As I mentioned yesterday, last night started the observance of Yom HaShoah here in Israel and in much of the Jewish World. At Yad Vashem, the memorial dedicated to the memory and documentation of what happened to those Jews wiped out during the holocaust, they have a special section dedicated to those non-Jews who risked their lives, livelihoods or both in order to save Jews from the Nazis. While I do not wish to make analogies between October 7 and the holocaust, I thought it an appropriate to acknowledge, again, some of the heroes of October 7. In the photo above are two men who experienced first hand the horrors of October 7. On the left is Amir Hujierat, an Israeli Arab, who is credited for saving the lives of over 500 young people at the Nova Music Festival. He did this by cramming as many of them into his truck at one time and transporting them away, then returning to get more. On the right is Rami Davidyan. Amir saved Rami’s life that day.
Last night we watched the Yom HaShoah Ceremony at Yad Vashem broadcast across all the Israeli TV networks. Each year they invite survivors to come light each of 7 torches. Before each one is lit, they broadcast a pre-recorded monologue of each survivor describing what they experienced, how they survived, what happened to their families, how they got to Israel and what is the situation with their families now. First of all, it is a very, very moving experience to hear all their stories. One of them was from Benghazi, Libya and another from Tunisia. I was not aware that they had concentration camps for the Jews run by the Germans in those countries. It was actually very good for me, at this time, to hear their very moving stories. It helps put the current situation in perspective. No matter what any Israeli is going through now, whether it is loss of a loved one, a loved one being held hostage, the loss of a limb from the fighting in Gaza, being holed up in a hotel room with four kids for six months because one is blocked from returning to one’s home in the north, etc, etc. None of it compares to what these holocaust survivors endured and then how they went on to create a meaningful life for themselves out of such a tragedy. It really provides perspective.
No rockets fired from Gaza landed in Israel in the past 24 hours. The IDF reports four casualties, all resulting from that rocket barrage launched yesterday by Hamas from Rafah on the Kerem Shalem border crossing where much of the aid for Gazans passed. It was deadly because there was not even enough time for the sirens to be activated as the distance was so short. Those killed include: Sgt. Michael Ruzal, 18 (Z’’L); Staff Sgt. Ruben Marc Mordechai Assouline, 18 (Z’’L); Staff Sgt. Ido Testa, 19, 18 (Z’’L); Staff Sgt. Tal Shavit, 21, (Z’’L);. Their deaths brought the toll of slain troops in Israel’s ground offensive against Hamas and amid operations along the Gaza border to 267.
The big news of the day is that the IDF has started its operation to transit civilians in the Rafah area to a safe, humanitarian zone to the west of Khan Younis and further north. The operation started last night with the dropping of leaflets from the air informing the residents where to go and what would be waiting for them there. You can see a sample of the leaflet being dropped here. In the leaflet the area marked in red is current area from which the IDF is asking residents to evacuate. The area in shaded green is where they are being asked to move to. On foot it would take about 2 hours to walk. Obviously, quicker by car or donkey. At the destination there are already somewhere near 40,000 tents built and empty, waiting for the new residents. You can see a much better view of the IDF designated humanitarian area and the current area from which residents are asked to evacuate on this site and on this YouTube page. The heavy white line on the bottom is the border with Israel. The white line to the left is the border with Egypt. The big blue dot on the left is the city of Rafah (Rafiah for those who can read Hebrew). The grey shaded area is the area set aside as a humanitarian corridor. To give you an idea of the proportions, the Gaza border with Egypt, to the left of the image, is all of 14 km (about 8 miles). As you can see, this initial area is largely unpopulated. I just found a site that shows an abbreviated version in English here. Before the leaflets were dropped the IDF met with and coordinated its intentions with several of the humanitarian NGOs helping provide and distribute the aid. All, that is, except UNRWA which is refusing to collaborate in any way. In the new humanitarian zone there are field hospitals, tents and increased provisions of food, water, medicine, etc. At this stage, only the residents on the eastern side of Rafah are being asked to move. They are between the actual city of Rafah and the eastern border with Israel. In the leaflet they are being told to avoid going to either the Egyptian or Israeli border. It is not known yet just how many have left or are preparing to leave, but this quote came in from the Palestinian Red Crescent (the islamic version of the Red Cross) “The numbers of citizens moving from the eastern areas of Rafah towards the west are large, especially after the intensification of the bombing, there are thousands of citizens leaving their homes”. The Israeli Government announced that the Rafah Operation is currently designed to go slowly in the event that any changes in Hamas’ negotiating position appear, it could quickly bring the operation to a stop in order to proceed with hostage/ceasefire negotiations. But it made clear that Hamas’ position would have to change and its leadership agree to leave Gaza. In the government’s announcement it made clear that the start of the Operation resulted from both “Hamas' persistent demands for an end to the war and a lethal attack from Rafah on Kerem Shalom that resulted in the deaths of four soldiers.”
