Day Five Of Swords Of Iron

8:24 pm
A second US aircraft carrier, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, will soon arrive in the Mediterranean on a previously scheduled tour but available to show support for Israel, the White House said, following the arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group in theatre. National Security spokesman Adm. John Kirby said the ship "certainly will be an available asset if needed,” while admitting that the US is  “clearly concerned” by Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel.
 

Israeli Health Minister Moshe Arbel ordered all public hospitals to stop treating Hamas terrorists. In a letter to PM Netanyahu, he wrote: “Since the beginning of the fighting, the issue of treating the damned and despicable Hamas terrorists within the public hospitals has piled up a tremendous difficulty on the health system.”
 

8:00 pm
Fox News reports that a ground attack by Israel on Gaza appears to be imminent tonight. The report said that 300,000+ reservists have been called to duty and are readying weapons and materiel along the country's border with Gaza. 

7:52 pm
US to Israel: We've got your back

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters before flying out to Israel that he is taking “a very simple and clear message on behalf of the president of the United States and on behalf of the American people, and that is that the United States has Israel’s back. We have the back of the Israeli people. We have their back today. We’ll have it tomorrow. We will have it every day.”
Blinken will meet Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog in Israel. He said that the US will work to ensure no further enemies of Israel join in the war. He will also foster cooperation between the US and Israel to release hostages, including Americans, held by Hamas.

When asked whether the US has asked Israel to restrain its retaliation on Gaza, he said, “We know that Israel will take all of the precautions that it can – just as we would. That’s what separates us from Hamas and terrorist groups that engage in the most heinous kind of activities.”

On Oct. 13, Blinken travels to Jordan to meet Jordanian officials and with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and a Palestinian delegation that that includes PA intelligence chief Majed Faraj and PLO Executive Committee Secretary-General Hussein al-Sheikh.

Travel Advisory

A travel advisory for Israel was issued by the State Department, raising the stakes to a Level 3 for the West Bank and Israel. Americans are asked to rethink travel to the area. Before the attack, Israel and the West Bank were at a Level 1 travel advisory. The travel advisory for Gaza remains at a “Level 4 — Do Not Travel.”
Israeli teams are on the scene at Kibbutz Be'eri on Israel’s border with Gaza and are still extracting bodies of Israelis murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7. Approximately 110 dead Israelis have been identified, while more corpses are being pulled from ruined homes. Some  103 terrorists were found dead in the kibbutz. 

Biden confirms children beheaded by Hamas

President Joe Biden, in the company of Doug Emhoff – husband of Vicepresident Kamala Harris – gave an emotional speech to Jewish community leaders at the White House. “It is important for Americans to see what is happening. I have been doing this for a long time. I never thought that I would see… have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children.”
“Downplaying Hamas’s atrocities and blaming the Jewish people is unthinkable,” the president said, and added “Silence is complicity. I refuse to be silent.”

Biden described the attack on Israel as “not only terror but sheer evil, sheer evil.” He said, “More than 1,000 civilians slaughtered.” “This attack was a campaign of pure cruelty, not just hate, but cruelty, against the Jewish people,” he said, adding that it was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

“It goes beyond rejecting terrorism,” he says, noting what the administration is doing to back Israel militarily. “We made it clear to the Iranians: be careful.”
Saying he has wished to combat hatred, he emphasized, “That’s why I took my kids, everyone when they turned 14, one at a time, put them on a plane and took them to Dachau, I wanted them to see, that you could not not know what was going on, walking through those gates. You could not fail to understand as a country what was going on.” He said that “were there no Israel, no Jew would be safe,” repeating several times that there would be “no guarantee.”

Hamas will be destroyed

IDF carried out a new wave of bombing sorties on the afternoon and evening over Gaza. The IDF was striking “many” Hamas targets. 
PM Netanyahu’s political opponent, National Union head Benny Gantz, has joined the emergency government as a minister. Praising the heroism of Israelis, he said: “Our friends, our families, have been murdered and abducted.”

