DAY 34 OF THE GAZA WAR:Israel Consolidates Its Hold on Gaza City,Eilat Attacked, AntiSemitism in the US

Tel Aviv Diary, November 9, 2023

There will be a Zoom Update on Sunday at 6 PM Israel Time or 11 AM East Coast Time. Invitations will Go Out on Sunday Morning.

It's hard to know where to begin this evening, as news has been coming in from several different fronts. In Gaza, the IDF now controls almost all of the center of Gaza City, including the main Hamas bases and the area of their headquarters. IDF forces are one block away from Shifa Hospital, under which Hamas has a major command center.

Reports from Gaza suggest that the Hamas leadership has already escaped via tunnels to the south, leaving younger terrorist operatives behind. Furthermore, there are reports of a large number of terrorists trapped in tunnels that have been partially collapsed by the IDF. Today, the Army Chief of Staff, the head of Shabak, and the Commander of the Southern Command entered Gaza and met with IDF field commanders as a demonstration of force and the close cooperation between the Army and Security Services in targeting significant Hamas terrorists

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Residents of Gaza continue moving south, with an estimated 50,000 more people relocating today. The IDF continues to safeguard the southern exit route every day.

Today, the White House announced that Israel agreed to a four-hour pause of the fighting in Northern Gaza. Israel clarified that the “pause” wasn't something new and that the IDF had been allowing daily breaks in the battle in different areas to enable civilian movement. The IDF announced that starting tomorrow, a second humanitarian corridor would be opened along the Gaza coast.

Rumors continue to circulate about a potential agreement for the release of some of the Hamas-held hostages (34 days and counting…) According to the Israeli government, nothing is close to being agreed upon. Tonight, the Islamic Jihad stated their intention to release two hostages —an elderly woman and a teenager with severe allergies. It's unclear if this is a genuine plan or an exercise in psychological warfare.

The Jihad released a video showing both hostages, at least confirming to their families that the two are alive and in reasonable health. In Tel Aviv, posters, signs, and billboards with the hostages' faces are ubiquitous, haunting everyone, as each of the kidnapped could easily be any of our children, friends, or neighbors. While the IDF is doing its utmost to find and possibly rescue the hostages, the rest of us feel an overwhelming sense of powerlessness and staggering sadness.

As I was writing this update, a bittersweet segment aired on the television news, following a sorrowful segment about the “Shloshim” (marking 30 days after a death) of someone killed on October 7th. The piece shared candid shots of soldiers briefly returning home from reserve duty, and the sheer joy exhibited by their families. While these were inherently happy scenes, they once again brought tears to my eyes – as it is completely unclear how long this war will last and how long the reservists will need to be away from their families, or how many times they will be thrown into harms’ way.

Today, it was announced that two more IDF soldiers fell in the fighting in central Gaza. Both were reservists: one from the Engineering Corps and one from the Air Force commando unit, “Shaldag”. Additionally, it was confirmed that Sgt. Roni Eshel (19), a female soldier missing since October 7, is deceased. There had been hope that Eshel was among the hostages. Her story, thanks to her father, who became a prominent figure among the families of the hostages—gained significant national attention. Today, the Eshel family received the worst possible news

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The army reported as of today, Hamas has launched 9,500 rockets at Israel throughout this war, with 3,000 rockets fired on the first day alone. Today was relatively quiet, with no rockets targeting Tel Aviv or the center of the country. There was one rocket barrage at Ashdod and a few attacks on communities near Gaza.

EILAT

Today, the one area that had a rise in missile attacks was the one part of the country that the IDF is doing its best protect: Eilat. Since the October 7th massacre, many of the survivors have been relocated to Eilat and the Dead Sea.

