Update Jan 11th (Day 97)

UPDATES ON THE WAR – Day 97 (Jan 11^th):

*We are one Day 97 (Jan 11^th). FIGHTING CONTINUES.

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

Headlines:

• South Africa has outlined its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. The country wants the court to order Israel to suspend its military campaign in Gaza. They meet on Jan 11^th, but it could take weeks before judges issue a decision.
• Attacks on Israel’s North Intensify as IDF Pushes Deeper Into Gaza’s Khan Yunis
• Victory for Palestinians: the war restored the Palestinian issue to center stage, after it had been forgotten. It proved that, in contrast to the conception in Israel, the Palestinians have not given up their struggle. It also shattered Israel’s image in the world, so that it is now considered a murderer of women and children, starving the population of Gaza. It also shattered Israel’s intelligence supremacy and destroyed the trust its citizens had in its army. It also prevented Israel from boasting that it was a haven for the Jewish people. Nasrallah (Hezbollah’s leader) predicted that after the war, civil war would break out in Israel. These achievements constitute total victory, which justifies the great sacrifices made by Palestinians and Lebanese.

OUCH:

• The Israel Defense Forces, they say, so far have not achieved any of the war’s goals. Hamas still has governmental and military capabilities. Half of the hostages are still in captivity. Hamas’ military leadership is alive and functioning. The majority of the tunnels have not been destroyed.
• Thousands have been killed on both sides. 🙁

YEAH:

• Birthright Tours Begin again: First post-Oct. 7 Birthright Israel trip brings 17 participants; 100s more expected
• Eight Foreign Airlines to Resume Partial Service to Israel Over the Next Month: The eight companies, which include Air France, Poland’s LOT, and Spain’s Vueling. Eight foreign airlines are expected to resume partial service to Israel over the next month, the Israel Airports Authority said. Four others will resume partial service in January – Cypriot airline Tus, French airline Transavia, Polish airline LOT and Spanish airline Vueling. Finally, Air Europa will resume flights to Madrid at the beginning of February.

IN THE SOUTH (RED SEA / EILAT):

• Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthis launch largest Red Sea drone and missile attack to date: The attack comes after 14 countries, including the US, issued a joint statement warning the Houthis of ‘consequences’ should they continue these attacks.
• In one of their most complex attacks to date, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels targeted international shipping lanes in the southern Red Sea on Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. On Jan. 9, at approximately 9:15 p.m. local time, the Iranian-backed Houthis launched one-way attack UAVs (OWA UAVs), anti-ship cruise missiles, and an anti-ship ballistic missile from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen towards international shipping lanes in the Southern Red Sea. It took place as dozens of merchant vessels were transiting. This is the largest drone and missile attack from the Houthi’s since they began attacking commercial shipping in November, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News.
• It is also the 26th Houthi attack on commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea since Nov.

GAZA (NORTH):

• IDF Spokesperson: Israeli forces have completed dismantling Hamas’ “military framework” in northern Gaza and killed around 8,000 militants in that area. The military has also seized tens of thousands of weapons in that area and millions of documents and is now focused on dismantling Hamas in the center of and south Gaza.

GAZA (SOUTH):

• In the southern part of Gaza, no changes are expected in the nature of combat. Gallant said that combat in this area will involve different phases, since most of the hostages and most Gazan residents are located in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
• ‘No food shortage in Gaza,’ says IDF official overseeing transfer of aid: At newly reopened Kerem Shalom border crossing, Israeli liaison blames UN and international aid organizations for bottlenecks in transfer of humanitarian supplies into the Strip
• Doctors Without Borders announced began evacuating its staff and their families from the area surrounding Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Hospital, amid days of artillery, fighting in central Gaza, and flyers dropped by Israeli forces nearby ordering residents to evacuate. “It is with heavy conscience that we have to evacuate while patients, hospital staff, and many people seeking safety remain in the hospital premises. The situation became so dangerous that some staff living in the neighboring areas were not able to leave their houses because of the constant threats of drones and snipers,” said Carolina Lopez, MSF’s emergency coordinator at Al-Aqsa Hospital.
• CNN News team was taken on a tunnel Tour inside Gaza: Some of the tunnels are 60 meters deep (nearly 200 feet), according to Goldfus. Some are wide and some narrow. Penetrating them is a notoriously dangerous task. Goldfus says the biggest issue facing his troops is the “multi-dimensional” nature of the fighting “on all fronts.”