Today, President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke by phone. Reports are that the President told the Prime Minister that the best way to get the hostages back was to reach a deal with Hamas. That is kind of hard when Hamas continues to insist on its demand to remain in power and for the IDF to halt its operations permanently, guaranteeing that they won’t resume. President Biden, according to the reports, was also demanding that the Kerem Shalem border crossing be opened immediately for transiting aid. That is also a bit hard to do when it was blanketed with rockets the day before. It takes time to restore facilities that were destroyed. Just as I was wrapping up tonight’s post, it was announced that the Kerem Shalem border crossing was ready to re-open and it will be operational tomorrow, Tuesday.
Of course, condemnations are coming in from everywhere. France, the EU Foreign Minister, Belgium, etc. Also, President for Life Mahmoud Abbas called for an emergency meeting of his new staff to discuss and review courses of action to take. The government of Germany simply said that talks for a potential truce and hostage deal ‘must not be jeopardized’. That is a bit hard to do when Hamas withdrew its negotiating team, collapsing the negotiations over the weekend when they realized that Israel would not give in to its demand to leave it in power in Gaza. Saudi Arabia warned Israel against targeting Gaza’s Rafah. In any case CIA Chief William Burns is arriving in Israel today expecting to meet with Israeli officials after leaving the collapsed negotiations in Cairo for Doha, Qatar. Egypt, on the other hand, said that the attack on the Kerem Shalem border crossing contributed to the breakdown in the negotiations. But, from what I could read, they were already broke because Hamas demanded a complete and total withdrawal of Israeli troops and a permanent ceasefire, which Israel could only agree to if all the Hamas leadership left Gaza… which of course they refused to do.
On the northern front, Hezbollah launched more than 50 rockets across the border this morning. None did damage or caused injury. But later in the day a kamikaze drone launched by Hezbollah exploded in the northernmost Israeli city of Metula. Two Israelis were critically injured and had to be rushed to the hospital. The Israeli Air Force attacked from the air more than 15 Hezbollah military facilities in southern Lebanon and three facilities in the northeastern part of Lebanon, near the Syrian border, where Hezbollah has many of its armories and arms manufacturing facilities.
Israeli fighter jets destroyed an inbound, armed UAV headed for the southern part of Israel after traversing Jordanian air space. It appears to be the third attempt by an Iraqi based proxy of Iran to hit and destroy Israeli infrastructure.
As usual I am leaving you with a couple of articles you might consider reading. This one is a summary in English of an interview with Avi Issacharoff. I always read and listen to what he says as he is one of the military analysts I respect the most. He is also a co-producer of “Fauda”. It is a quick read.
And I encourage you to read this one. It provides a realistic perspective of what life is like for the Israeli reservists who have been called up to fight in Gaza, then released to civilian life only to be called up again. It is a common scenario and it is taking a toll on civilian life and our economy here. The interviewee is Ari Kalker, a former Lone soldier. I know Ari as he was a senior staff member at the Lone Soldier Center for many years, running our housing program.