Israel-Hamas War SITREP for 13 OCT 2023 - Rockets, Bombs, and Diplomacy (Patreon)

Action Report

There weren’t any significant clashes between Hamas and the IDF in Israeli territory adjacent to the Gaza Strip on October 13. Efforts to clear the exclusion zone around the Gaza Strip and locate Hamas stragglers appear to have been effective. Civilian evacuations continue, with only 30% of the pre-war population remaining in Sderot.

The IDF reported they conducted “localized raids” into the Gaza Strip, involving infantry supported by tanks. An IDF spokesperson said the operations were successful and targeted antitank squads and Hamas militants preparing to enter Israeli territory.

Hamas and Israeli military spokespersons reported that between 120 to 150 rockets were fired at Ashkelon and 50 at Sderot. Additional rockets were fired at Ashdod and Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. At least seven rockets struck apartment buildings and homes in Sderot, three in Ashkelon, and one in Rehovot, a suburb of Tel Aviv. One civilian was wounded in Rehovot.

Hamas claimed it launched an Ayyash 250 rocket, with a reported range of 250 kilometers, targeting Israeli’s northern military headquarters in Galilee in the city of Safed. The missile was intercepted by the David Sling medium-range air defense system developed by Rafael and Raytheon. The IDF claims that since October 7, Hamas has launched 6,000 rockets into Israel. The al-Qassem Brigade claimed it launched two kamikaze drones at IDF troop concentrations in Mutabar and Saad. There were no reports of casualties.

In the West Bank, Palestinian militants clashed with police and the IDF, responding to the call to hold a day of rage. There were an estimated 30 incidents involving the exchange of small arms fire. In the Southern Hebron Hills, a video captured an Israeli settler shooting an unarmed and non-confrontational Palestinian at point-blank range. The IDF subdued the gunman and took them into custody. In a separate incident, border police killed four Palestinian militants who detonated an improvised explosive device in an industrial zone near Tulkarem. Palestinian officials report that since October 7, 35 have been killed, but it was unclear if that includes up to nine killed during “the day of rage.”

In the north, the IDF ordered the partial evacuation of the settlement of Metula, which is located on the U.N. Blue Line border between Israel and Lebanon. The reason for the evacuation was unclear, and there were no reports of fighting or artillery exchanges in the area. Israeli air defense shot down drones over Haifa and Shfaram.

There was an explosion that damaged the border wall between Israel and Lebanon at Hanita. The IDF responded with counterbattery fire targeting Hezbollah positions. Hezbollah took responsibility for shelling the Israeli village of Misgav Am. During counterbattery fire by tanks and artillery, a group of reporters were doing a live report near the Hezbollah firebase. One was killed, and six were wounded, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Reuters-Thompson camera operator Issam Abdallah was identified as one of the people killed, and two of the wounded work for Aljazeera. Reuters-Thompson said it was “urgently” working with authorities to understand the details of the incident. The Committee reported that since October 7, 11 journalists have been killed.

Malcontent News condemns attacks on all journalists. Combatants have a duty to both protect and not target journalists when they adhere to the accepted practices of combat journalism and operate within the guidelines of their accreditation.

Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassim told pro-Palestinian protesters in Beirut that the Iran-backed militants were “fully prepared, and when the time comes for action, we will take it.” He also said that the appearance of United States warships meant to deter Hezbollah from entering the war “do not interest us.”

The United States moved 24 F-15 Strike Eagles from South Korea to Jordan to add deterrence against foreign intervention against Israel.

The Israeli Air Force reported it carried out 750 sorties in the last 24 hours. The IDF released a video showing Hamas using the rooftops of apartment buildings to launch drones, striking the locations because they are “hostile UAV launch positions.”

Israel called for 1.1 million people to evacuate the northern part of the Gaza Strip and ordered all hospitals to be evacuated by 06:00 hours local time on Saturday. Hamas called for civilians to ignore the order to evacuate, and there were verified reports that in some buildings, civilians were prevented from leaving. The United Nations blasted Israeli officials, saying that 24 hours was not enough time to evacuate that many people. UNRWA announced it would honor the order but declared that the schools should be off-limits as military targets. Videos circulated claiming that the IAF had attacked a green corridor, but at the time of publication, we could not verify its authenticity. (the information space is incredibly challenging)

Also, at the time of publication, there were unconfirmed reports that Tel Aviv had extended the evacuation deadline.

War Crimes and Human Rights

As an editorial policy, we are referring to Hamas fighters as militants and not terrorists. The attack on October 7 was the equivalent of three battalions in size and demonstrated combined arms capabilities and previously unseen asymmetrical warfare tactics that go beyond a terrorist attack. Further, in calling Hamas terrorists, there is less accountability for the command and control structures, which ordered what can be described as an invasion.