POST WAR GAZA:

• Israel Enters a New Phase of War With Hamas and Still Doesn’t Have a Postwar Plan for Gaza.
• The U.S. and Egypt have both put forward legitimate ideas on what the future government of Gaza could look like, but it seems that Israel is refusing to even discuss a future beyond ‘ongoing Israeli security control.’ As the war enters its fourth month, the future is as up in the air as it was when it started
• Palestinian State? U.S. Wants a ‘New Palestinian Authority’ to Rule Gaza. In Exchange, Abbas Wants Statehood: U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken supports Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state – but it won’t be easy for Washington to persuade Israel to make concessions and the issue could put it on a collision course with Netanyahu’s government. “The normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel will not happen without the establishment of a Palestinian state,” determined Prince Khalid bin Bandar, the Saudi ambassador in Britain, who is the son of the former Saudi intelligence chief.
• In an interview with the BBC, the ambassador clarified that “the Saudis cannot live in peace with Israel without a Palestinian state.” His statement reflects the change that’s occurred in Saudi Arabia’s position since the war in Gaza broke out. The war led to a suspension of negotiations over the normalization of relations between the two countries. It is a suspension, not a cancellation, hinted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week. After visiting Saudi Arabia, he said he had identified an opportunity for better relations between Israel and states in the region.
• The formula used before the war as a basis for normalizing relations between the two countries was based on three foundations: an approval of American assistance for the Saudi nuclear program, a defense pact between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, and understandings regarding an “improvement in the living conditions of Palestinians.” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman formulated the third foundation in an even less committed fashion, saying in an interview with Fox News that he “hoped the normalization agreement with Israel would ease Palestinians’ living conditions.”
• An easement is not an independent Palestinian state, and hopes for an easement are not a diplomatic work plan. At the time, the “Palestinian condition” in the Saudi position seemed something merely required for ticking a check mark next to this issue. Now this is policy that will oblige Washington, Israel and the Palestinians to come up with a realistic blueprint which, even if not completed in the near future, will mark the start of a new diplomatic strategy.
• It is obvious to all that as long as Hamas is the dominant actor in Gaza, no one will dare enter this sick bed. The problem is that even now, after almost three months of war, Hamas continues to control Gaza. In other words, we are still well into the day before. Just the first of the above principles, demilitarization, will take many months to complete.
• ‘There will be no civil presence by Israel in the Gaza Strip after the war’s goals are achieved,’ said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ahead of the first discussion by Israel’s war cabinet over ‘day after’ plans for the Palestinian enclave. “Hamas will not rule Gaza, and Israel will not exercise civil control over Gaza. It’s Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip, which is why Palestinian players will be responsible for it, on the condition that they are not hostile toward Israel and will not operate against it.”
• According to the defense minister, on the day after, a multi-polar mechanism for civil rule over Gaza must be established, containing four elements: a multi-national force, a Palestinian administrative mechanism, Egypt and Israel. The multi-national force, led by the U.S., Western European nations and moderate Arab countries, will take charge of rebuilding the Gaza Strip and serving as the address for international agencies interested in helping.
• The second pole will be a civil Palestinian apparatus, which already exists in the Gaza Strip. It is composed, according to Gallant, of local committees and factors that are not hostile toward Israel.
• The third element is Egypt, which controls a border crossing into Gaza. According to Gallant, Israel and Egypt, in collaboration with the U.S., are working on creating a way to effectively isolate and secure the border between Egypt and Gaza. The final element is Israel itself, which will provide information that will direct the civil operations of the multi-national force. Israel will supervise the entry of goods into the Gaza Strip.

