November 7, 2023 Israel-Hamas war

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel will "retain complete freedom of action to respond to any situation in the Gaza Strip" once the war ends.

Speaking at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday morning, Gallant said that "at the end of this 'campaign,' Hamas, as a military organization or governing body in Gaza, will cease to exist." Gallant's comments were published on the Ynet news website.

Gallant’s comments echo those of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Monday said in an interview with ABC News that Israel will have the "overall security responsibility" in Gaza for an “indefinite period” after the war ends.

Taken together, the comments shed light on the Israeli government’s plans for post-war Gaza. Government officials have not yet elaborated on how Gaza would be governed should they succeed in eliminating Hamas.

Remember: US President Joe Biden warned Israel last month that re-occupying Gaza would be a mistake.

Gallant also said on the Ynet recording that the war's top priority was to "eliminate this phenomenon called Hamas," and that he was personally focused on "victory in the war" and returning Israeli hostages home.

Mourning his 8-year-old daughter Emily, who he believed was killed in Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel, Thomas Hand said he was at least partially consoled knowing that militants had not taken her hostage.

Of all the terrible possibilities for her, death was the least painful, he said.

But then the Israeli military gave him the news that nearly made him collapse.

Emily might still be alive.

“She is more than likely in a tunnel somewhere under Gaza,” Hand told CNN, recalling how the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) recently shared new intelligence.

“It’s her birthday on the 17th of [November]. She will be 9,” he said. “She won’t even know (what) day it is. She won’t know it’s her birthday. There will be no birthday cake. No party, no friends. She will just be petrified in a tunnel under Gaza. That is her birthday.”

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.

Read more of CNN's report here.

The Israeli military said Tuesday it destroyed several tunnels in a residential area in the northeastern part of the Gaza Strip. 

Soldiers, with the help of reservists, located and destroyed “a number of tunnels located in a civilian neighborhood in the Beit Hanoun area” on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.

The IDF also released a video claiming to show its soldiers destroying tunnels in Beit Hanoun, but CNN has not been able to independently confirm the location.

More context: Hamas in 2021 claimed to have built 500 kilometers (311 miles) worth of tunnels under Gaza, though it is unclear if that figure was accurate or posturing. Amid a land, sea and air blockade by Israel and a land blockade by Egypt since 2007, the tunnels are used to transport people and goods and house Hamas command centers away from the IDF's prying eyes.

A Palestinian American couple and their 1-year-old son are safely back at their Medway, Massachusetts, home after arriving in the US at Boston Logan International Airport on Monday, their attorney Sammy Nabulsi told CNN overnight.

Abood Okal, Wafaa Abuzayda, and their son Yousef are "incredibly thankful for their family and friends around the world who spoke up on their behalf, the Medway community, the media for sharing their plight and the plight of the hundreds of other Americans trapped in Gaza, their elected officials who fought hard for their return, and the State Department for providing them with safe departure,” Nabulsi said.

Nabulsi said the family asks for privacy at this time so they can rest and recover.  

Okal previously told CNN he was in Gaza to visit relatives he hadn't seen for years, and he said the US State Department hadn't been providing clear guidance.

A special flight carrying relief aid for Gaza, including hygiene kits, medicine and food rations, has departed from Pakistan on its way to Egypt, according to a statement from Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani and Minister for Human Rights Khalil George, along with the Palestinian Ambassador to Pakistan, were present for the send-off ceremony at Islamabad International Airport.

According to the statement, the foreign minister “expressed Pakistan’s full solidarity with its Palestinian brothers and sisters and condemned Israel’s brutal, disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force against civilians, including women and children, currently besieged in Gaza.”

Jilani also called for an immediate end to “Israeli aggression” and a “lifting of the siege of Gaza.”

The first shipment of aid from Pakistan, consisting of 100 tons of supplies, was sent on October 19.

On Thursday, Mumtaz Baloch, spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, said that Pakistan was deeply concerned about the dire situation in Gaza and condemned Israel’s military campaign, saying that “deliberate strikes against civilian targets including refugee camps, hospitals and apartment buildings has created an unacceptable humanitarian situation.”

Singapore’s government has issued two advisories related to the Israel-Hamas conflict, reminding residents and visitors to be cautious about political displays and donations in accordance with existing laws.

