Israel at War: What happened on day 40?

IDF Chief Spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari on Wednesday night presented Hamas weapons, military equipment, and intelligence technology which IDF soldiers found in more than 18 hours of searching Shifa Hospital since the early morning.

However, at press time, the IDF's findings were not the same level "smoking gun" as the vast explosives, advanced weapons, and hostage holding room which it found at Rantisi Hospital just a few days earlier.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden discussed the state of Israel's war with Hamas and the search for hostages in a phone call early Wednesday, according to Israeli media.

During their conversation, the two discussed the progress of the fighting in the Strip, as well as the release of the abductees.
 

The IDF spokesperson on Wednesday morning allowed the publication of the names of two IDF soldiers who perished in Gaza after their families were notified:

Capt. Omri Yosef David (27) of Karmiel, deputy company commander in the 9217th Battalion, 12th Brigade (the Negev Brigade) was killed yesterday in a battle in the northern Strip Gaza.

Captain Yedidia Asher Lev (26) of Tal Menashe, deputy company commander in the Shaked Regiment, Givati ​​Brigade, was also killed yesterday in a battle in the north of the Gaza Strip. 

The IDF spokesman further published information regarding four IDF soldiers who suffered serious injuries in the battles in the northern Gaza Strip: a combat officer from the 82nd Battalion in the 7th Brigade, a fighter from the Shaked Battalion in the Givati ​​Brigade, a fighter from the 931st Battalion in the Nahal Brigade and a commander at the Military Engineering School. 
 
 

Israel has no intention of reopening its two crossings into Gaza after the war, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told reporters, in a statement that appeared to run contrary to the international desire to eventually unite the territory with Palestinian areas of the West Bank.

“The understanding in Israel is that there will be no more contact between Israel and Gaza,” Cohen told reporters in a briefing on Monday.

“The District Coordination and Liaison Office can become a museum,” he said.

There “won’t be a connection of goods and there won’t be a connection of people, including workers,” he stated.

His words referenced two crossing that have been the sole passageways between Israel and Gaza since the IDF withdrew from the coastal enclave in 2005. 

A general view of the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side with a truck carrying humanitarian aid for Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt, November 12, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/HADEER MAHMOUD)

The crossing at Kerem Shalom is the major commercial passageway for goods to enter and exit Gaza and the one at Erez is for pedestrian passage.

Egypt controls the the third land crossing at Rafah, but it is not designed for heavy commercial use. 

Israel closed Kerem Shalom and Erez after the October 7 attack in which Hamas infiltrated southern Israel killing over 1,200 people and seizing over 239 hostage.

It has insisted that it will not reopen them until the hostages are released. An ad-hoc system has developed to allow for limited humanitarian aid to reach the coastal enclave through Rafah.

Cohen’s statement to reporters were among the first indication that Israel did not plan to reopen those passages even once the hostages were released.

How would Gaza be supplied?

At the press conference Cohen said he favored a plan now under serious discussion by which goods would enter and exit Gaza via a newly established sea route between the enclave and Cyprus.

There has long been an argument that Gaza would benefit from a sea route, rather than relying on costly land transportation of goods, but it has not been envisioned as a replacement for the Israeli crossings. 

Miriam Marmur, public advocacy director for Israeli left-wing NGO Gisha — Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, said her organization opposes the temporary and permanent closure of the two Israeli crossings.

“Obviously there is a desire that has been expressed in the past and more recently including by many in the current Israeli government to permanently divide Gaza from the West Bank and from Israel,” Marmur said.

Such a step “undermines the possibly of a Palestinian state that would include both Gaza and the West Bank,” she stated.

The Israel-Gaza crossings have been the central traffic point for the enclave because the Gaza and West Bank economies are integrated with the Israeli one.

The bulk of Gaza’s exchange of goods is with sovereign Israel and Palestinian areas of the West Bank.

All three entities — PA governed territory in the West Bank, Gaza, and sovereign Israel —use the use the same monetary currency, have similar pricing structures and are part of the same customs envelope.

Passage between Gaza and the West Bank through Israel, particularly for goods, is also considered the quickest way to link the two territories. 

Its presumed that eventually the two entities would be linked into one future Palestinian state, even though Fatah run Palestinian Authority governs Areas A and B of the West Bank and Hamas rules Gaza.