IN THE NORTH (LEBANON):

• Hezbollah Member Killed in Israeli-attributed Strike Was Radwan Force Commander. The commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force was killed on Monday morning (Jan 1^st) in a strike in southern Lebanon attributed to Israel. Hezbollah confirmed that the deceased was Wissam al-Tawil, known as Jawad. His car was attacked in the village of Khirbet Selm, about 15 kilometers from the border, killing Tawil and another person. Tawil played an important role in the management of Hezbollah operations.
• According to the latest public estimates, Hezbollah has around 150,000 rockets and missiles, most with a range of a few dozen kilometers. Various reports, however, say a substantial number can reach targets located hundreds of kilometers from Lebanon. “We are now at the point where Hezbollah has far more rockets and missiles than most governments in the world,” said the U.S. defense secretary.
• Hezbollah claims rocket barrage toward Upper Galilee is ‘initial response’ to Hamas leader’s killing in Beirut
• Blinken added that “one of the areas of real concern is the border between Israel and Lebanon, and we want to do everything possible to make sure that we don’t see escalation there. But it’s very important that Israelis have security in the north. Tens of thousands of people have been forced from their homes in northern Israel because of the threat posed by Hezbollah. We are looking at ways diplomatically to try to defuse that challenge, that tension, so that people can return to their homes, that they can live in peace and security, and this is something that we’re very actively working on.”
• A senior official in the Biden administration told the Reuters news agency that the U.S. was not identifying a “clear wish” by Hezbollah or Israel to engage in war. This is in spite of a threat made last August by Hezbollah’s secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, indicating that it would retaliate harshly in the event of any Israeli attack on Lebanese soil.
• “If the enemy thinks it can attack Lebanon, our response will be limitless,” he said. “We’ll embark on a war to the end.” Hassan Nasrallah Hezbolah’s leader stated. However, Yahya Sinwar and the Hamas leadership would be happy to hear such resolve from him with regard to the war taking place in Gaza, but Nasrallah has a national Lebanese framework and Iranian restrictions within which he is obligated to proceed. He cannot afford the military and ideological freedom of action enjoyed by Hamas, which also has to make adaptations, ideological but mainly religious ones, to obtain maximal public legitimacy in Gaza. Along with its senior status in the “axis of resistance” against Israel, Hezbollah’s dilemma as a religious Shi’ite movement, as a Lebanese and pro-Iranian one, lies in the difficulty of bridging the contradiction between the dream of turning Lebanon into a Shi’ite clerical state – which would realize the Iranian idea of exporting the Islamic revolution – and the political and factional reality that is Lebanon.
• Identifying and expressing solidarity with the suffering of Palestinians has clear limits in Lebanon. The establishment of “Fatahland,” accompanied by horrific abuse of Lebanese citizens, is well-etched into the country’s collective memory (from the 70’s). If the Palestinians want an independent state and conduct a war of liberation in order to achieve it, fine, but not at Lebanon’s expense.
• Last month, Hamas declared that it was setting up military units in Lebanon, to be called the “Pioneers of the al-Aqsa flood.” This evoked a furor that cut across party lines in Beirut, with a demand that the state stop such preparations. Hezbollah got the message and understood the error, and a few days later, Hamas in Lebanon announced that it did not intend to set up a new military organization that would fight Israel from within Lebanon.
• Israel’s Military Intelligence Chief: We Can Strike Our Enemies ‘From Gaza to Iran’: Speaking in the wake of the assassination of a senior Hamas official in Beirut in an attack attributed to Israel.
• “There is, as Iran calls it, a resistance front, that everybody will support Hamas [in its fight against Israel], that it will be not only supported with arms but also with money, and will be supported diplomatically,” Sima Shine, head of the Iran program at the Institute for National Security Studies, told CBS News.
• Shine said Hezbollah likely would not want to engage in a war directly with Israel right now, in part due to the chaotic domestic political situation in Lebanon — a state she describes as “really on the verge of bankruptcy.” “The anti-Hezbollah motivation within Lebanon, and the fear of escalating the situation in Lebanon into a more difficult economic situation… I think this is also a very important reason” for the group to try to avert a full-scale war, Shine said.
• Hezbollah holds so much power within Lebanon that the nation’s wider government likely has little scope to decide whether a full war with Israel is fought or not. That decision lies ultimately with Hezbollah’s leaders — and their sponsors in Iran.
• According to a statement by Israel’s government, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, Jan. 9, that “an increase in the pressure placed on Iran is critical and may prevent regional escalation in additional arenas.”
• Amid the ongoing clashes with Israel’s military, Hezbollah’s leaders have continued to frame their attacks as responses to Israel’s actions and say publicly that they are not looking for a wider war.

