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.

The Palestinian Authority must take control of the Gaza Strip following the war, but only under the watch of Israeli security forces, opposition head MK Yair Lapid told KAN Reshet B on Tuesday morning.

Lapid challenged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statements to ABC overnight, saying that the only body that can take responsibility for the Strip after defeating Hamas in the PA. However, the Yesh Atid chairman did state that the IDF must have control over security in Gaza in the short term.

US President Joe Biden's proposed $14 billion aid package to Israel includes funds to assemble up to 100 more Iron Dome launchers, significantly expanding the IDF's air defense, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

As per the report, citing unidentified US officials, the package would also include funds for some 14,000 interceptors, giving Israel the ability to operate "conservatively 25 new batteries" across Israel, Wes Rumbaugh, a missile defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Bloomberg.

However, Rumbaugh stated that it is likely new launchers and interceptors built using US funding would replace dated equipment still in operation in Israel.

Bloomberg's report comes as Israel has been facing a heavy rocket barrage from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, with Hamas and Hezbollah taking responsibility for attacks carried out since the former's mass infiltration and massacre of 1,400 Israelis on October 7.

Israel also faced attacks from Syria and the Houthis rebels in Yemen, including shooting down a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis which was reportedly intercepted outside of the Earth's atmosphere.

PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu meets with US President Joe Biden in Tel Aviv, last month. (credit: MIRIAM ALSTER/FLASH90)

Republicans cause issues in US House, Senate

Biden sought the US Congress and House of Representatives to approve a $106 billion military aid package for both Israel and Ukraine last month, saying that "Israeli and Ukrainian victories on the battlefield are essential to protect America’s national security."

But Republicans who lead the House of Representatives, object to combining the two issues, joined by some party members in the Senate.

Opinion polls show public support for Ukraine aid declining and many Republicans, particularly those most closely aligned with former president Donald Trump, have come out against it.

Last month, following the launch of Operation Swords of Iron, the US Pentagon announced plans to send the two Iron Dome missile defense systems it had previously purchased from Israel back to Jerusalem.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Israel's government is not responsible for "operating" Israel's defense establishment, Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter told Army Radio on Tuesday, explaining that "the two defense circles" which the government relied on failed on October 7.

"In the defense world, there are two circles - the intelligence circle and a physical circle of borders, fences and forces," Dichter, a former Shin Bet director, said. "On October 7, both circles collapsed.

"The government relies on the two circles, guides them, and finances them - but does not operate them," Dichter claimed.

Israel will have security responsibility in the Gaza Strip for an indefinite period following the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed in an interview with the ABC network overnight on Monday.

"We have seen what happens when Israel does not have the security responsibility," he said, referring to the October 7 massacre. "When we do not have this security responsibility what we have is an eruption of Hamas terror on a scale we could not imagine."

Netanyahu further reiterated his vow to not agree to any ceasefire until the return of the 240 hostages kept by Hamas in Gaza.

Netanyahu: No ceasefire until return of hostages

According to Netanyahu, it is possible to talk about "small ceasefires, an hour here and an hour there, there have been them in the past, I suppose, we will examine the circumstances to allow humanitarian goods to be brought in, or for our hostages, individual hostages to leave, but I don't think there will be a ceasefire.”

During the interview with presenter David Muir on the World News Tonight program, the prime minister emphasized that "I think this [ceasefire] will delay the war effort, it will delay our effort to get our hostages out, because the only thing that works on the criminals of Hamas is the military pressure we exert on it."

Smoke rises after Israeli air strikes as it seen from Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, November 6, 2023. (credit: ABED RAHIM KHATIB/FLASH90)

Last week, the prime minister held a briefing for the foreign media, where he said that a ceasefire is not on the agenda.

"Just as the United States would not agree to a cease-fire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor or September 11, Israel will not agree to a cease-fire after the massacre. The call for a cease-fire is a call for Israel to surrender to Hamas, barbarism and terrorism, it will not happen."

Speaking of potential disagreements with US President Joe Biden, Netanyahu told ABC that Biden is a "great supporter of Israel...we have to stand together and we stand together. We agree that we have to provide humanitarian assistance, we are doing it. We do not want to give Hamas the ability to endanger our soldiers."

Asked if he bears personal responsibility for the massacre, the prime minister noted that "tough questions are going to be asked and I am gonna be the first to answer it. The responsibility of the government is to protect the people and that clearly was not met," Netanyahu said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an “urgent” Gaza ceasefire as he warned that the enclave had become a graveyard for children and took Hamas to task for using civilians as human shields.

“The unfolding catastrophe makes the need for a humanitarian ceasefire more urgent with every passing hour,” said Guterres.

He spoke at the UN headquarters on Monday as he launched a $1.2 billion flash campaign to help civilians in the besieged Hamas-controlled coastal enclave between Israel and Egypt.

UN SECRETARY-GENERAL Antonio Guterres. (photo credit: Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)

He has been among the strong voices calling for a halt to the Gaza War, which was sparked by Hamas’ killing of 1,400 people in southern Israel on October 7 and its seizure of over 240 captives.