“I understand the fear, I understand the pain, and I have no words of comfort. But he says “Israel is the strongest state in the region and has the strongest army…We will win, and change the security and strategic reality in the region.”

Disavowing politics in the government convened by Netanyahu, Gantz said: “It’s a partnership for our fate.” Saying that his party stands with Netanyahu, he said, “We are all soldiers of the State of Israel.”

“The enemy will be destroyed. Security will be restored. The killing grounds where our heroes fell will be rebuilt. The entire State of Israel will thrive again,” Gantz promised. “There’s a time for peace and a time for war; now is the time for war,” he said.
 

4:14 pm
Hamas leader Khalid Mashal called on Muslims around the world to rise up against the US and Zionists around the world. Calling it  “the Friday of Al-Aqsa flood”, he asked Muslims to contribute money to his terrorist organization in a "financial jihad" to compensate Hamas terrorist for the homes destroyed by Israeli retaliation.

Mashal asked Muslims to pressurize governments to stop Israel's probable invasion of Gaza. According to a translation on X, formerly Twitter, Mashal asked Muslims to fight and be martyrs for the Al-Aqsa Flood assault. He called on Muslims to attack Jews, starting with the countries surrounding Israel but also in other countries, and to assail Israel's borders. He called for jihad [Islamic religious war] to be applied in practice rather than mere theory. "Funds are important but today we are asking for your blood and souls [to be sacrificed for Palestine]."

4:07 pm
Lebanese analyst Lina Khatib told Spanish newspaper El Pais that Hamas's offensive against Israel is largely supported by Palestinians. The scholar, who works at the SOAS Middle East Institute in London added, “My own interpretation is that it’s unlikely that Lebanon will become another front in this war,” she says of the conflict in Israel. “Hezbollah knows that it’s expected to be seen as reacting, and it has done that through launching rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel. But I don’t think it’s likely that Hezbollah is going to widen the scale of its engagement [in the Hamas offensive]."

Khatib said that she believes Hamas would not have been able to mount the invasion without weapons, materiel, and other assistance from Iran, its patron state.

3:58 pm
Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist organization based in Lebanon slammed the US for supporting Israel. The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group, currently on its way to the region, “will not scare our people or the resistance movements that are ready for the confrontation” Hezbollah declared. The US, it said, “is a full partner of the Zionist aggression and is responsible for the killings, crimes, siege, the destruction of homes, and horrifying crimes against innocent civilians.”

According to the Times of Israel, an Egyptian official claimed that Israeli intelligence was told about Hamas's plans in advance of the Oct. 7 invasion. The Egyptian intelligence official speculated that Israeli PM Netanyahu had been kept in the dark about "something big" in the offing before the Saturday attack.

Scores of Israeli children have been taken hostage by Hamas. Some of them are as young as nine months old. Hamas has vowed to kill one hostage for every Israeli airstrike on a Gazan home. Israeli families are begging the terrorists to spare the children. Hamas spokesman Abu Obeid said that "dozens" of hostages are kept in“safe places and tunnels and resistance” over the border in Gaza.

3:05 pm
GOP Rep. Jack Bergman of Michigan will introduce a censure resolution directed at Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. in response to her "long history of making anti-Semitic and anti-Israel remarks." Bergman slammed Tlaib for her reaction to Hamas's unprecedented and deadly attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists, which left at least 1,200 Israelis dead and thousands more wounded. "As Hamas terrorists beheaded infants, paraded dead Jewish teenagers through town, and attacked innocent concert-goers in the most deadly day for Jews since the Holocaust, Rep. Rashida Tlaib chose to place the blame solely on Israel and the Jewish people," Bergman said. He is a 40-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, according to Fox News. In a statement, Bergman declared "There is no moral equivalence between Israel defending itself and Hamas attacking innocent Israeli civilians. Tlaib’s long history of anti-Semitic tropes and blatant anti-Jewish propaganda is both disturbing and evil – and should have no place in the halls of Congress."

