Apr 3rd Update (Day 180)

UPDATES ON THE WAR – Day 180 (Apr 3^rd):

*We are one Day 180 (Apr 3^rd). Anderson Tours departs tomorrow for their April Tour!

Headlines:

• Anderson Tours departs tomorrow (April 4^th) for their April Tour and plan to document the experience and share on YouTube channel and Instagram
• Some 50,000 Muslims participated in the prayer on the first Friday of Ramadan at the Al-Aqsa Mosque without clashes with Israeli police. No incidents have been reported on the 2^nd Friday or 3^rd Friday of Ramadan prayers at Jerusalem’s holy site.
• The 22nd day of Adar (II), 5784 (aka April 1, 2024) should be an historic date. The torato umanuto (“Torah is his profession”) exemption has ended, 76 years since it came into existence – before the State of Israel’s official establishment – to excuse 400 yeshiva students from serving in the military. From Monday, Torah study can no longer be considered grounds for not enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces.
• An airstrike targeting Iran’s embassy in Syria killed at least seven military officers yesterday, including a senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. Syrian and Iranian officials accused Israel of the attack, while an Israeli military official accused Iran of a drone strike against a military base in southern Israel.
• Netanyahu’s office said he approved a plan for a military offensive in the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah.
• Hamas and other Palestinian factions said they oppose the appointment of Mohammad Mustafa as the Palestinian Authority’s new prime minister.
• Hamas leader Marwan Issa died in an Israeli air strike, White House official Jake Sullivan has said. As deputy military commander, Mr Issa would be Hamas’s most senior leader to die since the war began on 7 October. The Palestinian group, which controls Gaza, has not officially commented on reports of his death. Israeli media sources have reported that Mr Issa was killed in a strike on a tunnel complex under the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza last week.

OUCH:

• A Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist, Manar Mahmoud Muhammad Qassem, admitted during an interrogation by the IDF’s Intelligence Division that he raped an Israeli woman during the October 7 attack.
• An Israeli airstrike killed seven international aid workers with the World Central Kitchen charity, two dual-national Palestinians (U.S. and Canada) and five citizens of Australia, the UK, and Poland, and their Palestinian driver, late Monday (Apr 1st)
• Israel declared war after Hamas killed at least 1,200 Israelis and wounded more than 3,300 on October 7. In Gaza, the Hamas-controlled health ministry reports that at least 32,916 Palestinians have been killed. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad hold hostage more than 129 soldiers and civilians, dead and alive, including foreign nationals.

YEAH:

• Along with the Ramadan prayers, hundreds of Christians participated in a customary Good Friday (Mar 29^th) procession through the limestone walls of the Old City, commemorating one of the faith’s most sacred days with noticeably thinner crowds amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war with no incidents. This marked the third consecutive Friday of the Muslim holy month during which mass prayers took place largely peacefully, despite fears of disturbances after the Hamas terror group had called on Palestinian worshipers to barricade themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
• The first aid ship to Gaza, organized by Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen, delivered 220 tons of food. Germany’s air force carried out its first air-drop of aid into Gaza.
• Trucks of flour reportedly reached areas of northern Gaza that have had no aid in four months.
• More than 2,000 tons of food aid has crossed into Gaza via Jordan and is being distributed by the United Nations World Food Program to families in need, Britain’s foreign ministry said.

JERUSALEM:

