Three more people who had previously been thought dead have been placed in the ‘taken hostage’ category. One of them is presumed dead, but with his body held by Hamas. This is in addition to one hostage who was killed during an operation to rescue him. One of the rescue team was also killed. The mission was activated following good intelligence about his location, but the results, sadly, were not what were hoped for.
In northern Gaza a senior officer in the junior partner organization, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, was also confirmed as killed.
One Hamas terrorist prisoner is reported to have complained to the man interrogating him that the IDF doesn’t fight fair. The soldiers sit in prepared positions and we get attacked by their air force and helicopters. They don’t come out to face us man to man. The terrorist was obviously from the lower ranks and not well acquainted with how his comrades usually fought.
Regarding helicopters, Hamas was reported to have fired a missile (which missed) at one. Obviously, it wasn’t an anti-aircraft guided weapon because Hamas doesn’t have weapons that sophisticated in its arsenal. But it may have been an anti-tank missile or an RPG (Rocket propelled grenade). Weapons of such kind have been used against helicopters, and have even sometimes been effective in other wars.
US Secretary of State Blinken is due to return here next week. With IDF reservists being returned home and the Israeli government starting to discuss what Gaza will be like after the war, his visit may have some interesting results. I don’t expect unifying Gaza with the rest of the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank to be one of them.
Wetherhorn 