Israel at War: What happened on Day 64?

Hamas terrorists fired rockets toward Israel from the designated humanitarian zone on Friday evening around 6:00 p.m. IST, the IDF said on Saturday afternoon.

The IDF added that the terror organization had also launched a sum of four other rockets in the preceding hours from the humanitarian zone.

These earlier rockets reportedly landed within the Gaza Strip.

In recent days, the IDF has made numerous discoveries of weapons and infrastructure in civilian areas and items that it points to as evidence that Hamas uses civilian areas to conduct its activities.

Earlier on Saturday, the IDF reported that it had found a teddy bear packed with ammunition and a hidden sniper rifle.

Hamas rocket launches from the humanitarian zone of the Gaza Strip. December 8, 2023. (credit: IDF)

Nahal Brigade kills Hamas fighters in Jabalya

Soldiers of the Nahal Brigade’s 931st Battalion engaged Hamas terrorists in the northern Gazan city of Jabalya, the IDF stated on Sunday.

During operations in the area, the Nahal Brigade soldiers received intelligence indicating Hamas fighters and weapons were present in structures nearby, the IDF said.

The IDF troops subsequently initiated a precision strike on those locations.

The Israeli military added that Hamas terrorists had attempted to stage an ambush on the Israeli troops located in the vicinity, but were foiled by an IDF flanking maneuver through an alley, catching the terrorists unprepared.

Hamas fighters reportedly returned fire and threw grenades at the Israeli forces, and the ensuing firefight continued until the Hamas forces were eliminated. 

In recent days, engagements between IDF troops and Hamas terrorists have occurred within the same vicinity, the IDF noted, with more Hamas fighters being eliminated by the 931st Battalion who managed to locate Hamas weaponry and infrastructure in the area. 

Other terrorists in the area have also been recently killed by IDF tank fire and IAF UAVs, the army said.

Israeli Air Force fighter jets attacked and subsequently destroyed overnight several terrorist targets in Gaza, neutralizing terrorists from both air and ground operations, the IDF said Saturday morning,

Kfir Brigade fighters were confronted by a terrorist squad near a school in Shejaia, in Gaza City. Fighters engaged in a firefight and killed the terrorists, continuing a search within the nearby school. There, the IDF uncovered several weapons in the stockpile.

Kalashnikov-type weapons, AK-47 rifles, grenades, and ammunition were found inside the classrooms.

Coming face-to-face with Hamas terrorists in action

A paratrooper brigade combat team located and destroyed a major tunnel shaft that was part of a large route of tunnels. Another tunnel was storing weapons and was complete with an elevator, according to the IDF.

A tunnel shaft discovered in Shejaia, Gaza City, in a photo taken December 9, 2023 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Golani forces also identified terrorists armed with anti-tank missiles heading to the same neighborhood.

IDF soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip on December 9, 2023 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Fighters from the 5th Brigade launched an attack in Beit Hanun against terrorists shooting at IDF forces from a mosque, as well as a UNRWA school building.

Israel's naval forces also struck terrorist infrastructure and vessels for terrorism.

Three members of the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah were killed in an Israeli drone strike in southwest Syria on Friday, according to two regional sources close to Damascus.

One of the terrorists killed in the reported strike is Hasan Ali Daqdud, the son of senior Hezbollah terrorist Ali Mussa Daqduq, according to KAN News.

Who is Ali Mussa Daqduq?

Daqduq, according to Israeli military sources, operates a Hezbollah terrorist network called the "Golan Network" situated along the Syrian border with the Golan Heights.

He was previously captured by US troops in Syria after taking part in a 2007 attack in Karbala, killing five American soldiers. Daqduq, who the US asserted was operating with Iranian backing, was transferred to Iraqi custody and subsequently released in 2012.

The strike also killed a Syrian who was accompanying them, one of the sources said.

A U.S. solider shows a picture of Ali Mussa Daqduq during a news conference. (credit: REUTERS)

Wars can start for simple reasons. Take the “Fan Affair,” for example. On April 29, 1827, the French consul-general, Pierre Deval, was hit with a fan by Hussein Dey, the Dey of Algiers. This incident triggered a conflict in which France occupied Algeria in 1830 for 132 years, only leaving in 1962, when Algeria officially announced its independence.

If the French and the Algerians could make peace, so can Israelis and Palestinians. Conditions are more than ripe for both sides to end the Arab-Israeli conflict by moving toward a comprehensive peace settlement based on a two-state solution along the 1967 lines.