European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola toured Kfar Aza. In a tweet, she wrote, “One of the epicenters of the atrocities committed by Hamas last weekend. The horror of what happened here is unspeakable. We mourn with the families of the victims.”

Documents and battleplans found on the corpses of Hamas militants showed there was extensive planning for the October 7 attacks, including mission objectives of killing civilians and taking hostages.

Several news publications released extremely graphic pictures of Hamas atrocities, as expected. Don't search for them. 

Earlier in the day, the World Health Organization appealed to Israel to reverse its evacuation order. The group stated that hospitals in southern Gaza have already far exceeded capacity and that 100 patients in critical condition are too fragile to move for any reason. WHO, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates have medical supplies staged in Egypt. However, Cairo remains steadfast in refusing to reopen its border crossing with Gaza for any reason despite mounting pressure from dozens of nations.

U.N. Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been “working the phones” and urging Israeli officials to “avert a humanitarian catastrophe.”

United States officials reportedly also appealed to Tel Aviv to reconsider the deadline while acknowledging that military planners are balancing the time involved.

There has been no progress on opening the Egyptian border crossing, with officials saying it could take days or weeks.

Sidebar: While social media is questioning why Israel won't open the borders to allow evacuation, there is a declared state of war in place.

Human Rights Watch accused Israel of using white phosphorus munitions in Gaza, which are the same videos we analyzed that appeared to be cluster munitions. Israel confirmed that it had used 155 mm M825 and M825A1 smoke rounds, which use phosphorus. In our analysis, the videos we saw were inconsistent with M825 projectiles, which have been used extensively in Ukraine. As we noted in our previous assessment, an on-the-ground inspection would be required for final verification. White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Olivia Dalton said Friday that the U.S. had not independently verified allegations Israel used white phosphorous, adding, "that is not something I would want to speculate about or weigh in on at this time."

Casualties

We cannot independently verify claims made by either combatant and are reporting from publicly available government sources. In war, all combatants underreport their military causalities, overreport their enemy's military casualties, and overreport civilian causalities. All numbers should be considered unverified. Additionally, organizations such as the United Nations and Red Cross only report casualty numbers after a rigorous investigative process. Because of the requirements, the numbers reported are vastly lower than reality. Thank you for your understanding.

Israel: Officials did not release updated causalities numbers for civilians or the military.

There were updates on the number of foreign nationals listed as killed or missing, with 31 nations reporting 147 of their citizens were killed:

• Argentina - 7 dead, 15 unaccounted
• Australia - 1 dead
• Austria - 2 dead (decrease), 2 unaccounted
• Azerbaijan - 3 dead, 1 unaccounted
• Belarus - 3 dead, 1 unaccounted
• Belgium – 2 dead
• Brazil - 2 dead, 1 unaccounted
• Cambodia - 1 dead
• Canada - 3 dead, 3 unaccounted
• Chile - 1 dead (reduction), 1 unaccounted
• China - 4 dead, 1 unaccounted
• Columbia - 2 hostages
• Estonia – 1 dead
• France - 15 dead, “many” unaccounted
• Germany – 4 dead, 13 unaccounted
• Ireland - 1 dead
• Italy - 3 unaccounted
• Kazakhstan – 2 dead
• Mexico - 2 hostages
• Moldova – 1 dead
• Nepal - 10 dead, 1 unaccounted
• Paraguay - 2 unaccounted
• Peru - 2 dead, 3 unaccounted
• Philippines - 3 dead, 3 unaccounted
• Poland – 1 dead
• Portugal - 1 dead, 4 unaccounted
• Russia - 4 dead, 6 missing
• South Africa – 2 dead
• Spain - 1 dead
• Sri Lanka - 2 unaccounted
• Tanzania - 2 unaccounted
• Thailand - 21 dead, 16 hostages, 9 missing
• Türkiye - 1 dead, 1 unaccounted
• Ukraine - 12 dead, 8 missing
• United Kingdom - 7 dead, 17 unaccounted (per BBC)
• United States - 27 dead, undetermined number of missing and hostages
• Uzbekistan – 2 dead

Some of the unaccounted were within Gaza visiting family when the hostilities started. Israeli officials reported only four Thai nationals were killed on Friday, while Thai officials maintain that 21 of their citizens died.

Hamas/Gaza: The Gaza Health Ministry reported that 1,900 Palestinians had been killed and 7,696 wounded. There have been no official statements from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs/State Department from other nations on dead, wounded, or missing citizens. Hamas and Gaza officials have not released any casualty numbers among militants.