Operation Iron Swords - Day 99 - 13 January 2024

Contents

NEW - Operations NEW - Operations Maps NEW - By-Standers NEW - Axis of Resistance NEW - Allied for Democracy UPDATED - Oasis of Martyrs UPDATED - Hostages

Donald Trump attacked the administration of President Joe Biden, after the US military launched strikes against Yemen, while US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin remains in the hospital. “Let me get this straight,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “We are dropping bombs all over the Middle East, once again (where ISIS was defeated!), and our Secretary of Defense, who disappeared five days ago, is running the war from His laptop is in the hospital room,” according to CNN.

The former president added: “Remember, this is the same gang that (surrendered) in Afghanistan, where no one was held accountable or dismissed. It was the most embarrassing moment in the history of the United States. Now we have wars in Ukraine, Israel and Yemen, but there is no war on our borders.” South. This makes it very logical that corrupt Joe Biden is the worst president in the history of the United States!”

Two U.S. officials warned that even after hitting more than 60 missile and drone targets with more than 150 precision-guided munitions, the strikes had damaged or destroyed only about 20 to 30 percent of the Houthis’ offensive capability.

Mohammed Abdulsalam, a Houthi spokesperson, told Reuters the strikes, including the one overnight that hit a military base in Sanaa, had no significant impact on the group's ability to prevent Israel-affiliated vessels from passing through the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.

Operational Update

According to the sources, the American bombing targeted a naval base in the Ras Kutheb area , opposite the port of Hodeidah. Local sources had previously reported hearing an explosion, coinciding with an intense overflight of American military aircraft. At dawn on Saturday, the United States carried out a new strike against the Al-Dailami base, north of the capital, Sanaa. The guided-missile destroyer Carney used Tomahawk missiles in the follow-on strike "to degrade the Houthis' ability to attack maritime vessels, including commercial vessels," The strike, which the United States said targeted a radar site, came a day after Yemeni facilities were subjected to dozens of American and British strikes.

American forces continued to bomb sites in Yemen, targeting a naval base for the Ansar Allah Houthi group in Hodeidah, west of the country, hours after targeting a radar site in Sanaa. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden said that his country sent a special message to Iran regarding these strikes in Yemen, stressing that his country is well prepared to deal with the situation in the region. On the other hand, the New York Times quoted American officials as saying that finding targets for the Houthis proved “more difficult than expected.”

The Al-Qassam Brigades - the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) - announced the bombing of settlements around the Gaza Strip with a batch of missiles. It also stated that its fighters killed two Israeli soldiers from a distance of zero east of Khan Yunis, and targeted a helicopter with a surface-to-air missile. They also targeted foot groups of Occupation soldiers and a number of tanks and vehicles.

The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, also announced that it had bombed sites and settlements in the northern Gaza Strip with missiles. It also stated that its fighters were engaged in fierce clashes east of the Bureij and Al-Maghazi camps in the central Gaza Strip.

The commander of the Central Command, Major General Yehuda Fox and the Yehuda Brigade, Colonel Yishai Rosilio, conducted a situation assessment at the point of elimination of the terrorists from the attempted attack in the settlement of Adora. "We are in a challenging time, most of the time we manage to stop or harm the terrorists before they go out to carry out the attacks," said the PKMZ commander, "In this case, a significant attack was avoided when three terrorists managed to arrive and breach the settlement's fence, but they encountered a strong and ready defense system , through the HGMR soldier who was wounded and spurred the forces to the reserve battalion that rowed into contact and eliminated the terrorists. We will learn from the incident in order to draw lessons and improve, and at the same time we will continue to operate in a broad offensive effort."

Clashes broke out between Palestinian resistance fighters and the occupation forces that stormed Al-Far'a camp, south of Tubas, in the northeast of the West Bank, where a number of Palestinians were injured. By nightfall, large forces of the occupation army stormed the city of Jenin, and surrounded the main entrance to its camp amid armed clashes.

Fighter jets of the IDF Air Force completed an attack on Lebanese territory, as part of which a number of terrorist infrastructures used by the terrorist organization Hizbullah were destroyed which were located in the Mis al Jabal and Kafr Yarin areas. During the day, other areas in Lebanon were attacked. In addition, a number of launches were detected from the territory of Lebanon towards various areas in the north of the country, which fell in an open area. IDF forces attacked the sources of the shooting.

