October 184, 2023, “The War”
My 138th post on The War
NOTE: At the recommendation of many friends I have chosen to shift venues of my daily war update to substack. It became too difficult on Facebook to post and there were people who do not use Facebook that wanted to read. You are receiving this because I had your email address AND you have either commented on my posts or indicated to me someway that you read them. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO RECEIVE THESE, LET ME KNOW EITHER IN COMMENTS, BY EMAIL OR OVER FACEBOOK MESSENGER. Likewise, if you know of someone that should be receiving these but aren’t let me know. I will try to post the links to the posts on FB… Also, as I learn how to use substack, I will work on continual improvement of the posts. Hopefully, more of you will comment so I can get an idea of whether these posts are helping or not.
No rockets fired from Gaza landed in Israel in the past seven days. The IDF reports one casualty in the past 24 hours: Staff Sgt. Nadav Cohen, 20 (Z’’L). His death brings the IDF casualty count from Gaza operations to 256, 600 if the casualties on October 7 are included.
The IDF announced that its forces have withdrawn from Shifa Hospital in Gaza, ending a two week operation resulting in the death of more than 200 terrorists, the capture of 900 suspects (400 were later released and 500 confirmed terrorist operatives), a huge amount of intelligence, many weapons hidden in the facility and the capture (or death) of some senior Hamas officials. Here is a summary in English . Unfortunately, despite nearly zero civilian casualties there was considerable damage to facilities nearby the hospital due to grenades, mortars fired from within the hospital grounds by the terrorists against IDF troops.
As I mentioned yesterday, a similar operation has been launched by IDF forces at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza where many Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives and senior commanders have taken over the facility and established a command center there.
In other Gaza operations IDF infantry has been very busy in central Gaza and in/around Khan Younis. Aerial drones spot terrorist cells that pop out of tunnel shafts and try to launch attacks on nearby IDF troops. Attack helicopters and armed UAVs have been successful in protecting the IDF troops.
The Israeli government is starting to ramp up aid operations into Gaza. In part this is intended to try and fix the distribution problem in northern Gaza, get ready for the upcoming Rafah operation and address the widespread (pretty baseless) complaining ongoing from international aid organizations. I say that all these worldwide charges lodged unfairly against Israel regarding aid are baseless. Check this out . And yesterday you saw my posts regarding how many hundreds of trucks with aid are sitting on the Egyptian side of the border, after completing inspection by the IDF, for no apparent reason. To repeat, THERE IS NO AID PROBLEM IN SOUTHERN GAZA. NO ONE IS AT RISK OF STARVING. There are issues with distribution, trucks getting hijacked and civilians being shot by armed terrorists, in northern Gaza.
To illustrate part of the problem in aid distribution, Hamas announced on its state run media that it had arrested members of the Palestinian Authority’s General Intelligence Service after entering Gaza through the Egyptian border. They were on a mission intended to secure the aid trucks from when they entered from the Egyptian border to their various points of distribution. Those of you that have been following my posts will recall that I highlighted the nature of this problem. Essentially, it will not be possible to come up with either a “day after plan” nor a solid alternative in aid distribution until Hamas forces are really dismantled. And that requires the entry of IDF forces into Rafah and a successful IDF operation there.
Meantime, the Israeli government submitted a detailed report to the UN documenting how Hamas took over the UNRWA aid organization and essentially used it as a shadow of itself to continue training terrorists. I wonder if anyone at the UN will bother reading it, much less take any action. France and Finland announced that they will resume aid to this corrupt organization.
Parents of the members of one IDF special forces unit, called Egoz (meaning nut in Hebrew), signed a letter and sent it to Prime Minister Netanyahu complaining that their sons are risking their lives on behalf of the country and putting themselves at extreme risk because the IDF hesitates in the use of artillery, airborne missiles and IAV launched missiles in an attempt to reduce casualties amongst the enemy. Previously, about two months ago, a similar letter was penned by mothers of soldiers in a different special forces unit but made complaints along the same lines. I do not know many armies in the world where the generals must meet and take note of complaints from mothers of actively serving soldiers. But this is Israel.
In one bizarre incident, early today the 57 year old sister of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was arrested in a southern Israeli town of Tel Sheva. She lives there with her husband. Evidence has been found that she is collaborating with terror organizations and assisting them in attacking Israeli citizens. They found documents and other evidence documenting her collaboration. They also found hundreds of thousands of dollars, in cash, in her possession. I guess that lavish lifestyles run in the family. Collaborating with terrorists is a federal offense in Israel. If convicted, she will serve time in prison. I believe, that she is actually an Israeli citizen, but am not certain. I will update when I know more.