Late this afternoon, a drone, launched from Syria and flew via Jordan, exploded in an Eilat school. The drone, a Samad-3 of Iranian design, went undetected by both Israeli and US defense systems, despite extensive air defense deployments. Two hours later, the Hetz system intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Yemen by the Houthis, who claimed responsibility and vowed continued attacks on Israel. This time a Hetz-3 was used; which intercepts ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere. This is the first time a Hetz-3 has been used and the first operational intercept ever of a missile outside the atmosphere. The previous intercept from Yemen had been executed by a Hetz-2. This evening, a third explosive object was destroyed by the Patriot anti-aircraft battery. Yesterday on i24News, I mentioned that Israel should take action against the Houthis, a move likely supported by both Saudi Arabia and the US. It seems we might not be far from that.

Last night, the US responded to repeated attacks on its assets by Iranian-backed militias with an attack on an Iranian target in Syria.

In the north, the situation remained relatively unchanged, with Israel attacking several groups of Hezbollah members preparing to launch anti-tank missiles. A number of missiles were launched by Hezbollah, and Israel responded with artillery fire.

Today Thomas Friedman wrote a very intriguing column titled: "I Have Never Been to This Israel Before." While I don't necessarily agree with everything Friedman wrote, much of it is spot on. One paragraph I believe particularly resonates with an overwhelming majority of the Israeli public. Friedman wrote:

Israel has the worst leader in its history — maybe in all of Jewish history — who has no will or ability to produce such an initiative.

Worse, I am stunned by the degree to which that leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, continues to put the interests of holding on to the support of his far-right base — and preemptively blaming Israel’s security and intelligence services for the war — ahead of maintaining national solidarity or doing some of the basic things that Biden needs in order to get Israel the resources, allies, time and legitimacy it needs to defeat Hamas.

A significant controversy arose today following a report by Honest Reporting, which revealed that several individuals working for major news outlets like AP, NYT, Reuters, and CNN had accompanied Hamas during their offensive operations. The report even detailed an incident in which a reporter was killed by a Hamas leader. This issue had caught my attention earlier, owing to another report highlighting the unusually high number of reporters killed in this conflict compared to other wars of similar duration. The reality in Gaza is that many Hamas members also work as stringers for international media, effectively making most news coming out of Gaza influenced by Hamas-associated “journalists.” This bias often goes undisclosed by the media, repeatedly perpetuating the Hamas narrative

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The prevalence of false Hamas narratives was further underscored when I listened to the Political Scene Podcast by The New Yorker this morning. Andrew Marantz's report, “Inside the Democratic Party’s Rift Over Israel and Gaza,” was insightful, especially for someone like me who is often asked to speak on the subject. However, what struck me was Marantz's casual mention of Israel allegedly killing 5,000 children in Gaza. While it's tragic and likely that some children have been casualties, the figure of 5,000 seems totally baseless, originating perhaps from a Hamas press release, yet this number quoted as fact.

ANTISEMITISM

Additionally, a poll published today by the Jewish Federations of North America sheds light on current perceptions of antisemitism. The poll revealed that 86% of American Jews believe antisemitism has increased compared to five years ago, a sentiment shared by 67% of non-Jews. Furthermore, 75% of Jews perceive a significant amount of antisemitism in the U.S. today, with 20% seeing some increase, while only 2% believe the rise in antisemitism is minimal. Notably, there were no Jewish respondents who felt antisemitism does not exist at all.

Among non-Jews, three-quarters acknowledge either a significant or some level of antisemitism exists in the U.S. Importantly, 75% of Jewish respondents expressed concern that the conflict between Israel and Hamas might lead to safety issues in their communities.

BUSINESS

The startup Eleos Health, which develops tools for mental health professionals, announced today that it completed a $40 million funding round, led by the impact fund Menlo Ventures. The funding round was completed in September, but its announcement was delayed due to the war in Israel, and the founders being called up for reserve duty. This new round brings the total funding raised by the company since its establishment in 2020 to approximately $68 million.

Eleos Health has developed tools that use artificial intelligence to analyze natural language from audio recordings of therapy sessions. The company markets its product as a tool that assists therapists in "paperwork" – essentially, saving them significant time involved in documenting meetings by summarizing key points of conversations with patients.

The next update will go out on Saturday night