"One day after a series of coordinated attacks on Israel perpetrated by Hamas terrorists and leaving more Jews dead than any single day since the Holocaust, Congresswoman Tlaib issued a statement calling Israel an apartheid state and insinuating the United States should end its support for the State of Israel," Bergman's resolution charges.

2:57 pm
Egypt and the US and others are talking about providing humanitarian aid through its border with the Gaza Strip. However, Egypt has rejected the idea of establishing safe corridors for refugees fleeing the enclave. Egypt has long throttled the influx of Gazans, even during previous conflicts. Egypt always insists that Israel and Palestine result their own conflicts, saying this is how Palestine can obtain statehood. 

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said supplies, including fuel, food and water, must be allowed into Gaza."We need rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access now,” he told reporters. Guterres thanked Egypt "for its constructive engagement to facilitate humanitarian access through the Rafah crossing and to make the El Arish airport available for critical assistance.”

The US has held negotiations with Israel and Egypt about the idea of a safe passage for civilians.

2:49 pm
Soldiers and police are sifting through ruined homes in Kibbutz Be'eri where Hamas terrorists slew children in front of their parents on October 7 during is highly coordinated and violent incursion into Israel. According to the Times of Israel, IDF Maj. Doron Spielman said knives were found in the bodies of some of the children. Body parts of children were found at the kibbutz that remain to be identified by genetic testing of presumed relatives. Bodies are still being removed from the kibbutz, which Maj. Spielman said will be remembered as a symbol of Hamas’s massacre just as Auschwitz is the symbol of the Holocaust. At least 100 Israelis were murdered at Be'eri. 

Spielman said, “It will take weeks to understand what happened here.” In one home, 40 civilians were held by 20 terrorist special forces. Six terrorists were killed during the raid.

2:42 pm
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said the US is “not quite sure” how Israel and itself “missed” the portents of Hamas's incursion into Israel over the weekend. Following a closed-door intelligence briefing, McCaul said. “We’ve heard from the administration, there seems to be a failure of intelligence as well. We’re not quite sure how we missed it. We’re not quite sure how Israel missed it,” 

In a statement, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) slammed Israel for cutting off food, fuel, water, and electricity to Gaza where more than 2 million people live. He dubbed it "a serious violaion of international law” that will cause thousands of children to suffer.  “The targeting of civilians is a war crime, no matter who does it. Israel’s blanket denial of food, water, and other necessities to Gaza is a serious violation of international law and will do nothing but harm innocent civilians,” said Sanders, a leading progressive.  

2:38 pm
New York University’s Law Student Bar Association sought to oust its president who wrote a column in the university newsletter applauding Hamas's terrorism in Israel. President Ryna Workman wroe that Israel was guilty of “state-sanctioned violence” and bears “full responsibility” for the barbaric and highly coordinated attacks that killed more that 1,200 including children on Saturday.

2:30 pm
The US is working with Qatar and other countries to rescue hostages taken by Hamas. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said: “We know that a number of those [17 missing] Americans are being held hostage right now by Hamas. I think we all need to steel ourselves for the very distinct possibility that these numbers will keep increasing and that we may find out that more Americans are part of the hostage pool.” Kirby said, "The Israelis have a very robust hostage recovery capability of their own…but we also have a lot of know-how, too, and we’re offering to share that with the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).” There are reports that SEAL Team Six and Delta special operators are on their way to Israel. Kirby would not rule out direct involvement of the US in hostage rescues. He added that the US does not know the hostages' wherabouts. 

A leader of the Houthi rebels in Yemen has vowed that his forces will engage with the US should Americans become involved on the ground in Israel.

