No rockets fired from Gaza landed in Israel in the past eight days. The IDF reports no casualties in the past 24 hours.
Today, is one of mixed emotions for many of us. First, the bad news, maybe tragic is a more apt description. Yesterday, Israeli UAVs under the command of the IAF mistakenly struck three automobiles in central Gaza whose passengers were seven staff members of the World Central Kitchen. All seven were killed. Apparently, either the UAV operator or a nearby infantryman thought that they saw an armed figure riding on one of the vehicles. The automobiles were marked with the aid organizations logos on the sides and on the top of the cars to identify them from the air. The problem is that Hamas routinely marks their vehicles in a similar fashion to avoid being hit from the air. This is the aid group which brought aid from Cyprus by boat to Gaza. The IDF cooperated with that operation both in Cyprus and Gaza. Unlike many of the other aid workers at UNRWA, ICRC or WHO, these aid workers are not Hamas operatives that moonlight working for some aid organization. These were genuine, bonafide, idealistic people who were just trying to “do good”. It is terrible. The IDF has accepted blame and issued sincere apologies to the aid organization and the families of those killed. Prime Minister Netanyahu publicly issued his sincere apologies for this terrible mistake and said that the incident will be thoroughly investigated. President Isaac Herzog called the founder of the World Central Kitchen, Jose Andres, expressed his deep sorrow and apologized for the tragic deaths. The IDF has launched a full investigation to understand exactly how and why the UAV fired the missiles, so that it can avoid such tragedies in the future. Our Defense Minister Gallant instructed the IDF to pursue four measures in response to the incident:
establish a team to investigate the incident,
open a new command room for the military to better coordinate humanitarian aid activity in Gaza,
support distribution mechanisms by allocating appropriate resources and
brief international organizations and partners on the details of the incident and subsequent actions being taken” while maintaining “an open and transparent line of communication.”
The IDF’s chief spokesman issues a video describing what happened here . You should watch it. It is not long. Terrible news. And the government has reached out directly to the aid organization in an effort to encourage closer cooperation in order to avoid another accident like yesterday. Emissaries from the government have been dispatched to the countries of origin of each aid worker so they can meet with the affected families. Secretary of State Blinken issued a statement saying that Israel needs to do more to protect relief workers. I would agree in the case of the WCK organization, but not so in case of the others.
In the aftermath the aid organization announced that it would continue its aid operations in some areas and cut back in others in order to protect its staff. The UAE said it would temporarily suspend its maritime aid corridor. Apparently, they have been the main financier of many of these aid operations. Cyprus announced that it is ready and able to continue assisting in the aid operations.
On the other hand, from an Israeli perspective, there is great news that came out of Damascus, Syria today. Late yesterday an unidentified fighter jet inside Syrian airspace launched missiles at the Iranian Embassy in Damascus. An adjacent building was flattened. Al-Arabiya (Saudi National News) and the New York Times have attributed the attack to the IAF. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard IRGC issued a statement carried by Iranian government controlled news outlets announcing the deaths of seven members of the IRGC including its senior most official in Syria, Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his deputy, Mohammed Taj Rahimi. Zahedi, a top IRGC commander of its Al-Quds Force was responsible for overseeing all the Iranian militias in Syria and Lebanon. He worked very closely with Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah. Apparently, Zahedi helped in the building of Hezbollah as a jihadi terrorist organization. Israel’s Army radio station said that Zahedi oversaw all Iranian terrorist operations against Israel from Syria, Lebanon and, even, in Judea/Samaria (West Bank). His assassination is being viewed as the most significant one since the US Army assassinated Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani in 2020. Iran also announced that one of the dead is Hussein Alan al-Lahi. He was also a senior member of the Quds Force of the IRGC. The Iranian leadership issued extreme threats against Israel, who has not taken any responsibility for the attack. So you know it must have hurt. Later this evening Iranian television updated their report and apparently 13 IRGC officials were killed in the strike. Russia announced that it is insisting that the UN Security Council meet immediately to issue a condemnation of Israel, despite the fact that Israel has made no claim that it is responsible?? But why not. What else does the Security Council due with its copious spare time and unlimited financial resources, but condemn Israel at every turn. Hezbollah announced “This crime will not pass without revenge and punishment for the enemy”. Well somebody with excellent fighter jet pilots just did the world a big favor.
Here is a great analysis of the significance of this assassination by a friend of mine, and fellow skipper, Seth Frantzman . And here is a great article on the incident in the Wall Street Journal . Naturally, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the killing of this mass murderer. And in this report from Al-Arabiya, you can see how the USA is sending mixed signals. In their public communications they claim that Israel was responsible for the attack and that they had no prior knowledge. But Israel never took responsibility? And why should the USA go around claiming to a common enemy that Israel was responsible???