In November 1977, the late Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, told Israel’s Knesset, “The October War should be the last war.” Allowing myself to dream, I expect countries around the world to merge their efforts and make the current Gaza war the region’s last. The opportunity exists.

The shocking Hamas attack on October 7 for Israelis and the subsequent calamity that has hit the 2.2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip can be the best catalyst to push both sides toward a historical and genuine rapprochement that ends the conflict and leaves all the pain behind.

The IDF attacked a series of Hezbollah terrorist targets overnight, striking multiple operational headquarters, and responded to detected attacks from Lebanese territory into Israel.

The IDF engaged in close-quarters fighting with a Hamas terror cell in the area of a school compound in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaia, the IDF said on Friday evening.

According to the Israeli military report, the fighting took place between the Hamas fighters and soldiers of the 74th Battalion of the army’s 188th Brigade along with LOTAR special forces, an elite-counter terrorism unit.

The IDF said that despite an attempt by Hamas to bait the IDF personnel into an ambush, the Israeli forces successfully eliminated the Hamas attackers.

A subsequent search of the school area revealed a tunnel shaft inside of a classroom, the IDF added, stating that the discovery adds to the evidence that Hamas abuses civilian areas by using them to shelter its terror activities.

The IDF has been emphasizing the point that the discoveries it had been making in Gaza italicize Hamas’s practice of using civilian areas for military purposes in recent operational updates.

The IDF said it located a Hamas tunnel shaft inside of a classroom in Shejaia. December 8, 2023. (credit: IDF)

Terrorist activities in the school

Further, Israel has reported finding evidence of terror activities in schools numerous times in the past. As recently as Thursday, the IDF shared images of what it claims is a tunnel shaft located in a school.

The Israeli military went on to say that a special squad from within the LOTAR special forces unit has been operating alongside the 188th Brigade for the first time within the Gaza Strip.

The squad reportedly contains snipers as well as soldiers who specialize in both demolitions and breaching. These soldiers have been active in elite units since the start of the Gaza war.

The United States on Friday vetoed a United Nations Security Council demand for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the war between Israel and Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza, diplomatically isolating Washington as it shields its ally.

Thirteen Security Council members voted in favor of a brief draft resolution, put forward by the United Arab Emirates, while Britain abstained. The vote came after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made a rare move on Wednesday to formally warn the 15-member council of a global threat from the two-month long war.

"It's not an issue about isolation. It's an issue about what we think is best to try to end this conflict as soon as possible and also to help facilitate more humanitarian assistance going into Gaza," Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood told reporters ahead of the vote.

"We can't just snap our fingers and the conflict stops. This is a very, very difficult situation," he said.

Opposing a ceasefire

The United States and Israel oppose a ceasefire because they believe it would only benefit Hamas. Washington instead supports pauses in fighting to protect civilians and allow the release of hostages taken by Hamas in a deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Smoke rises at the site of a house destroyed in an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, December 4, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

A seven-day pause - that saw Hamas release some hostages and an increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza - ended on Dec. 1.

After several failed attempts to take action, the Security Council last month called for pauses in fighting to allow aid access to Gaza, which Guterres on Friday described as a "spiraling humanitarian nightmare."

The US favors its own diplomacy, rather than Security Council action, to win the release of more hostages and press Israel to better protect civilians in Gaza as it retaliates for the Hamas attack that Israel says killed 1,200 people.

However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged on Thursday that there was a "gap" between Israel's intent to protect civilians and what has happened on the ground. Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 17,480 people have been killed.

 'Human pinballs'

Israel has bombarded Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and launched a ground offensive. The vast majority of the Palestinian enclave's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes.

"There is no effective protection of civilians," Guterres told the council earlier on Friday. "The people of Gaza are being told to move like human pinballs – ricocheting between ever-smaller slivers of the south, without any of the basics for survival. But nowhere in Gaza is safe."

In Washington, Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told reporters earlier on Friday that if the Security Council failed to adopt the resolution, "it is giving Israel a license to continue with its massacre of Palestinians in Gaza."

Along with demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the draft text said Palestinian and Israeli civilian populations must be protected and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan told the Security Council earlier on Friday that there was a ceasefire that had been broken by Hamas on Oct. 7.

"The irony is that regional stability and the security of both Israelis and Gazans can only be achieved once Hamas is eliminated, not one minute before," Erdan said. "So the true path to ensure peace is only through supporting Israel's mission - absolutely not to call for a ceasefire."