US and European officials have been clear that they plan to push for a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including a plan to put the PA in Gaza and link the two territories.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he supports a rebuilt Gaza for Palestinians but one run by a newly created Palestinian government, not the PA. He has also insisted that Israel must maintain security control of the areas. He has been silent on the issue of Palestinian statehood.

Marmur said that Cohen’s statement shows that the issue with the passages is political and not security related.

Israel, she said, has a basic obligation to facilitate and supply basic humanitarian aid.

The IDF on Tuesday unveiled new details regarding Hamas’s “pit” headquarters which is underground from its above-ground military high command site in Gaza City, which it took over several days ago.

While the IDF knew that the military high command area and some connected tunnel network would be hard to take, and assigned both high-powered Units 401 and Givati troops to do so, senior officials were surprised by the scope and sophistication of what could only be described as similar to the IDF’s “pit” under the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv.

Part of this network included a special shaft with an elevator that did not merely go the conventional three to five meters underground that many Hamas tunnels run but rather reached an almost unheard-of depth of 30 meters.

The elevator could fit around seven people.

Inside the bottom of this special tunnel, the IDF found signs that Hamas’s high command had hidden there, with a top official speculating that this could very well have included: Gaza Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif.

YAHYA SINWAR, leader of Hamas in Gaza, gestures on stage during a rally in Gaza City on May 24 (credit: ATIA MOHAMMED/FLASH90)

This tunnel was also outfitted with oxygen, air conditioning, and even more advanced communications than other underground mini command centers.

IDF Division 162 Commander Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen said, “we created conditions which could lead to taking apart the military and governance capabilities of Hamas in Gaza City.”

“Since the start of the invasion, the IDF and Division 162 have been taking apart the centers of gravity of Hamas and the capabilities that it spent years building. Since the start of the invasion, divisional forces have killed over 1,000 Hamas terrorists and reduced rocket fire from northern Gaza at Israel by around 80%,” he said.

Hamas's long-range missiles destroyed early

In addition, all of Hamas’s long-range Kornet anti-tank missiles were destroyed by the IDF in the invasion’s first 24 hours, though Hamas still has a large supply of shorter-range rocket-propelled-grenade launchers.

Cohen described how various IDF forces first had a goal of subduing Al-Atatra, then moved on to the command center of Hamas, then to the military quarter and its vast underground network, as well as to a naval command center, the Badr command center closer to the coast, Rantisi Hospital and its underground network, the Shaati neighborhood very close to the coast, and final Shifa Hospital and its underground command center.

Al-Atatra is a northwestern neighborhood in the city of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, with command center 17 being slightly further south, the military quarter being in the middle of northern Gaza, Rantisi being further south but also east, and the naval command center, the Badr command center, Shaati and Shifa Hospital being further west.

Summarizing, Cohen said that these different key points signified entering the gates of Gaza City, the center of Gaza City, and now, with the fall of Hamas in Shaati, the southern point of Gaza City.

The Shaati neighborhood alone took thousands of heavily armed IDF forces.

The naval command center also had significant weapons and intelligence hidden about 20 meters down

With Foreign Minister Eli Cohen tweeting on Monday that within two to three weeks, global pressure on Israel for a ceasefire will spike, IDF estimates are that this would be enough time to finish off remaining leftover Hamas spots in the North.

In one sign of the comprehensive toll that the IDF’s operations and the general siege of Hamas is taking on the terror group, recently 12 Hamas terrorists surrendered together near Shifa Hospital, exhausted simply by the lack of available food and water.

Also, the battalion commander of Hamas’s Shaati forces fled his battalion before the battle with IDF forces was over. IDF estimates are that cooperation with the Shin Bet will lead to successfully targeting him within a short time.

Another achievement has been that there have been zero friendly fire losses of IDF infantry from mistaken attacks by the air force.

This is a notable statistic given how aggressively the Air Force has been involved in the invasion and how dense the urban surroundings are.

One sign that there is more work for the IDF to do even in northern Gaza is that IDF forces largely circumvented fighting in the Shejaiya neighborhood, and are expected to at some point circle back there to deal with remaining Hamas forces.

This move as well as a strategy of having troops march through Palestinian houses being bulldozed by IDF D9s, as opposed to on main thoroughfares, have been key to avoiding Hamas boobytraps and ambushes which the group set anticipating the IDF to operate as it did during the 2014 Gaza conflict.

There was an eight-kilometer area leading into the center of Gaza City where Hamas had hoped to bleed the IDF so profusely that it would give up before arriving at the center.

