Update Dec 6th (Day 61)

UPDATES ON THE WAR – Day 61 (Dec 6^th):

*We are one Day 61 (Dec 6^th). CEASE-FIRE ENDS and they are BACK TO FIGHTING.

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

LAST DAY OF CEASE-FIRE – Thursday Nov 30^th:

• An extended cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that began over the weekend reached its seventh day Thursday (Nov 30^th), with Hamas releasing eight additional hostages in exchange for the release of 30 Palestinian prisoners by Israel. As of yesterday, the number of hostages released totaled 104, with more than 230 Palestinians released by Israel.

OUCH:

• Thousands have been killed on both sides. 🙁
• Hamas broke the cease-fire arrangement and fighting now continues.
• ‘Dangerous Provocation’ | Israeli Police Greenlight Far-right March Rallying for ‘Full Jewish Control’ Over Temple Mount: The march planned to take place on the first eve of Hanukkah, and is billed as ‘Macabbi March,’ in a nod to an ancient Jewish revolt. Hamas leader Haniyeh linked the Oct 7 ‘Al-Aqsa flood’ assault with the Jewish presence on the holy site. Israel’s police has authorized far right Jewish activists to march on the Temple Mount/ Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on Thursday evening to demand an end to control by the Waqf, the Islamic endowment which administers the holy site.
• The activists are calling to “restore full Jewish control over the Temple Mount and Jerusalem,” against Waqf control that has traditionally declared strong opposition to any Jewish religious expression there. The march, limited to 200 participants, is slated to follow the Flag Parade route through the Damascus Gate and the Muslim Quarter.
• The mount is home of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the location of the Jewish temples in antiquity. The demonstration, which will coincide with the first night of Hanukkah, is being billed as the Maccabi March—a nod to the Hasmonean revolt against the Seleucids and the Hellenized Jewish elite in ancient Judea, culminating in the rededication of the Holy Temple. “We won’t win this war only in Gaza,” Beyadenu, one of the nine groups organizing the march, stated in a video on its Facebook page railing against “the Nazis and their friends in the Waqf.” “If there is any provocation more dangerous, more incendiary and more likely to trigger an eruption of violence in East Jerusalem and/or the West Bank and/or the Lebanese border, I can’t think of one,” Daniel Seidemann, a Jerusalem attorney specializing in the geopolitics of contemporary Jerusalem, tweeted on Monday.
• According to its organizers, the marchers will pass through the Damascus Gate into the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City on the way to the Temple Mount, although a police spokesperson told Haaretz that activists were “distorting the route of the march approved by the police.” The march will be capped at 200 participants and will not pass “in the Temple Mount area at all, will not be near it and will not reach its gates,” the spokesperson said. “Contrary to the lies and inciting publications of hostile parties, we emphasize that Muslim prayers on the Temple Mount will continue to be held as usual even during the days of Hanukkah,” the police stated—adding that law enforcement would secure the march’s route with “with increased forces” and that “any attempt to violate public order…will be dealt with decisively.”
• Israel’s harsh restrictions on Jewish worship on the Temple Mount have loosened significantly in recent years, and polling shows that half of Jewish Israelis support allowing prayer there. Palestinians have long complained of Jewish worshippers “storming” the site, terming anybody ascending the mount a “settler.”
• More recently, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh linked the terror organization’s October 7 “Al-Aqsa Flood” assault on southern Israel, in which over 1,200 people were murdered, with the Jewish presence on the Temple Mount, complaining in a speech about how the Israelis “let the settlers and usurpers loose to sow corruption in the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque in Al-Quds.” “We have warned them, and we have warned the whole world, that even if, in the face of what is happening in Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa Mosque, the whole world remains silent, we will not be silent, we will not stand idly by; not our people, not our Resistance, not our Al-Qassam Brigades, not this Ummah,” Haniyeh declared, according to a translation of his remarks by Middle East Monitor.

