The Israeli military attacked Hezbollah military targets

The armed conflict between Israel and the Islamist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip has entered its 13th day. The first humanitarian aid could arrive in Gaza as early as Friday, US President Biden confirmed. “If Hamas confiscates the aid or doesn’t allow it in, then it will be the end of everything, because we will not send any more humanitarian aid. That’s the commitment we’ve made,” Biden said from aboard Air Force One. He added that the 20 trucks are only a “first tranche” but “about 150 more trucks” are waiting to enter.

The deadly shooting at a hospital in Gaza, for which Israel and the Palestinian armed movements accuse each other, caused “several dozen deaths”, and not hundreds, a European intelligence official told AFP on Wednesday.

Israeli forces struck another building in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday morning, after earlier using the “knock on the roof” method to alert civilians to leave the block.

Building One in the Al-Zahraa Towers Complex in Central Gaza was Totally Destroyed by an Israeli Airstrike this morning after the Building was subjected to at least 2 “Room Knocks” in order to allow all of the Civilians still inside to Evacuate. pic.twitter.com/QxIzxEf8Ln

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 19, 2023

The Israeli army announced on Thursday morning that it had killed Rafat Abu Hilal, the head of the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, the third armed faction in the Gaza Strip after Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The IDF announced that it had carried out an airstrike in the southern Gaza city of Rafah after receiving important information from the Shin Bet secret service.

A senior member of the Hamas politburo, Jamila al-Shanti, was also killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza, according to reports in the Gaza Strip. It is unclear whether the killing was a deliberate assassination, according to the report. Al-Shanti is the first woman to hold this position and is considered a senior member of Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces posted an update on the X platform stating that they “continue to attack throughout the Gaza Strip”.

“In the last 24 hours the IDF, led by the Shin Bet, destroyed hundreds of Hamas terrorist infrastructure: anti-tank missile launch sites, tunnel shafts, intelligence infrastructure, operational headquarters, etc.,” the IDF said. It claimed to have killed “the head of the military wing of a terrorist organization – Rafah Popular Resistance Committees, Rafat Harev Hossein Abu Halal” as well as “a number of operatives belonging to Hamas”.

The Israeli army also attacked Hezbollah military targets in the border area with Lebanon. Among the targets was a military observation post from which an anti-tank guided missile was fired at the northern town of Rosh Hanikra on Wednesday, the army said. The Israel Defense Forces added that the strikes were carried out in response to Wednesday’s incidents.

Hezbollah attacks on the Lebanese border have intensified recently, the Israeli army announced on Thursday, according to CNN. Hezbollah fired numerous anti-tank missiles from Lebanon into Israel, targeting both military targets and civilian positions and causing serious damage, IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said. He added that Hezbollah also tried to infiltrate Israel, but that these attacks were prevented and neutralized by the Israeli army. “What some in Hezbollah are doing is drawing Lebanon into a conflict in which it has no stake and from which it will derive no benefit,” the Israeli military said. Hezbollah said it carried out six attacks against Israeli military positions along the Lebanese border.

Former US national security adviser HR McMaster told BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight that an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza was inevitable, given that Hamas posed an “existential threat” to Israel. “Israel will honor its commitment to crush Hamas,” he says, describing the goal as “achievable.” The hostages that Hamas has taken create an even greater need for a ground invasion, he believes. “I see no way out for Israel other than to temporarily occupy at least portions, if not all, of Gaza,” McMaster says.

‘Butcher of Khan Younis’, Israel’s main target in Gaza 

If Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip has any clear objective at this point, it can only be to find and eliminate Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, also known as ” The Butcher of Khan Younis,” according to Fox News.

Known in Israel as the “Butcher of Khan Younis” because of his violent and brutal methods of torturing his enemies, both Israeli and Palestinian, Sinwar, 60, is believed to be primarily responsible for the attack on 7 October in which Hamas militants massacred 1,400 Israelis. The assault, in which Hamas also took 200 hostages, whom it is now holding in the Gaza Strip, is the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Men, women and children were killed and, according to several witnesses, some of them were tortured, raped and beheaded.

“That man is in our sights,” said Israeli army spokesman Colonel Richard Hecht. “Sinwar is the leader of Hamas in Gaza and he is as good as dead. We will get to him, however long it takes…and this war could be a long one.”

Sinwar is said to be hiding somewhere in the Palestinian enclave underground where Hamas has built a network of tunnels that it uses to transport weapons and fighters and where it may also hold Israeli hostages.

Egypt, Jordan, reluctant to receive Palestinians

Egypt and Jordan flank Israel on opposite sides and share their borders with Gaza and the West Bank respectively. Both states have been reluctant to allow displaced Palestinians to enter. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi made his harshest remarks on Wednesday, saying the current war is not only aimed at fighting Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, “but also an attempt to push civilian residents to … migrate in Egypt”. He warned that this could destroy peace in the region.

“What is happening now in Gaza is an attempt to force civilian residents to take refuge and migrate to Egypt, which should not be accepted,” Sisi said. “Egypt rejects any attempt to resolve the Palestinian issue by military means or by forcibly displacing Palestinians from their land, which would be detrimental to countries in the region,” he said. Sisi added the Egyptian people “will come out and protest if they are called to do so” against any displacement from Gaza to Sinai.

Protest at the Capitol, 300 arrested

About 300 people were arrested by Capitol Police during a large protest on Wednesday against the war between Israel and Hamas, a Capitol Police spokesman said. Most were arrested for demonstrating at the Capitol, according to the carrier by word of mouth.

Hundreds of people had gathered, on Wednesday, before the arrests, inside and outside the US Capitol complex, demanding an end to the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Some of the protesters, organized by a left-wing Jewish group, then entered the Cannon House Office Building through various security entry points and gathered in the great hall, the police spokesman said.

The large-scale demonstration follows a similar event at the White House earlier this week, which also resulted in dozens of arrests. Protesters, like the rest of the public, can legally enter the Capitol complex and only risk trouble when they cause a disturbance, according to a police spokesman.

Police departments from surrounding areas were called to assist at the complex on Wednesday, including the Washington Metropolitan Police Department and officers from Virginia, according to law enforcement sources.

Some lawmakers, who have offices in the Cannon House Office Building, reprimanded the demonstrators. “The irony is this: The US Constitution protects the freedom of these protesters to be absolute idiots,” Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Montana, wrote in a tweet.