The Iron Swords War (Updated to 1 p.m., October 19, 2023)

Overview^[1]

• The southern sector: Israeli Air Force airstrikes on terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip continued, destroying several terrorist facilities, mainly of Hamas. Ground forces carried out targeted raids in the Gaza Strip to locate information about the abducted and missing persons. The Palestinian terrorist organizations continued launching rockets, for the most part in the afternoon and evening after the American president had left the region. Since the beginning of the war, more than 7,000 rockets and mortar shells have been fired at Israel. An analysis indicated that so far about 10% of the launches were unsuccessful and the rockets fell in the Gaza Strip.
• So far, more than 1,400 civilian and soldier deaths have been reported; 203 civilian and soldier abductees are being held in the Gaza Strip by the terrorist organizations.
• The Gaza Strip: Sources in the Gaza Strip report a worsening humanitarian situation. Egypt agreed to open the Rafah Crossing for the entrance of a limited number of trucks, but for now the Crossing remains closed. Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) criticized the American position, claiming it was biased in favor of Israel. PIJ spokesman Tareq al-Salami called on the Arab nations to invade the embassies of countries that support Israel, especially the American embassies, and burn them to the ground.
• The northern sector: Tensions continue mounting on the northern border. Since the afternoon of October 18, 2023, a number of rockets and anti-tank missiles have been launched and shots have been fired at IDF posts along the border. The IDF returned fire and attacked several Hezbollah terrorist targets. Hezbollah reported three deaths.
• Judea and Samaria: Israeli security forces continued counterterrorism activities, detaining Palestinians suspected of terrorist activity, including senior Hamas operatives. On October 19, 2023, activity focused on the Nur al-Shams refugee camp near Tulkarm.
• Iran: Senior government officials continue diplomatic contacts with Arab countries. The chief of the Iranian armed forces general staff spoke with the defense ministers of Russia and Qatar. According to reports, Ismail Qaani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) Qods Force, secretly visited Syria and Iraq.
• In the UN Security Council, a proposed resolution by Brazil calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip failed to pass when the United States vetoed it.

The Combat Arena

IDF activity

• Aerial activity: The Israeli Air Force continued attacking Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. Attacks in the Shejaiya neighborhood destroyed Hamas anti-tank missile-launch sites, terrorist tunnel shafts, intelligence facilities, operations rooms and headquarters. Dozens of mortar shell launch sites were destroyed after they fired at Israel (IDF spokesman, October 19, 2023).

   

   
Right: Attack on four buildings in al-Zhara’a, south of Gaza City (Twitter account of photojournalist Hassan Aslih, QudsN Twitter account, October 19, 2023). Left: Air Force attack in Rafah (QudsN Twitter account, October 18, 2023)

• Ground activity: IDF forces carried out focused raids in the territory of the Gaza Strip designed to locate information about the abducted and missing persons (IDF spokesman, October 19, 2023).

Rocket fire

• On the afternoon of October 18, 2023, after relative quiet during the American President’s visit, rockets were launched at the Israeli towns and villages near the Gaza Strip, and several barrages were fired at the center of the country.
• Since the beginning of the war Israel has been attacked with more than 7,000 rockets and mortar shells. An analysis indicated that about 10% of the launches were unsuccessful and the rockets fell in the Gaza Strip. It also indicated that the percentage of failed launches had increased in recent days.

The Iron Sword War – Rocket and Mortar Shell Fire since October 7, 2023

All launches and failed

Israeli casualties

• So far, more than 1,400 civilian and soldier deaths have been reported and 203 kidnapped civilians and soldiers are being held by in the Gaza Strip the terrorist organizations.
• Mahmoud al-Hindi, PIJ deputy secretary general, claimed most of the abductees were soldiers and no details would be provided until the “aggression” ended (al-Mayadeen, October 19, 2023).