2:25 pm
According to a press release from the Anti-Defamation League, ADL board member Sharon Nazarian is urging an Icelandic court to compel an Icelandic domain hosting company to shut down dangerous antisemitic website targeting Boston's Jewish community. A witness from ADL the court to shutter the Boston Mapping Project, an antisemitic website that pinpoints the locations of Jewish communal organizations in Massachusetts. In the wake of the recent violence in Israel, The Mapping Project has ramped up its calls in support of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and urged its readers to follow an antisemitic news channel. Nazarian testified on behalf of ADL in the case filed against Reykjavík-based 1984 Hosting Co., and explained how the project was purposely designed to name and target Jewish communal leaders and organizations in Massachusetts and beyond, falsely blaming them for many of the world’s problems and specifically calling out Zionism as a “harm,” thus implicating the vast majority of the Jewish community.

2:08 pm
There will be a press conference at the White House. President Biden is meeting with Jewish-American leaders, accompanied by Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice-president Harris.

The Biden administration will submit a funding request to Congress to seek funds for the defense of Israel, Taiwan, Ukraine, and the US southern border, according to NBC News.

The US announced that 22 American citizens have been killed during Hamas's assault on Israel and is likely to rise again. On Oct. 10, the toll stood at 14. Currently, 17 Americans are missing and may be among hostages held by Hamas. The White House did not report on their whereabouts or welfare.

President Biden said: "This attack has brought to the surface painful memories and scars left by a millennium of antisemitism and genocide against the Jewish people. My commitment to Israel’s security and the safety of the Jewish people is unshakeable. The United States has Israel’s back."

"We extend our deepest condolences to the victims and to the families of all those affected. The US is watching developments on the Lebanon-Israel border closely, said national security spokesman John Kirby. "We have seen rocket fire coming from southern Lebanon … into northern Israel. We obviously are watching this with great concern. We don’t want to see this conflict widened or expanded."

Summary: 

The death toll among Palestinians rose to 1100, including 326 children according to Hamas. The UN estimate the number of people fleeing their homes at 260,000. Dead Israelis number approximately1,200, most of whom are civilians. Many are children. Over 2700 are wounded. And IDF spokesman said that the toll rose "not because there is ongoing fightin” but because “now as the time has gone by we are discovering bodies of dead Israelis in the various communities that Hamas infiltrated and where they conducted their massacres”.

Gaza’s only power plant ran out of fuel. However, generators are still runing by will also exhaust fuel supplies following a cut-off by Israel. 

PM Netanyahu is forming a war cabinet that includes former defence minister and centrist opposition party leader Benny Gantz and to focus entirely on the conflict.

The IDF struck hundreds of targets in Gaza overnight, including 80 in the neighbourhood of Beit Hanon and over 450 targets in the Al-Furqan neighborhood in the last 24 hours, and 70 more “targets” were hit in the neighbourhood of al-Daraj. The IDF struck banks and facilities it says used by Hamas to direct fire at Israel. Israel's goal is to neutralize Hamas militarily.

Hezbollah admitted to firing missiles from Lebanese territory into Israel and towards the town of Arav Al-Amsha, which lies close to the “blue line” that demarcates northern Israeli territory from southern Lebanon. 

UK citizenn Jake Marlowe, 26, went missing while serving as an armed guard at a music festival near the village of Re’im on the border with Gaz. Seventeen Britis, including children, are feared dead or missing in Israel after an attack by Hamas.
 

11:45 am
Hundreds of drone attacks from Lebanon are being reported in northern Israel. In addition, at least 20 terrorists flying paragliders were seen entering Israel from Lebanon.The IDF would later give the all clear, denying that the drones had entered the country, frightening the populace.

11:30 am
Colorado state legislator Tim Hernandez refused to condemn Hamas's terroristic attacks on Israel. In a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, Democrat Hernandez dismisses an amateur videographer when asked, "Do you condemn the murder of women and children in the streets by Palestinian terrorists?" Hernandez replies, "I condemn any form of colonial violence perpetuated upon any group of people."

