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.

Israeli security forces arrested 28 Palestinian terror suspects, 11 of them affiliated with terror group Hamas, in a raid of the West Bank on Tuesday, the IDF, Shin Bet, and Border Police said in a joint statement.

The IDF also mapped the home of the 16-year-old terrorist who carried out the stabbing attack in Jerusalem's Old City on Monday, murdering one Border Police officer and wounding another, ahead of its razing.

Israeli forces operated in Tulkarm to destroy Palestinian terror infrastructure across the town. A number of explosives and other weaponry were found and confiscated by the forces. In addition, forces destroyed a warehouse containing gas and other equipment used for manufacturing explosives.

An Israeli tank struck a terror cell in Lebanon that attempted to fire anti-tank missiles at Israel near Shtula, the IDF said Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, the IDF struck a Hezbollah terror outpost near the northern border as a precautionary measure, the military said.

Rocket sirens sounded in Ashkelon as Israelis across the country held an informal moment of silence, one month after the October 7 massacre of Israel's South, on Tuesday morning at 11:00 a.m. local time.

Radio stations, including Army Radio and various KAN stations, suspended their operations for one minute in a mark of respect for the 1,400 Israelis murdered on October 7.

Memorial ceremonies are also set to be held in education establishments across the country.

Russia's foreign ministry said on Tuesday that a remark by an Israeli junior minister who appeared to express openness to the idea of Israel carrying out a nuclear strike on Gaza had raised a huge number of questions.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday suspended Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu of Otzma Yehudit from cabinet meetings "until further notice."

Asked in a radio interview about a hypothetical nuclear option, Eliyahu had replied: "That's one way."

"This has raised a huge number of questions," Maria Zakharova, Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman, was quoted as saying by state RIA news agency.

Zakharova said the main issue was that Israel appeared to have admitted that it had nuclear weapons.

Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu arrives to a government conference at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem on January 29, 2023. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

Israel does not publicly acknowledge it has nuclear weapons though the Federation of American Scientists estimates Israel has about 90 nuclear warheads.

Official statement confirming Israel's possession of nukes?

"Question number one - it turns out that we are hearing official statements about the presence of nuclear weapons?" Zakharova said.

If so, she said, then where are the International Atomic Energy Agency and international nuclear inspectors?

Eliyahu's remark drew condemnation from around the Arab world, scandalized mainstream Israeli broadcasters, was deemed "objectionable" by a US official, and Iran called for a swift international response.

"The UN Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency must take immediate and uninterrupted action to disarm this barbaric and apartheid regime. Tomorrow is late," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on platform X on Monday.

An attempted terror stabbing was reported at the Kalandiya checkpoint near east Jerusalem on Tuesday morning, Israel Police said.

No casualties were reported.

As per initial reports, Israeli forces took aim at a suspect who approached officers at the checkpoint draped in a Hamas flag and refused to heed officers' requests to stop.

A knife was reportedly found in her possession. She was later arrested.

Israeli forces took control of a Hamas military stronghold in the northern Gaza Strip, the IDF announced on Tuesday morning.

IDF fighters from the Seventh Armored Brigade were accompanied by Israeli Air Force fighter jets which struck a terror cell of some 10 Palestinian terrorists before guiding the ground forces to the stronghold.

Anti-tank missiles and launchers, weapons, and various intelligence materials were located in the compound by the troops.

The IDF also struck dozens of mortar launchpads across the Strip overnight, the Israeli military said.

The Israeli Navy also operated in the Strip early on Tuesday morning, striking "strategic targets belonging to Hamas, including outposts containing what the IDF said were technological assets. 

Israeli forces are seen operating in the Gaza Strip on November 7, 2023 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

IDF: Explosions near al-Quds hospital signify Hamas weaponry present

Elsewhere in the Strip, a terror cell that barricaded itself near the al-Quds Hospital was gunned down by Israeli fighter jets guided by the IDF's 36th Armored Division.

As per the military, the cell planned to launch an attack on the ground forces from its barricaded position. 

The aerial strike on the cell caused a large secondary explosion on the ground adjacent to the hospital, indicating the presence of a cache of explosions and other Hamas weaponry stored in the vicinity of the hospital.

This is a developing story.

Israel's Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister, Amichai Chikli, provided a detailed account to international ministers of close to ten countries, such as Canada's Minister of National Defense, Bill Blair and Italy's Interior Minister, Matteo Piantedosi, calling for action against civil groups with ties to Hamas.

In addition to the letter, sent mainly to interior ministers around the world, a specific report outlined unsettling behaviors by pro-Hamas figures in their respective countries.

The letters were obtained by The Jerusalem Post. The Ministry acknowledged their existence and content.

One of the individuals highlighted in the report to the Italian minister was Mahmud Hanun, who, among other roles, is the head of the “Charity Association for Solidarity with the Palestinian People” (ABSPP) in Italy, which was a member of the "Union of Good" coalition. The "Union of Good" was designated in Israel and the United States in 2008 as a terror organization due to allegations of channeling funds to Hamas. In 2021, the ABSPP accounts were closed due to suspicious transactions.

Celebrating terrorists

The Ministry's report shed light on Hanun's activities. "Hanun posted in March 2019 that Abu Laila was murdered by the 'Zionist-Nazi army,'" the report detailed, referring to Omar Abu Laila who was killed after carrying out a fatal attack on Israelis. It further described how Hanun "eulogized" teenage attackers in Jerusalem through a song, glorifying their violent acts.

Amichai Chikli speaks at the AJC Global Forum in Tel Aviv, on June 14, 2023 (credit: MIRIAM ALSTER/FLASH90)

Chikli, quoting from the report, also noted a memorialization trend amongst supporters of Hamas. "In September 2020, the assailant Ahmed Jarar, the head of the cell that killed Rabbi Raziel Shevach, was memorialized through a song," Chikli conveyed, pointing out the connection between Jarar and his father, Nasser, a senior member of Hamas' military wing.

In his letter to Blair, Chikli wrote, "Unfortunately, Hamas were not alone in perpetrating this despicable terrorist act. Iran funded it, as well as the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who took an active part. It's worth noting that in Canada, there has been an organization operating for approximately two years
known as SAMIDOUN, which is declared to be a 'civilian arm' of the PFLP. According to the report, representatives of the designated organization are active in many countries in Europe and North America, led by Khaled Barakat, who is part of the leadership of PFLP abroad."

"Barkat is involved with establishing militant cells and motivating terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria, as well as abroad," Chikli said. "We expect that they will be designated as a terrorist organization in Canada as well," he urged, invoking a decisive stand against the propagation of terrorism through civil entities.