Another key difference from 2014, is the IDF this time seeks to destroy all aspects of Hamas’s tunnel network, whereas in 2014, the IDF often sufficed with causing cave-ins in certain spots.

Hamas responded by simply digging around the cave-ins to reconnect the largely intact disparate tunnels at other spots.

While a large number of attacks on tunnels are cited, only around 30% of Hamas’s tunnels in the area have been fully destroyed to date, requiring significantly more time and investment of resources.

The IDF’s goals appear to be: first destroy Hamas forces, second destroy (not just neutralize) Hamas tunnels, and third to create pressure on Hamas to release the almost 240 Israeli hostages.

Regarding the battle over tunnels, in some cases, the IDF has collapsed tunnels with Hamas forces within them, and a later stage of destroying tunnels will need to include sifting through these areas.

Generally, the IDF has used various new capabilities, robots, and other systems to investigate tunnels, with IDF troops only entering at a later stage, and only with the approval of a high-ranking brigade commander of the rank of colonel.

Since the outbreak of war amid Hamas terror attacks on October 7, much of the foreign media around the world has covered the war in a biased way and favored Hamas reports. One of the networks that has received the most criticism from within Israel is the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network, which broadcasts non-stop from the Gaza Strip. 

In a short interview that was broadcast on Al Jazeera Tuesday from the Al-Aqsa hospital in Gaza, a Gazan resident publicly criticized Hamas. "Why are the members of the organization hiding among the citizens?", the man asked. 

Al-Jazeera reporter interviews a wounded elderly man at a Gaza hospital about how he got hurt.

His answer?

“Why is Hamas hiding among us civilians? Why don’t they go to hell and hide there instead?"

The reporters quickly ends the interview…. pic.twitter.com/nB1EOOxY8l

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) November 14, 2023

Upon hearing the man’s statement, the Al Jazeera reporter of the network took the microphone and immediately changed the subject – presumably because he dared to challenge the ruthless Hamas regime, which does not allow dissent against their rule.

Al Jazeera’s anti-Israel coverage

AL JAZEERA headquarters in Doha, Qatar: The suit that Al Jazeera has filed at the ICC could shine an embarrassing spotlight on the network itself, says the writer. (credit: Imad Creidi/Reuters)

In recent weeks, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi has pushed for the Qatari network to be closed down in Israel. Initially, he said this was because the channel's content was damaging to national morale, but changed it to the channel risking national security after seeking legal counsel.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a group of Jewish-American leaders that during his meeting with the Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdel-Rahman Al-Thani In Doha to moderate the broadcasts of the Al Jazeera network regarding the war in Gaza. 

Al Jazeera is funded by the government of Qatar and is considered to be a tool to gain political influence over public opinion in the Middle East and around the world. Blinken's request indicates that the US believes that the nature of Al Jazeera's broadcasts about the war increases the chances of an escalation of the situation in the region.

Blinken told the heads of Jewish organizations in the US that he asked the Qatari government to change its public stance concerning Hamas during his visit to Doha, according to two sources who attended the meeting. According to the participants, Blinken brought up Al Jazeera broadcasts about the war, which is considered very sympathetic towards Hamas, and suggested toning down pro-Hamas rhetoric as an example of a step the Qatari government can take to balance their news coverage.

Ariella Mardsen contributed to this report.

Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have used some Gaza hospitals to store weapons, hold hostages, and are prepared to fight the IDF from medical facilities, United States National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.

“We have information that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad used some hospitals in the Gaza Strip including Al-Shifa and tunnels underneath them to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages,” Kirby said.

“Hamas and the PIJ members operate a command and control node from Al-Shifa in Gaza City. They have stored weapons there and they are prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility.

“We do not support striking a hospital from the air and we do not want to see a firefight in the hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people are simply trying to get the medical care that they deserve. 

“Hospitals and patients must be protected," he said.

A satellite image shows Al-Shifa hospital, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Gaza November 11, 2023. (credit: MAXAR TECHNOLOGY/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)

“This just points out how challenging the military operation is. Hamas has deeply imbedded itself within the civilian population. Israel has an added burden given the way that Hamas operates,” Kirby said.

“Hamas actions do not lessen Israel’s responsibility to protect civilians in Gaza,” he said.

Kirby spoke as international protests have grown amid reports from the hospitals of patient deaths in light of the IDF’s push in northern Gaza to uncover and destroy Hamas installations in hospitals and to close the terror groups tunnels underneath them.  

