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Update Nov 14th (Day 39)

By November 14, 2023No Comments

UPDATES ON THE WAR – Day 39 (Nov 14th):

*We are one Day 39 (Nov 14th). Rocket fire and suffering continues on both sides. We have created categories to make our summaries easier to read and understand.

OUCH:

  • “This is the dark time. The time of the barbaric attack by Hamas and the time of the lost conscience and sense of reason in Israel.” My note… = OUCH!
  • “…No less horrific is the recognition that one must now take sides: You are either shocked by the atrocities committed by Hamas, or by the atrocities committed by the IDF. Decide. Choose sides. Which dead children shock you more? Which bereaved parents’ trouble you more? Can you not see the difference between Hamas, which came here to massacre, and an army that came to save hostages and wipe out Hamas? I can indeed, but the butchered children, and their no-less butchered parents, have little interest in the intentions of their killers. On both sides, they didn’t deserve to die. Their killing is equally shocking, and there is no reason in the world to be apologetic about taking this stance.” (Israeli News Source – Haaretz)
  • Those (in Israel) who before the war underestimated the importance of addressing apartheid and the fate of the Palestinian people now think, to hell with everyone. They can go hang. Let them suffocate. Let them die. Let them be expelled. Those who before the war considered themselves enlightened now support consensus. Hamas also turned the Israeli left upside down. From now on, Israel is permitted to do anything to Gaza; the left will even give its blessing. From now on, it is forbidden to even empathize with the residents of Gaza.
  • Even in the face of the bodies of 2,360 children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry as of Tuesday, the left’s heart is sealed. As at the start of every war, this left is for it. The left “wises up,” and afterward somehow returns to itself. That seems unlikely this time.
  • The situation is even worse outside of the left. Fascism has become the only proper position…Any other opinion is now condemned to persecution.
  • Arab-Israelis’ find themselves in a precarious position…”Genuinely horrified, but also feeling an almost automatic need to condemn and reject all responsibility or fingers pointing in accusation (which were sure to quickly materialize). Instinctively feeling that this is going to be bad for us, no matter what we say or do…And yet the vast majority of this society, which has been abandoned to its bitter fate and is labeled as suspect on a good day and as an enemy on a bad day, has shown responsibility and restraint, and condemned the atrocities…It was a week of understanding that however you choose to define yourself – Arab, Israeli Arab or Palestinian – you are the enemy, or the potential enemy, until you prove otherwise, or until you donate hot meals to soldiers on the front. Even then, the suspicion might remain. The day will come when we get tired of trying.”

IN THE SOUTH (GAZA):

Al-Shifa Hospital:

