What happened on day 32?

The White House accused Hamas of “genocidal intentions” against Israel, as it pushed back against criticism of the IDF’s military campaign in Gaza and its high Palestinian civilian death toll.

“Hamas actually does have genocidal intentions against the people of Israel. They would like to see it wiped off the map, they said so on purpose,” US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters in Washington on Tuesday.

“That is what is at stake here,” he stressed.

He spoke amid sharp criticism for US President Joe Biden’s support of Israeli actions in the Gaza war, which Hamas asserts has cost over 10,000 Palestinians lives, including those of over 4,000 children.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that thousands of those killed were military combatants but has not provided an actual death count.

Palestinians at the rubble of a destroyed building after an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip, on November 5, 2023 (credit: ATIA MOHAMMED/FLASH90)

US Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who is of Palestinian descent, has accused Biden of supporting the genocide of the Palestinian people in a video she posted on her X account. 

The video included chants from a pro-Palestinian rally that called for the destruction of the state of Israel through the chant, “from the river to the sea.” 

Kirby, in defending Israel’s military campaign, acknowledged the painful reality of Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza.

“We are also keeping in our prayers, this one month in, the many thousands of innocent Palestinians who have been killed in the conflict since October 7th and the many more who are injured and wounded,” he said.

Israel not targeting civilians

He rejected, however, accusations that Israeli actions in Gaza were solely aimed at killing innocent people. He referenced in that defense, Hamas’ killing of over 1,400 people and its seizure of over 240 people hostage when it infiltrated southern Israel on October 7.

“We ought not to forget what happened one month ago, 1,400 people slaughtered in their homes [and] at a music festival,” Kirby said. 

“When Hamas decided to conduct operations, it was with the intent of killing people,” he stressed, as he underscored the extent to which the terror group used civilians as human shields.

“When you are fighting in urban warfare you have to make tough choices about your targets,” he said.

“We are going to keep urging them to be as discriminate and careful as possible,” he said.

But Israel, he said, “has a right and responsibility to defend itself” agaisnt “what was clearly an existential threat to their society and their people.”

The US is “going to continue to make sure that they have the tools and the capabilities that they need” to do so, he said.

Saudi Arabia will host three summits in the coming days to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - this is what the country's investment minister, Khaled al-Faleh, said Wednesday night.

The country is planning a meeting for Arab countries, a second meeting for African countries, and another meeting for Muslim countries. "In the short term, the goal of bringing these three summits and other gatherings under Saudi leadership will be to promote a peaceful solution to the conflict."

The Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers are expected to mention the necessity of a humanitarian pause in the fighting in the Gaza Strip in their joint statement, Japan's Asahi newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The government’s legal advisor, Gali Baharav Miara, and the state attorney Amit Isman published an announcement yesterday evening regarding preparations for the trials of the Hamas terrorists caught in Israel after October 7.

"The State of Israel will not put up with the murder, kidnapping, and injury of civilians and members of the security forces and with the destruction of communities," it said. "Besides the activity on the operational and political level, among other things for the return of the abductees, since October 7 intensive activity has been carried out in the legal field."

"The activity is carried out from an overall view of the criminal terrorist attack, in all its aspects, national and international. This, with the aim of investigating and conducting legal proceedings against those who carried out these atrocities, planned them and were involved in them, wherever their place of residence may be," the statement continued.

According to their statements, the State of Israel will work to prosecute terrorists who have been caught or will be caught and will demand punishments that reflect the severity of the atrocities committed. "This is an unusual and unprecedented event in its scope, and the law enforcement system must deal with the challenges of the complex investigation of the criminal acts of terrorism, as well as with the complex legal issues that arise from these acts."

For obvious reasons, primarily the desire not to disrupt the ongoing investigations, it is not possible to detail the activities being carried out on this issue. It can be said at this stage that the atrocities are being investigated in close cooperation with the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), the Israel Police, and the IDF and that the investigation is being done under the close supervision of the State Attorney and his staff, and under the supervision of the legal adviser to the government.

Baharav Miara and Isman revealed that they had established joint and united work teams of the various bodies, in which the most senior and experienced officials in the law enforcement system are participating. The teams regularly report on the progress of the work at the investigative and legal level, nationally and internationally, to the legal adviser to the government and the state attorney.

The destruction caused by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, near the Israeli-Gaza border, in southern Israel, October 30, 2023. (credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

In the meantime, the work of collecting evidence (including digital media) from all the scenes is centralized by the Israel Police, and for this purpose, it has assigned experienced forces, unprecedented in their scope, led by the head of the investigation and intelligence division of the police. At the same time as the collection of evidence progresses, the Ministry of Justice - the legal advisory system for the government and the state attorney's office, is promoting benevolent solutions to all the complex legal issues and questions that arise.

According to them, there are thousands of victims as well as a wide range of scenes where horrific acts of terrorism were committed, and extensive efforts are being made to optimally collect all the necessary evidence, in the most professional, fast, and sensitive way possible.

The largest terrorist attack in the history of the State of Israel

The task of identifying the areas and locating the missing, the task of investigating, bringing the terrorists to justice, and punishing them with all severity, is a task of national and international importance, as they say. They state in their statement that in the largest terrorist attack in the history of the State of Israel, thousands of terrorists carried out mass and systematic massacres of civilians and soldiers, which included, according to the information in the hands of the investigating authorities - torture, abuse, rape, burning people alive, mutilation of bodies, destruction of settlements and looting. At the same time, the terrorist organizations fired indiscriminate rocket fire at civilian population concentrations in Israel.

"The dimensions of the destruction and devastation are enormous and also included the abduction of over 240 people to the Gaza Strip, the vast majority of them civilians, including toddlers, children, women, and the elderly, and the murder of over 1,400 civilians and members of the security forces, including citizens of about forty foreign countries. Thousands more were injured," it added.

During the fighting, the security forces eliminated many of the terrorists, and others who were involved in the murderous attacks were captured.

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a pause in fighting in Gaza during a call on Monday.

A White House spokesperson previously said the two leaders discussed the potential for "tactical pauses" in fighting in Gaza for humanitarian reasons and possible hostage releases during their conversation on Monday.

President Isaac Herzog spoke with the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, about the war in Israel and the rise in anti-Semitism.

In their conversation, Herzog stated that "the immediate and unconditional return of the abductees is the main concern of the State of Israel. He repeated Prime Minister Netanyahu's statement in the last hour, according to which there will be no ceasefire without the release of the abductees held by Hamas."

Israeli troops are operating deep inside Gaza City, both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday, as the war against Hamas terrorists in the coastal enclave entered its 31st day.

“Gaza City is encircled, we are operating inside, we are increasing pressure on Hamas every hour, every day. So far, we have killed thousands of terrorists, above and below ground,” Netanyahu said in a televised address on Tuesday evening.

A rocket hit a home near Kiryat Ono on Tuesday evening, according to Israel Police. No injuries were reported in the incident.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said a humanitarian convoy came under fire in Gaza City on Tuesday but was able to deliver medical supplies to Shifa hospital.

One month after their bucolic kibbutz turned into a site of carnage, Hanan Dann and Gili Okev returned for a brief visit — alongside two former world leaders, dozens of journalists and a handful of volunteers who were still engaged in the painstaking work of gathering the traces of their neighbors who were murdered.

The motley crew traipsing through Kibbutz Kfar Aza on Sunday had been brought together by the historic horror visited on the community of 750 on Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists burst in. Between 52 and 60 people were murdered. Seventeen are believed to have been taken hostage in Gaza.