11:27 am
British Airways has suspended flights to and from Israel due to safety concerns, the airlines has announced. The suspension came after Flight BA165 returned to Heathrow Airport in London after nearly reach Tel Aviv this afternoon Israeli time.

A BA spokesperson said: "Safety is always our highest priority and following the latest assessment of the situation, we’re suspending our flights to and from Tel Aviv.

"We’re contacting customers booked to travel to or from Tel Aviv to apologise for the inconvenience and offer options including a full refund and rebooking with another airline or with British Airways at a later date. We continue to monitor the situation in the region closely." Hamas has fired rockets at the Tel Aviv airport.

UK Foreign Secretrary James Cleverly ran for cover while visiting the town of Ofakim in southern Israel when sirens rang out to warn of incoming Hamas missiles.

Israel continued to bomb the Gaza Strip in retaliation for Hamas’s terrorist attacks. More than 1,200 Israelis have been killed, of whom some were children murdered in their beds. More than 1000 people have been killed in Gaza and 260,000+ have fled their homes as Israel prepares a ground invasion. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli regular military and reservists are prepared to move on Gaza. Video has revealed that whole neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble in Gaza following Israeli bombing sorties.

According to The Guardian: François Conradie, an analyst at the Oxford Economics Africa consultancy, writes:

“The conflict in Gaza has put an uncomfortable spotlight on Egypt’s bilateral relations in the region. Pro-Palestinian sentiment has intensified criticism of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s good relations with Israel, and there is pressure on the former military man to stand up against Israeli warnings regarding humanitarian assistance.

“Mr Sisi’s government’s good relations with Israel are a political liability at times of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians,” he writes, but he says Sisi does not want an influx of Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt.

“The risk of a serious anti-government protest movement [in Egypt] is trending higher, as is the risk of disunity and factionalism within the military-political elite.”

Spain confirmed the death of Maya Villalobo Sinvany, a 19-year-old Spanish-Israeli woman in Israeli military service. A Spanish man married to an Israeli woman who had been living on a kibbutz near Gaza is missing. The Spanish foreign ministry declared: “The Spanish government once again forcefully condemns Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel and sends its deepest condolences to the family and friends of Maya Villalobo Sinvany.”

Israeli armed services and citizens shot three Palestinians to death in Qusra, a village near Nablus.

French PM Élisabeth Borne told the senate that 10 Frenchmen have been killed and 18 are missing. Some are children, who can be assumed are hostages.

Former Israeli defense minister Benny Gantz, a member of PM Netanyahu's opposition, has agreed to join an emergency government. Netanyahu wants to expand the current government to include opponents despite deep divisions in order to have national unity during the crisis.

10:24 am
The death toll in Israel stands at 1,200+, according to the IDF. More than 3,000 Israelis have been injured by the attack by Hamas terrrorists, while the fate of more than 150 missing people is not known. 

9:50 am
The only power plant in Gaza has exhausted its fuel and shut down, following Israel cutting the supply of fuel. 

Israeli media is reporting that opponents of Israeli PM Netanyahu will join in an emergency “unity government”.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on October 10 that talks are being held with Israel and Egypt to create a safe corridor for civilians escaping Gaza. “We are focused on this question. There are consultations going on. But the details of that are something that are being discussed among the operational agencies and I don’t want to share too much of that publicly at this time,” he said. He is due to arrive in Israel on October 12.

According to Canadian foreign minister Melanie Joly, three Canadians have died in Hamas' invasion of Israel and three are missing. She told the media that 4,700+ Canadian citizens and permanent residents are registered in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. She did not say how many desire evacuation. 

