Day Twenty-Nine Of Swords Of Iron
Israel makes targeted raids in Lebanon and southern Gaza and destroys terrorist cells.
9:27 AM
Lefty “Squad” members in Congress are facing challenges from well-financed pro-Israel Dems looking to oust them from power over their inflammatory views about the Jewish state.
St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell became the latest entrant into the field this week when he announced he would drop plans to challenge Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley and instead aim his firepower on a primary with lefty Rep. Cori Bush.
“I think we have to stand with our allies, and Israel has always been an ally,” Bell said.
“As a country, we have to be reliable partners. We have to stand by our fellow democracies, and we have to stand against terrorism,” he told the Jewish Insider. “Hamas is a terrorist organization and I will not waver in my support for Israel.”
9:15 am
A group of British patriots and veterans are assembling at the Cenotaph war memorial in central London to counter-protest against war monuments being desecrated in recent weeks by Palestine protesters. A nearby pro-Palestine gathering at Trafalgar Square will also happen today
9;12 am
KAN news reported that a heavy warhead was fired from Lebanon at an Israeli outpost on the border, as shown by video from the scene.
The stepdaughter of Vice President Harris is publicly raising money for Gaza, The Post has learned.
Ella Emhoff, 24 — whose father, First Gentleman Doug Emhoff, is Jewish — affixed a fundraising drive “supporting urgent relief for Gaza’s children” on her personal Instagram account. It makes no mention of the scores of Israeli children murdered among the 1,400 innocent Israelis killed by Hamas terrorists Oct. 7.
5:19 am
IDF reported that rockets were fired from Lebanon at the Rosh Hanikra area. No sirens sounded in towns in the area. There were no injuries reported. The IDF is responding by shelling the sources of the rockets.
Secretary of State Blinken is meeting with regional leaders in Jordan as part of his Middle East shuttle diplomacy. He met first with Lebanese interim PM Najib Mikati. Lebanon is home to Hezbollah, which is a terrorist group backed by Iran, as is Hamas. Neither Blinken nor Mikati spoke publicly. Blinken did not speak publicly while posing for photos with the Qatari foreign minister, whose country has emerged as an interlocutor with Hamas and key to negotiating the limited release of Hamas's hostages and convincing Hamas to allow foreign citizens to leave Gaza and cross into Egypt. Qatar is also where the leader of Hamas lives.
Blinken was then to meet with the head of the United Nations agency in charge of assisting Palestinian refugees. He will also meet with foreign ministers of Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and the chair of the PLO executive committee. All parties have denounced Israel’s tactics against Hamas, which they say constitutes unlawful collective punishment of the Palestinian people. Blinken will also see King Abdullah II of Jordan, whose country this week recalled its ambassador to Israel and told Israel’s envoy not to return to the country until the Gaza crisis was over. Just the same, the Muslim countries have resisted US calls to play a larger role in the crisis, such as receiving Gazan refugees.
Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder says he does not think Hezbollah will escalate fighting with Israel, saying that “a broader regional conflict has been deterred.” “Right now, we see this conflict as contained between Israel and Hamas,” he said. The United States has sent two aircraft carrier groups to the eastern Mediterranean [the Adriatic] in an effort to deter the Iran-backed terror group from opening a second front against Israel.
Ruder's comments came after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah threatened Israel in a Nov. 3 speech, and expressed solidarity with the Gazans and their “martyrs” in his first speech since Israel declared war on Hamas after the Gaza terror group’s October 7 slaughter of Israelis. However, he did not reveal explicit plans to broaden his Lebanese terror group’s conflict with Israel, as some had feared he would. There have been frequent skirmishes along the Lebanese border since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, including today.
5:00 am
House Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Montana) has introduced a bill in Congress to expel Palestinians from the US. He served in President Trump's cabinet.
4:57 am
Leftwing Democrats in Congress have invoked a landmark law barring assistance to security forces of governments deemed guilty of human rights abuses to challenge the Biden administration’s emergency military aid program for Israel.
Members of the Democratic party’s progressive wing say the $14.3bn package pledged by the White House after the 7 October attack by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 Israelis breaches the Leahy Act because Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has overwhelmingly harmed civilians. An estimated 9,000 people have been killed in Gaza so far, among them 3,700 children, according to the Gaza health ministry, run by Hamas.
The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah has said his powerful militia is engaged in cross-border fighting with Israel and has threatened further “realistic escalation”.
In a speech widely anticipated in the region, Hassan Nasrallah stopped short of announcing that Hezbollah had fully joined the Israel-Hamas war but warned that fighting on the Lebanon-Israel border would not be limited to the scale seen so far.
The US, Israel’s strongest backer, has warned Hezbollah and its patron Iran against entering the fray and has sent warships to the Mediterranean, a move that Nasrallah claimed “will not scare us”.
A spokesperson from the US national security council said: “We and our partners have been clear: Hezbollah and other actors – state or non-state – should not try to take advantage of the ongoing conflict.”
Speaking to a huge crowd in Beirut’s Ashura Square, Nasrallah, the general secretary of the Lebanese Shia militant organisation, praised the Hamas attack four weeks ago in southern Israel in which more 1,400 people were killed. He said the attack “was purely the result of Palestinian planning and implementation”, suggesting his militia had no part in it.
4:25 am
The Israel Defense Forces says it struck two terror cells in southern Lebanon today. According to the IDF, the terrorists planned to open fire at Israel, possibly with anti-tank guided missiles. The IDF says it also struck an observation post belonging to the Hezbollah terror group in the area.