The White House said that the United States does not want a war with Yemen, but it will not hesitate to take further measures. In turn, the Houthi "Ansar Allah" group announced on Friday that " all American and British interests have become legitimate targets." The United States unilaterally launched a new raid on a Houthi radar site at Al-Dailami Air Base in Sanaa. The US Central Command announced that the strike on Saturday was a follow-up to striking a specific military target linked to the strikes carried out on January 12, stressing that the latest strike against the Houthis in Yemen has nothing to do with the “Guardian of Prosperity” coalition.

Maps

All maps are lies. But it is impossible to comprehend the war in Gaza without reference to maps, otherwise the entire conflict is reduced to an endless series of meaningless acts of random violence and the suffering of civilians. The first characteristic of guerrilla warfare is the loss of a front line. Evidently, different mappers have different ideas of how to depict the war in Gaza, notably those that seek to depict Israeli progress in the ground campaign. Part of the problem is latency. The news that forms the basis of the maps takes time to filter out to mappers, and the cartographers take time in crafting their maps, and it takes time to curate them. These processes are uneven among mappers, so their maps may differ in detail. Probably there is some ideological bias, or at least thematic apperception, which is understandable in wartime. It may come as no surprise that al-Jazeera maps depict rather less Israeli territorial progress than other sources. Finally, there remains the epistemological question of just exactly what are the colored in areas depicting. Naively, this might be understood as areas of Israeli control, that are no longer contested by the HAMAS. Or possibly these are areas of Israeli presence, in many of which the possibility of an RPG-wielding HAMAS militant popping out of a tunnel unexpectedly remains a live possibility. With the "zero-range" combat characterized by small unit tactics on both sides, maps may be prey to a fallacy of misplaced concreteness.

Bystanders

Axis of Resistance

The leader of the movement, Osama Hamdan, said that the region will not witness security and stability except by ending the Zionist occupation of our Palestinian and Arab lands, which requires Washington and London to retreat from their colonial policies, and prove this by their respect for the sovereignty of countries and the interests of the Arab and Islamic peoples.

Hamdan added - in a press conference on Saturday evening to keep pace with the developments of the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip that has been going on for 99 days -: All countries in the world that have become fed up to the point of suffocation with these aggressive policies, and they will not stand idly by in the face of the brutal Zionist crimes and the war of genocide. To which our Palestinian people are exposed.

He stressed that the occupation leaders did not achieve any of their aggressive goals against our people and our valiant resistance, despite the genocide crimes they committed, in which more than 30,000 Palestinians were killed, the majority of whom were women and children.

He added: The Nazi enemy did not succeed in breaking the will and steadfastness of our great people rooted in their land, and they were not able to undermine the strength and determination of the Martyr Izz al-Din al - Qassam Brigades , the Jerusalem Brigades , and the men of the Palestinian resistance. Who wrote an epic of heroism, glory and pride for our people and our nation.

He said: This enemy has suffered a strategic loss since October 7, and is being pursued by failure after failure, the more it continues its aggression against the Gaza Strip, militarily, politically, medially, legally, morally, and humanitarianly.

He pointed out that our patient people stationed and our victorious resistance in the Gaza Strip have foiled the enemy’s plans to displace, disappear and liquidate our national story, and will foil all his aggressive plans, and will achieve clear victory in the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood , God willing. He said: For the first time in its history... the occupation is represented in the International Court of Justice... to be tried before the whole world for the crimes of ethnic cleansing and the war of genocide against our people.

He stressed that the battle of the Palestinian people against the occupation and colonialism did not begin on October 7, 2023, but rather began before that in 105 years of occupation, 30 years under British colonialism and 75 years of Zionist occupation.

He pointed out that our people have suffered for decades from all forms of oppression, injustice, confiscation of basic rights, and apartheid policies, and that the Gaza Strip has suffered from a stifling siege that has continued for more than 17 years, turning it into the largest open-air prison in the world.

He stated that the documentation of the Zionist occupation’s violations and atrocities against our people, our land, and our sanctities was done by United Nations institutions, investigative committees, international courts, international human rights organizations, and even by Israeli organizations, and all of that has passed, and is still passing, without accountability or punishment.

