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Daily Briefing Nov 20: Day 45 – IDF brings proof hostages hidden, killed at Shifa Hospital

Military reporter Emanuel Fabian on allegations of IDF sexism that may have made the Oct. 7 shock attack possible; reporter Canaan Lidor on burying non-Jews murdered in the assault

By ToI Staff 20 November 2023, 2:00 pm 7 Edit

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Today is day 45 of the war. Military reporter Emanuel Fabian and reporter Canaan Lidor join host Amanda Borschel-Dan on today’s podcast.

Sixty-six soldiers have been killed so far in the ground offensive in Gaza. The IDF has presented evidence that several hostages taken from Israel into Gaza on October 7 were indeed in the Shifa Hospital compound and that one at least was killed there. Fabian fills us in.

Yesterday, we reported that Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed that they had hijacked an Israeli cargo ship traveling through the Red Sea. Israel, for its part, blamed Iran for the incident and denied that the vessel was Israeli. Fabian untangles the knot.

Even as the first mixed-gender unit entered Gaza yesterday, there are reports that senior commanders refused to heed the warnings of young female surveillance soldiers who were tasked with watching the Gaza border in the weeks before the brutal Hamas massacre on October 7. The soldiers believe sexism was a factor in their being ignored, according to a Haaretz report.

The October 30 burial of Alina Plahti, who was killed by Hamas at the Supernova rave, roiled the nation because she was buried outside the main cemetery in Beit She’an. Her father is Jewish, she served in the IDF, but she dropped out of her conversion program three years ago. Lidor explains.

Lidor dives into the increase of inflammatory language out of South Africa, including the use of “genocide.”

And finally, Lidor tells of a group of Jewish and Arab Israelis who are working together to clean up bomb shelters in Haifa.

For the latest updates, please look at The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.