Israel faces foreign backlash for bombing Gaza

The government of Belize suspended diplomatic ties with Israel on Tuesday, citing what it described in a statement as "unceasing indiscriminate bombing in Gaza.” 

Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told his Australian counterpart in a call that Israel's targeting of hospitals and schools in Gaza amounted to an "open violation of international law," a Turkish diplomatic source said.

Fidan also emphasized the urgency of achieving a full ceasefire as soon as possible and the need for unhindered access of humanitarian aid into the enclave, the source said.

Hamas has asserted that over 11,000 Palestinians have been killed in war related violence.

The IDF launched a military campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza after the terrorist group infiltrated southern Israel on October 7, killing over 1,200 people and seizing over 238 hostages.

On Tuesday the global focus was on the fate of Al Shifa. Palestinians trapped inside Gaza's biggest hospital were digging a mass grave to bury patients who died under Israeli encirclement, and said no plan was in place to evacuate babies despite Israel announcing an offer to send portable incubators.

Hamas, Gaza's ruling Islamist group, denies fighters are present and says 650 patients and 5,000-7,000 other civilians are trapped inside the hospital grounds, under constant fire from snipers and drones. It says 40 patients have died in recent days, including three premature babies whose incubators were knocked out.

A Hamas official in Beirut said 25 of Gaza's 35 hospitals were out of use because of the Israeli army’s military action. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was deeply disturbed by the "dramatic loss of life" in the hospitals, his spokesman said.

"In the name of humanity, the secretary-general calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire," the spokesman told reporters.

Ashraf Al-Qidra, Gaza's health ministry spokesman, reached by telephone inside the hospital compound, said there were about 100 bodies decomposing inside and no way to get them out.

"We are planning to bury them today in a mass grave inside the Al-Shifa medical complex. It is going to be very dangerous as we don't have any cover or protection from the ICRC," he told Reuters, referring to the International Committee of the Red Cross/Crescent.

Thirty-six babies are left from the neo-natal ward after three died. Without fuel for generators to power incubators, the babies were being kept as warm as possible, lined up eight to a bed.

Israel announced on Tuesday that it was offering portable, battery-powered incubators so the babies could be moved. But Qidra said that so far no arrangements had been established to carry out any such evacuation.

"The occupation is still besieging the hospital and they are firing into the yards from time to time," he said.

Israel has denied that Al-Shifa hospital is under siege and says its forces allow exit routes for those inside. Medics and officials inside the hospital deny this and say those trying to leave come under fire. Reuters could not verify the situation.

Speaking at a news briefing, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Washington did not want to see any civilians, "certainly not babies in incubators" and other vulnerable populations caught in the crossfire. He added the US was in conversations with humanitarian organizations and third parties on the possible evacuation.

"We want there to be safe evacuation for patients in hospitals so they can get out of harm's way. We would support an independent third party, a respected third party to conduct those evacuations," Miller said.

"We know the government of Israel would support such a step as well... The question is will Hamas allow patients to be evacuated from hospitals or will they continue to use them as human shields?" Miller added.

He said Washington was in conversations with a number of humanitarian organizations about possible patient evacuations but did not say which ones or give further details.

Kirby said that the US continued to focus on expanding the extent of the humanitarian aid that enters Gaza from the Egyptian crossing at Rafah.

Britain's minister of state for development, Andrew Mitchell, said on Tuesday that longer humanitarian pauses covering wider areas would be needed in the Israel-Palestine conflict in order to deliver aid to the region.

"Longer pauses that cover wider areas will be needed. We are discussing with the UN and other partners how best to achieve this," Mitchell told lawmakers.

Humanitarian aid sent by Italy to Gaza is entering the area in these hours, the Italian foreign minister said on Tuesday.

"Italy has sent two C130 military aircraft carrying 16 tonnes of humanitarian aid, which are in transit towards Gaza in these hours," Antonio Tajani told parliament's joint Foreign Affairs and Defence committees, adding the aid travelled through the Rafah crossing, on the border with Egypt.

Separately the United States and Britain imposed a fresh round of sanctions on Tuesday targeting Hamas as they seek to cut off funding for the militant Palestinian group following its deadly attack on Israel last month.

The United States announced its third round of sanctions since the attack, targeting key Hamas officials and the mechanisms through which Iran provides support to Hamas and its ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), another militant group.