JERUSALEM:

• Three Israelis Killed, Six Wounded in Jerusalem Terror Attack; Hamas Claims Responsibility: The shooting attack took place at a busy bus stop in Jerusalem’s main entrance. The terrorists were from East Jerusalem, one of them had been imprisoned in Israel previously. The attackers arrived by car at the Givat Shaul junction, which serves as the main entrance to Jerusalem, at around 7:40 A.M. and fired gunshots towards civilians waiting at a bus station. Both were armed with a handgun and an M-16 rifle. Two soldiers and a civilian in the area fired back at them, killing the attackers. Inside their car, cartridges with hundreds of rounds of ammunition were found.

IN THE SOUTH (EILAT):

• Yemen’s Houthis said the group launched several ballistic missiles at Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat. According to the IDF, Israel’s Arrow missile defense system intercepted a ballistic missile over the Red Sea. Later on Wednesday, the U.S. Navy also shot down a drone that originated from a part of Yemen controlled by the Houthi group.
• Yemen’s Houthis said the group launched several ballistic missiles at military posts in the Israeli city of Eilat, the group’s military spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday Dec 5^th.
• DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An American warship and multiple commercial ships came under attack Sunday (Dec 3^rd) in the Red Sea, the Pentagon said. Yemen’s Houthi rebels later claimed attacks on two ships they described as being linked to Israel, but did not acknowledge targeting a U.S. Navy vessel. The attack potentially marked a major escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Mideast linked to the Israel-Hamas war. “We’re aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available,” the Pentagon told The Associated Press.

IN THE SOUTH (GAZA):

• The IDF has requested that Khan Yunis residents and displaced Palestinians coming from the north of the Strip leave the city and move south toward Rafah, or west toward the coast. The military says the residents of the southern Gaza Strip are evacuating in accordance with the maps published by the IDF prior to the start of the ground entry to the area.
• Israeli Army Initiates Ground Operation in City of Khan Yunis, Hamas’ Hub in Southern Gaza Strip: Senior Hamas figures and many headquarters are located in Khan Yunis and, according to estimates, it is where the organization is running its forces in the Gaza Strip. A top IDF commander said that the past 24 hours of fighting have been ‘the most intense since the war began’
• According to Finkelman, this is “the most intense day since the launch of the maneuver — in terms of terrorists killed, number of encounters and fire deployed from the ground and air.” He added that the IDF intends to “remain on the offensive.”
• Netanyahu tells Red Cross president to contact Qatar and demand they allow visits to Hamas-held hostages: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with the president of the International Red Cross Miriana Spoljaric and asked her to contact Qatar and demand visits to the hostage and that they supply them with medicine. “It has been proven that they have leverage on Hamas,” Netanyahu added.
• Referring to Dec 5^th Wednesday morning’s report in Arab media that the IDF has been besieging Yahya Sinwar’s house in Khan Yunis since Tuesday, Netanyahu said: “Last night I said that our forces can reach anywhere in the Gaza Strip. Now they are encircling Sinwar’s house. His house is not his fortress, and he can escape, but it’s only a matter of time until we get him.”
• Hospitals in southern Gaza Strip overwhelmed by scale of wounded and ill
• WASHINGTON—Israel has assembled a system of large pumps it could use to flood Hamas’s vast network of tunnels under the Gaza Strip with seawater, a tactic that could destroy the tunnels and drive the fighters from their underground refuge but also threaten Gaza’s water supply, U.S. officials said. The Israel Defense Forces finished assembling large seawater pumps roughly one mile north of the Al-Shati refugee camp.
• The Israel Defense Forces says it has marked 10,000 airstrikes carried out in the Gaza Strip that were directed by ground forces. These airstrikes have been led by the Israeli Air Force’s so-called cooperation unit — also known as Cooperation Unit 5620 — which coordinates operations between the IAF and ground forces during maneuvers.

