UPDATES ON THE WAR – Day 47 (Nov 22nd):
*We are one Day 47 (Nov 22nd). Rocket fire and suffering continues on both sides.
We have created categories to make our summaries easier to read and understand.
OUCH:
- A surge in attacks on deployed U.S. forces has roiled some within the Defense Department, where officials, frustrated by what they consider an incoherent strategy for countering the Iranian proxies believed responsible, acknowledge the limited retaliatory airstrikes approved by President Biden have failed to stop the violence.
- In the Israel-Palestinian conflict and said Moscow is “developing ties with Iran, including in military field, but we don’t comment [further] on this.”
- The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that 41,000 housing units have been destroyed and another 222,000 seriously damaged, nearly half of Gaza’s housing stock. Beit Hanoun, once a city of 52,000 people, has barely a single habitable building. About half of all school buildings and hospitals have been damaged. So far more than 11,000 people have been killed in Gaza, and another 27,500 have been injured. These figures come from Hamas authorities and may be exaggerated. But certainly not by much: It is enough to look at the pictures of block-after-block rubble and aerial photographs to appreciate the scale of the destruction.
- Hamas never took its role as the government of Gaza seriously. It left it to the United Nations and NGOs to provide basic services like health and education. Hamas even regarded construction of bomb shelters to protect its citizens as someone else’s responsibility. Hamas’ raison d’etre was to fight Israel, not develop the economy; to build attack tunnels, not fill potholes. Gaza was not a Palestinian state in the making but a base of military operations.
IN THE SOUTH (EILAT):
- Houthi rebels have seized an Israeli-linked vessel in the Red Sea, two officials from the Yemen-based group told The Post. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said no Israelis were on board. A Houthi spokesman said on social media that the group will target all ships owned or operated by Israel or carrying its flag.
- Iran on Monday (Nov 20th) denied involvement in the seizure of an Israeli-linked vessel in the Red Sea by Yemeni rebels. The denial came after the office of Israel’s prime minister described the seizure by Iranian-backed Houthis as an “Iranian act of terrorism.” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that “resistance groups in the region act independently and spontaneously based on their interests.”
- An Israeli fighter jet shot down a cruise missile launched by Yemen’s Houthis launched toward Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat.
- Yemen’s Houthis say they launched a batch of missiles towards military posts in Israel’s Eilat: The Houthis’ message comes hours after Israeli jets struck down a cruise missile aimed at Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat.
IN THE SOUTH (GAZA):
- More than 100 evacuees from Gaza are expected to arrive in Turkey by military aircraft for medical treatment, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said Monday (Nov 20th). Health Minister Fahrettin Koca shared footage of the evacuees, including 61 patients and accompanying family members, being transferred from Gaza to Egypt on Sunday. He said the group would receive medical care overnight before flying to Ankara.
- More than 6,700 dual citizens and foreign nationals have crossed into Egypt from Gaza since Oct. 21, Ayman Walash, director of the Cairo Press Center for Foreign Correspondents, said Monday. Walash said that the evacuees, plus 929 Egyptians, left Gaza through the Rafah crossing, the only link from the enclave that Israel does not control.
- Two U.N. agencies distributed more than 5,100 gallons of fuel for water and sanitation facilities in southern Gaza on Sunday (Nov 19th), allowing them to resume operations after they shut down more than a week ago, according to a statement by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The fuel “is expected to last for about 24 hours,” it said.
- Israeli forces have been arresting some people on the evacuation route from northern Gaza to the south, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement on Sunday. Interviews with internally displaced people, the agency said, revealed that Israel has “established an unstaffed checkpoint” on that corridor where “people are directed from a distance to pass through two structures, where a surveillance system is thought to be installed.”
- The IDF continued its ground operation in the northern Gaza Strip, and said it took over a Hamas compound in the Sheikh Zayed neighborhood. The IDF released an image of the door allegedly leading to a tunnel under Al-Shifa Hospital. The IDF has released the names of two soldiers killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Shifa Hospital:
- IDF says additional tunnels and hideouts uncovered under Al-Shifa Hospital: The IDF said its soldiers exposed additional dozens of meters of tunnels beneath Al-Shifa Hospital. According to the statement, the army identified in the tunnels combat rooms and hiding places, including services and a kitchen, indicating the prolonged presence of Hamas members.