  • The Tragedy of Al-Shifa Hospital: Israel’s Biggest Moral Challenge in the Gaza War:
  • Al-Shifa is not only Gaza’s largest hospital, but also a large refugee camp and according to Israel the central headquarters for the Hamas leadership’s activity. The medical center, where up until recently Israeli doctors performed 50 surgeries a month, is now at the heart of the Israel-Hamas war
  • Biden says Gaza hospital must be protected: U.S. President Joe Biden said on Monday that the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City must be protected and that he hopes there will be less intrusive action there.
  • Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the Israeli government has also said they are prepared to provide fuel to hospitals to ensure they can continue to operate.
  • Two weeks ago, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari issued a statement saying that beneath the hospital lies Hamas’ central command headquarters, from where Hamas directs the fighting against Israel and where it stores arms and ammunition. The army also revealed that entry to the underground command centers is through a number of tunnel shafts both close to the hospital and inside the hospital wards, including internal medicine, dialysis and outpatient clinics.
  • The army also announced that Hamas is using the hospital’s electricity supply for itself. The IDF Spokesman also publicized recordings from interrogations of terrorists, in which the terrorists describe how Hamas commanders and terrorists hide in hospitals and move people and equipment around in civilian ambulances because Hamas knows that Al-Shifa is a “safe place that won’t be bombed.”
  • There was also a recording of a conversation with an official in the Gazan health system who admits that Hamas is keeping more than 500,000 liters of fuel underneath the hospital, and that hundreds of the terrorists who took part in the October 7 massacre and fled back into Gaza are hiding out in the hospital.
  • Al-Shifa is owned and operated by the Palestinian Health Ministry. It was built during the British Mandate period. When Egypt conquered the Gaza Strip in 1948, Al-Shifa became Gaza’s main medical center. Since Israel took control of Gaza in 1967, Al-Shifa has seen improvements. In the mid-1980s, Israel spent millions of shekels renovating Al-Shifa as a flagship, under the supervision of the Coordinator of Government Activity in the Territories. The aim was improving living conditions in Gaza.
  • “Al-Shifa is considered the largest hospital in Gaza, with a vast amount of space and over 500 beds (officially 1,500, according to the army). It provides 60 to 70 percent of all health services in Gaza, which has 35 hospitals, some of them tiny,” Haj Yahya said.
  • Surgeon in Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital: We don’t have electricity, water, food: Doctors Without Borders managed to get in touch with one of its surgeons inside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, after days of no contact, who painted a dire picture of the state of affairs. “We don’t have electricity. There’s no water in the hospital. There’s no food. People will die in a few hours without functioning ventilators. In front of the main gate, there are many bodies. There are also injured patients; we can’t bring them inside,” the surgeon said.
  • Meanwhile, initiatives are being launched, with Israel’s permission, to establish field hospitals and hospital ships as alternatives to Al-Shifa and the other Gaza hospitals that have been turned into shelters for terrorists. In fact, Israel has requested this from some several European countries, so that these hospitals can take in the sick and wounded patients who’d be evacuated from Al-Shifa, including the transfer of premature babies in incubators and intubated patients. (Reuters reported Saturday night that Hagari said the military would help evacuate babies trapped in Al-Shifa on Sunday).
  • Last week, it was announced that the UAE was already establishing a 150-bed field hospital in Gaza; Italy will send a “floating hospital” off the coast of Gaza and will also set up a field hospital in the region; Egypt is setting up several field hospitals; and France and Greece have also expressed readiness to send floating hospitals. German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that the ships are supposed to anchor in Egypt, from there they would collect the wounded, who’d be permitted to leave Gaza.
  • The feeling is that Hamas found the method for tying Israel’s hands – hiding behind innocent people.
  • “It’s difficult to act as a democratic state committed to the rule of law and to international law, but we don’t want to be like the terrorist organization we’re fighting against. Morality is very important for us, too, because on the day after, we’ll have to live with the consequences.” Idit Shafran Gittleman, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, and an expert in the ethics in war.
  • IDF spokesman: There are signs indicating that Hamas held hostages in Gaza’s Rantisi Hospital. The spokesman for the Israeli military, Daniel Hagari, said Monday that the army has “intelligence that confirms” Hamas was holding hostages in the Rantisi Hospital in Gaza.
  • UNRWA: Gaza’s largest aid organization created initially to support the Palestinian refugees in 1948 remains in use today. 90% of the funding comes from “voluntary contributions” from UN member states. The United States was the biggest contributor in 2022 at $344 million. 5.9 million people are currently registered with 2.3 living in Gaza.
  • UNWRA provides health care, housing, education, and financial assistance. Israel supports their work but also criticizes it saying that these things should be done by a government that includes elected Hamas officials and how the UNWRA is feeding them, educating them, providing them with health facilities while Hamas is free to fight.
  • Details about the UNRWA: Gaza’s largest aid organization

POST WAR GAZA:

  • Israel wants security duty in Gaza after the war, but not occupation or administration responsibilities and is not confident with the Palestinian Authority doing it either. The governing body in Gaza will require some finesse.

IN THE NORTH (LEBANON):

  • IDF chief of staff: We are making extensive preparations for security situation in north:

Israeli army Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi said the army “is preparing extensive action plans for the north,” adding “our mission is to bring security.”

IN THE EAST (SYRIA):

  • U.S. Strikes Iranian Targets in Syria, Pentagon Confirms; Nine Killed, Report Says

IN THE WEST (TEL AVIV):

  • Rockets from Gaza target central Israel for the first time since Friday.
  • An explosives laboratory was destroyed in Tulkarm overnight (just north of Tel Aviv). The conflict lasted 15 hours and destroyed dozens of ready-to-use explosive devices.