The Gaza Strip

Palestinian casualties

• According to the ministry of health in Ramallah, as of 1:15 p.m. on October 19, 2023, the number of fatalities in the Gaza Strip was 3,500 and the number of injured was more than 12,000 (Wafa, October 19, 2023).^[2]

The situation in the Gaza Strip

• Adnan Abu Hasna, UNRWA’s media advisor in Gaza, reported the agency had enough food for only half a day and fuel was about to run out, the public health sector was collapsing and the Gazans were drinking contaminated water. He claimed that in an attempt to alleviate the “catastrophic situation,” the UN secretary general was in contact with a number of regional countries, the American administration and the European Union. In addition, the UNRWA high commissioner visited Cairo and met with senior Egyptian officials to coordinate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. He noted that in effect the Rafah Crossing was still closed in both directions (aljazeera.net, October 18, 2023).
• At a press conference in Beirut, senior Hamas figure Usama Hamdan called on UNRWA not to shirk its humanitarian responsibility to the Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip and to take action in the fields of health and education (Hamas Telegram channel, October 19, 2023).

Aid for Gaza

• After President Joe Biden spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, el-Sisi agreed to open the Rafah crossing for the passage of about twenty trucks carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. According to a statement from the White House, they agreed to work in close cooperation to respond to the UN’s humanitarian appeal. The United States stated they hoped more aid trucks would be able to enter (Reuters, October 19, 2023).
• The head of the United Nations World Health Agency (WHO) said he welcomed the agreement that would allow the delivery of food, water and medical aid through the Egyptian border. In a speech in Beijing, António Guterres, the UN secretary general, said a ceasefire would provide time and space to implement two vital requests addressed to Hamas: the immediate and unconditional release of the abductees and allowing the introduction of aid to Gaza (UN website, October 18, 2023).
• The spokesman for the crossings authority in the Gaza Strip said that as of 10 a.m. the Rafah Crossing was still closed (al-Ghad TV, October 19, 2023). According to an al-Ghad TV correspondent, many trucks and volunteers were waiting for the Egyptian side of the Rafah Crossing to open. He claimed Egypt was investing considerable diplomatic efforts in the issue (al-Ghad TV, October 18, 2023).

Senior terrorist operative fatalities

• On October 19, 2023, the IDF spokesman reported the death of a senior Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) terrorist operative in an aerial strike (IDF spokesman’s Twitter account, October 19, 2023). The PRC and its military-terrorist wing, the Salah al-Din Brigades, issued a mourning notice for him as early as October 9, 2023. According to the notice, Rafat Harb Hussein Abu Halal, aka Abu al-Abd, 55 years old, was the organization’s deputy secretary general for military affairs and a member of the PRC’s central leadership (PRC website, October 9, 2023).

• The Hamas Legislative Council in the Gaza Strip issued mourning notice of Jamilla al-Shanti, a member of the council, who died in an attack on the night of October 18, 2023. She was born in the Jabaliya refugee camp in 1957 and held a PhD in education. She worked as a teacher in Saudi Arabia and in 1990 returned to the Gaza Strip and became active in the Hamas movement. She headed Hamas women’s activities for many years. In 2006 she was elected to the Legislative Council; in 2013 she was appointed minister of women’s affairs in the Hamas administration; in 2021 she was elected to the Hamas political bureau, the first woman to hold the position. She held the portfolio for universities and Koran centers in Hamas (Safa, October 19, 2023).

• The Hamas government’s monitoring committee issued a mourning notice for Jihad Abd Muheisen, 53 years old, the commander of the national security forces in the Gaza Strip, who was killed along with several members of his family when his house in the Sheikh al-Radwan neighborhood of the Gaza Strip was attacked (al-Rai Agency of Hamas government, October 19, 2023).

Hamas

• Hamas held a press conference in Beirut where Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas terrorist, accused the United States government and the Western countries which support Israel of full responsibility for Israel’s actions against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. He called for opening the crossings and erecting field hospitals to assist the hospitals in the Gaza Strip. He urged the Palestinians and the peoples of the Arab and Islamic nations to demonstrate en masse on Friday, October 20, 2023 in all cities and city squares, and called for demonstrations to be held in Western countries on Sunday, October 22, 2023. He also called for the expulsion of Israel’s ambassadors in all Arab and Islamic countries, for all forms of normalization and cooperation to be stopped, and for all forms of boycotts against Israel. He called on the PA and human rights organizations to urgently submit complaints to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute Israel’s leaders (Hamas website, October 18, 2023; Palinfo, October 18, 2023).