POST WAR GAZA:
- It is not clear who will – or more precisely who will want to – take on the burden of running Gaza post war. There has been talk about the PA being put in charge. But even if it was willing to take back control under the politically unpalatable mechanism of a brutal Israeli invasion and occupation, the PA is barely functioning in its West Bank home turf. Egypt, the other likely candidate, is not interested. It sees Gaza as nothing more than a security risk, a potential hotbed for the kind of Islamic resistance it has struggled to contain at home. In any event, neither the PA nor Egyptian leaderships have ever displayed anything like the skills and competence to oversee a massive program of reconstruction and economic development. That leaves Israel. No doubt, Israel will have no more of an appetite to govern much less rebuild Gaza than anyone else, but in lieu of any practical security alternative, it seems Israel may be destined to deploy an occupying force for an extended period. The Biden administration is opposed, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled that is the plan.
- The Inconvenient Truth Is That Israel Will Have to Rebuild Gaza: Someone will have to take responsibility for the enclave and Israel is the only realistic candidate. It’s an unwelcome but necessary task
- The events of the past six weeks – the Black Saturday massacre, the bombing of Northern Gaza, the invasion and the refugees crowding into the south – have bequeathed Israel and Gaza an ugly inheritance of scorched earth and humanitarian disaster. And even if the fighting ends in a decisive victory over Hamas, Israel will be saddled with a problem that almost defies solution. Most of the public discussion about what happens the day after the war has focused on who will govern Gaza. That alone is a knotty question, but the problem goes much deeper than who will be responsible for law and order and providing basic services: Whoever is in charge will have to rebuild the wreckage that is Gaza and create a functioning economy.
- In the short term – Israel cannot stand by and watch a humanitarian disaster unfold. In the longer run, it is impractical to assume that two million Gazans will continue to live in hopeless poverty without directing their anger at their neighbor. From such combustible material, a Hamas 2.0 will almost certainly arise.
- S. President Joe Biden told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in a phone call on Wednesday the U.S. would not permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, or the besiegement of Gaza, or the redrawing of Gaza’s borders, the White House said.
IN THE NORTH (LEBANON):
- Reports from Lebanon say that one of the five people killed in an Israeli strike near Beit Yahoun Wednesday was the son of a Hezbollah member of the Lebanese parliament.
- Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Forces exchanged fire across the Lebanese border Monday (Nov 20th), following a high number of strikes Sunday. The IDF said Monday that it struck locations in Lebanon with artillery, while Hezbollah claimed responsibility for four attacks against Israeli military targets. The IDF said there were no Israeli casualties but a fire broke out at one of the Israeli sites.
- TYRE, Lebanon — The secondary conflict that erupted along the Lebanon-Israel border in tandem with the Gaza war has settled into something of a routine. Every day for the past six weeks, Israel has attacked Lebanon and Hezbollah has attacked Israel, a pattern that began as a tit for tat and has now blurred into a steady exchange of fire. But the range and intensity of the fighting is gradually increasing, and both sides have started using deadlier weapons.
- Israeli Air Force strikes Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, IDF Spokesperson says: The statement says Israeli aircraft attacked a squad attempting to fire rockets into Israel.
- S. President Joe Biden emphasized “the importance of maintaining calm” along the Lebanese border as well as in the West Bank when he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, the White House said.
IN THE EAST (SYRIA):
IN THE WEST (TEL AVIV):
WEST BANK:
- Six Israeli security forces personnel were shot, including one fatally, in an attack on Thursday at a West Bank checkpoint south of Jerusalem. The three assailants were all killed at the scene. The police said that the shooters arrived at the “Tunnels” checkpoint in a car from the West Bank. They believe that they intended to carry out an attack inside Jerusalem, but were stopped at the checkpoint and opened fire on the forces that were stationed there. The police said that the shooters used two pistols and an M-16 rifle to carry out the shooting.
- S. President Joe Biden told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in a phone call on Wednesday the U.S. would not permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, or the besiegement of Gaza, or the redrawing of Gaza’s borders, the White House said.
- S. President Joe Biden emphasized “the importance of maintaining calm” along the Lebanese border as well as in the West Bank when he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, the White House said.
- “I have been emphatic with Israel’s leaders that extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop and that those committing the violence must be held accountable,” he wrote. “The United States is prepared to take our own steps, including issuing visa bans against extremists attacking civilians in the West Bank.”
- Senior Biden Officials Express Concern About Possible Eruption of Another Front in the West Bank: As Israel continues its ground invasion of Gaza, U.S. officials fear that the relative quiet in the West Bank could quickly turn into a full-scale war – something both the U.S. and Israel cannot afford politically. Senior U.S. officials believe Israel is at risk of opening another front in its current war, this time in the West Bank.
- Officials in the Biden administration told senior Israeli officials recently that the situation in the West Bank is on the verge of exploding, and that the Palestinian Authority may lose control of the major Palestinian cities there.