The first of advisories, both issued on Monday, warned people not to display foreign national emblems related to the conflict.

“Unless expressly exempted, the public display of foreign national emblems without a permit is an offence under the Foreign National Emblems (Control of Display) Act 1949,” the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said.

Violations of the law are punishable by a fine of up to S$500 (US$368), imprisonment for a term of up to six months, or both, the MHA added.

Even those traveling into Singapore are “advised not to display or wear such articles,” the MHA said, adding that authorities at entry checkpoints “will take firm action against those who refuse to comply, including denying their entry into Singapore.”

The statement also said that “the peace and harmony between different races and religions in Singapore should not be taken for granted, and we must not let events happening externally affect this peace and harmony we have in Singapore.”

The second advisory, issued by the country’s Office of the Commissioner of Charities, asked the public to support only those foreign charitable causes that have a permit from the commission.

"This ensures that donors' funds are channeled to the stated, bona fide purposes," the advisory said, adding that it also applies to “sales of merchandise where there is a representation that the proceeds will be applied for a foreign charitable purpose.”

“The Bible says that there is a time for peace and a time for war,” intoned Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu on October 30. “This is a time for war.”

But what happens when this is no longer the case? Amid the death, destruction, displacement and despair in Gaza, the focus has understandably been on Israel’s response to the pogrom visited on the Jewish state a month ago to the day.

No-one has talked much about what comes next. On Monday, Netanyahu gave us his take. “I think Israel will, for an indefinite period... have the overall security responsibility (for Gaza),” he told ABC News, “because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it.”

As plans go, though, this was probably deliberately vague. It could mean Israeli military boots on the ground. It could mean coordination with a peacekeeping force of some sort. In theory it could mean reoccupying Gaza as Israel did from 1967 to 2005, though despite this being favored by some right-wing ministers, it seems unlikely.

The most convenient solution for Israel, and the one US Secretary of State Antony Blinken appears to favor, would be re-establishing Palestinian Authority (PA) control in the strip – something that was violently wrested from the PA by Hamas in 2007.

But this probably won’t happen in the short-term. PA President, Mahmoud Abbas, now in his 19th year of a four-year term, already lacks legitimacy among Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

It’s hard to see him improving his standing by metaphorically riding into Gaza in the slipstream of Israeli tanks – at least not without the “comprehensive political solution that includes all of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip”, he said would be required. Again, this seems fanciful at best.

All of the above, of course, is based on two assumptions. First, that Israel fulfils its objectives, of destroying Hamas militarily, removing it from power and recovering the more than 200 hostages still being held by the militant group. And second, that Netanyahu remains in charge once the war is over – and that’s far from likely.

Most Israelis want to see him go. Moreover, as I wrote last month, the surprise would be if Netanyahu clings to power, not if he loses it. Which means the decision on what to do with Gaza the day after will most likely fall to someone else.

French authorities have recorded about 1,100 antisemitic acts since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Tuesday, more than three times the number reported earlier in October. 

Darmanin said France was witnessing "an explosion of antisemitic acts" and that the new figure represents "double of all antisemitic acts in all of 2022."

According to numbers published by the French Protection Service for the Jewish Community, which works with the Interior Ministry, in 2022 there were 436 antisemitic acts. 

Darmanin said authorities had so far detained 490 people related to the crimes. Some 120 of those are foreigners, he said. 

"Around 15 are in administrative detention awaiting their deportation, three have been already expelled and the others have had their residency permits withdrawn," said the minister on French Radio Sud, without specifying nationalities.

On October 17, French authorities reported 327 antisemitic acts and 183 detentions related to the crimes since the outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East. 

At least 569 aid trucks have entered Gaza since October 21, the United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) said in its regular update Monday.

Some 93 trucks primarily carrying food items, medicines, health supplies, bottled water and hygiene products crossed from Egypt into Gaza on Monday, OCHA said.

OCHA stressed that the entry of fuel is "desperately needed" to operate electricity generators to run life-saving equipment, but remains banned by the Israeli authorities.

"Gaza remains under a full electricity blackout since 11 October, following Israel’s halt of its power and fuel supply, which triggered the shutdown of Gaza’s sole power plant," OCHA said.