Update Feb 16th (Day 133)

UPDATES ON THE WAR – Day 133 (Feb 16^th):

*Anderson Tours has officially decided to move forward with our April Holy Land Tour with contingencies in place to cancel or postpone if deemed unsafe! So far so good!

*We are one Day 133 (Feb 16^th). STILL CLOSE TO A CEASE FIRE / HOSTAGE RELEASE!

[We have created categories to make our summaries easier to read and understand.]

Headlines:

• S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday (Feb 15^th) that a deal on the release of hostages held by Hamas remains possible, but “very hard” issues remain to be resolved.
• Self-defense and Human Shields: How Should Israel Wage War in Gaza? As Israel threatens a major operation in Rafah, a Gazan city sheltering over a million civilians, it faces hard moral and legal choices. How can the IDF minimize harm to Palestinian civilians when Hamas is trying to maximize that same harm?
• The city of Rafah has been described as “the last stronghold remaining in Hamas’s hands” in Gaza, which suggests that most hostages are also being held in the Rafah area, alongside numerous Hamas militants and more than one million Gazan residents, many of whom have fled to Rafah to escape the destruction in the northern and central parts of the enclave.
• Egypt is building a new walled buffer zone more than 2 miles wide on Gaza border
• CNN — Egypt is building a massive miles-wide buffer zone and wall along its border with southern Gaza, new satellite images show, as fears grow over Israel’s planned ground offensive in Rafah where more than half of Gaza’s population is sheltering. If the buffer zone — which stretches from the end of the Gaza border to the Mediterranean Sea — is completed, it will completely engulf the Egyptian-Rafah border crossing complex.
• Defense chief Yoav Gallant said Israel possesses intel indicating over 30 UNRWA employees actively participated in Hamas’ October 7 attack. He disclosed the identities of 12 such workers, including those involved in abductions of civilians and soldiers.

OUCH:

• No deal has been solidified yet, both sides are close with official summit meetings in Cairo this week…meanwhile fighting continues.
• Egyptian officials threatened yesterday to suspend its peace treaty with Israel should the country’s forces advance into the border city of Rafah. The warning comes as Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated plans to move into the city, saying evacuation routes were being established for civilians.
• Israel revealed a network of tunnels discovered in Gaza City underneath the headquarters for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Palestine. The agency had come under recent criticism after allegations a dozen of its employees participated in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in Israel.
• 67 Killed in Israeli Hostage Rescue, Many Trapped Under Rubble, Gaza Health Ministry Says
• As the recent discovery of a server farm underneath UNRWA offices in Gaza City illustrates, Hamas has deliberately placed its tunnel system underneath the densest and least suspected parts of Gazan civilian life in order to use civilians as cover for its operations and as fodder for an information war it is waging against Israel and its Western allies
• The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry said at least 28,775 Palestinians have been killed and 68,552 wounded since the war began.
• The IDF said nine soldiers were wounded in fighting in the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours, four in serious condition.
• Yemen’s Houthi rebels say they will widen attacks on American and British interests – this after the U.S. and U.K. struck Yemen in retaliation for Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea. This is all raising fears of a wider regional war since the Houthis say their attacks are in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
• FYI: The use of human shields is illegal under international law. It violates customary IHL, and is specifically mentioned in the Fourth Geneva Convention, and Additional Protocol I, which prohibit the use of civilians for military purposes. Moreover, under the Rome Statute, which determines the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, using civilians as human shields is a war crime.

YEAH:

• Israeli Forces Rescue Two Hostages From Hamas Captivity in Gaza: The two, Louis Norberto Har, 70, and Fernando Marman, 60, were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on October 7 and were held in an apartment in Rafah, according to the IDF.
• Anderson Tours is resuming Tours to sacred locations in the Holy Land beginning in April

IN THE SOUTH (RED SEA):

• Houthis Claim Missile Strike On ‘American Ship’ In Red Sea—But U.K. Navy Says Cargo Ship Received Minor Damages.

GAZA (NORTH):

• Senior U.S. military intelligence officers told congress members in recent days that while Israel has degraded Hamas’ military capabilities, it is not close to eliminating it, the New York Times reported. The officers refrained from providing estimates of the number of Hamas fighters killed, but said in private conversations that it looks like only a third of the members of the organization’s military wing have been killed, the report said.

GAZA (SOUTH):

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his military to prepare plans to evacuate nearly 1.5 million civilians from Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, considered one of the last refuges for displaced Palestinian civilians. The order comes ahead of an expected Israeli ground operation, with Netanyahu seeking to dismantle four of Hamas’ battalions that are believed to be in Rafah.
• The U.S. State Department said that an Israeli military operation in Rafah, “in an area where there is sheltering of a million people, would be a disaster.”
• National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has said the US would not support an intensive Israeli military operation in Rafah under current conditions.
• Hamas militants typically hide in the extensive network of underground tunnels constructed to ride out just such a conflict. The tunnels interpose a physical layer of human shielding between Hamas underground and Israeli jets overhead. Trapped between the two sides are hospitals, schools, refugee camps, apartment buildings, and other fixtures of civilian life in Gaza.