The mounting Palestinian death toll from Gaza War-related violence, which Hamas asserts is over 10,000 with 4,000 of them presumed to be children, has prompted increased calls for a cease-fire.

“Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children,” Guterres said, explaining that “hundreds of girls and boys are reportedly being killed or injured every day.”

In the war overall, “more journalists have reportedly been killed over a four-week period than in any conflict in at least three decades,” he stated. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists some 37 journalists and media workers have been killed in the war, of which 32 were Palestinian and four Israeli.

The UN has reported that over 89 aid workers have also been killed, with Guterres explaining that  “More UN aid workers have been killed than in any comparable period in the history of our organization,” Guterres said.

He blamed both Israel and Hamas for the carnage, which he said was a “crisis of humanity” that was “shaking the world.”

“Ground operations by the Israel Defense Forces and continued bombardment are hitting civilians, hospitals, refugee camps, mosques, churches and UN facilities – including shelters,” Guterres said.

“No one is safe,” he added.

'Critical relief will be stranded'

“At the same time, Hamas and other militants use civilians as human shields and continue to launch rockets indiscriminately towards Israel,” Guterres said.

He condemned Hamas’s October 7 attack and called for the immediate release of the hostages the group seized that day.

Guterres urged all parties to the conflict to abide by international law, noting that “no party to an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law.”  

He spoke as the international community and the United States has focused on getting humanitarian aid into Gaza through Egypt’s crossing at Rafah, which is not designed to handle the flow of goods into the Strip.

Israel has closed its commercial crossing at Kerem Shalom and its pedestrian one at Erez, until Hamas releases the hostages.

Guterres said that the trickle of goods that enter Gaza through Rafah “does not meet the ocean of need” nor is that crossing designed to handle such traffic.

“Just over 400 trucks have crossed into Gaza over the past two weeks – compared with 500 a day before the conflict.  And crucially, this does not include fuel,” Guterres said.

Israel has refused to allow fuel into Gaza fearing that Hamas will divert it for military needs, explaining that the terror group already has fuel but is not making it available to Palestinians in Gaza.

Palestinians in Gaza depend on fuel to generate electricity and purify water.

“Without fuel, newborn babies in incubators and patients on life support will die. Water cannot be pumped or purified,” Guterres said.

“Raw sewage could soon start gushing onto the streets, further spreading disease,” he said, adding that “Trucks loaded with critical relief will be stranded.”

According to the UN, there has been no electricity in Gaza since October 11. On Monday, the UN explained, 93 trucks primarily carrying food items, medicines, health supplies, bottled water and hygiene products crossed from Egypt into Gaza. Prior to the start of the Gaza War, some 500 truckloads of goods entered Gaza every working day, the UN explained.

UK's Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Monday said he will be in Japan for the Group of Seven's foreign ministers meeting to discuss the crisis in Israel and Gaza, according to a Downing Street statement.

"Alongside G7 partners, we'll also be addressing other priorities ranging from Russia's illegal war in Ukraine to climate change, economic security and global trade," Cleverly said in a statement.

He will also meet Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Yoko Kamikawa to strengthen security partnerships after signing the Hiroshima Accord earlier this year.

In May, as part of the accord, the countries announced the launch of a "semiconductors partnership" to strengthen chip supply chains in an increasingly competitive market.

The government of Thailand is working through Iranian mediators to secure the release of Thai nationality hostages held by Hamas in Gaza following their October 7 massacre in southern Israel according to reports from Israel’s Ynet on November 7.

Thailand has 23 of its citizens among the 240 confirmed hostages being held in the Strip and representatives met Iranian officials in Tehran for discussions relating to their release according to the report.

The Thai nationals were working in Israel primarily in the agricultural communities around Gaza and as caretakers.

The Prime Minister of Thailand Sarta Thawisin confirmed yesterday that the workers are being held by Hamas and that "their situation is good and they should be released soon". 

Proof of life supplied

The prime minister also confirmed that the Thai Army had received pictures of the captives and that they appeared in good condition.

Families of people who are missing or were abducted from Israel by Hamas hold a press conference asking for a humanitarian corridor for the transfer of medicine and humanitarian aid for hostages, in Tel Aviv, Israel, October 14, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)

The report claims that neighboring Malaysia, a Muslim country, is a part of the negotiations and that Hamas is waiting for a ceasefire to be able to evacuate them.

The deputy speaker of the Thai parliament also announced that the hostages are being “well treated.”

A total of 32 Thai nationals have been confirmed as having been killed during the attack.

Ynet cites sources as saying that Hamas intends to release the hostages through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt before returning them to Thailand via Iran.

Prime Minister Tavisin has been in contact with Prime Minister Netanyahu regarding the hostages.

The United Arab Emirates will establish a fully equipped field hospital in the Gaza Strip, the state news agency said on Monday without elaborating whether there is an agreement on this initiative with Israel.

The agency said five aircraft carrying the equipment and requirements necessary for the establishment and operation of the field hospital departed from Abu Dhabi on Monday heading to Al-Arish airport in Egypt.