IN THE EAST (SYRIA):

• Israel Shifts to Deadlier Strikes on Iran-linked Targets in Syria, Sources Say: Although Israel has struck Iran-linked targets in Syria for years, according to several sources it is now unleashing deadlier, more frequent air raids against Iranian arms transfers and air defense systems in Syria. Israel is carrying out an unprecedented wave of deadly strikes in Syria targeting cargo trucks, infrastructure and people involved in Iran’s weapons lifeline to its proxies in the region, six sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

WEST BANK:

• The Israeli army announced that 26 terror suspects were arrested in the West Bank overnight. Since the start of the war, approximately 2,600 West Bank residents have been arrested, including 1,300 whom the army says are associated with Hamas.
• Israeli Army Raids West Bank Refugee Camp, Interrogates Hundreds of Palestinians: This is the longest IDF operation at the Nur al-Shams refugee camp, which has seen increased military activity since the start of the war. Israeli forces operated for 40 hours in the Nur al-Shams refugee camp near the West Bank town of Tulkarm, and left there on Thursday (Jan 4^th) after having interrogated hundreds of the Palestinian residents. Two Israel soldiers and several Palestinians were reportedly wounded during the operation.
• According to the army, soldiers located weapons in the refugee camp and destroyed infrastructure used for terror activity. Some residents said the army demolished three houses, including one belonging to someone from the Tulkarm Brigades – a local armed group.
• The military source said the soldiers searched through hundreds of buildings and destroyed two bomb-making laboratories. Armed Palestinians claimed they struck a military vehicle in the camp, but the army denied it

NEGOTIATIONS – HOSTAGE RELEASE – CEASE FIRE:

• Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip “will not be returned alive” unless Israeli forces leave, a Hamas spokesman said on Wednesday (Jan 10^th), highlighting the predicament facing the Israeli government: It has vowed to free the hostages, and to pursue the war and defeat Hamas.
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under significant pressure to do whatever is required to get the remaining hostages who are still alive — more than 100 of them, the government says — home safely. Yet public opinion surveys show that most Israelis also support his stated aim of eliminating Hamas, which led the deadly Oct. 7 assault on Israel, as a military force.
• “We affirm that the enemy prisoners will not be returned alive to their families,” Osama Hamdan, a Hamas spokesman.
• Israel is interested in preventing the return of people who live in the northern part to their homes until there are developments in achieving a deal regarding the hostages. Despite the end of the intense phase in the northern part of Gaza, Israel wishes to leverage the return of residents there in order to pressure Hamas to agree to another hostage deal.