POST WAR GAZA:

• Feb 14, 2024: As the Israel-Hamas war drags on, the list of “day-after” scenarios for Gaza is prompting renewed ideas about resolving the larger Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But there’s a core condition for any such plan: besides an end to the war, any type of peace will require a radical change of leadership among Israelis and Palestinians.
• Israel will have to wait for its government to fall and elect someone better than Netanyahu – it’s a low bar, and a different article.
• For Palestinians, the concept of governance itself is in shambles, divided for 17 years between Fatah and Hamas, both loathed for much of that time by Palestinians for corruption, authoritarian rule and failure to achieve freedom.

IN THE NORTH (LEBANON):

• The Israeli military has confirmed that 30 rockets were fired at northern Israel on Thursday (Feb 8^th) evening. The IDF said that all the missiles fell in unpopulated areas and that one was intercepted. There were no injuries reported.
• The Israeli military said Tuesday night (Feb 12^th) that the Air Force has attacked two Hezbollah military installations in southern Lebanon. According to the statement, one of the positions had been used to fire missiles at Israel. The army also said that it identified two rocket launches from Lebanese territory earlier Tuesday and that the missiles fell in unpopulated areas.
• France has delivered a written proposal to Beirut (Feb 13^th) aimed at ending hostilities with Israel and settling the disputed Lebanon-Israel frontier, according to a document seen by Reuters that calls for fighters including Hezbollah’s elite unit to withdraw 10 km (6 miles) from the border. The plan aims to end fighting between the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel at the border. The hostilities have run in parallel to the Gaza war and are fueling concern of a ruinous, all-out confrontation.
• One Israeli Killed, Eight Wounded by Rocket Barrage Fired From Lebanon on Northern Israel: The barrage was targeted towards a military base in the northern Israeli city of Safed; A woman was killed and eight others were wounded, including one in serious condition, after a rocket fired from Lebanon hit a building near the northern Israeli city of Safed.
• Israeli forces launched a series of strikes across parts of neighboring Lebanon yesterday (Feb 15^th) in retaliation for cross-border fire from Hezbollah fighters that killed one Israeli soldier and wounded eight others (including seven civilians). At least three Lebanese civilians and one militant were killed in the strikes.
• The Israeli military said at least 25 missiles were fired from Lebanon at the northern city of Kiryat Shmona on Thursday evening (Feb 15^th). Buildings, homes and vehicles were damaged in the barrage.
• The IDF Spokesperson’s unit reported that the Israeli Air Force attacked several Hezbollah targets in Qantara in south Lebanon overnight into Friday (Feb 16th), and said several terrorists were killed in the assault.

IN THE EAST (IRAQ/SYRIA):

• A US drone strike in Iraq killed a senior commander of the Iran-backed group Kataib Hezbollah, who is believed to be behind a deadly attack on a US base in Jordan.

JERUSALEM:

• Israel is moving forward with plans for a new Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem, located on the doorstep of a Palestinian neighborhood. Right-wing activists are participating in the planning of the new Nofei Rachel neighborhood, which will be established just meters from Palestinian homes in Umm Tuba.
• According to organizations that monitor construction in the West Bank’s settlements, all of these neighborhoods – planned to have a combined 3,000 residential units – are being swiftly advanced. Since the war in the Gaza Strip began on October 7, these neighborhoods have particularly benefited from exceptionally rapid approvals by zoning authorities.
• The report added that “The new settlements will deepen the prevention of the contiguity of the Palestinian space in Jerusalem and constitute additional impediments to the possibility of a different future for Israelis and Palestinians in the city and the entire area.”

TEL AVIV/SOUTHERN ISRAEL:

• Hundreds of protesters rallied in front of the houses of Israeli coalition members, calling for the overthrow of the government.
• The Israeli war cabinet met to discuss Hamas’ cease-fire proposal while thousands protested against a hostage release deal outside the Israeli government compound in Jerusalem. In Tel Aviv, hostages’ families and their supporters protested in favor of a deal.
• Two people were killed and four were wounded in a shooting attack in southern Israel on Friday (Feb 16^th). According to the police, the attacker emerged from a car carrying Israeli license plates at the Re’em-Masmyyia junction and fired a gun at a nearby bus station. The police’s Central District Commander Avi Bitton says the attacker was shot to death by a civilian armed with a gun who drove by the site of the attack.

