War Day 551: Houthi Missile Lands in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia to Take Gazans

Summary: April 9, 2025

• Hostage Negotiations: Intense diplomatic efforts are underway behind the scenes to secure a hostage deal.
• Ceasefire Timeline: Former U.S. President Donald Trump has reportedly expressed support for a ceasefire within the next 2–3 weeks.
• Humanitarian Support: Indonesia has announced plans to accept displaced individuals from Gaza.
• Regional Incidents: An Israeli UAV has reportedly crashed in Lebanon.
• Diplomatic Mediation: Azerbaijan is currently mediating between Turkey and Israel to ease tensions.
• Security Escalation: A missile launched by the Houthis has landed in Saudi Arabia, escalating regional concerns.
• Military Policy Update: The IDF has updated its grooming policy, now allowing all soldiers to grow beards.

59 held captive in Gaza.
35 hostages confirmed murdered held in Gaza.
147 living hostages rescued.
49 hostage bodies rescued.
1,828 Israelis killed.
413 fallen soldiers and police in the battle in Gaza.
87 fallen soldiers in Northern Israel.
18 fallen soldiers and police in Judea & Samaria.
30,708 estimated projectiles fired at Israel.
20,000 Israelis estimated displaced from their homes.
1 Jewish nation united in prayer, charity, and good deeds.

Top Headlines:

• Strong efforts behind the scenes for a hostage deal
• Reports that Trump wants ceasefire within 2-3 weeks
• More advances in Gaza, terrorists, launchers, and tunnels destroyed
• Notorious Oct 7 terrorist eliminated
• Indonesia to take in Gazans
• Three heavyweight terrorists arrested in Samaria
• IDF UAV crashes in Lebanon
• Azerbaijan mediating between Turkey and Israel
• Houthi missile falls short, lands in Saudi Arabia
• If there’s an attack on Iran, it will be led by Israel
• Trump says he’ll just know if and when talks with Iran are over
• IDF soldiers now have more freedom to grow beards (men), wear colorful nail polish (women), and go home in combat uniform.

Hostages:

According to sources in the Trump administration (as reported by Ynet), the U.S. is pressing hard for a hostages deal, and they see it as part of a wider Middle East move, aimed at ending the war in Gaza, and normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. They also see the talks with Iran as connected to the issue.

Israeli officials who spoke with their counterparts also gained the impression that the Trump administration is currently backing the war in Gaza, but wants to wrap it up in two or three weeks.

Gaza:

Hamas did not successfully launch any rockets into Israel today. Thank G-d, there were no fallen soldiers in Gaza, despite a large deployment. May G-d continue to protect our soldiers!

Over the last 24 hours, the IDF struck 45 terror targets across the Gaza Strip. Among the targets was a weapons production site, a rocket launching site—which was primed and ready to fire at Israel, terror military buildings, weapons depots, and terrorist cells.

Three IDF divisions are currently operating in Gaza:

Division 252 is operating in Northern Gaza, with the heaviest focus currently in Shejaiya, where troops are thoroughly clearing out all terrorist infrastructure (including weapons and rocket launchers). Troops also located and eliminated several terrorists, mostly from a safe distance by calling in airstrikes.

Division 143 (aka the Gaza Division) is operating in the Tel Sultan and Shabura neighborhoods of Rafah, where they are finding and destroying many tunnel shafts, as well as weapons and a large cache of mortar bombs. Troops also located and eliminated a number of terrorists operating in the neighborhood.

Division 36 is operating at the northern end of Rafah, where they are establishing the Morag Corridor. The IDF does not detail their exact location, in order to keep Hamas in the dark, but says that they have located and destroyed buildings and tunnels used by Hamas, and eliminated terrorists. The entire Rafah has been added to the buffer zone, and this might be permanent.

Gazan media reports that terrorist Hamza Asfa was recently eliminated by the IDF. Asfa participated in the October 7th massacre, and is seen in video footage from that day throwing two grenades into a small bomb shelter where civilians were hiding. He was also a Hamas police officer.

Some media reports say that Hamas is not fighting in Gaza, and has instead retreated, leaving empty areas to the IDF. This report doesn’t corroborate with what I’m hearing from feet on ground. While the IDF does believe that many terrorists blended in with civilians and are hiding in the humanitarian zones, there are still many armed terrorists in the combat zones. Soldiers are facing far less (almost zero) close combat, mostly because they now have many drones, and are able to search ahead at every step. Since they also have more artillery now, and more freedom to destroy buildings suspected to have terrorists in them, they are able to eliminate more terrorists from a distance. The airfare is also destroying many more threats than previously before troops enter a new area.

There is a possibility that many terrorists feel that they can wait out the battle by hiding with civilians, since they expect a ceasefire soon. But reports of there being zero terrorists in the field are completely false.

