Daily Recap: Hamas - Israel War October 22nd, 2023 (20:00) - Day 16

Field Notes from Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, IDF Spokesperson to International Media

Last night, the IDF Spokesperson for Arabic Media tweeted that residents of a few specific areas in northern Gaza should evacuate towards southern Gaza. We’ve now spent over a week urging residents of Gaza to move south, towards a safer humanitarian area.

There’s a glaringly strong contrast at play here. Not with Hamas’ surprise attack on residents across southern Israel, with Hamas’ massacre at the Super Nova music festival or with the 7,000 rockets launched indiscriminately at the Israeli homefront.

The IDF’s notices to the people of Gaza - intended to protect them from IDF’s strikes on Hamas - should stand in contrast with the way Hamas treats its own civilians.

Since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 and until today, one of the most reprehensible aspects of Hamas is how the organization endangers its own men, women and children. How it positions rocket launchers and command centers deep in the heart of Gaza. How it digs fortified tunnels under UN schools. How it hides terrorist leaders in densely populated areas. And yes, with how it forces its residents to stay in the line of fire.

Our war is not with the people of Gaza. It’s with a murderous organization that attacks Israelis, while intentionally endangers its own residents to protect its leadership. And it’s a war we will win while maintaining the moral high ground.

Key Links

• IDF targeting of a rocket launching squad with the “Iron Sting” (Video)
• The IDF released data that about 550 rockets fired from Gaza have exploded within the Gaza Strip. (Video, Graphic)

Southern Arena:

Preparations to intensify activities against Hamas in Gaza are ongoing. IDF strikes in Gaza continue with the same focus - striking at Hamas leadership or terrorists who were involved in the October 7th attacks, targeting Hamas military or administrative sites, and targeting military sites in effort to improve the IDF’s operational flexibility.

As part of the efforts to target senior Hamas leadership, the IDF targeted Muhamad Qatmash, the Deputy Head of Hamas' Artillery Unit who was also responsible for artillery operations in Hamas' Central Brigade. A number of terrorist sites were targeted over the course of the night, including dozens of military tunnels, command centers, mosques used as operational war rooms, weapons storage sites and more.

Yesterday, the IDF killed two terror operatives near the security fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip, one of whom was a "Nukbha" operative.

Northern Arena 

Hezbollah’s ongoing aggression against Israeli communities and military sites has continued with anti-tank missiles fired towards northern communities. In all cases, the IDF responded to the sources of fire. The IDF is carefully monitoring the region and on at least two cases, today and yesterday, forces identified terrorist cells attempting to launch anti-tank missiles in advance and neutralized the threats. A UAV launched from Lebanon was intercepted Sunday morning by the Israeli Aerial Defense Array.
The same system had also intercepted a rocket launched at an Israeli UAV which was not damaged. On two occasions over the past day, mortars and rockets were fired at Israel.

On Saturday, an IDF soldier was severely injured, he was hit by an anti-tank missile in the Bar'am area and later succumbed to his wounds. Two additional soldiers were lightly injured and received medical treatment at the scene.

Homefront

Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza continue to indiscriminately target the Israeli homefront. Over the past day, rockets were fired from Gaza towards central and southern Israel. The IDF also released data that some 550 rockets fired from Gaza have misfired since the start of the war, landing in Gaza.

In light of the ongoing threat to the Israeli homefront up north and in order to ensure operational flexibility, the Ministry of Defence expanded the evacuation of northern communities, adding another 14 communities to the list. To date, some 120,000 Israeli civilians have been asked to evacuate in southern and northern Israel. To date, 212 families have been notified that their loved ones were abducted and 307 families were notified that their loved ones were killed in action.

Judea and Samaria

In a joint IDF and Israeli Security Agency activity, the IDF conducted an aerial strike on an underground terror compound in the Al-Ansar mosque in Jenin. The mosque contained a Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror cell that intelligence had identified as planning an imminent terror attack. The mosque was used by the terrorists as a command center to plan the attacks and as a base for their execution.