• Hamas issued a statement in Arabic and English in response to President Biden’s visit to Israel. It claimed that President Biden’s continued acceptance of the Israeli narrative, including the narrative regarding the [since disproved] “massacre” at the al-Ahli Hospital, only confirmed his blind bias in favor of Israel and partnership with Israel’s leaders “in the massacres” (Hamas Telegram channel, October 18, 2023).
• Hamas issued a document allegedly refuting the “false claims of the occupation” and claiming Israel was trying to shirk its responsibility for the “destruction” of the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza. The document falsely claimed that before and during the “attack” on the hospital no organization launched anything and the Iron Dome was not activated by Israel. Hamas also falsely claimed the rockets they manufactured in Gaza could not kill hundreds of people in one attack, and in the previous operations they did not kill “even 1% of the total” number killed in Israeli attacks. Hamas also noted that during the past few days, Israel warned hospitals and asked their directors to evacuate them. According to Hamas, the [since disproved] “attack” on the hospital in Gaza was a “war crime” and it called on the ICC’s chief prosecutor to open an investigation against Israel (Hamas Telegram channel, October 18, 2023).

The PIJ

• According to Muhammad al-Hindi, PIJ deputy secretary general, their objective was to change the face of the Middle East. He claimed the last thing the United States and Israel wanted was for the northern front to open because they know Hezbollah could cause great damage to Israel (al-Mayadeen, October 19, 2023).
• PIJ spokesman Tareq al-Salami, interviewed by al-Masira TV, the propaganda wing of the Houthi Shi’ites in Yemen, claimed that by visiting Israel, President Biden had become a partner of Israel and given it a green light to commit more [alleged] “crimes” against the Palestinians. He also claimed President Biden’s words about humanitarian aid were insufficient, and what was required was to stop the “aggression” and lift the blockade. He called on the Arab nations to invade the embassies of countries which were partners in the “aggression,” especially the American embassies, and burn them to the ground. He claimed that in light of the continuing “crimes” talking about calm was out of the question (Ansar Allah Twitter account, October 18, 2023).

The Northern Arena – Lebanon

Attacks

• After relative calm on the morning of October 18, 2023, Hezbollah resumed attacking in the afternoon, after the visit of President Biden:
  • At around 7 p.m., an anti-tank missile was fired at the Shoshan post on the Lebanese border. The IDF returned fire and IDF tanks attacked Hezbollah facilities (IDF spokesman, October 18, 2023). At 7:51 p.m. Hezbollah issued a claim of responsibility for launching rockets and firing mortar shells at the Rawisat al-Alam post in the hills of Kafr Shuba and the Shebaa Farm (Telegram channel of Hezbollah’s combat information wing, October 18, 2023).
  • At around 6 p.m., several anti-tank missiles were fired at the Manara, Malkia and Metulla area. The IDF returned fire (IDF spokesman, October 18, 2023). Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack on the Metulla post, which was carried out by the squads named for Shaheeds Hussein Pasa’i and Ahmed Kasas. At 8:37 p.m., Hezbollah issued a second claim of responsibility, this time for the attack on the IDF post in Talal al-Tahiat, south of Kibbutz Menara (Telegram channel of Hezbollah’s combat information wing, October 18, 2023).

   
Photos from a video released by Hezbollah, documenting the anti-tank fire at the Malkia post (Telegram channel of Hezbollah’s combat information wing, October 18, 2023).

• • At around 6 p.m., an IDF aircraft eliminated a Hezbollah squad that had launched mortar shells at the Turmus area on the Lebanese border (IDF spokesman, October 18, 2023). Hezbollah claimed that in response to attacks against “Lebanese civilians,” a squad named for Mahdi Atoui and Mahmoud Biz (two terrorist operatives whose deaths were reported yesterday), had attacked the Turmus post with rockets and machine guns, hitting it directly and injuring several soldiers (Telegram channel of Hezbollah’s combat information wing, October 18, 2023).
  • At around 5:30 p.m., nine rockets were launched at Kiryat Shemonah and sirens were sounded throughout the northern region or Israel. Israel’s air defense fighters intercepted four of the rockets (IDF spokesman, October 18, 2023).
  • At around 5 p.m., several anti-tank missiles were launched at the Manara and Rosh Hanikra areas. The IDF attacked Hezbollah sources of fire and facilities in Lebanese territory (IDF spokesman, October 18, 2023). At 4:53 p.m. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for launching rockets at a concentration of IDF forces and surveillance in Talat al-Tahiat, south of Kibbutz Menara (Telegram channel of Hezbollah’s combat information wing, October 18, 2023).