POST WAR GAZA:

• Israel Informs Arab States It Wants Buffer Zone in Postwar Gaza, Sources Say. The buffer zone is intended to prevent future attacks, as part of a plan to demilitarize Gaza, according to regional security officials. U.S. officials reiterated they would ‘not support a reduction in the geographical limits of Gaza‘
• Despite U.S. and Israeli pressure, Turkey’s Erdogan, Egypt’s al-Sisi, and other Middle Eastern leaders avoid joining the campaign to remove Hamas, recognizing that the terrorist organization may remain part of Palestinian leadership after the war is over
• Since the beginning of the war the U.S. had not seen any transfers of money from Turkey to Hamas, but for years Turkey had been letting Hamas operate businesses on its soil, including real estate companies, and make bank transfers. It also provided Hamas with security consulting service and military aid, through a Turkish military contractor called Sadat, owned by a Turkish general who is close to Erdogan. Last July, it was reported that Israel’s Shin Bet security service had captured 16 tons of explosives originating in Turkey, destined for Hamas activists in the West Bank
• But in the face of U.S. pressure on Turkey to cut ties with Hamas, or at least prevent the organization from operating in its territory, Erdogan has remained firm. “We shape our foreign policy in Ankara, according to Turkey’s interests and the expectations of our people,” Erdogan said, after the press conference held by Nelson. The dialogue of the deaf between Erdogan and Nelson presents the U.S. with a dilemma and, with it, questions about whether Hamas will survive and be a significant player in Palestinian politics after the war. Those determined to eliminate Hamas, such as Israel and the U.S., cannot ignore the fact that the organization has a broad base of operations beyond the Gaza Strip. Part of its leadership sits in Qatar and Lebanon, and Hamas activists have even been given Turkish citizenship. In addition, Hamas receives support in countries such as Malaysia, as well as some African and Latin American countries. Defeating the organization cannot be limited to crushing its military capabilities in Gaza but must include a global campaign to dry up its income sources. The U.S. has imposed financial sanctions on its activities and businesses abroad with direct connections to it, but given how important the struggle is, one could expect that countries that enable the organization to operate in their territory would also be subject to sanctions.
• It is also amusing to see how countries define a single organization’s military arm as a terrorist group and its political arm as a non-terrorist group, when the organization itself says that there is no difference between its political and military arms. Bin Zayed’s remarks were warmly welcomed by Israel and the U.S., but they also emphasize Abu Dhabi’s political dilemma, and for that matter, Washington’s.
• The UAE invests billions of dollars in Turkey, which does not define Hamas as a terrorist organization, as well as in Egypt, which has rescinded its designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization. Like the UAE, the U.S. oscillates between reprimanding Turkey for its policy towards Hamas and for ignoring sanctions on Russia, and needing Turkey for the approval of Sweden’s accession to NATO.
• The same holds true of Washington’s attitude towards Egypt. On the one hand, it demands that President Al-Sisi respect human rights and has even cut military aid to make it clear that the pressure is not only verbal. However, due to Egypt’s position as an intermediary between Hamas and Israel and as a future partner, even if from a distance, in addressing the governance of post-war Gaza, Washington has paused its aggressive human rights rhetoric.
• Instead, it is pushing the International Monetary Fund to increase loan money to Egypt. It is full of praise, and rightly so, for Egypt’s contribution to winning the release of Israeli hostages. These conflicting interests give leaders like Erdogan, Al-Sisi, Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Al Thani, and others leeway to avoid joining the campaign to eliminate Hamas and continue to advocate for its role in future political leadership. This is mainly because any solution will depend on the Palestinian leadership, which so far has not said forthrightly that Hamas will not be a partner. To the contrary, when PLO speakers and activists talk about establishing a new Palestinian representative body, they mean, firstly, putting out to pasture the existing leadership headed by Mahmoud Abbas, but also about the need to include all Palestinian sectors and organizations, including Hamas.
• It is worthwhile listening to what U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had to say during his press conference in Israel. Asked what his vision is for “a renewed Palestinian Authority” and how it will come about, he said, among other things, that in principle the U.S. supports elections, adding the proviso “but it will take time.” The minute that the idea of elections is on the agenda, it is hard to see how Hamas can be kept out of them. It will compete in them, even if it is under some other name like the Palestinian Green party. And, if Hamas has a political future, Erdogan will want to be a partner after being excluded to date from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
• Hamas can be sure of at least one thing — its dear friend in Ankara doesn’t plan to abandon it. “I will never be able to accept the definition of Hamas as a terror organization, and it makes no difference what others say,” Turkish President Erdogan said in a media interview over the weekend after returning from the Dubai climate conference. “First of all, Hamas is a reality of Palestine, it is a political party, and it entered the elections as a political party and won,” he said in remarks released by his office. In Erdogan’s view, Hamas will be an inseparable part of a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Destroying Hamas or refusal to include it [in a negotiated solution] is not a realistic scenario,” he explained.