According to Reuters, Russian leader Vladimir Putin blamed the US for failing to pursue a solution to Hamas' war on Israel. He said that it cannot be fixed without addressing the establishment of a Palestinian state. On Oct. 11, Putin accused the US of passing up a process of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by taking matters into its own hands. “Part of the lands that the Palestinians consider and have always considered part of the original Palestinian lands is occupied by Israel at different times and in different ways. Mainly, of course, with the help of military force,” Putin said according to official Tass media. Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters: “We maintain our contacts with the parties to the conflict,” affirming Russia “continues to carefully analyse the situation” and that it “retains its position as a country that has the potential to participate in settlement processes”.

US chargé d’affaires ad interim Stephanie Hallett visited a site in Israel near the Gaza border inside Israel, she said, “to bear witness to the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists”.

 “It’s really unbelievable. As a mother … and just as a human being … to see and know what happened here. It is really important to say that we’ve been, we’ve seen it, and it is evil. And we stand with Israel. All of us. We stand with Israel,” Hallett said. 

France deported three foreign nationals for antisemitic acts or comments since the weekend, a government spokesman said. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Oct. 11 that any foreign national accused of antisemitic acts would have his or her resident permit cancelled and be immediately expelled.

Reuters reported that a spokesperson for Germany’s government has said it currently has no valid evidence of Iranian direct involvement in the Hamas attack.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has arrived in Israel and will meet survivors of the Hamas attack. “The foreign secretary has arrived in Israel today to demonstrate the UK’s unwavering solidarity with the Israeli people following Hamas’ terrorist attacks,” a Foreign Office spokesperson said. “He will be meeting survivors of the attacks and senior Israeli leaders to outline UK support for Israel’s right to defend itself.”

9:43 am
Hamas founding member Abd al-Fattah Dukhan a.k.a Abu Osama was killed in a bombing raid by the IAF on Oct. 10, according to Palestinian and Israeli reports. He was felled in the Nuseirat neighborhood in the center of Gaza. In addition, two other senior Hamas leaders, Zachariah Abu Ma’amar and Jawad Abu Shamala, were also killed. 

8:16 am
Palestinian media are telling the residents of Gaza not to leave their homes despite Israel's encouragements to do so and avoid destruction in bombing raids: “We Live in our Homes and Die in our Homes. We will not Move. We will not Budge. We are all Behind the Resistance"

It has been reported that Abdul Fattah Dukhan, founding leader of Hamas and author of the charter calling for the annihilation of Israel, has been killed.

7:57 am
Dozens of Harvard faculty members signed an open letter condeming Hamas' terroristic campaign:

We recognize that Harvard has students and community members from all regions, including from the Gaza Strip. These are not easy times, and we pray for the safety of all our members and their families. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a long and complex history. We hold varying opinions, but none of us endorses all of Israel's past actions. However, the events of this week are not complicated. Sometimes there is such a thing as evil, and it is incumbent upon educators and leaders to call it out, as they have with school shootings and terrorist attacks. It is imperative that our academic leadership, whose good faith we do not doubt, state this clearly and unequivocally. Further, while individuals’ free speech should be protected, our leaders should make it clear that our community rejects any statements that excuse terrorist acts.

"We are faculty at Harvard who are deeply concerned about the events in the Middle East, as well as the safety of our students here on campus. On October 7th, Hamas launched a premeditated attack on the Israeli population. Hundreds of terrorists infiltrated Israeli towns and houses. Children were killed in front of their parents; entire families were executed. Grandmothers, mothers, and their babies were kidnapped. All in all, more than 900 Israelis were killed in a single day and the death toll is continuing to grow. There have also been deaths on the Palestinian side, including hundreds of terrorists and, tragically, civilians as well.

"Every innocent death is a tragedy. Yet, this should not mislead us to create false equivalencies between the actions leading to this loss. Hamas planned and executed the murder and kidnapping of civilians, particularly women, children, and the elderly, with no military or other specific objective. This meets the definition of a war crime.  The Israeli security forces were engaging in self-defense against this attack while dealing with numerous hostage situations and a barrage of thousands of rockets hidden deliberately in dense urban settings.