   
Photos from a Hezbollah video of the anti-tank fire at Menara (Telegram channel of the combat information arm, October 18, 2023

• • At around 4 p.m., an anti-tank missile was fired in the Dvoranit area on the Lebanese border; the IDF returned fire. At 4:34 p.m., Hezbollah claimed responsibility for launching guided missiles aimed at the Dvoranit and Zar’it posts and at the Israeli Navy post at Rosh Hanikra (Telegram channel of the combat information arm, October 18, 2023).
• On the night of October 18, 2023, IDF forces continued to attack Hezbollah military targets near the Lebanese border. According to reports, the targets included an observation post overlooking sea, from where an anti-tank missile was launched at Rosh Hanikra (IDF spokesman, October 18, 2023).

   
Attacks on Hezbollah targets (IDF website, October 19, 2023)

• On October 19, 2023, at around 11 a.m. two anti-tank missile launches were detected in the Manara area. No casualties were reported. The IDF returned fire (IDF spokesman, October 19, 2023).

A Palestinian organization claims responsibility for shooting at Israel

• The al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya, a Palestinian organization operating in Lebanon, claimed responsibility for launching missiles at Israel. The al-Fajr forces, the organization’s military-terrorist wing, promised to respond to any aggression against the Palestinians in south Lebanon (al-Nashra, October 19, 2023).

Hezbollah fatalities

• Hezbollah reported three fatalities, stating all of them had been killed while “fulfilling their jihad duty,” without specifying the time or location of the incident (Hezbollah’s combat information Telegram channel, October 18, 2023):
  • Ali Adnan Shaqir, aka Jawad, from the town of Meiss al-Jabal in southern Lebanon.
  • Taha Abbas Abbas, aka Ali al-Rida, from the town of Aitaroun in southern Lebanon.
  •  Ali Mohammad Marmar, aka Murtada, from the town of Aitaroun.

• • Hashem Safi al-Din, chairman of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, in a show of solidarity with the Gaza Strip, warned that any mistake Israel made could have a “thunderous response” (Hezbollah’s combat information Telegram channel, October 19, 2023).

Calls for foreigners to leave Lebanon

• After the embassies of the United States, Saudi Arabia and France issued travel warnings and called on their citizens to leave the country, the British embassy in Beirut issued a travel warning calling on its citizens to leave Lebanon and to avoid arriving (Twitter account of the British embassy, October 19, 2023).

Judea, Samaria, and the Palestinian Authority

Events on the ground

• The Israeli security forces continued their counterterrorism activities. During the past 24 hours, about 100 wanted Palestinians were detained, including senior Hamas figures Hassan Yusuf and Na’if al-Rajoub. On October 19, 2023, Israeli security forces began operating in the Nur al-Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm to detain Palestinians wanted for terrorist activities and prevent terrorist activity. The area was declared a closed military zone (Israeli media, October 19, 2023). The Palestinian media reported exchanges of fire between armed Palestinians and the Israeli security forces (Shehab website, October 19, 2023).
• The ministry of health in Ramallah reported 69 Palestinians had been killed since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip (ministry of health in Ramallah Facebook page, October 19, 2023). According to reports, during the past 24 hours seven Palestinians were killed, six in clashes with Israeli security forces and one by settler gunfire near Dura al-Qar’a, north of Ramallah (Wafa, October 19, 2023).

Demonstrations

• Demonstrations continued throughout Judea and Samaria to protest the incident at the hospital, joined by protests of Biden’s visit. PA security forces reportedly suppressed some of the marches. One of the marches planned to reach the Muqata’a in Ramallah (Safa, October 18, 2023; al-Shahed website, October 18, 2023; Shehab Twitter account, October 18, 2023).

    
Right: A march in Ramallah (QudsN Twitter account, October 18, 2023). Left: Security services fire teargas to disperse a march in Nablus en route to the Hawwara checkpoint (Shehab Twitter account, October 18, 2023)

• Liwa Talal Dweikat, the official spokesman for the Palestinian security establishment, confirmed the PA’s security services had detained about 15 people for attacking and destroying public property, stressing that popular rage had to be directed only “against the Israeli occupation,” and not at damaging public property or shooting firing at the headquarters of the Palestinian security services (QudsN, October 19, 2023; Ma’an, October 18, 2023).