He pointed out that the United States of America and its Western allies have dealt with the Zionist entity since its establishment as a “state above the law,” and they are still providing the necessary cover for its continued occupation, confiscating more of our land, violating our sanctities, attacking them, and Judaizing them, and imposing harsh living conditions and repellent environments to displace our people, as well as Their continuous attempts to forcibly displace our people and force them to leave the homeland.

He stated that Israeli officials confirmed their categorical rejection of the establishment of a Palestinian state, and a month before the Al-Aqsa flood, the Prime Minister of the Zionist entity, Benjamin Netanyahu, in his speech before the United Nations in September 2023, carried a map of all of historic Palestine, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip, all of which were colored in one color. It had the name “Israel” on it, and the world remained silent as it saw the arrogance of this entity and its disregard for the international community.

Hamdan said: Now, after more than 75 years of occupation and suffering, and the thwarting of any hope for our people for liberation, self-determination, independence and return, we wonder: Was our people required to continue to wait, or was the national duty and natural response to these practices the initiative of our people to defend their land and rights? And its sanctities?!

He stressed that the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7 was a necessary step and a natural response, within the framework of our people getting rid of the occupation, restoring rights, achieving independence and freedom like the rest of the peoples of the world, and confronting the hatched Zionist plans aimed at liquidating the issue, controlling the land, and resolving sovereignty over the holy sites.

He stated that Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7 targeted Zionist military sites, and succeeded in achieving its goal of destroying the Gaza Division, killing and wounding its soldiers, and capturing a number of enemy soldiers and fighters, and did not target civilians.

He stressed that avoiding targeting civilians, especially women, children and the elderly, is a religious and moral obligation, and that our resistance is disciplined by the controls and teachings of our true Islamic religion, and that its targeting is against the occupation soldiers and those who carry weapons against our people, which was clear and explicit in the speech of Muhammad Al-Deif, may God preserve him. God in the first minutes of the operation.

Hamdan said: Hamas dealt positively with the file of civilians who were brought to the Gaza Strip, and sought, from day one, to release them as quickly as possible, which is what actually happened during the 7-day humanitarian truce.

He stressed that what the occupation is promoting and the American and Western media that is biased towards the occupation’s narrative about the Qassam Brigades targeting civilians on October 7 is pure slander and a lie. What the occupation is trying to repeat about the sources of information that claim this are Israeli narratives and lies, issued by parties responsible for misleading black propaganda in favor of the goals of the occupation, and there are no independent sources that confirm the validity of these allegations, or even any of them.

He added: These allegations of Hamas killing civilians were proven false even in Israeli newspaper reports, which proved that many Israeli civilians were killed as a result of the bombing by Israeli Apache planes of participants in the (Nova) festival near (Ra'im Settlement).

He pointed out that Israeli testimonies confirmed that the occupation army’s raids were what caused the killing of a large number of settlers, who were gathered in the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip for operational reasons, as it bombed and destroyed homes during clashes with the resistance on October 7 and the days that followed, causing the death of many of them. This is within the Israeli policy and protocol of Hannibal. Who prefers killing the prisoner rather than keeping him alive when resisting.

He stressed that the occupation's allegations of killing children and raping women are nothing but black Israeli propaganda to incite against our resistance. They have been proven false, as many scientific investigations by neutral parties have tracked in detail all of these allegations and refuted them, revealing their falsity and lies.

Hamdan said: We affirm to the world that the brutal killing of civilians, especially children and women, of our Palestinian people over the course of 100 days of barbaric aggression, is systematic behavior by the Zionist entity through which it deliberately humiliates and displaces an entire people, and that about 24,000 martyrs, including 10,000 A child, 7,000 women, 60,000 wounded and injured, and 8,000 missing persons, reveals the truth of this Nazi occupation based on murders and forced displacement as part of the crime of genocide that it is now carrying out.

He reiterated that those who defend Zionist brutality are not concerned with an objective reading of events and the extent of losses and victims. They always adopt the narrative of the occupation, and then go on to justify its brutal crimes, in a policy of double standards when it comes to condemning, criminalizing and punishing the Zionist occupation.

He said: We are confident that any fair, objective and independent investigations will confirm the truth of our story and the falsity of the allegations of the occupation, which all data, facts and events have proven, during the aggression on the Gaza Strip, to practice all methods of lying, deception, misleading and black propaganda.