WEST BANK:

  • Israeli Army Conducts Daytime Airstrike in West Bank; At Least Seven Palestinians Killed

NEGOTIATIONS – HOSTAGE RELEASE:

  • Spokesman for Hamas’ military wing: Israel thwarted Qatari effort to release hostages: The spokesman for Hamas’ military wing, Abu Obeida, “We informed the mediators that we need five days of calm, a cease-fire and the introduction of humanitarian aid to the entire Strip, but Israel proceeded to procrastinate,” he said.
  • Israel’s War Cabinet to receive update on Tuesday night on contacts for hostage release deal: Israel’s War Cabinet will receive an update on Tuesday evening on the negotiations for the hostage deal, shortly after Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar visited Egypt in an attempt to promote their release. Israel is awaiting the arrival of U.S. President Joe Biden’s adviser, Brett McGurk, who is involved in the negotiations. The possible deal discussed recently is the release of dozens of kidnapped civilians in exchange for dozens of Palestinian women prisoners and children or sick prisoners, a humanitarian truce and the introduction of fuel and additional aid to the Strip.

GLOBAL RESPONSE & INVOLVEMENT:

  • Arab leaders at Saudi Arabia summit call for halt to fighting in Gaza; ask world not to remain silent. This is the second such summit which includes two rivals: Iran & Saudi Arabia. These 2 countries were among 50 other Arab and Muslim majority nations who condemned what they described as Israeli aggression in Gaza.
  • Saudi Arabia is at the forefront of multilateral diplomacy.
  • The two summits held over the weekend in Riyadh are 1. the Organization of Islamic Countries (ph) and 2. The Arab State-Arab League Summit.
  • As of November 2023, 85% of UN members recognized Israel as a country, compared to 72% for the State of Palestine. As of November 2023, 164 of the 193 UN members recognize Israel as a state, including all G7 countries. Even the State of Palestine recognized Israel as part of the Oslo Accords in 1993.
  • Thousands Rally Across Israel Urging Gov’t to Release Hostages
  • Over 100 U.S. Democrats urge Biden to take steps to protect Palestinians: More than 100 Democrats from both houses of Congress urged U.S. President Joe Biden to take steps to protect Palestinians in the U.S.
  • One area in which Hamas is gradually succeeding is world opinion. However grisly, atrocious and vile the October 7 attack was, there are now pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel demonstrations around the world. They blend anti-Zionism, antisemitism, half-baked anti-colonial theories, and disingenuous and grossly irrelevant identity politics. In the United States, a new University of Maryland/IPSOS poll shows a significant decline in support for Israel among the younger age group since its military response in Gaza.
  • S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who chairs the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, requested a classified briefing from the FBI and Education Department on rising antisemitism and Islamophobia in schools across the country.
  • ISIS-like Hamas doesn’t care about jobs or development. If it did, it could have striven for this back in September 2005 when Israel withdrew from Gaza. But what Hamas wants is blood and death. Hamas is an extremist organization comprised of fanatic Sunnis with a Nazi ideology, and it’s part of a broader radical Islamic movement: Al-Qaida, the Islamic State, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the Muslim Brotherhood. For this movement, killing as many Jews as possible with extreme brutality (to sow fear and dread) is a religious commandment. The head of the Muslim Brotherhood said it explicitly: “The Muslims need to finish the job Hitler started.”
  • Three-quarters of U.S. Jews Fear for Their Safety Because of Israel-Hamas War, Poll Shows
  • President Benjamin Netanyahu was on “Meet the Press” on Sunday. Link to the Interview

SUMMARY OF LOSSES & RESPONSES:

  • At least 1,200 civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas massacre on October 7,
  • 241 hostages held in Gaza and 40 unaccounted for
  • Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza: Over 11,000 killed

 

FOOD FOR THOUGHT / PROPHETIC QUOTES:

What is the best solution and resolution?

The following is a snippet from a talk given in Oct 2023 by the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Russell M. Nelson who is esteemed by his followers as a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator:

“There is no end to the adversary’s deceptions. Please be prepared. Never take counsel from those who do not believe. Seek guidance from voices you can trust—from prophets, seers, and revelators and from the whisperings of the Holy Ghost, who “will show unto you all things what ye should do.”18 Please do the spiritual work to increase your capacity to receive personal revelation.” (“Think Celestial!” By President Russell M. Nelson, Oct 2023)

 

*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 hostages who they believe is hiding and operating under the largest hospital 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

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