Palestinian Authority

• The PA leadership, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, held a meeting noting the Palestinians’ right to defend themselves and the PA’s role in protecting them. The PA leadership noted that the uprooting of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip had to be prevented and international diplomatic and legal measures against Israel had to continue. In addition, it called for unity to be maintained to avoid civil wars and dragging the PA into chaos (Wafa, October 18, 2023).

Iran

• Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, speaking at a rally in Tehran in support of the Palestinians, said the “attack” on the hospital in the Gaza Strip was the beginning of the end of the “Zionist regime” and that “every drop of Palestinian blood spilled to the ground is another step [sic] in the collapse of the Zionist regime.” He added that the normalization process with Israel was facing complete defeat and that the countries of the world had to sever ties with Israel and close its embassies, noting that a “harsh revenge” awaited Israel from the Islamic nation. Raisi also accused the United States of being a full partner in Israel’s “crimes” by supporting it (Tasnim, October 18, 2023).
• Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who arrived in Jeddah to participate in an ad hoc meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on the Palestinian issue, called on Islamic countries that maintained diplomatic relations with Israel to sever ties, expel Israel’s ambassadors, stop exporting oil to it, and stop all joint projects. He also called for the establishment of a court to hear Israel’s “war crimes,” and noted that the concluding statement of the conference had to demand an end to the “war crimes and genocide” and the lifting of the siege on the Gaza Strip (ISNA, October 18, 2023). On the sidelines of the conference, the Iranian foreign minister met with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Turkey, Mauritania and Indonesia, and spoke by phone with the Jordanian foreign minister, discussing developments in the Palestinian arena with them (IRNA, October 18 and 19, 2023).
• Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, spoke by phone with the defense ministers of Russia and Qatar and called for immediate action by the international community to stop “the crimes of the Zionist regime against the people of Gaza.” He warned that Israel’s continued “crimes” and aid to Israel from several countries complicated the situation and could lead to more actors entering the arena (Tasnim, October 19, 2023).
• The Arabic Post website reported that on October 15, 2023, the commander of the IRGC’s Qods Force, Ismail Qaani, arrived on a secret two-day visit to Syria. His objective was to coordinate, with the heads of the pro-Iranian militias in Syria and Iraq, the possibility of an escalation in the campaign against Israel through Syria. According to the report, whose reliability is unclear, during his visit a joint operations room was set up for Iran’s allies in Syria and Iraq to monitor the situation and coordinate the deployment of forces under the command of IRGC officers in preparation for a possible Israeli ground incursion into Gaza. It was also reported that the IRGC-affiliated Afghan and Pakistani fighters operating in Syria (the Fatemiyoun Brigade and the Zainabiyoun Brigade) had been put on high alert. In addition, on October 16, 2023, Qaani visited Baghdad, and met with commanders of the pro-Iranian Shi’ite militias to discuss the possibility of integrating them into the campaign in the coming weeks. According to the report, an Iranian intelligence source close to the IRGC told the news website that Iran’s intention was to escalate the war through the Syrian arena rather than through Lebanon so as not to endanger Hezbollah, which was the strongest element of the “resistance axis,” for as long as possible. According to the Iranian plan, escalation will begin from the Golan (arabicpost.net, October 18, 2023).

The Arab World

Egypt

• On October 19, 2023, Egyptian presidential spokesman Ahmed Fahmy announced an Egyptian-Jordanian summit meeting in Cairo attended by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II (Facebook page of the Egyptian presidential spokesman, October 19, 2023).

Jordan

• Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi said in an interview with CNN that Jordan opposed the migration of refugees from the Gaza Strip to Jordan and that the solution to the Palestinian issue was a two-state solution (CNN, October 19, 2023).

Iraq

• The Central Command of the American Army reported that during the past 24 hours, the Army had acted against three UAVs located near American and global coalition forces in Iraq. Two of the aircraft were located and destroyed in eastern Iraq, the third in the north of the country. Several coalition soldiers reportedly sustained minor injuries (Central Command Twitter account, October 19, 2023). The counterterrorism organization in the Kurdish region announced that an armed drone had crashed in the Harir area of Erbil province (the organization’s Facebook page, October 19, 2023).
• The Iraqi Tashkil al-Warethin militia claimed responsibility for launching a drone at the Harir American base in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. The announcement was signed by the militia and the “operations room to support the al-Aqsa Storm” (the militia’s Telegram channel, October 19, 2023).
• Saberin News, a Telegram channel affiliated with the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, reported that a network called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attacks on the American bases of Ain al-Assad and Harir. According to the announcement, the attack was carried out by drones and the targets were hit (Saberin News, October 19, 2023).
• Ja’far al-Husseini, spokesman for the Kata’ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Brigades) militia, said that since the United States was a significant partner in killing the residents of the Gaza Strip, it had to bear the consequences. He noted that the resistance in Iraq had in fact begun to enter the campaign and attack American bases, it had achieved its first hits and its operations would continue at a faster pace (al-Mayadeen, October 19, 2023).