WEST BANK:

• Israeli Forces Kill Three Armed Palestinians in Raid on West Bank Refugee Camp, IDF Says. The IDF says one of the individuals targeted was described as a ‘senior operative’ in the refugee camp, suspected of firing at Israeli forces and engaging in terrorist activities. The army also said that two more armed fighters who tried to escape the house were also killed in the operation, which lasted four hours and involved a “variety of means”. No soldiers were injured, it added.

NEGOTIATIONS – HOSTAGE RELEASE – CEASE FIRE:

• The Israel Defense Forces on Monday (Feb 12^th) released footage taken during the daring operation to free two hostages in Rafah early in the morning, liberating Fernando Merman (60) and Luis Har (70) from captivity after more than four months. At around 1:40 am, special forces, in coordination with the Shin Bet security agency and Israel Air Force, breached into the building where the two were held in downtown Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. Once they arrived at the hostages, the soldiers placed themselves in front of them and the terrorists who were guarding the abductees. “The release of Luis and Fernando is one of the most successful rescue operations in the history of the State of Israel,” he said. “You eliminated the kidnappers, the terrorists, you made your way back to Israel unscathed – perfect operation, perfect execution,” he concluded.
• Palestinian President Abbas Urges Hamas to Accept a Hostage Deal to Prevent Another ‘Catastrophe’: The Palestinian Authority president called for a deal to be reached as quickly as possible to ‘prevent the Palestinian people’s suffering’ and said the Gaza war’s implications are ‘a more serious threat than the 1948 Nakba’
• Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met on Monday in Doha with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Al Thani, to discuss post-war Gaza. The two discussed the situation in the Gaza Strip
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday (Thurs Feb 8^th) rejected a counterproposal from Hamas for a cease-fire and hostage-release plan, saying Israel would continue its military operations in Gaza until an “absolute victory” is reached against Hamas. Israel claims to have dismantled 18 of Hamas’ 24 battalions so far and is preparing to move its forces into Rafah near Egypt’s border, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have been residing.
• Hamas reportedly proposed a three-phase plan over a 135-day pause in fighting that included a full withdrawal of Israeli forces in Gaza, exchanging hostages for Palestinian prisoners, increasing deliveries of food and aid, rebuilding the enclave, and ending the war. Hamas’ proposal came in response to a plan from the US, Israel, Qatar, and Egypt, for which details are sparse. Roughly 136 of the previously kidnapped 240 hostages are still being held by Hamas; Israel believes at least 31 of the remaining hostages are no longer alive.
• Biden also said that his administration is “pushing very hard to deal with this hostage ceasefire. I’ve been working tirelessly on this deal to lead to a sustained pause in the fighting in the actions taking place in the Gaza Strip.”

GLOBAL RESPONSE & INVOLVEMENT:

• In a speech on Tuesday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that he won’t agree to a deal with Israel until a cease-fire is reached in Gaza. “We are committed to fighting Israel until it is off the map. A strong Israel is dangerous to Lebanon, but a deterred Israel, defeated and exhausted, is less of a danger to Lebanon.”
• S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday that conduct in Gaza has been “over the top,” adding that he is working to get a sustained pause in fighting in place. Biden went on to say that he has been in constant contact with the leaders of Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia “to get as much aid as we possibly can into Gaza.”
• Biden also said that his administration is “pushing very hard to deal with this hostage ceasefire. I’ve been working tirelessly on this deal to lead to a sustained pause in the fighting in the actions taking place in the Gaza Strip.”
• The U.S. Senate advanced a supplemental foreign-aid only bill including $14 billion in assistance to Israel in a 67-32 vote.

 

Holy Land Scripture Series

*If you would like to gain more understanding of the history of this country and conflict from a scriptural standpoint we recommend you take our Holy Land Scripture Course created to accompany our Virtual Tour of the Holy Land. Link below:

 

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

What should Israel do in order to secure peaceful borders and relations with the Palestinians and other Arab neighbors as well as facilitate the release the hostages still being held in Gaza?   

How can the IDF minimize harm to Palestinian civilians when Hamas is trying to maximize that same harm? And under such circumstances, what is the extent of Israel’s responsibility for minimizing harm to civilians when those civilians have been put in harm’s way by their own leaders?

What should Hamas do to get needed support and help? (They are land-locked and restricted and are experiencing extreme economic conditions)

Who Should Lead the Palestinians After the Gaza War, and How?

*We know the questions are MANY and the issues deep and complex. We hope the information shared on this blog will help you process all the information and issues.

 

*If you would like to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications when new posts are made please email Dr. Clark Anderson at clark@andersontours.com

*If you would like to read a good article about Who and How the Palestinians should lead and rule after the Gaza War here is a link:

Who Should Lead the Palestinians After the Gaza War, and How?