As I mentioned a couple days ago, in the aftermath of its highly successful operation at Shifa Hospital in the Ri’mal neighborhood of Gaza City that wrapped up yesterday, the IDF has launched similar, but lower scale operations at a couple other hospitals being used as terrorist command centers after having previously cleaned them out of terrorists in earlier campaigns. According to IDF briefings, dozens of terrorists have been arrested at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the past couple of days. Some terrorists were killed and arms are being found in patient rooms and staff offices. This is an ongoing operation and I expect more reports in the coming days. Also, in Gaza the IAF conducted airborne strikes, today, against many weapons depots and tunnels in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis. IDF infantry was also active in the area, killing terrorists operating as cells. Incidentally, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that the operation in Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza amounted to "ripping the heart out" of the Gaza health system. Not a word about all the arms and terrorists taking over all the facilities there, displacing staff and patients.
Meanwhile, on the Lebanese border, Hezbollah fired off multiple rocket barrages at towns and villages along a 5 km strip along the border. Several Iron Dome missiles took out some of the rockets before they could strike. Others were allowed to land in open areas. There were no reports of injuries or damage.
And today, like yesterday, another drone traversed Jordanian airspace targeted Israel’s southern city of Eilat. It was also launched by Iran backed proxies in Iraq and was navigated by Iranian forces. This one landed inside Jordanian territory, within about 200 meters of the border with Israel. These same proxies are trying to destabilize the Jordanian monarchy, but this attack was directed towards Israel. You can see a photo here .
The preliminary video conference meeting between US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi took place earlier today. Leaks from the meeting suggest that it did not go all that well. Sullivan and Blinken insist that the plans for the Rafah operation, as presented, would take too long and risk large civilian casualties. The US officials, apparently, informed the Israeli that their plans for evacuating civilians would take too long. The reply they got back was that sufficient time was necessary to minimize casualties and to ensure the proper facilities were established for the displaced elsewhere, before the IDF forces could enter Rafah, thereby turning it into a battle zone. Apparently Sullivan insisted that the plan would result in massive deficiencies in aid and resulting hunger by the population. The Israelis replied that there was no way to achieve the basic aim of the war, dismantle Hamas’ military infrastructure and its ability to rule Gaza, without going into Rafah and taking on the remaining 4-5 terrorist battalions. I am not sure yet where this conversation is headed next. The Israeli officials said that they would brief the Israeli War Cabinet on the conversations and give due consideration to the US suggestions. But, the Israeli delegation is right. If the Hamas battalions left in Rafah remain intact, there is no way that Hamas will not quickly restructure and resume its jihadi terrorist state, then attack Israel again. This is just not acceptable. And from our view here, the US Administration’s plan of blocking the border and conducting narrow strikes in Rafah with the population in place is much worse and will result in more civilian casualties than what the IDF is intending to pursue.
The internal, but highly prominent issue pertaining to the draft exemption afforded to the ultra-orthodox has taken another turn. At the order of the state’s Attorney General the IDF has been instructed to start issuing draft notices to all draft age, eligible ultra-orthodox young men. While I absolutely agree that the ultra-orthodox must serve in the military in some capacity, I am not sure what this order will lead to. Most likely the ones receiving these notices will either burn them or ignore them, at the order of their rabbis. And then what happens? I can’t see them being placed in massive prisons. So stay tuned as this story is not going to disappear and I assure you it is going to have many twists and turns in the coming weeks and months.
Spain has announced that it will recognize a Palestinian State in July. I really do not know what that means. Are they going to draw some kind of border? Are they going to place an Embassy in Ramallah? I am sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to hear what they mean by that. I guess that the intent is to make a statement to Israel. But what do I know??
Well it seems that there is a disease epidemic hitting leaders around the world, from the Biden Administration to the Macron Government (France) to Rishi Sunak (UK) and now President for Life of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan. After months of calling us monsters and Nazi War Criminals it now appears that he actually wanted to improve relations with Israel and claims that all those statements he made were to improve the status of his political party in recent elections. But, I guess that it didn’t work since his party suffered at the polls. Actually, his AK Party suffered its worst defeat in over 20 years. And in response the Türkiye currency, lira, rose as did the stocks on their stock exchange. This revelation came out during a discussion that the Türkiye Ambassador to Israel had with the head of our Foreign Ministry. I think that it might take a while to consider all the implications of this and whether the diagnosis for this epidemic applies to the USA, UK, France and others… or not. If nothing else, it is quite clear that we are the world’s real (Jihadis) and virtual (EU, etc.) punching bag.
If you have an hour to spare, I recommend listening to this podcast from Dan Senor’s “Call me Back” program. You can find it here on Spotify and here on Apple Podcast