IN THE NORTH (LEBANON):

• Hezbollah said its fighters carried out at least 11 attacks against Israeli posts near the Lebanese border, scoring direct hits, as the Lebanese government complained to the United Nations about the deadly hostilities.
• Lebanon’s caretaker foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, instructed the Lebanese mission to the United Nations to submit a new complaint against Israel to the UN Security Council in response to the targeting of the Lebanese army and the killing of one soldier and the wounding of three others. The complaint also said that the Israeli airstrikes and shelling have led to the deaths and injury of civilians, journalists, paramedics and children, and the displacement of more than 30,000 Lebanese citizens from their homes.
• The IDF announced it detected several launches from Lebanon into Israeli territory, and that it was carrying out strikes in response. Several rockets fell in open areas in northern Israel.
• Separately an anti-tank guided missile was fired from Lebanon at an open area near the northern community of Yiftah, causing no injuries, according to the IDF. The IDF says it shelled a number of areas in southern Lebanon with artillery.

IN THE EAST (SYRIA):

• Earlier this morning (Sun Dec 3rd), a rocket was fired from Syria at northern Israel, the IDF says. The projectile landed in an open area, causing no injuries. No sirens sounded in towns. The IDF says it shelled the source of fire with artillery.

IN THE WEST (TEL AVIV):

• Heavy Rocket Barrage Fired From Gaza at Tel Aviv, Central Israel Dec 2, 2023
• A rocket barrage is fired at central Israel and Gaza border communities. Dec 3^rd
• Warning sirens sound in Ramat Gan in the Tel Aviv area and at Kiryat Ono, Yehud-Monosson, Savyon and Or Yehuda, which are near Ben Gurion International Airport.

WEST BANK:

NEGOTIATIONS – HOSTAGE RELEASE – CEASE FIRE:

• From one of the released hostages: “The feeling is that you have no idea what’s happening there at all. You claim there’s intelligence, but the fact is we were bombed.” Another added, “They told us ‘There is no Israel.’ We believed them. They made us believe there is no Israel anymore.”
• According to Netanyahu, “I want to be honest with you, until we initiated the underground maneuver, nothing was happening… Only when we began the ground maneuver did the pressure start to affect Hamas and create the possibility to extract [hostages]… We were ready to bring out more. The side that halted the plan was the other side, not us. This isn’t a fabrication, these are clear facts,”.
• Speaking about some of the hostages who remain in captivity, most of whom are men, one of the attendees said that they suffered physical violence, including beatings, degradation, body hair shaving, and other forms of psychological warfare. “They touch girls, and everyone knows it. I won’t recount details, but we had a procedure that no one moves without someone guarding them,” one of the women freed from captivity recounted at the meeting. “Medications ran out, and they gave us the wrong drugs.”
• “I was in a house surrounded by explosions. We slept in tunnels, and we feared not Hamas, but Israel might kill us, and then it would have been said, ‘Hamas killed you,’ she said.
• The Scope of Hamas’ Campaign of Rape Against Israeli Women Is Revealed, Testimony After Testimony: The aggregation of evidence collected by Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy and her Civil Commission presents a horrifying picture that leaves no room for doubt: On October 7, Hamas terrorists systematically carried out acts of rape and sexual abuse. She has discovered, however, that there is no rush to acknowledge this abroad. They are assembling one account after another, one piece of evidence after another, and gradually putting together all the pieces of the puzzle. The aggregation of the evidence presents a horrifying picture that leaves no room for doubt: Under cover of the massacre, Hamas carried out a campaign of rape and sexual abuse at many of the communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip that it attacked.