• Israel Police estimated that 50,000 Muslim worshippers participated in the first Friday prayers of Ramadan at the Al-Aqsa Mosque (Mar 15^th), a lower number compared to previous years. The Waqf, the Jordanian-appointed authority responsible for controlling and managing the mosque compound, reported 80,000 worshippers. The prayer passed without unusual confrontations between police and the participants.
• The second Friday prayers of Ramadan at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque passed without incident (Mar 22^nd) . The Jordanian Waqf estimated that 120,000 worshippers attended, while Israel Police said 50,000. Over 10,000 came from the West Bank.
• Afternoon prayers on the third Friday of Ramadan ended at the Al-Aqsa Mosque atop the Jerusalem Old City Temple Mount, with the Israel Police reporting they passed without incident (Mar 29^th). The Islamic Waqf, which administers the mosque compound, said 125,000 people took part in the prayers, slightly up from last week. But police put turnout in the tens of thousands and the Foreign Ministry said “over 50,000”
• Hundreds of Christians participated in a customary Good Friday procession through the walls of the Old City, commemorating one of the faith’s most sacred days with noticeably thinner crowds amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war (Mar 29^th).
• Thousands of people are protesting outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, calling for early elections, the release of the hostages, and the cancellation of the Knesset recess (Mar 31^st).
• Thousands of Israelis, including family members of hostages held in Gaza, protested in front of the Knesset and PM Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem Tuesday night (Apr 2^nd). Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar said the protest marked a violent escalation on the part of the demonstrators and “might lead to dangerous situations.”

GAZA (NORTH):

• The IDF said it opened a new point of entry for Gaza aid and was allowing in unlimited supplies. “By our analysis, there is no starvation in Gaza. There is a sufficient amount of food entering Gaza every day,” Moshe Tetro, the head of Israel’s Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza, told reporters at the Gate 96 crossing.
• CENTCOM said it conducted a joint airdrop of aid into north Gaza with the Royal Jordanian Air Force.
• The IDF said it arrested more than 80 people in a raid on Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital after “concrete evidence” showed that Hamas was using it as a command center
• The IDF says it detained at least 800 suspects and killed 170 Hamas members at Al-Shifa Hospital.
• IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi stated, “After two weeks, we carried out a successful operation. To carry out something of this scale during a war is very complex…We are doing everything possible to prevent harm to patients and medical teams. The fact that this operation saw no harm to a single medical staff member or patient, but we were able to kill and capture many, many terrorists is a very significant achievement…This operation is not over, but we achieved a major goal, and we will continue to operate thoroughly until we are successful,” he added.
• Israeli forces have withdrawn from Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital after a two-week ground operation (Apr 1^st). Palestinian reports said that all the hospital’s wards have been disabled due to the army’s offensive, but some patients remain on site. Several dozen patients were evacuated to the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.
• The IDF said about 200 terrorists were killed in the operation and at least 500 were arrested, including “very important officials” and participants in the October 7 attack. Palestinian reports say that Israeli forces left behind vast destruction and hundreds of bodies at the compound.
• Hamas claimed that at least 21 Palestinians had been killed and more than 150 were wounded by IDF fire as they gathered to receive humanitarian aid in Gaza City on Friday night. The IDF refuted the report, and said that according to a preliminary investigation, the shooting was carried out by Palestinians while civilians were looting the trucks; some of them were run over.
• A ship towing a barge loaded with food aid arrived off Gaza as a test run for a new maritime corridor from Cyprus. The ship is funded and operated by Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen in partnership with the UAE, Cyprus & Spanish NGO Open Arms.
• The IDF said that its engineering corps destroyed a 2.5 kilometer tunnel, the longest yet discovered in Gaza, used by Hamas to mobilize forces between the Strip’s north and south.
• Sky News in Arabic said the IDF attacked a building in Gaza City where its offices and other media outlets’ offices are located. The IDF responded that a fighter jet attacked a building “which posed a threat to our forces,” adding that “the civilian population was evacuated from the area before the activity began, and the building is not in use.”

GAZA (SOUTH):

• PM Netanyahu said he told U.S. Secretary of State Blinken that Israel will launch a ground offensive in Rafah with or without Washington’s support. Blinken said a Rafah offensive risks further isolating Israel and harming its long-term security.
• The IDF announced the deaths of Staff Sgt. Nadav Cohen, 20, and Sgt. First Class Sivan Weill, 20, both killed in combat in the southern Gaza Strip.
• An Israeli airstrike killed seven international aid workers with the World Central Kitchen charity, two dual-national Palestinians (U.S. and Canada) and five citizens of Australia, the UK, and Poland, and their Palestinian driver, late Monday (Apr 1^st). The IDF launched three missiles at the convoy which was traveling along a route preapproved and coordinated with the IDF. The missiles were launched because an armed terrorist was suspected to be traveling with the convoy, but he was not actually present at the time of the strike, defense sources told Haaretz, adding that the cars were clearly marked on the roof and sides as belonging to World Central Kitchen.
• PM Netanyahu called the incident a “tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people…This happens in war, and we will investigate it to the end.”
• Poland said it will investigate the killing of a Polish national, one of the seven World Central Kitchen aid workers killed by an Israeli drone strike in Deir al-Balah Sunday night on suspicion of murder.

