Day 8 of the War in Gaza: The Kidnapped, Rocket Fire Continue, Clashes in the North

Tel Aviv Diary October 14, 2023

It's Saturday night, and just as I started writing this update, the sirens went off. For the first time today, rockets were headed our way. We waited in our safe space, heard the explosions of the intercepts, and then I returned to writing. One of the rockets eluded the Iron Dome and landed in Bat Yam, damaging a wall, but injuring no one.

Early this morning, a neighbor sent a note and a photo in our building's WhatsApp group, sharing that the father of a kidnapped family was seated at the entrance of IDF headquarters, suggested we head over to join his protest. When I arrived, there was only a small group of people, one of whom was Avihai Brodtz.

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What do you say to a man whose wife and three children have been kidnapped by Hamas? He told me about his youngest child, who is 4 and a half years old. He said that his son must be driving Hamas crazy, because he never outgrew the “terrible twos.” What are the right words to tell a man from K’far Azza whose entire family is now in the hands of Hamas? He told me that he considers himself “lucky”; to the best of his knowledge, his family is alive, while so many other families have been completely wiped out. I had no words.

The police arrived and told the man he should move across the street, as demonstrations at the entrance of IDF headquarters are not allowed. However, in speaking to the police, it was clear they did not have the will to move the man. This father stayed where he was the entire day. When I first arrived, there were about a dozen people gathered.

As the day progressed, the crowd grew. By late afternoon, there were at least a thousand people on both sides of the road, standing together in support. Other parents and children of those kidnapped also joined this protest throughout the day. To date,families of 126 hostages have been notified that their loved ones have been kidnapped, though this number is not believed to be final

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In the evening, 100 meters away from the protest to bring our hostages home, there was a separate demonstration of people demanding that Netanyahu resign. On the third day of the war, a dozen people showed up demanding Netanyahu's resignation; tonight, there were at least 1,000 people

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The pace of the war seemed to slow slightly over the past two days. Yesterday, it was confirmed that for the first time, Israeli ground forces had entered the Strip on intelligence-gathering missions. They also returned with an unknown number of bodies of some of the missing Israelis.

As indicated earlier, Hamas continues to fire rockets into Israel. Two or three times a day they target the center of the country. Hamas targets Ashkelon many times a day, with an average of 200 rockets each day. A few rockets penetrate the Iron Dome daily, each causing damage; today, a rocket hit a synagogue in Ashkelon.

Firing in the area around our side of the Gaza border continues almost non-stop, and yesterday a number of people were wounded in Sderot. Hamas also fired one long-range rocket at the northern part of the country. That rocket was intercepted by David's Sling, Israel's medium-range interceptor system.

The IDF and Hezbollah continue to engage at a low level in the North. On Friday morning, an explosive charge was planted on the border fence. Israel responded with artillery fire. Hezbollah then fired rockets at Misgav. At night, Hezbollah sent three UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) over Haifa and the Galil. One was armed, all were shot down.

On Saturday, a group of Palestinian terrorists was intercepted at Israel’s northern border; all were either killed or wounded from the air. Israel responded with an artillery assault on the area. Hezbollah then retaliated by attacking Israeli positions in Har Dov, where I believe Israel sustained some casualties.

In addition, two missiles were fired from Syria at the Golan Heights tonight. The rockets were intercepted, and Israel responded with artillery and tank fire on the locations from which the rockets were fired.

Yesterday (Friday), U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made a quick visit to Israel. He held a joint press conference with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant. Galant stated that Israel will overthrow Hamas in Gaza, offering the clearest definition of Israeli war aims to date

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Austin stated:

As the U.S. Secretary of Defense, I am here in person to make something crystal-clear: America's support for Israel is ironclad, and I extend my deepest condolences to the Israeli people, for those killed or wounded in this terrible slaughter by Hamas.

I'm also here in solidarity with all the families still living the waking nightmare of not knowing the fate of their loved ones, and we will continue to coordinate closely with Israel to help secure the release of the innocent men, women and children in the clutches of Hamas, including American citizens.

Now, this is no time for neutrality, or for false equivalence, or for excuses for the inexcusable. There is never any justification for terrorism, and that's especially true after this rampage by Hamas. And anyone who wants lasting peace and security for this region must condemn and isolate Hamas. Hamas does not speak for the Palestinian people or their legitimate hopes for dignity, security and statehood and peace alongside Israel.

Tonight, Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Biden spoke for the fifth time since the start of the war.

In a separate event, National Security Advisor Tzacbi HaNegbi held a press conference. He was the first government spokesman to clearly state, “We failed.” He admitted he was wrong when he claimed a few months ago that Hamas had been deterred.

While all this is happening, our attacks on Gaza continue. This has been the largest and most sustained attack on Gaza to date. Israel has urged residents of Gaza to move to the southern half of the Gaza Strip. It is estimated that 600,000 Gazans have already relocated, and the destruction has been extensive. There is no doubt that thousands have died in Gaza, and many more will die.

A few days ago, a friend in the U.S. asked me to write to his daughter, who was very concerned about the moral justification for what we are doing in Gaza.

Here is what I wrote:

The situation is difficult and morally problematic. My natural home is on the left side of the Israeli political spectrum, but I am also a realist. I do not know of anyone, including almost all members of Meretz, who do not believe our attack on Gaza necessary.

My political views have not changed in 48 years. When I was a young soldier, I met another soldier whose father had fought in the War of Independence. At that moment, I said that I must do everything I can to ensure that my children do not have to fight.

I was not sure that the Palestinians would ever be willing to come to peace with us, but we must at least always try.

My children have long ago been drafted into the army. I am not sure that we have always done our best to achieve peace — certainly, under Netanyahu, we did not. However, before him, we certainly did. The Palestinians could have taken Barak's offer in 2000, or Clinton's offer right after, and they would have had a state. They could have taken Olmert's offer, but they did not. So maybe we did not do enough, but we did a lot. The Palestinian response to the Barak and Clinton plan was the Second Intifada, with all its bus bombings, etc.

This brings us to today. After the events of last Saturday, almost every Israeli came to the realization that Hamas is equivalent to the Nazis. In reality, they are worse. The Nazis resorted to mass killing in gas chambers because they found that their soldiers were breaking down when asked to participate in mass shootings. Not that they opposed the murder, but they found such killing psychologically traumatic. Thus, they moved to a more insular method of execution. Hamas terrorists seemed to be on a high as they slaughtered our brethren.

Believe me, if there was a way to kill all of Hamas without hurting a single civilian, we would do so. However, Hamas's strategy has always been and remains to hide behind civilians. Do you think that the Allies should have refrained from invading and bombing Germany in World War II because of civilian casualties? Not to mention, holding off on bombing because of the civilian deaths in Japan. There is a lot of debate about the atomic bomb, but almost everyone agrees that if it had not been used, the U.S. would have lost one million troops, killed or wounded, and as many as 10 million Japanese would have died.

How many more years can we allow a group that is clearly determined to kill us to remain on our border? If we do not remove them once and for all, this barbarous violence will repeat again and again.

We have now told all the people in the north to move south to safety. It's difficult to justify killing of the innocent. No question. However, what choice do we have? Hamas cannot be eliminated by space lasers. It is horrible, but, I do not believe we have a choice.