GLOBAL RESPONSE & INVOLVEMENT:

• The UK will fly surveillance aircraft over Israel and Gaza to help locate hostages:The British Ministry of Defense announced that it will conduct surveillance flights over the Eastern Mediterranean, including operating in air space over Israel and Gaza in an effort to locate and rescue hostages held in Gaza, including British nationals. The announcement stated that the aircraft will be unarmed, do not have a combat role, and will be tasked solely to locate hostages,” and that it will share “only information relating to hostage rescue” will be shared with other entities.
• The White House urged Congress to pass Biden’s $106 billion aid package, which includes $14 billion in assistance for Israel and $9 billion earmarked for humanitarian assistance. “The bill includes essential aid to Israel to help support them in their fight against Hamas. The funding provided in this bill would ensure Israel has what it needs to protect itself and to reestablish territorial security and deterrence,” the White House said in a formal statement of administration policy
• France condemned shelling by Israel in south Lebanon that resulted in the death of a Lebanese soldier, a spokesperson for the French foreign ministry said.
• The state of Saxony-Anhalt in eastern Germany has announced that residents who apply for citizenship will be required to declare in writing that they believe in Israel’s right to exist.
• The German government backs the EU’s decision to impose travel restrictions on radical Israeli settlers.

SUMMARY OF LOSSES & RESPONSES:

• At least 1,200 civilians and soldiers killed in Israel since October 7^th
• Over 200 hostages are still being held in Gaza Strip
• Hamas-controlled health ministry: 15,000+ dead in Gaza
• Since October 7, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces in the West Bank.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT / PROPHETIC QUOTES:

What is the best solution and resolution?

The following is a snippet from a talk given by President Gordon B. Hinckley in Oct 2001 shortly after the 9/11 incident and in relation to events of the last days:

“Our safety lies in repentance. Our strength comes of obedience to the commandments of God.”

“I have just been handed a note that says that a U.S. missile attack is under way. I need not remind you that we live in perilous times. I desire to speak concerning these times and our circumstances as members of this Church. You are acutely aware of the events of September 11, less than a month ago. Out of that vicious and ugly attack we are plunged into a state of war. It is the first war of the 21st century. The last century has been described as the most war-torn in human history. Now we are off on another dangerous undertaking, the unfolding of which and the end thereof we do not know. For the first time since we became a nation, the United States has been seriously attacked on its mainland soil. But this was not an attack on the United States alone. It was an attack on men and nations of goodwill everywhere. It was well planned, boldly executed, and the results were disastrous. It is estimated that more than 5,000 innocent people died. Among these were many from other nations. It was cruel and cunning, an act of consummate evil. Recently, in company with a few national religious leaders, I was invited to the White House to meet with the president. In talking to us he was frank and straightforward. That same evening he spoke to the Congress and the nation in unmistakable language concerning the resolve of America and its friends to hunt down the terrorists who were responsible for the planning of this terrible thing and any who harbored such. Now we are at war. Great forces have been mobilized and will continue to be. Political alliances are being forged. We do not know how long this conflict will last. We do not know what it will cost in lives and treasure. We do not know the manner in which it will be carried out. It could impact the work of the Church in various ways. Our national economy has been made to suffer. It was already in trouble, and this has compounded the problem. Many are losing their employment. Among our own people, this could affect welfare needs and also the tithing of the Church. It could affect our missionary program. We are now a global organization. We have members in more than 150 nations. Administering this vast worldwide program could conceivably become more difficult. Those of us who are American citizens stand solidly with the president of our nation. The terrible forces of evil must be confronted and held accountable for their actions. This is not a matter of Christian against Muslim. I am pleased that food is being dropped to the hungry people of a targeted nation. We value our Muslim neighbors across the world and hope that those who live by the tenets of their faith will not suffer. I ask particularly that our own people do not become a party in any way to the persecution of the innocent. Rather, let us be friendly and helpful, protective and supportive. It is the terrorist organizations that must be ferreted out and brought down. We of this Church know something of such groups. The Book of Mormon speaks of the Gadianton robbers, a vicious, oath-bound, and secret organization bent on evil and destruction. In their day they did all in their power, by whatever means available, to bring down the Church, to woo the people with sophistry, and to take control of the society. We see the same thing in the present situation.” (Oct 2001)

*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:

Holy Land Scripture Series

 

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

What should Israel do in order to illuminate the Hamas leaders and release the hostages still being held in Gaza?   

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

*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