Britain added sanctions on four Hamas senior leaders and two financiers, the Foreign Office said in a statement, including the group's political leader in Gaza and the commander of its military arm.

"The United States will continue to work with our partners, including the UK, to deny Hamas the ability to raise and use funds to carry out its atrocities," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.

"Hamas’s actions have caused immense suffering and shown that terrorism does not occur in isolation. Together with our partners we are decisively moving to degrade Hamas's financial infrastructure, cut them off from outside funding, and block the new funding channels they seek to finance their heinous acts."

The fight over judicial reform is long forgotten in the almost 100% reserve unit running the IDF’s targeting command operations for the Nahal Unit in Gaza.

IDF Maj. “Y,” who works in a start-up using robots and as a mountain running training instructor, has left his family behind and is committed to seeing the Gaza war to its end, even if that takes another six months, he told The Jerusalem Post during a recent visit to the targeting center near the southern border

Blue, green, red, brown, and many other different colors flashed on Y’s screen signaling different sets of forces in the field, sensitive sights, or likely ambushes and tunnel spaces.

The targeting command is a critical part of the IDF’s integrated revolution to help select the exact right attack mechanism: from artillery, to tanks, to drone, to aircraft, to naval vessels, as well as the exact right munitions, depending on any nearby sensitive sights and civilians, versus the need to ensure that a wider area of terrorist targets are killed or destroyed.

Y explained how different kinds of infrastructure, flagged on his electronic map, can tip off IDF troops regarding tunnel locations. This can be a reference point for Y to communicate certain data to Nahal forces in the field in Gaza. Such information can be crucial both in terms of preliminary maneuvers and in terms of zoning in and taking out a target under Y’s approval.

Israeli soldiers take a position inside the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing ground operation of the Israeli army against Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, according to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), in this handout picture obtained by Reuters on November 11, 2023. (credit: IDF/Handout via REUTERS)

For example, on Monday night IDF Spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari mentioned that part of how the IDF traced connections between Hamas’s underground command center near Rantisi Hospital and the above-ground hospital itself, was following various wires that ran below ground.

At one point, mid-sentence, Y, switched from talking with the Post to forces in the field through his earpiece.

Y and the IDF field officers quickly clarified a few items that the Post cannot repeat, and within about 30 seconds, Y approved an attack on Hamas terrorists nearby the advancing Nahal forces about as fast as you can say “ready, aim, fire.”

With some decades of experience on most of the younger mid-level officers in the targeting command center, Y still manages to banter with them, command them, and fit in.

Who else is at the IDF targeting center near Gaza?

IDF Capt. “OI” is studying engineering at Ariel University. Previously, he did a degree in computer science at Haifa University.

OI’s previous experience was during his mandatory service from 2016 until March 2021 – just missing the May 2021 Gaza conflict with Hamas.

He returned to the reserves starting in July 2023, including various serious drills. Previously, he had worked primarily for targeting commands on the North with Hezbollah and regarding the Syrian civil war targeting and surveillance.

This rich comparative experience helps him think out of the box to solve targeting issues, though he did need to make some adjustments for Gaza’s intense urban density.

IDF Capt. “OR” worked on the May 2021 Gaza conflict, so he was quite familiar with the characteristics of targeting issues in Gaza, but in the past had been tasked with special forces, and now is tasked to work with Nahal forces.

One tactic the IDF is currently using effectively in Gaza is approaching Hamas layers and ambush points, but seeking to maintain a 200-250 meter distance from them so as to be able to continue to use the IDF's aerial, artillery, and tank power advantages.

This is forcing more and more Hamas forces to hide in the tunnels, where the IDF says it has other methods for keeping up the pressure and the attacks.

Y said that the distances for the forces and for the munitions are always varying as well depending on how involved the fighting gets.

In addition, Y said he is in constant touch with the IDF operations unit, which has even greater micro-level contact with rank-and-file forces in the field as well as with the intelligence collection unit, a unit the Post visited earlier this week. The targeting center is also supported by the artificial intelligence unit that the Post visited this past spring, which altered the speed of finding new targets sometimes from weeks to minutes.

He said, “There is a huge world of intelligence collection – it has increased a lot,” in the many years since he began his service.

One example which Y told the Post where his unit was involved in the targeting included four Hamas terrorists approaching a civilian residence.