We highly appreciate what the State of South Africa has done by filing this case against the occupation before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and we appreciate the effort made by its legal team, and the arguments, evidence and documented evidence it has provided, proving before the entire world the involvement of the Zionist occupation in committing crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing of our people. In the Gaza Strip.

Hamdan said: The arguments and evidence contained in this plea the day before yesterday represent a valid and valid reason to stop the occupation’s aggression against our people and against children and defenseless civilians in the Gaza Strip, and then begin prosecuting the occupation for the crimes of genocide it is committing against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. .

He welcomed the positions of the brotherly and friendly countries, which announced their support for South Africa in the process of stopping the aggression against our people and prosecuting the occupation for its crimes, and we renew our call for all countries to formally join the lawsuit submitted by South Africa.

He condemned the air and sea bombardment and the barbaric attack on brotherly Yemen, as it is a crime and blatant aggression against Yemeni sovereignty, and a threat to the security of the region, which is witnessing American and British militarization, which came to protect the Nazi-Zionist occupation and to cover up its crimes against the Palestinian people and the entire Arab region.

Moroccan philosopher Dr. Taha Abdel Rahman said that the Al-Aqsa Flood operation launched by the Palestinian resistance on October 7th is truly self-defense, denouncing Israel’s demand from the countries of the world to condemn it. Abdul Rahman explained - in a statement - that this Israeli claim is invalid in at least the following respects:

1. The first aspect is that Israel is an occupying party, so the flood is a payment for the previous occupier.
2. The second aspect is that Israel practiced the siege, by land, sea and air, on Gaza for 18 years. This flood is a push for this siege after the Gazans have been demanding its lifting throughout this period, and there is no answer.
3. The third aspect is that the area in which the flood occurred is not part of the State of Israel, which was recognized by the United Nations in 1948 with specific borders, but rather it is an area that Israel seized after that date. Accordingly, the flood reflects the Palestinians’ will to regain this stolen area.
4. The fourth aspect is that the Israeli narrative about the flood included “blatant lies and falsehoods,” some of which were acknowledged by some of the Israeli sources themselves.
5. The fifth aspect is that the State of Israel is an “absolutely occupying entity.” It was not established or expanded except by expelling the Palestinians from their historical land 75 years ago.
6. The sixth aspect is that the occupation, whatever it may be, requires its victim to resist it, so what should one think of an occupation “based on ancient myths that call for the extermination of the indigenous population?”

Abdel Rahman concluded by saying that the “absolute evil that Israel represents” made it turn values ??upside down, so it considers self-defense to be its right, not the right of the victim.

Allied for Democracy

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Tel Aviv will not end the war without closing the loophole in the so-called “Philadelphia” axis, otherwise the entry of weapons will continue, as he claimed. Netanyahu added: "Israel" has not yet taken a decision regarding the possible control of the closure of the " Philadelphia Corridor " in the border area between Egypt and Gaza.

It is noteworthy that the American newspaper "Wall Street Journal" quoted Israeli and Egyptian officials as saying that "Israel" is planning to carry out a military operation and control along the Gaza border with Egypt. On the other hand, the semi-official Cairo News Channel was quick to deny what “some media reported about the existence of Egyptian-Israeli coordination regarding new security measures on the Philadelphia axis,” quoting an official Egyptian source (which it did not name).

The Philadelphia Axis, also called the “Salah al-Din Axis,” is within a buffer zone under the “Camp David” Accords between Egypt and “Israel” in 1979. Its width does not exceed hundreds of meters, and extends 14.5 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea to the “Kerem Shalom” crossing. .

Crowds of Israelis took part in demonstrations that extended from Tel Aviv to Haifa to demand that Benjamin Netanyahu's government resign and to call for the return of prisoners through a new exchange deal. Al Jazeera's correspondent said that the demonstrators closed a main road in Tel Aviv for the first time since the protests began. Meanwhile, Netanyahu said in a televised speech that the war exacts a heavy price but will continue, noting that intervention in the Philadelphia axis in the southern Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt is necessary, as he described it.

Butcher's Bill / Oasis of Martyrs

Palestinian armed group Hamas launched thousands of missiles at Israel and deployed its militants to infiltrate Jewish settlements near the country’s border with Gaza on 07 October 2023. The 1,200 Israelis killed on the first day would be the equivalent of 36,000 Americans killed in an attack, as a proportion to Israel’s population of 9.3 million people (compared to 332 million in the USA). Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated: “Not since the Holocaust have so many Jews been killed in one day". PM Netanyahu stated "On October 7th, Hamas murdered 1,400 Israelis. Maybe more. This is in a country of fewer than 10 million people. This would be equivalent to over 50,000 Americans murdered in a single day. That’s twenty 9/11s. That is why October 7th is another day that will live in infamy."