POST WAR GAZA:

• Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant presented at a war cabinet meeting four alternatives for Gaza’s future. The “least worst” option, in his words, would be a local government that is not Hamas.

IN THE NORTH (LEBANON):

• A major barrage of 40 rockets was fired at northern Israel from Lebanon, according to the IDF. Rockets targeted the Israeli air base at Mt Meron. A fire broke out at a winery in a northern Israeli town after two rockets hit it. The IDF said it struck Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon overnight (Mar 26^th).
• The IDF reported that the Air Force killed the deputy commander of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile unit, Ali Abdel-Hassan Naim. The attack took place in the town of Zuria, near the city of Tyre in central Lebanon, the IDF said (Mar 29^th).
• Israel attacked a vehicle from the air in Kounine in southern Lebanon, killing a senior Hezbollah official, reports in Lebanon said (Mar 31^st).
• The IDF said the Air Force attacked Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon (Apr 3^rd). Seven rockets launched from Lebanon fell near the northern Israeli community of Mattat, causing no damage or casualties.
• Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel is preparing “for every scenario – from threats near and far,” adding that the government “does not wish for a war in Lebanon,” which “would be a difficult challenge for the State of Israel.”

IN THE SOUTH (RED SEA):

• The U.S. military said that Houthis fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles from Yemen toward the Gulf of Aden and two missiles toward the Red Sea, causing no damage or casualties.
• U.S. and coalition forces destroyed one drone and one unmanned surface vessel launched by Houthis in Yemen on Wednesday, according to US Central Command. A coalition aircraft destroyed the drone and US forces destroyed the unmanned surface vessel, CENTCOM said in a statement.
• The U.S. military said it had destroyed two anti-ship ballistic missiles and an unmanned surface vessel launched by Houthis from Yemen.
• U.S. Central Command said Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis fired four anti-ship ballistic missiles toward the Red Sea on Friday, with no casualties or damage reported by commercial or coalition vessels.
• CENTCOM added that its forces destroyed four drones in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, and also conducted self-defense strikes against three Houthi underground storage facilities.
• A drone that entered Israeli territory earlier Monday (Apr 1^st) crashed in an IDF base near the southern city of Eilat, causing no casualties, the IDF said. Earlier Monday, pro-Iranian militias in Iraq announced they had attacked a “key target” in Israeli territory.

WEST BANK:

• Four Palestinian factions – Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Palestinian National Initiative – said that they object to the establishment of a new Palestinian government and to Palestinian Authority President Abbas’ decision to appoint his associate Mahmoud Mustafa as PM.
• The U.S. National Security Council welcomed the appointment of Mohammad Mustafa as the PA’s new prime minister and urged him to form “a reform cabinet as soon as possible.”
• Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa has formed a new government, expected to be sworn in on Sunday, despite the lack of support from Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The stated priority of the government is the rehabilitation of Gaza, increasing humanitarian aid, and stabilizing the Palestinian Authority’s economy. (Mar 28^TH).
• Israeli forces foiled an attempt by Iran to smuggle weapons into the West Bank in order to carry out terrorists acts against Israelis, the IDF and Shin Bet said in a joint statement.