Next, he said that they watched them via a Zik drone and saw three of the terrorists arrive at a specific designated spot. “We struck it and there was our first explosion,” he said pointing at a video replay, and then he noted “a delayed much larger second explosion - it turned out afterwards that they had hidden significant explosives in tunnels underneath” the civilian residence.

This double explosion was a prime example of the countless number of times that the IDF has found Gaza City to be filled to the hilt with weapons and explosives in the vast majority of civilian locations.

In another instance, Y described killing six terrorists, using multiple attacks from multiple platforms to take them out, some as part of the initial attack, and some as they tried to escape.

Despite its incredibly powerful deadly effectiveness, the targeting command is governed by strict directives which are not only posted on the wall next to the dozen or so computers where the 20 or so staff sit, but also have overall supervision from the IDF international law division.

Y said that on a daily basis there are regularly attacks, too numerous to keep a constant memory of, which he and others call off in order to avoid hitting nearby Palestinian civilians, to observe both basic morality and international law.

But flipping back to the other side, in the current war, he said that the IDF’s surveillance, tools, and targeting center capabilities are so vast, that usually adjusting an angle or waiting for another later point, enables IDF forces to eventually take out the Hamas target in question.

Although having a targeting center is not new, the vastness and lethality following the mix of combining it with the IDF AI center along with a complete integration of the air and naval forces as IDF troops march through Gaza, have led to stunning result of under 50 IDF deaths in Gaza compared to many thousands on the side of Hamas.  

The head of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Major General Ghassan Alian, addressed the public in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in a video posted to his Facebook account. 

In the video, Alian, who is a member of Israel's Druze community, spoke in Arabic.

"The IDF is fighting Hamas, and the IDF will weaken Hamas," Alian said. "Hamas brought war upon you while its leadership spends time in spas in hotels or hides underground in tunnels. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have betrayed you and abandoned you to your fate. Humanitarian aid exists in the southern part of the strip – food, water, and shelters – and it will continue. For your sake and for the sake of your children, distance yourselves from Hamas."

Ghassan, as the head of COGAT, is one the highest ranking Druze members of the IDF.

A Bedouin IDF soldier who was traumatized fighting Hamas on October 7 is being denied mental healthcare, and is being kept in military jail after being arrested for cannabis possession, Army Radio reporter Doron Kadosh shared Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter.

לא חשבתי שתוך כדי המלחמה אפרסם סיפור כזה, אבל זה פשוט לא ייאמן:
חייל צה״ל, גשש בן העדה הבדואית, שלחם בנחל עוז בקרבות השבת השחורה, לא מקבל מצה״ל טיפול נפשי לאחר שנמצא שהוא סובל ממצב נפשי קשה ופוסט טראומה.
החייל היה עד למראות זוועה, גופות במצב קשה וחבריו לנשק שנפלו מול עיניו >>

— דורון קדוש | Doron Kadosh (@Doron_Kadosh) November 14, 2023

The soldier in question, whose name has not been revealed, was from the Bedouin tracker unit, specializing in identifying footprints and other markings left by humans and animals.

Fighting in Nahal Oz on October 7, the day Hamas invaded southern Israel, he witnessed the horrors and carnage as it was going on, spending hours there pushing back armed terrorists.

However, the soldier has yet to be provided any assistance in coming to terms with the traumatic events of that day, including seeing comrades who fought alongside him killed before his eyes.

Israeli soldiers seen in Kibbutz Be'eri, near the Israeli-Gaza border, in southern Israel, October 11, 2023. (credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The soldier had begun exhibiting symptoms of severe psychological distress roughly two weeks later and had entered into extensive treatment, including a number of hours of therapy on a daily basis.

Sometime after the beginning of his therapy, the soldier was arrested and placed in an IDF jail after military police found cannabis in his vehicle.

A prison officer met with the soldier following his arrest and incarceration and strongly recommended that he continue to receive the same level of psychological therapy under the circumstances.

Why has the IDF denied a traumatized Bedouin soldier therapy?

The IDF however, has refused to allow the soldier access to his mandated therapy instead stating that “The soldier was examined and found medically fit for detention. He receives treatment from the medical staff in the prison according to his needs.”

The soldier's military legal representative stated “The soldier is in an acute mental state. Due to his arrest, he was denied stable and continuous treatment, which is critical for preventing post-traumatic fixation. The army does not offer an alternative solution and incarceration does not allow him to be treated.

“Leaving him in detention in this situation is unacceptable and may seriously harm him even later in his life.”