It is the second largest loss inflicted on the Israeli forces after the 1973 war, as the Palestinian resistance killed more than 1,200, wounded more than 5,132 others, and captured more than 250, most of them military personnel, some of whom were high-ranking officers in the army.

The HAMAS Ministry of Health in the besieged sector announced that the number of victims of the Israeli operation its beginning had risen to about 23,843 dead [up from 23,840 martyrs five days prior], and the killing of nearly 10,000 Palestinian children and 6,600 women killed. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The number wounded was 60,317 [up from the 60,050 the previous day]. The Palestinian Government Media Office in Gaza had said much earlier that the number of missing people had risen to more than 7,500, including including 4,700 children and women, and this number had not changes in recent weeks.

The IDF intensified its military operations in the West Bank, and increased the pace of incursions and raids into cities, towns, and camps, resulting in the martyrdom of 342 Palestinians, the injury of about 3,950, and the arrest of 5,780, according to official HAMAS sources.

More than 130 Hezbollah fighters were killed in Lebanon during exchanges of bombing operations with Israel.

Israel revised down the death toll from the October Hamas attacks in southern Israel from 1,400 to 1,200. IDF had said previously it was holding 1,500 bodies of terrorists, a total that now would increas to about 1,700.

The officially announced number of deaths among the Israeli army since the start of the ground incursion on October 27th to 193, and 521 deaths since the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on the 7th of the same month. Among them are 56 with the rank of platoon commander, 43 with the rank of company commander, 9 with the rank of battalion commander, and 5 with the rank of brigade commander. These officers constitute 23% of the total deaths of the Israeli army in the war on Gaza.

Israeli media reported that 27% of the Israeli military casualties in the war were officers. In detail, the media highlighted that three brigade commanders, four battalion commanders, and other senior officers have been killed in the war so far.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported that 29 of the army's deaths were caused by "friendly fire" and operational incidents since the start of the ground war in Gaza, late last October. The Israeli authority explained that "18 army soldiers were killed by friendly fire, two were killed as a result of gunfire (without explanation), and 9 Israeli soldiers were killed in ammunition, weapons, or run-over accidents." The Jerusalem Post newspaper revealed that 15 soldiers were killed in the Strip without their bodies being found.

According to some reports statistics indicate that 20% of the Israeli losses were due to friendly fire. Because the nature of the battle has become completely different from what was expected, and it lacks a front line.

According to the latest data published by the army, the number of wounded soldiers and officers has risen to 1,042 since the start of its ground attack on Gaza on October 27, including 228 seriously wounded, while the total number has reached 2,523 wounded since the outbreak of the war on the 7th of October.

The Israeli army reported that 2,438 soldiers - including 355 seriously injured - have been injured since the beginning of the war on Gaza, including earlier reports of 576 moderate, and 1,161 minor. The number of wounded since the start of the ground operation in the Gaza Strip on October 27 had risen to 1,042.

At least 12,957 Israelis were injured, according to i24 TV.

Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper had reported that 5,000 soldiers had been wounded since the beginning of the war on October 7, and that the Ministry of Defense had recognized 2,000 soldiers as disabled so far.

An estimate by the Israeli Ministry of Defense expected that the number of soldiers with disabilities in the war taking place in the Gaza Strip since October 7 of last year would reach 12,500 soldiers. The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said that the Soldiers' Rehabilitation Department of the Ministry of Defense has dealt with 3,400 soldiers who were classified as disabled in the army since last October 7.

The Israeli army revealed that about 9,000 of its soldiers have received “psychological assistance” since the beginning of the war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, and about a quarter of them have not returned to combat. This came according to a new statement revealed by the Army Medical Corps, according to Channel 12 and the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. According to the statement, nearly 9,000 soldiers have applied for psychological assistance since the beginning of the war, and approximately a quarter of them have not returned to combat.

The statement continued, "In total, about 13,000 regular and reserve soldiers required accompaniment or medical treatment at some level during the fighting, and thousands of them were injured in the battles."

