The images I post today are of three heroes who died during the fighting on, or about, October 7 attempting to stem the attack from the Palestinian terrorists on Israeli soil. What makes all three of them unique is that they are Druze. The Druze constitute about 1.5% of the Israeli population. Their native tongue is Arabic. Overall the Druze live in Israel, Syria and Lebanon. They are an offshoot of Islam from about 1030 AD, or so. The three shown are: Lt. Sadek Saeed, 30 (Z’’L), Sgt. Maj. Amir Div (Z’’L) and Maj. N (Z’’L). There used to be a special Druze brigade, but the community asked to break it and integrate fully within the IDF. Not long ago, a Druze reached the rank of General and took over command of the Golani Brigade. They along with Circassian community in Israel, both Arab, serve just as the Jewish Israelis. In addition, the Bedouin often server in the IDF but their service is voluntary.
This evening two rockets were launched from Gaza, targeting southern Israel. Both landed in open fields without injury or damage. No casualties were reported by the IDF resulting from operations in Gaza in the past eight days.
IDF infantry continued their operations in central Gaza, killing several dozen Palestinian terrorists trying to launch operations. They also located several rocket launchers, tunnels and armories, then called in the IAF which eliminated them using missiles fired from drones. This evening IDF infantry attacked two vehicles carrying armed Hamas terrorists in Gaza City. This is going to be an ongoing problem given that quite a few Gazans have started returning to Gaza City from the south. Very early this morning the IAF struck a single building in Rafah. It is not clear yet what was in the building at the time.
It was a busy day for the IDF in southern Lebanon today. Five major terrorist figures were killed in targeted operations throughout the day. This afternoon an IAF drone assassinated an high ranking Hezbollah commander, Ismail Yousef Bar, during a strike in a small town near the coastal city of Tyre in southern Lebanon. According to the IDF, Bar was responsible for planning and advancing rocket and anti-tank missile launches against Israel. This follows an earlier strike against a local commander of the Shiite Amal organization. This is separate from Hezbollah, but also is an Iranian terrorist proxy operating in southern Lebanon, It appears that this commander was from the Shiite Amal organization which is separate from Hezbollah. And Hezbollah announced this evening that three more of its commanders was killed in targeted IDF attacks - Mahmoud Ibrahim Fadlallah, Abu Jaafar and Muhammad al-Shahouri. Besides these commanders, other operatives who were with them at the time met their maker. All this follows a series of kamikaze drone attack launched by Hezbollah against Israel earlier in the day. Hezbollah claims that they destroyed an Iron Dome battery in the north and killed/wounded IDF soldiers manning the anti-missile system. Contrary to Hezbollah’s claims the IDF reports no damage or injuries to their systems or staff. Two other kamikaze drones struck near the Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona in the north. Three people were lightly injured. Their injuries did not require hospital attention. While we are on the subject of Hezbollah, the IDF announced today that they wrapped up their drills in northern Israel today. I know a couple reservists that were called up for those drills. And I was wrapping up this post sirens were going off again in northern Israel with multiple rocket barrages reigning down on civilian sites.
And it now seems quite clear that the hostage/ceasefire negotiations are dead. Hamas rejected everything, then reversed and hardened some of its earlier positions. In the meantime, more than 247 trucks laded with aid entered Gaza. No one seems to notice or care that Israel is enabling so much aid to enter Gaza while its hostages are being held with no sign or release. Doesn’t phase anyone. In fact, the UN claims that Israel is blocking aid. At this link you can see both a large bakery in Gaza mass producing pita bread and a massive number of unloaded containers sitting inside Gaza waiting for distribution. And here you can see COGAT’s numbers. It is starting to become clear to me that this whole issue of aid is a “red herring”, a “false flag”. The UN and other international NGOS are looking for things to blame on Israel. Once the evidence becomes apparent to everyone they will go find something else.
It appears that we have guests arriving tomorrow and later this week. UK Foreign Minister David Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock are both scheduled to arrive shortly. My guess is that they want to either talk Israel out of taking action against Iran or what to find out what Israel is planning.
It appears that the government decided on the nature of the Iranian targets to be struck, but timing is not clear. I say let the Iranians sweat for awhile…
There is a bit more to report in the aftermath of Sunday morning’s Iranian attack of 350 missiles and drones. Both Saudi Arabia and the USA announced that while they provided intelligence and tracking information of drones crossing their airspace, they said that they denied US requests to use their airspace during Iran’s attack. Both countries have made efforts to improve their relations with Iran. The little 7 year old Bedouin girl that was injured in the attack remains in critical condition at the hospital. Also, the IDF announced that despite earlier reports emerging yesterday there was no damage to ANY of its aircraft resulting from the Iranian attack. Yesterday, I reported that a C-130 cargo plane was damaged. But I, along with many others, was wrong. Here you can see a short video released by the IDF of the damage done to the air base by the Iranian ICBMs, three of which struck the air base. Yesterday, I posted a link to a photo of one of the Iranian ballistic missiles that fell into the Dead Sea. The IDF extracted it and put in on display here. You can hear there a short, 30 second, description of the missile, but more importantly you get an idea of its size.
And I am very sorry to report that several Israeli right wing extremists have taken “vigilante” attacks in Judea/Samaria (West Bank). Yesterday I reported that two of them were arrested in the aftermath of attacks on Sunday morning resulting in the death of one Arab. Since then there have been three more incidents. No one appears to have seriously injured, but there has been damage to property. The IDF announced that it intends to increase troop coverage in the sensitive areas. I hope that they find sufficient evidence to incarcerate the extremists for a long time.
I leave you, as always, with a couple of articles I found worth reading. The first carries a rather provocative title “How Much Is a Dead Jew Worth?” by Gadi Taub. Taub has written a book with the same title. In the article Taub describes the money earned, for life, from the Palestinian Authority for a “shahid” (martyr) that kills Jews. Despite the title, Taub provides many factual details on how the Palestinian Authority perpetuates the hatred and attacks against Jews - they make no distinction in Arabic between Jews and Israelis… only in English when they speak with foreign press. And here is an analysis from correspondent Jonathan Spyer, who I know. It is one of several post Iranian attack analyses about the implications. The point Spyer brings up is that for a long time IRGC officers and commanders using Syria as a command and control facility for Iranian proxies has been subject to routine Israeli attacks, most evident by what happened on April 1. And Iran’s attack is an attempt by them to change the deterrence balance so this stops. And this might explain why Israel will find a means to retaliate…