GLOBAL RESPONSE & INVOLVEMENT:

• Britain is expected to join the United States in carrying out overnight air strikes on military positions belonging to the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, the political editor for the Times newspaper reported on Thursday (Jan 11^th).
• South Africa has outlined its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. The country wants the court to order Israel to suspend its military campaign in Gaza. It could take weeks before judges issue a decision.
• France’s foreign minister said that she had told her Iranian counterpart that the risk of a Middle East regional conflagration had never been greater and that Tehran and its proxies “must immediately stop their destabilizing actions,” Catherine Colonna said on social media platform X after speaking with Hossein Amirabdollahian. “No one would gain from escalation,” she said.
• Iranian officials tried to link Israel and the U.S. to an Islamic State group-claimed suicide bombing while speaking to a mass funeral on Friday (Jan 5^th) for some of the 89 people killed in the attack, seeking to intertwine the assault with wider Middle East tensions from the Israel-Hamas war. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards sought to make the link without offering evidence for their claims. The gathered crowd in front of flag-draped caskets shouted in response: “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” On Friday (Jan 5^th), the intelligence ministry said in a statement that one of the two suicide bombers was a Tajik national. It said the other’s nationality was not clear yet. The two attacks on Wednesday killed at least 89 people and wounded about 280 others, authorities said Friday in an update of the death toll. The attacks have sparked condemnation from around the world, even amid Iran’s wider tensions with the West over its nuclear program.
• Why China Is Siding With the Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas War? China’s message is aimed more at Washington than Jerusalem. The answer lies in China’s broad global ambitions and in its years-long confrontation with the United States. These two elements are intertwined. Xi’s ambitious plans are embodied in the meta-project known as the “Belt and Road Initiative,” sometimes referred to as the “New Silk Road.” Within that framework, China is developing massive infrastructure projects that include construction of railways, highways and ports in order to connect with parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. It’s part of Beijing’s prodigious attempt to shape the processes of globalization in its own image, an ambition setting it on a direct collision course with the United States.
• Genocide in Gaza? The question comes into play and the problem lies in some of the statements made by some of the extremists in Israeli’s government which are genocide-inciting statements due to their extreme religious convictions and connecting this conflict to religious rhetoric including messianic references. However, most understand that Israel is not committing the crime of genocide in Gaza. To say it is, it reflects ignorance of the definition of genocide or of the situation on the ground right now in Gaza. Or you may be operating from a stance of being blinded by your hatred of Israel.
• Under the terms of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide is an act intended “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” It doesn’t matter whether you think Israel’s campaign to destroy Hamas’ military capabilities and remove it from power in Gaza is justified or wise. It doesn’t matter whether Israel’s means of achieving its objectives are disproportionate and could constitute war crimes under international humanitarian law. Israel’s actions are aimed at destroying Hamas, an organization, not the Palestinian population of Gaza. So as heavy-handed and destructive as the IDF is acting, it isn’t committing genocide.
• If the judges of the International Court of Justice, who next Thursday (Jan 11^th) are set to hear the South African government’s request for an interim ruling to prevent Israel from committing acts of potential genocide, act on the basis of what Israel is actually doing in Gaza, they should throw the case out. But there is a wrinkle here. Because genocide is not a question of how many people have been killed from one group. It’s about intending to create the conditions to destroy that group. And in their request, the South Africans have cited multiple quotes of Israelis, politicians and pundits of different levels, who have called upon the government and the IDF to carry out what would likely amount to a genocide in Gaza.
• Israel Chooses British Legal Expert to Represent It in International Court of Justice Genocide Case: Professor Malcolm Shaw will have to argue that Israel is in fact complying with international law, and that extreme statements from Israeli leaders don’t reflect official policy in Gaza, says Israeli legal expert
• Hezbollah’s leader (Nasrallah) gave a speech on Wednesday (Jan 10^th) where he made a distinction claiming that every organization linked to the axis of resistance will act according to “its strategy and the interests of its people and state.” Even though he attributed these words to Soleimani, this strategy was born before that. For Nasrallah, it rests on ideological underpinnings which distinguish between a Western colonialist and imperialist conception – mainly an American one – and that of the axis of resistance. Organizations that depend on the West become, he said, “slaves [of the power funding them]. We have no slaves. They [in the West or in Israel] cannot recognize the fact that everything the resistance organizations do derives from their own independent decisions, from their inner conviction, based on their faith and loyalty to their just cause. They are not the pawns of anyone.“

 

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?   

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.

 

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