According to Arabic media, the IAF bombed a house in Gaza belonging to Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh. A missile was fired at the home in the Al-Shathi neighborhood in northern Gaza. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the strike. Haniyeh lives in exile in Qatar. Hamas-affiliated media reported earlier in the war that 14 members of Haniyeh's family were killed in an Israeli airstrike on another family home in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, including his brother and nephew.
The IDF said a rocket siren that sounded off in the city of Eilat was a false alarm. “IDF systems detected a suspicious target approaching Israeli territory,” the IDF said, adding that after an investigation it was revealed to be a false alarm. The IDF is investigating the cause of the alert. Hamas has previously attempted to fire rockets at Eilat from Gaza, and the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen attempted to launch missiles and drones at the city in recent weeks.
Hamas reported Israeli airstrikes overnight in Gaza, including the southern part. The IDF has repeatedly urged civilians in northern Gaza to move to the south and designated a safe area in southeastern Gaza. Airstrikes were also reported in Gaza City, on which the IDF has focused its attention. Strikes hit the western outskirts of the city and near Al-Quds Hospital, witnesses say.
Japan kicks in $75M for Hamas
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa announced $65 million in humanitarian aid for Gaza while condeming attacks on civilians. Sh epromised Japan’s continued support for a two-state solution to the conflict. Kamikawa met with Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and her Palestinian counterpart, Riyad al-Maliki, during her visit to the region, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. The aid is in addition to $10 million in emergency aid Japan announced earlier, she said. Kamikawa urged the Israelis and Palestinians to improve humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip and to calm the situation as soon as possible.
The IDF carried out a “targeted raid” in southern Gaza overnight. It said a limited operatio was carried out by combat engineering forces and tanks, led by the Gaza Division, mapped buildings and cleared out planted explosive devices. Israeli troops engaged Hamas terrorists who came out of a tunnel. The IDF shelled the terrorists and killed them. The IDF is focusing on northern Gaza, but has also made limited incursions in southern Gaza to prepare the area for future stages of the war. IDF says ground forces continued the offensive in northern Gaza overnight. Israeli infantry and armor led by the 460th Brigade encountered numerous attempts by Hamas terrorists to come out of tunnels and attack troops. The forces killed several terrorists and located tunnels. Israeli infantry fought off a group of 15 Hamas terrorists, killed several, and shelled their observation posts.The IDF said infantry continued into northern Gaza overnight.
Indonesia sends tons of aid
Indonesia sent its first aid shipment to Gaza. 51.5-tons of aid was sent off directly by Indonesian President Joko Widodo from Jakarta’s Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force Base. Widodo said the medical equipment, food, blankets, tents and other supplies came both from the government and from Indonesian civilians, collected by humanitarian agencies. The Indonesian planes will land at el-Arish Airport in Egypt. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim-majority country and has long supporter Palestinians. Indonesia has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel. “This is a form of Indonesian solidarity, a form of Indonesians’ concern for humanity,” Widodo saids, “because the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza is unacceptable and must be stopped as soon as possible.”
UN Secretary-General Guterres was “horrified” by a strike by Israeli forces on a convoy of ambulances in Gaza, adding that the conflict “must stop.” “I am horrified by the reported attack in Gaza on an ambulance convoy outside Al Shifa hospital. The images of bodies strewn on the street outside the hospital are harrowing,” Guterres says in the statement. The Israel Defense Forces said earlier that it struck an ambulance being used by a Hamas cell.
Abbas cancels Moscow trip
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has “postponed” a trip to Moscow that was planned for this month. Russia has working relations with Hamas and the PA. Russia’s deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov tells state media that a trip planned for November 15 "been postponed. On the request of the Palestinian side.” Bogdanov says PA had informed Moscow that “the situation now is difficult” and that Abbas “cannot leave the region.” Bogdanov says Russia is “maintaining working contact (with the Palestinian side) constantly by phone,” Russia has good relations with both Israel and Hamas, which it does not consider a terrorist organization.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators block a transport ship in the US National Defense Reserve Fleet that is docked at the Port of Oakland, California, claiming the vessel is set to ferry American material to Israel amid the ongoing war in Gaza against Hamas. Several Video showed several protesters climbing a ladder on the MV Cape Orlando to prevent its departure. There are no reports of arrests. The demonstration was organized by the San Francisco-based Arab Resource and Organizing Center, who called for an end to US military aid to Israel, They chanted, "Joe Biden, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.” Labor union officials and subcontractorssaid the ship is empty and regularly comes and goes, and has not been in operation for years.
“This has been dead for 17 years,” Melvin Mackay, head of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, tells the newspaper.
US says no to ceasefire, yes to pause
Israel ‘significantly refined’ battle plans against Hamas after talks with US, a Biden administration official said. As to whether the Biden administration is discussing rising civilian casualties with Israel, the senior official insisted that the US is “asking hard questions and constantly asking and ensuring there’s clarity about the objectives [they’re] seeking.” “They have significantly refined what originally was their plan,” the anonymous official said. The senior official also says that calling for a ceasefire after the October 7 onslaught by Hamas would not be the right policy for the US to take. A ceasefire “depends on the Israelis feeling secure and ensuring something like this cannot happen again,” the official said. A “pause,” on the other hand, would allow for safe passage of civilians and for more flow of aid into Gaza. The informant said 100 trucks entered Gaza on Nov. 3 and that the US “looks to see that significantly ramped up over the coming over the coming days.”