Al Jazeera military and strategic expert Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi expressed his conviction that the numbers of dead and wounded announced by Israel “cannot represent the truth,” due to a discrepancy between the Israeli army’s data and the Walla website, which is close to the army itself.

Hostages

An opinion poll released 12 January 2024 by Maariv newspaper was conducted by the Lazar Institute (private) on a random sample of 515 Israelis, with a margin of error of approximately 4.3%. Among the Israelis surveyed, more than 56% said that continuing the fight against Hamas was the best way to recover the hostages. Only 24% supported the release of all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel in exchange for the release of all hostages, “even if that meant agreeing to Hamas’s demand to stop the fighting.”

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that an agreement had been reached, mediated by Qatar, to deliver medicines in the coming days to Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip . Netanyahu's office said that, under the latter's direction, "Mossad chief David Barnea led a movement toward Qatar that would allow medicines to be brought to hostages held by Hamas in Gaza." The statement said that medications would be provided to detainees "in the next few days."

The Al-Qassam Brigades announced in a video recording that it had lost contact with a cell responsible for 4 Israelis captured in Gaza since 2014, and said in its message to the families of the remaining prisoners that “time is running out.”

Israel had previously estimated there were 116 living hostages in Palestinian custody. Israel declared 20 out of 136 people in Gaza captivity dead in absentia, after announcing its forces had recovered the bodies of two hostages. By another count, 132 of them are still being held in Gaza, and 25 of them have been confirmed dead. Israel considers those still held by Hamas to be hostages regardless of whether they are dead or alive.

Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy earlier had told reporters that Hamas still held 137 captives. The resistance released 10 Israeli detainees, 4 Thais and 2 Russian women, who were released outside the agreement. Over the course of 6 days, Israel has received 102 detainees, women and children, including 78 Israelis, in exchange for the release of 234 Palestinian prisoners, women and children.

Eylon Levy, the Israeli government spokesperson, told reporters 01 December 2023:

• Hamas still held 137 hostages from the October attacks, in addition to four others who went missing before the war
• The hostages include two children aged four and 10 months, who, Hamas now claims, are dead
• 117 male hostages are still kept in Gaza, including the two children, as well as 20 females
• 126 hostages are Israelis, and 11 others are foreign nationals
• Foreign nationals are eight Thais, one Nepalese, one Tanzanian and one French Mexican citizen
• Ten of the remaining hostages are 75 and older.
• There are seven missing people since the October 7 attack
• Hamas had released 110 hostages so far – 86 Israelis and 24 foreign nationals.

Some of the rest are soldiers, seized when Hamas raided military bases in Israel. They may end up being held the longest. The Israeli military had not specified how many soldiers were captured, nor their ranks.

According to some estimates, Hamas was initially holding nearly 210 of the 240 hostages, while Palestinian Islamic Jihad was holding the remaining 30. About 40 Israelis remained missing. More than 40 hostages taken from Israel into Gaza on October 7th are not currently in the custody of Hamas, the group responsible for the attack, according to a CNN report based on a diplomatic source briefed on the negotiations, CNN's prior reports had indicated that an estimated 40 to 50 hostages were held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad or other unidentified groups or individuals.

Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said on Hamas’ telegram account that 23 bodies of the 60 missing Israel hostages were trapped under the rubble. “It seems that we will never be able to reach them due to the continued brutal aggression of the occupation against Gaza,” he said.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club revealed that about 11,000 arrests were carried out by the Israeli army during the year 2023 in the West Bank , including occupied Jerusalem , in addition to arrests from the Gaza Strip before the seventh of last October. The Prisoners' Club explained that arrests after the 7th of October amounted to more than 5,755, in contrast to the detainees in Gaza after the 7th of the same month. The Prisoners' Club stated that cases of arrest among women amounted to (300), and this toll includes women from the occupied interior detained after October 7, while the number of cases of children reached 1,085.

Israel said on 09 January 2024 that, since the beginning of the war, approximately 2,650 wanted persons have been arrested throughout the Judea and Samaria Division and the Bekaa and Valleys Division, approximately 1,300 of whom are affiliated with Hamas. On 08 January 2024 it was reported that more than 1,350 wanted persons had been arrested throughout the Judea and Samaria Division and the Bekaa and Valleys Division, more than 870 of whom are associated with the terrorist organization Hamas.