"The leaders of the major democratic countries united in saying that “the terrorist actions of Hamas have no justification, no legitimacy, and must be universally condemned” and that Israel should be supported “in its efforts to defend itself and its people against such atrocities.“ In contrast, while terrorists were still killing Israelis in their homes,  35 Harvard student organizations wrote that they hold “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” with not a single word denouncing the horrific acts by Hamas. In the context of the unfolding events, this statement can be seen as nothing less than condoning the mass murder of civilians based only on their nationality. We’ve heard reports of even worse instances, with Harvard students celebrating the “victory” or “resistance” on social media.

"As a University aimed at educating future leaders, this could have been a teaching moment and an opportunity to remind our students that beyond our political debates, some acts such as war crimes are simply wrong. However, the statement by Harvard’s administration fell short of this goal. While justly denouncing Hamas, it still contributed to the false equivalency between attacks on noncombatants and self-defense against those atrocities. Furthermore, the statement failed to condemn the justifications for violence that come from our own campus, nor to make it clear to the world that the statement endorsed by these organizations does not represent the values of the Harvard community.  How can Jewish and Israeli students feel safe on a campus in which it is considered acceptable to justify and even celebrate the deaths of Jewish children and families?

"We recognize that Harvard has students and community members from all regions, including from the Gaza Strip. These are not easy times, and we pray for the safety of all our members and their families. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a long and complex history. We hold varying opinions, but none of us endorses all of Israel's past actions. However, the events of this week are not complicated. Sometimes there is such a thing as evil, and it is incumbent upon educators and leaders to call it out, as they have with school shootings and terrorist attacks. It is imperative that our academic leadership, whose good faith we do not doubt, state this clearly and unequivocally. Further, while individuals’ free speech should be protected, our leaders should make it clear that our community rejects any statements that excuse terrorist acts.

"We stand with any member of the Harvard community who feels unsafe or alone and pledge to do what we can individually and collectively. We hold our hope for better days in the future.  To quote President Obama,  'As we support Israel’s right to defend itself against terror, we must keep striving for a just and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike.'”

Link to the letter:  https://bit.ly/harvard-against-terrorism 

7:40 am
French interior minister Gérald Darmanin announced that authorities had arrested 20 persons accused of commiting antisemitic acts and threats since the weekend. On a visit to a Jewish school north of Paris today, he said, “It’s important that all French Jewish people know they are protected.” Security at some 500 Jewish schools, synagogues, and cultural centers has been increased. Darmanin said those sites had reported 50 antisemitic attacks, “which shows both the efficiency of the measures, but also the threat which weighs on French Jewish people.”

Among the antiisemitic attacks in France included large assemblies of people outside synagogues who issued threats and insults, while drones bearing cameras entered school precincts. 

The Guardian reported about the murders in Kibbutz Kfar Aza:

"In Kfar Aza, no one was too old, too young or too weak for slaughter. It took the Israeli army half a day to reach the kibbutz of 750 people in southern Israel, and fighting continued there for three days. In that time, Hamas gunmen killed and mutilated dozens of civilian residents.

“'Mothers, fathers, babies, young families killed in their beds, in the protection room, in the dining room, in their garden,' Maj Gen Itai Veruv, of the Israel Defence Forces, told the BBC as his troops searched homes for bodies of victims. “It’s not a war, it’s not a battlefield. It’s a massacre.”

"The kibbutz was one of the first Israeli settlements reached by Hamas militants when they launched an assault early on Saturday morning.

"The community had a security team, and houses had safe rooms, but they – like the highest echelons of the Israeli army and government – were not prepared for the wave of attackers racing out of the breached Gaza."

According to the IDF, Hamas terrorists ‘killed families in their beds’ ".

The BBC reports that there are 17 dead or missing UK nationals, including children. A previous estimate set the toll at more than 10 dead or missing.

The Philippines embassy reports that a third Filipino may have been murdered during the invasion.  Three others remain missing. Two deaths have been confirmed. 