Hamas started off the war with around 40,000 terrorist combatants. Nearly 30,000 of the original combatants were either killed, captured, or severely injured. Combined with new recruits and returned terrorists, Hamas now has an estimated 20,000 combatants. Nearly half of them have barely received any training.

Hamas also still has many tunnels. The IDF estimates that it destroyed just 25% of Hamas’s tunnels. Due to constraints until now, the IDF focused on destroying the tunnels that were used by Hamas as command centers, and for weapons manufacturing. Most of the remaining tunnels are more simple, and are used by Hamas to move around Gaza unseen. We’re yet to see if the IDF will destroy the remaining tunnels, now that there is less shortage of bombs.

Prime Minister Netanyahu told his security cabinet that negotiations are underway with two large countries who are considering taking in a large number of Gazans who want to emigrate voluntarily.

Separately, President Prabowo Subianto of Indonesia said that his country will be taking in “wounded, traumatized, and orphaned” Gazans. The program will begin with a first wave of around 1,000 Gazans. He added that their stay would be temporary, until they fully recover or Gaza becomes safe for their return.

Judea & Samaria:

In an overnight operation in Shechem (Nablus), the IDF arrested two dangerous terrorists. One of the terrorists was Mahmoud Bana, a former senior member of the “Lions’ Den” terror group, which the IDF has mostly collapsed. Bana was armed with an M-16 riffle and a grenade launcher at the time of his arrest.

Yesterday, special forces arrested Khalil Hanbali, a terrorist who was wanted for his involvement in shooting attacks against IDF forces, and for serving as a major arms dealer amongst the terrorist population. Handball was heavily armed at the time of his arrest, with several weapons found in his possession.

A year after the attack, the IDF destroyed the former home of terrorist Mujahid Mansour, who killed Sgt. First Class David Gurfinkel and wounded six other soldiers near Dolev. Mansour was eliminated in a helicopter strike, immediately after the attack.

Lebanon:

An IDF unmanned aircraft crashed in Lebanese territory due to a technical malfunction. The IDF says there is no concern about a security incident and there is no concern about a leak of information.

Syria:

Efforts are ongoing to prevent Turkey from setting up a military base in Syria near Israel’s security buffer zone. So far there have been reports that Turkey and Israel have a level of coordination established to prevent direct conflict, and that the U.S. is also ensuring that Turkey doesn’t cause problems.

Today, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev announced: “We are mediating in the current crisis between Turkey and Israel. Both states are close friends of ours. The tension between these two countries is very disturbing and worrying. Two years ago, Azerbaijan also mediated in resolving the previous crisis between Turkey and Israel. We acted then behind the scenes and did not publicize the things. It is always bad for you when your friends have a bad relationship — bad for them, bad for us, and bad for the world.”

Yemen:

A ballistic missile launched by the Houthis in Yemen fell short of Israel and landed in an empty area in Saudi Arabia. No sirens were activated in Israel because the missile did not pose a threat (sirens are only activated if the missile’s trajectory indicates that it will arrive in a civilian area in two minutes or less. In some cases, pre-siren warnings will be given ahead of time, if the trajectory is confirmed.

Since the end of the ceasefire, the Houthis have launched at least 18 ballistic missiles towards Israel, of which 8 fell short and did not activate sirens in Israel.

The Houthis claim to have launched an attack drone at Israel today, but no such thing arrived.

Iran:

In response to questions about military action against Iran, U.S. President Trump told reporters: “But with Iran—yeah, if it requires military, we’re going to have military. Israel will obviously be very involved in that—maybe even lead it. But nobody leads us. We do what we want to do.”

Asked what would determine when it’s time to attack, he responded: “When you start talks, you know pretty quickly whether they’re going well or not. So the conclusion would be—when I feel they’re not going well. That’s just how I’d know.”

Trump’s comments about Israel leading the attack (with emphasis that the U.S. does what it wants to) corroborates with reports that the attack on Iran will mostly be lead by Israel, with backup support from the U.S. This will allow the Trump administration to act as if it’s not the one launching another war, since Trump promised to end wars.

U.S. Senator Kennedy voiced similar on Fox News today: “If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, there’s going to be a war. And Iran won’t start it. And I’m not saying America will. Israel will. Israel will slap Iran to Pluto. And I don’t blame them.”

In the pre-security cabinet briefing today, Netanyahu said that Israel knew in advance about the U.S. talks with Iran, and the U.S. wanted to hear Israel’s perspective for a good agreement. (This confirms suspicions that Iran was the real reason for Netanyahu’s sudden Washington visit, and the tariffs were just a cover.)

Other:

The IDF is implementing a series of changes to its dress code, making things easier on soldiers during a time when there are few breaks. Changes include permission for all soldiers to grow a beard (previously only Haredi soldiers were allowed), most colors of nail polish will now be approved for female soldiers, and soldiers will be allowed to leave for home in their tactical uniforms rather than having to change into their dress uniforms first.

IDF soldiers in a terrorist’s home in Rafah use their break to learn Gemara with their commander

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