Yesterday three Israelis were seriously injured in a terrorist attack perpetrated by young terrorists in a small Israeli town called Gan Yavne. The terrorist is from a village not far from Hebron in Judea (West Bank). All three were stabbed and remain in serious condition at several different hospitals. One of the perpetrators turned himself in. The incident is still under investigation as there were likely other collaborators. So far two Arab Israeli citizens have been arrested for collaboration with the terrorist. Apparently they drove him to the scene of the attack. You can see a video of the attack taken by a security camera here.
Today IDF fighter jets struck more than 10 Hezbollah military targets in southern Lebanon, including several weapons depots and rocket launchers in and around the village of Rachaya Al-Foukhar. Many rocket launchers exist in and around the village.
Apparently, the meeting between US and Israeli government officials regarding the Rafah operation are back on. First step is starting with a secure video conference call between the two parties. The US Biden Administration insists that it has alternatives to having IDF forces enter Rafah to take out Hamas. Rumors are that it involves the IDF taking over the Gaza side of the border with Egypt and launching commando raids from there. I am not military expert but I am very, very skeptical and believe that this is just another attempt by the Biden Administration to placate the far left elements of the Democratic Party in an election year. But, honestly I don’t see it either acceptable to the left elements of the party that are demanding a complete 100% unilateral IDF ceasefire, nor does it accomplish the Israeli goal of taking down Hamas. So I fail to understand what they intend to accomplish. But just like the advice the US Defense Dept provided in the first two weeks of the war, in October, the IDF will listen and thank the US. And then do what they need to do. At least, this is my opinion.
A new phenomenon has started developing now in the hostage/anti-government protests. More and more of the hostage families, in an effort to dissociate themselves from what has become anti-government protests, have started demanding that photographs of their loved ones being held hostage be removed from the protest banners. I would not say that this is near a majority of the families, but it is a growing number.
There is a bill being submitted for review to the parliament which would enable the government to close down offices of foreign, not domestic, news networks. It is nicknamed the “Al Jazeera Law” as it is believed that this will be the first target. It passed the first of four steps towards being enacted as a law. My view is that while a law like this should be enacted, I do not believe it is reasonable to leave this solely in the hands of the Prime Minister and a handful of cabinet ministers. It should be subject to some form of general review process. But we will see.
Last night a drone launched from Iraq crossed Jordanian airspace into Israeli territory near the southern city of Eilat and struck a small IDF naval base there . It was detected but not eliminated by the IDF. The circumstances are now under investigation - how could it cross Jordanian airspace undetected and how could it avoid Israeli detection systems. An Iranian proxy in Iraq took credit. This suggests that we have a new front in this war. This raises the whole subject of Jordan. The USA, the Arab Gulf States, and to a lesser extent Israel, are becoming increasingly concerned about the stability of the Jordanian monarchy. The country consists of about 65% Arabs who left pre-state Israel, Palestinians by some definition. They have a peace treaty with Israel from which they benefit greatly, economically getting needed water and gas. Yet, most parliament members and the general population detest Israel. I visited there once, with my daughters, and I asked a Bedouin guide if he ever considered visiting the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. Typical of most Jordanians he said that no. His parents never visited it when it was occupied by Jordan between 1948 and 1967. And he would not consider visiting while it was part of Israel. On the Syrian border, each day are smuggled tons of drugs that get distributed amongst the population in Jordan. Syria has become a major drug manufacturing center and an income stream for the government and Hezbollah. And attack attempts are launched on a daily basis across the Syrian-Jordanian border. Not very stable.
You might find this short article worth reading . Based on documents secured during raids in Hamas tunnels, the IDF has documented proof of communications between the various Palestinian terrorist groups accusing each other of firing failed rockets landing inside Gaza and killing civilians, prior to October 7. The documents site many civilian casualties resulting from these launches that ultimately were blamed on aerial attacks from Israeli jets.
Many of you know, that while I regularly post links to articles I either think you will find worth reading/watching/listening, or articles to back up my stories I seldom push you hard and insist you read a specific one. The last time I did that was on November 13 when I urged you to listen to a Sam Harris podcast. So NOW, AGAIN, I STRONGLY URGE YOU TO READ AND WATCH THIS IN DEPTH REPORTING FROM BARI WEISS OF “THE FREE PRESS” -
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Eric -- Thanks for switching to Substack. I am much less likely to miss your posts AND caan more easily recommend to my non-FB friends.