Screams Before Silence
Sheryl Sandberg, former Vice President of Operations at Meta (Facebook), visited Israel a few weeks ago. She and her crew created this documentary of the sexual violence perpetrated by the Palestinian terrorists on October 7. I admit that I did not view the entire 56 minutes of the documentary as it is difficult to watch in one sitting. I highly recommend viewing it, but not in one sitting and you should certainly make sure that no minors are around to accidentally view it.
In a very weird report, one of the young female hostages, released in December as a part of the cease fire deal, reported that one of her captors presented her with a ring and asked her to marry him and have his children. You can read her personal account here.
No rockets fired from Gaza in the last 72 hours reached Israel. NO IDF casualties reported on either the Gaza nor Lebanon conflict zones in the past 96 hours. BUT, an Israeli civilian was killed from an anti-tank missile launched by Hezbollah on Thursday evening. Sharif Sawaed (Z’’L) died from his wounds before he could be rushed to an hospital. Sawaed was a resident of a Bedouin village in northern Israel. He was working on infrastructure construction work when the attack occurred.
IDF infantry troops from the newly deployed reservist brigades started active patrols in central Gaza. They identified several Hamas terrorist cells preparing to fire on the troops but called in air support immediately. The terrorists were neutralized. The infantry called in air support on several other patrols with the same outcome.
Hezbollah and the IDF have exchanged intense fire over the last two days. Hezbollah launched several rounds of anti-tank missiles, including the one killing Sawaed, as well as multiple barrages of rockets (more than 60 rockets altogether). Yesterday, IDF fighter jets struck against several buildings in southern Lebanon identified as congregation points for Hezbollah operatives. Intelligence reports suggested that Hezbollah was aggregating fighting forces with the intent of launching an attack. Lebanese sources also announced that an air strike hit a moving vehicle. Later on Friday it was announced that two senior leaders of the Iranian terror proxy group al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya were killed in the attack. The Wall Street Journal published a fair analysis of the “war” along Israel’s northern border. It is worth a read.
US Centcom forces reported the Houthis launched several anti-ship ballistic missiles in the Gulf of Aden targeting commercial ships without damage or injuries. In a separate incident three missiles fired by the Houthis in the Red Sea just missed striking a commercial tanker traveling from Primrosk, Russia to Vadinar, India. The ship bore a Panamanian flag and was registered in the Seychelles. India imports a great deal of fossil fuel from Russia. Today the Houthis claim to have downed an US Reaper Drone. These are very sophisticated and expensive drones. So far no confirmation from US forces but CBS News, in the USA, quoted some anonymous source confirming the downing of a US drone in Yemen. And very early this morning a successful attack by the Houthis was reported near the Yemeni port of Mokha. No details have been released yet.
Aid continues to flow into Gaza. More than 344 trucks made it into Gaza on Thursday and 365 on Friday. In the meantime the coordinated efforts between the US Military and the IDF are resulting in the initial construction of the floating pier funded by the US government and placed in Gaza. This video was published by the IDF showing the initial construction work. The IDF is providing security with a full brigade dispatched to guard the construction efforts. On Thursday, Hamas launched a mortar attack against the US forces and was thwarted by IDF infantry who spotted the terrorists and neutralized them and their weapons. And a military ship from the Royal Navy departed from a UK base in Cyprus for Gaza. It is intended to house the US troops working construction of the pier.
As you may recall from a last week post I wrote about a so-called “humanitarian flotilla” was about to launch from Turkey in order to break the “aid blockade” of the IDF. Well that “Freedom Flotilla” continues to run into problems setting sail. The organizers seem to have trouble finding an insurer that will insure that trip.
On Thursday a delegation from Egypt arrived in Israel in an attempt to close an hostage/ceasefire deal. It has been reported that the Israeli government met and conceded on a few more issues, including the number of hostages to be released in the round and permitting Gazans to return to northern Gaza without prior inspection. Egyptian Intelligence has been leading the negotiations and acting as an intermediary. Qatar is not out of the picture but is no longer a principal in the discussions. The deal is now being reviewed by Hamas leaders in Gaza. Early indications are that it will be rejected by them as they continue to insist that there will be no hostages released until Israel declares that there is a permanently enforceable cease fire and the IDF withdraw from Gaza. There is little chance that Israel would agree to such conditions. We should know by the end of this week. In the meantime, Hamas posted two more videos of elderly hostages. They do this thinking that it pushes the Israeli hostage families to apply more pressure to the government that would then result in better terms for the terrorists. The Israeli government informed Egypt that this is the last chance for a deal before Israel IDF troops launch the Rafah Operation.
It is Saturday night and that means that protests are underway around the country both in support of the hostages and their families as well as against the government.
If you find the time I would recommend reading this op-ed published online at Newsweek, written by Hamza Howidy, a Gazan from Gaza City.
Thanks as always. -- I think the Newsweek op-ed is very powerful. I wish that Newsweek had added a footnote that the source and the information was fact-checked as many readers will dismiss this as Israeli propaganda. The students protesting on US college campuses are not all of the same flavor and many simply want the killing to end without fully understanding the consequences and ramifications of their well intentioned protests, but there are more reports I have been reading that non-student activists are participating (and leading?) many of the protests. If I were a campus president, I would bar non-university individuals from campus. And also sanction (up to expulsion) students and faculty whose free speech rights cross way over the line of harassment and hate speech.