Pakistan

• Pakistani MP Sarwat Fatima told the parliament session that “Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are not just for display.” She proposed defending the rights of the Palestinians and threatening Israel with nuclear weapons to deter it (avia-pro.net, October 18, 2023).

The International Arena

United Nations

• The UN Security Council convened on October 18, 2023, for further urgent discussion. During the deliberations, the United States vetoed a resolution initiated by Brazil calling for humanitarian ceasefires in the Gaza Strip. Twelve council members voted in favor and Russia and Britain abstained. American Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield explained that the veto had been used because the resolution did not mention Israel’s right to self-defense (UN website, October 18, 2023).
• Tor Wennesland, special UN envoy to the Middle East peace process, appeared before the Security Council in a video call from Qatar and said it was one of the most difficult moments the Israeli and Palestinian people had faced in the past 75 years. He said there was no justification for the despicable massacres, violence and terror perpetrated by Hamas against Israelis on October 7 and unequivocally condemned them. He said there was a need to allow time and space to achieve three basic goals: the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, allowing humanitarian aid to reach the Palestinians, and investing a collective effort to end hostilities and prevent the expansion of the conflict in the region (Ynet, October 18, 2023).
• Hamas expressed its appreciation for Russia’s abstention from voting on Brazil’s proposed resolution, saying Russia made sure the UN resolution included a clear call for a comprehensive and immediate ceasefire, as well as an end to indiscriminate attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip. Hamas called on the international community, headed by the Security Council, to fulfill its responsibility to stop the aggression (Hamas’ Telegram channel, October 19, 2023).

United States

• In a statement concluding his visit to Israel, American President Joe Biden said that upon his return to the United States he would ask Congress to approve the transfer of unprecedented aid to Israel. He also said that his message to any hostile country or element [Iran and its proxies] was, “Don’t.” Biden said the humanitarian needs of non-Hamas residents of the Gaza Strip had to be taken care of, stressing that $100 million would be transferred to the “displaced persons” in the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria (CNBC, October 18, 2023).
• The US imposed sanctions on nine individuals and one entity linked to Hamas’ “secret investment portfolio.” According to the announcement, the investment portfolio is based in Sudan, Turkey, Algeria and Qatar. It was noted that the United States was taking swift and decisive action to harm Hamas collaborators following the brutal massacre of Israeli civilians (United States Treasury Department website, October 19, 2023).
• American National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said that according to the Council’s current assessment, “Israel is not responsible for the explosion at the hospital in Gaza,” assessment based on an independent investigation carried out by the United States (NBC, October 19, 2023).

United Kingdom

• British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived in Israel on October 19, 2023, for a visit. Upon landing, he said he had come to express Britain’s solidarity with Israel. He met with Israel’s president and prime minister. He stressed Israel’s right to defend itself, restore security and ensure the hostages’ return (Politico, October 18, 2023).

Global Jihad

• On October 18, 2023, the al-Qaeda-affiliated HTS operating in Syria issued a statement of support for the Gaza Strip. According to the announcement, Gaza’s supporters deserved a badge of honor while its opponents deserved disgrace. The residents of Gaza showed courage and heroism, and the killing of Palestinian children and the [already disproved] bombing of a hospital in Gaza attested to the magnitude of Israel’s defeat. The announcement also noted that the residents of Syria were standing by them and praying for them (Telegram, October 18, 2023).

^[1] Click https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en to subscribe and receive the ITIC's daily updates as well as its other publications. ↑
^[2] Neither the ministry of health in Gaza nor the ministry of health in Ramallah has published a list of the Palestinian dead. In ITIC assessment, Hamas is inflating the death toll to exert international pressure on Israel to stop the attacks. It is also likely that the number of dead also includes many Hamas terrorist operatives as well as those killed in the failed PIJ rocket launch which hit the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza. ↑

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