DAY 55 OF THE GAZA WAR: Ceasefire May End This Weekend, More Hostages Released, Terror Attack in Jerusalem

It's hard to believe the level of tension and uncertainty could get any stronger. The emotional roller coaster continues to climb ever higher. On one hand, TV screens here are full of happy pictures of relatives hearing their loved ones are coming home.

On the other hand, if someone is an insomniac (which many Israelis are these days) and was listening to the news or getting up very early (like me) as of 6 AM, it looked like the war was going to resume this morning at 7:00 AM.

The IDF was ready to return to combat. Earlier in the night, Hamas presented a list of 5 women and 3 dead bodies. That was not in keeping with the stipulated agreement and Israel categorically rejected the list. At 6:45 AM, Hamas presented a revised list of 8 women and children, and claimed the additional 2 Russian Israelis released yesterday should count towards the ten hostages required to be set free today. Hamas made this claim retroactively, as yesterday they asserted the 2 “extra” hostages were liberated as a gesture to Putin. Nevertheless, the Israeli War Cabinet decided to accept Hamas’s offer (despite receiving two less than the agreed upon daily number of hostages returned), particularly because Secretary of State Blinken was scheduled to arrive in Israel today. So, the war did not recommence this morning, at least not in Gaza.

However, just an hour later, word came of a terrorist attack in Jerusalem. As usual in these cases, the first reports were confusing. However, it soon became clear that this was a serious attack. At a bus stop near the entrance to Jerusalem, two Hamas terrorists exited their car with an M-16 and a pistol and opened fire on everyone at the bus stop. As those innocently waiting for the bus tried to escape, an armed civilian jumped out of his car and shot the terrorists. At the same time, two IDF reserve soldiers passing by exited their vehicles and continued shooting at the terrorists. Tragically, one of the reservists mortally wounded the civilian who had initially shot the terrorists. The terrorists killed three people and wounded another 12.

A few hours later, there was another terror attack at an army checkpoint in the Jordan Valley, when a terrorist tried to run down two soldiers. The soldiers were lightly wounded, though they successfully killed the terrorist.

In the middle of the afternoon, Mia Shem (21), and Amit Soussana (40) were released from Northern Gaza and taken directly to the Israeli army positioned there. It turns out the two women were being held in an apartment. During their captivity, the pair could continually hear Israeli tanks and attacks, and were sure they were going to be rescued at any time. Why the army could not find these women remains an open question.

Tonight, was another tense evening, as the country remained glued to the news, awaiting the release of today’s additional six hostages.

Once again, tonight we waited until the last moments before midnight to see footage of the hostages as they were handed over to the Red Cross for transport back to Israel. Hostages being released today include two Bedouin teenagers who were taken captive. It's not clear what might happen overnight, i.e., whether or not Hamas will present an acceptable list of hostages they plan to release tomorrow.

Today, it was announced that the body of Aviv Atzili was found in Gaza. Aviv had been kidnapped by Hamas on October 7th

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In addition, tonight, Hamas released a video featuring Yarden Bivas (also being held hostage by Hamas), father of the two Bivas children, talking about his kids. This is an act of Pure psychological warfare on the part of Hamas. Again today, the IDF stated they remain unable to verify whether or not the Bivas family was indeed killed.

Secretary of State Blinken visited Israel today, with the hopes of gaining agreement for an extension to the ceasefire, while at the same time attempting to influence Israel’s military campaign (when it resumes), to refrain from displacing many civilians and to limit civilian deaths. At his press conference, Blinken made all the right statements from an Israeli perspective:

As we said from the outset, Israel has the right to do everything in its power to ensure the slaughter that Hamas perpetrated on October 7 can never be repeated. Hamas cannot remain in control of Gaza. It cannot retain the capacity to repeat the carnage that was underscored by this morning's appalling terrorist attack on people waiting at the bus stop in Jerusalem, which killed three Israeli civilians and wounded at least six others, including two American citizens, after Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack it called its perpetrators heroic.

I hope Secretary of State Blinken knows how to accomplish what he outlined, as I am not sure there has ever been a military able to achieve those two objectives during urban warfare combat.

Every day that goes by, and we release more Palestinian prisoners (thanks to Hamas), their support in the West Bank grows ever stronger. Hamas is positioning itself as the true voice of the Palestinians. Unless Hamas is totally defeated, the security situation in Israel will become even more untenable.

BUSINESS

Elbit announced that its sales are up 11% year over year, and it expects that its sales this year will pass $7 billion. Bezhalel (Butzi) Machlis, President and CEO of Elbit Systems, stated: “Our production lines are operating 24/7, despite 2,000 employees – 15% of the company's workforce in Israel – being called up for reserve duty. We've recruited hundreds of new workers for the production lines and brought back pensioners.”

The Israeli fintech startup Candex, specializing in developing a platform for managing suppliers for large companies, has recently announced a new funding round of $45 million. This round was led by Goldman Sachs through its investment arm in growing companies and saw participation from WiL (World Innovation Lab), Altos, NFX of Gigi Levy-Weiss, Craft, American Express, JPMorgan, and Edenred. With this latest investment, Candex's total funding has reached $85 million. The company reports significant growth, doubling its revenues each year for the past four years, and expects to more than double its revenue this year. This financial milestone follows Candex's successful implementation of its platform, which streamlines the lengthy and costly process of registration and payment for suppliers, particularly benefiting small suppliers that constitute about 90% of all suppliers for large companies.