NEGOTIATIONS – HOSTAGE RELEASE – CEASE FIRE:

• Hamas presented a Gaza cease-fire proposal to mediators which includes in its first stage the release of Israeli hostages – women, children, elderly, and the sick – in exchange for the release of 700-1000 Palestinian prisoners, according to Reuters.
• The releases would include 100 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli prisons and Israeli women soldiers held hostage. Hamas said it would agree on a date for a permanent cease-fire after the initial exchange of hostages and prisoners, the proposal said.
• Leading U.S. senators from both parties lauded Qatar for facilitating hostage negotiations, but warned that it may need to expel Hamas’ leadership, currently residing in Doha: “If Hamas refuses reasonable negotiations, there is no reason for Qatar to continue hosting Hamas’ political office or any of its members.”
• Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said military pressure in Gaza “is the key” to both a military victory in Gaza for the return of the hostages, “through operational means or through negotiations.”
• Russia and China vetoed a U.S. resolution at the UN Security Council calling for the “imperative” of an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and hostage release.
• Hamas rejected the most recent U.S. proposal for a hostage release/cease-fire deal (Mar 26^th). A partial Israeli delegation remained in Qatar to continue negotiations.
• Israel and Hamas appear to still be far apart on negotiations aimed at brokering a halt in fighting and an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners. Mediators have been in Qatar to try to narrow the gaps. But late Monday, Hamas rejected Israel’s most recent counterproposal and its political leader, on a visit to Tehran this week, said the resolution showed that Israel was isolated diplomatically.
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has argued that the resolution set back negotiations, emboldening Hamas to hold out for better terms.
• The biggest sticking point in the cease-fire talks had recently been the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released, in particular those serving extended sentences for violence against Israelis, U.S. and Israeli officials have said.
• An Israeli delegation has landed in Cairo for negotiations with Hamas on a hostage release/cease-fire deal (Mar 31^st).
• The latest proposal for a hostage release/cease-fire deal formulated in Cairo (Apr 3^rd) does not provide a breakthrough in any of the core issues that halted talks in previous negotiation rounds, Hamas sources told news sources, adding that the group is studying the proposal and will issue an official response within days.

GLOBAL RESPONSE & INVOLVEMENT:

• Spain has agreed along with Ireland, Malta and Slovenia to take the first steps towards recognizing a Palestinian state.
• After Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday that PM Netanyahu had “lost his way” and that his government “no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7,”S. President Biden said Schumer “made a good speech and I think he expressed serious concerns shared not only by him but by many Americans.”
• Schumer said that “too many people are turning against Israel because of their dislike for Netanyahu…I felt an imperative to show that you could be against Netanyahu and still be very pro-Israel, which of course I am.”
• The U.S. officially barred funding for UNRWA through March 2025 after Biden signed the government funding bill into law.
• Pope Francis made renewed calls on Easter Sunday for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and the release of all Israeli hostages.
• Jewish communities around the world have donated over 5 billion shekels ($1.35 million) to Israel since the beginning of the war. Half was collected by the Jewish Federations of North America. According to the Diaspora Ministry, most of the funds were for medical institutions, rescue organizations and emergency services.

TEL AVIV/SOUTHERN ISRAEL:

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to temporarily shut down Qatar-owned Al Jazeera’s local operations after the passage of a law granting officials power to shutter foreign news agencies for national security reasons.

IN THE EAST (JORDAN/IRAQ/SYRIA):

• Riot police fired teargas to push back hundreds of demonstrators marching on the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan (Mar 26^th).
• The IDF said a fighter jet intercepted a suspicious aerial target launched at Israeli territory from Syria (Mar 31^st).
• Israel struck in Daraa, a city in southwestern Syria, the Saudi Al-Arabiya TV network reported.
• Iran’s Tasnim news agency says sources have indicated that at least six people were killed in the alleged Israeli strike on a building adjacent to the Iranian embassy in Damascus (Apr 1^st). It says the number is not yet officially confirmed. According to other Iranian media, the targeted building was Iran’s consulate and ambassador’s residence.
• The Saudi Al-Arabiya news network, citing Iranian media, reports that senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps official Mohammad Reza Zahedi was killed in the alleged Israeli strike in Damascus.
• Six people were killed in the attack on the Iranian embassy complex in Damascus, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Iran’s ambassador to Syria told state TV that Tehran’s response will be “harsh.”
• Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, said: “Israel will regret the attack.”

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?   

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.

 

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