NEGOTIATIONS – HOSTAGE RELEASE – CEASE FIRE:
- Israel, Hamas make final preparations for hostage-prisoner exchange: An agreement brokered by Qatar between Israel and Hamas, involving the exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian detainees and a temporary cease-fire, is set to take effect at 10 A.M. on Thursday (Nov 23rd).
- The four-day Israel-Hamas cease-fire is set to begin at 10 A.M. local time on Thursday, according to Israeli, Qatari and Hamas officials. The temporary cease-fire is part of a deal approved in the early hours of Wednesday by Israel’s government. Hamas will exchange 50 women and children it holds in captivity in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
- The agreed ratio is up to 150 Palestinian prisoners to be freed in exchange for every 50 Israeli hostages. For every ten additional hostages released, the cease-fire will be extended by a day, up to a maximum of ten days.
- Israel: No Hostage Release Before Friday, Gaza Cease-fire Also Put on Hold
- An Israeli political source has told an Israeli news source that the delay in implementation of the cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas is because Hamas has not yet submitted the list of Israeli nationals it intends to release…The second reason, according to the source, is that the organization has still not ratified the cease-fire agreement with Qatar, which is supposed to guarantee that all sides abide by the agreed terms.
- Six hospitals in Israel are ready to receive released hostages in designating compounds separate from other patients and the media.
- S. President Joe Biden welcomed the Israel-Hamas deal in Gaza and thanked Qatari and Egyptian leaders for mediating.
- N. Secretary General António Guterres condemned the rising civilian casualties in Gaza as “unacceptable,” reiterating his demand for an immediate cease-fire in a statement Sunday (Nov 19th). “This war is having a staggering and unacceptable number of civilian casualties, including women and children, every day,” Guterres said. “This must stop.”
- Arab foreign ministers welcomed the cease-fire but said it should be extended and become a first step toward a full cessation of hostilities. Russia hailed the cease-fire in Gaza as the “first good news for a long time” in the Israel-Palestinian conflict and said Moscow is “developing ties with Iran, including in military field, but we don’t comment [further] on this.”
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday evening that part of the agreed upon deal with Hamas stipulates that representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will visit the Israeli hostages.
GLOBAL RESPONSE & INVOLVEMENT:
- S. President Joe Biden welcomed the Israel-Hamas deal in Gaza and thanked Qatari and Egyptian leaders for mediating.
- S. President Joe Biden told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in a phone call on Wednesday the U.S. would not permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, or the besiegement of Gaza, or the redrawing of Gaza’s borders, the White House said.
- N. Secretary General António Guterres condemned the rising civilian casualties in Gaza as “unacceptable,” reiterating his demand for an immediate cease-fire in a statement Sunday (Nov 19th). “This war is having a staggering and unacceptable number of civilian casualties, including women and children, every day,” Guterres said. “This must stop.”
- Arab foreign ministers welcomed the cease-fire but said it should be extended and become a first step toward a full cessation of hostilities. Russia hailed the cease-fire in Gaza as the “first good news for a long time” in the Israel-Palestinian conflict and said Moscow is “developing ties with Iran, including in military field, but we don’t comment [further] on this.”
- In the Israel-Palestinian conflict and said Moscow is “developing ties with Iran, including in military field, but we don’t comment [further] on this.”
SUMMARY OF LOSSES & RESPONSES:
- At least 1,200 civilians and soldiers killed in Israel since October 7th
- 236 hostages held in Gaza Strip
- Hamas-controlled health ministry: 14,128 dead in Gaza
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:
“Spending more time in the temple builds faith. And your service and worship in the temple will help you to think celestial. The temple is a place of revelation. There you are shown how to progress toward a celestial life. There you are drawn closer to the Savior and given greater access to His power. There you are guided in solving the problems in your life, even your most perplexing problems. The ordinances and covenants of the temple are of eternal significance. We continue to build more temples to make these sacred possibilities become a reality in each of your lives. We are grateful to announce our plans to build a temple in each of the following 20 locations:
Savai’i, Samoa
Cancún, Mexico
Piura, Peru
Huancayo, Peru
Viña del Mar, Chile
Goiânia, Brazil
João Pessoa, Brazil
Calabar, Nigeria
Cape Coast, Ghana
Luanda, Angola
Mbuji-Mayi, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Laoag, Philippines
Osaka, Japan
Kahului, Maui, Hawaii
Fairbanks, Alaska
Vancouver, Washington
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Roanoke, Virginia
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia”
(“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:
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