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said in a statement: “My heart is heavy upon hearing confirmation of the deaths of two Filipinos in Israel. The Philippines condemns these killings and stands firmly against the ongoing terror and violence.”

30,000 Filipinos live in Israel.

The Philippines is prepared to evacuate citizens and their families from Israel if necessary.

Hezbollah has said it was responsible for firing precision missiles from Lebanon on Israel on Oct. 11 in response to Israeli attacks. The IDF was targeted with anti-tank fire on the same day and is attacking Lebanon in return. The IDF said a missile was fired toward Arav Al-Amsha, a town near the “blue line” that marking off northern Israeli territory from southern Lebanon.

Israel “struck targets” at Al-Dhahira in southern Lebanon in response, according to Turkey’s Anadolu news agency.

The IDF and the Iranian-back Hezbollah terrorists have exchanged fire in the days following the initial attack on southern Israel by Hamas. Terrorists from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad attempted to enter Israeli territory, while Hezbollah has repeatedly targeted territory in the Golan Heights. Concern that the war may be escalating were piqued by terrorists' strike on the town of Arav Al Amsha.

Pope Francis called for the release of all hostages held by Hamas, while citing worries about Israel's "total siege" in Gaza. 

Rockets fired by Hamas rained down into the city of Ashdod, claiming more human casualties and material destruction.

7:31 am
International journalists reviewed the scene at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a community on Israel's border with Gaza where Hamas terrorists invaded the town and murdered its residents. “Soldiers who spent much of the day in the ruins recovering bodies of civilians said that there had been a massacre. It seems likely that much of the killing happened in the first hours of the assault on Saturday,” the BBC reports.

Davidi Ben Zion, the deputy commander of  paratrooper Unit 71, told the BBC: “Thank God we saved many lives of many parents and children.” He said, “Unfortunately, some were burned by molotov [cocktails].” Journalists saw soldiers comforting each other who had seen the carnage.

Bullet holes could be seen within a safe room where residents had sheltered. Ben Zion told the BBC that Hamas terrorists who killed babies and families were “just a jihad machine to kill everybody, [people] without weapons, without nothing, just normal citizens that want to take their breakfast and that’s all”.

The New York Times reported: "Past the village dining hall, kindergarten and culture center, the tidy rows of one-story beige houses came into view. And the scale of the horror began to unfold … After days of stunned national numbness and chaos, the dimensions of the atrocity that took place here were now coming into clear focus. In all, more than 1,000 soldiers and civilians have been killed in Israel. Nobody could say how many of them were lying here, in Kfar Azza, but it is emerging as one of the worst sites of the bloodshed. Soldiers and rescue workers said scores, possibly hundreds, had been slaughtered here, including grandparents, infants and children.”

Germany’s foreign ministry says 5,000 Germans are seeking evacuation. The spokesperson did not say how many had eft using their own means.

UNRWA reported that Israeli bombing raids have claimed the lives of nine United Nations workers to date. 
The first U.S transport plane bearing specialized ammunition landed in Israel at the Nevatim airbase.

Concern for the welfare of the Jewish community in Europe is growing. Authorities at the Modern Orthodox Jewish Free School in North London UK has told students that they are not required their distinctive school blazers at this time. The 300-year-old co-education school tutors 2,000+ students. It was once the largest Jewish school in the world with more than 4,000 pupils.

Urgent Advisory from the Israeli Government: Within the next few hours, Hamas terrorists are expected to disseminate photos and videos of hostages and acts of torture across social media platforms. The Government of Israel urgently requests the following actions be taken. 1. Do not engage in sharing these images or videos under any circumstances. Doing so contributes to psychological warfare against both the State of Israel and its citizens. 2. Shield minors from exposure to this disturbing content. The images and videos are highly graphic and could induce significant emotional distress. Your cooperation in adhering to these directives is critically important.

October 11, 2023