This photo was taken of a small fraction of those that attended the funeral of Lone Soldier Ilan Cohen (Z’’L) that took place on Mount Herzl yesterday, Friday, at 15:00 (3PM). It was estimated that more than 3,000 people showed up for the funeral. These funerals attract huge crowds because everyone knows that a Lone Soldier typically has very little family in Israel that can attend and show their support for the family. And as I have said before, everyone in Israel understands the sacrifices made by Lone Soldiers. The services had to wait until Ilan’s parents could arrive from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Hamas Rockets
Ten rockets were fired today from northern Gaza towards the Israeli City of Ashkelon. Five of the rockets were intercepted and the others landed in open fields..
Casualties
No casualties resulting from fighting either along the southern or northern border were reported in the past 48 hours.
IDF Operations in Gaza
Intense fighting continues in Jabaliya with IDF troops entering parts of this densely populated area that they had not entered before. Nearly all the civilians have previously evacuated when the IDF issues warnings about 12 days ago. IDF troops continue to uncover small arms stored in homes and have neutralized dozens of Hamas operatives. During the course of IDF operations in the past 24 hours a weapons and long range rocket manufacturing facility was uncovered and destroyed. If Rafah IDF troops continue to slowly expand operations as reinforcements arrive and non-combatants evacuate specific neighborhoods. The operation is proceeding slowly, but methodically, to minimize non-combatant casualties. The IDF has uncovered more than 50 tunnel entrances, 10 in the last 24 hours, and is in the slow, but methodical, process of exploring/mapping them so they can be destroyed. They are explored before taking actin in order to ensure that hostages are not present and to find any intelligence materials that will help future operations. The IDF also announced that many targets were struck from the air in eastern Rafah, including armories and staging areas for the terrorists. During one of those aerial attacks the IDF killed a senior commander in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who was in charge of logistics. In the past day alone it has been estimated that more than 50 combatants have been eliminated.
Lebanon
This afternoon Lebanese media reported an aerial strike hit a moving vehicle in the eastern part of the country near the Syrian border. No more details were provided. IDF fighter jets struck multiple Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon. Also, this afternoon Hezbollah launched several kamikaze drones across the border into Israel. One caused light damage to the town of Yiftah, located about 2 km from the Lebanese border. The rest landed in open fields. No injuries reported. Hezbollah also fired more than 10 rockets into Israel without causing any damage or injuries. Early this morning two kamikaze drones tried to attack an IDF base in the north, missed their target and exploded in open fields. Late yesterday the IDF eliminated a senior commander in a different Islamic Group, Jamaa Islamiya. Shurahbil Ali Alsayed and his immediate staff were killed while transiting in their automobile in the eastern part of Lebanon, along the Syrian border, by a missile launched from a drone.
Yemen
An oil tanker bearing a Panamanian flag came under missile attack not far from a port in Yemen. A fire broke out, but appears to be brought under control. But only one of the steering units is still functioning. The crew is continuing to its next port of call, which was not disclosed.
Hostages
The IDF announced today that it recovered four bodies of hostages captured by Hamas. It was known previously that two had died on October 7 prior to abduction due to the violence perpetrated by the invading terrorists. In the case of the other two it was not known. The hostage bodies recovered include those of: Itzik Gelenter 58 (Z’’L), Shani Louk 23 (Z’’L), Amit Buskila 28 (Z’’L) and Ron Benjamin 43 (Z’’L). Benjamin was on a bike ride with friends in the Kibbutz Be’eri area when the attack started. The other three were attending the Nova Music Festival that day. Louk was the woman paraded around Gaza on October 8, in the back of a pick up truck, naked with everyone touching her dead body.
Aid
Austria announced today that it would resume funding to UNRWA. Israel insists that UNRWA has become a vassal to Hamas and does its bidding, enabling its combatants to operate in schools, hospitals and civilian quarters without resistance AND actively support Hamas operations.
Today, the IDF Arabic Spokesperson publicly accused Hamas of actively preventing aid from reaching non-combatants in order to artificially manufacture an humanitarian crisis. For the past three days an average of more than 300 trucks containing aid have entered Gaza by land.
Politics/Demonstrations
Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity Party, delivered a televised speech this evening. Gantz, a former Chief of Staff, brought is Party into the government back in October to join the War Cabinet and strengthen the confidence of the public in the decision making process on the war. In his address, he warned of a deadline he issued to Prime Minister Netanyahu of June 8. He insists that by that date there needs to be a plan endorsed by the War Cabinet that covers how to dismantle Hamas, the return of the hostages, the establishment of security control of Gaza, enlist all Israeli citizens in the IDF or national service, how to promote regional peace/prosperity with neighbors and restore/rebuild the communities in the Gaza periphery. I had expected Gantz to make some major move after Defense Minister Gantz insisted on a plan for the “day after” late last week. Personally, I think that this is a lot, perhaps too much, to expect to structure in just three weeks. But the issue Gantz is putting into play is that Netanyahu’s current coalition is hindering progress on many of these issues as they have unrealistic demands of re-occupying Gaza and re-establishing settlements there. And because Netanyahu needs these extremist elements in his coalition he is hindered from making any progress on these issues. The most telling quote from his address goes something like… “..if you choose the path of the zealots and lead the whole state into the abyss, we will be forced to leave the government ….. We will turn to the people and form a government that will win the trust of the people.” And… “The Netanyahu of a decade ago would have put the national interest above his own … Can you do the right and patriotic thing today?”
It is my view, that the timing for this is unfortunate. We have active IDF troops fighting fierce battles in Gaza and need decision makers to help guide their efforts. Gallant’s and Gantz’s actions, while I agree with their substance, are likely to trigger massive demonstrations throughout the country starting in the middle of June. If successful, they will bring down the government but that will take time. And once the government collapses, it will take 3 months (by law) to hold new elections and then another month of negotiations to form a government. In the meantime we will have IDF troops paying with their lives, fighting in Gaza. Not good!!! It is my hope that the War Cabinet can meet and resolve a few of those issues listed by Gantz, enough to push off a collapse of the government by the end of the summer. The fighting in Gaza will not have ended by then, but the IDF should have taken control of all the borders and eliminated most of the Hamas military infrastructure… But I am only one vote.
This speech prompted a swift response from Prime Minister Netanyahu. Netanyahu accuses Gantz of putting his own interests ahead of the country’s (Netanyahu should hold up a mirror to see who is an expert in doing that.). He claims that Gantz is abandoning ship before completing the operation in Rafah and that Gantz’s actions will lead back to having the PA running Gaza, while Hamas rebuilds its military capability at the same time.
The campaign has already started…. very sad….
Huge rallies were held around the country today in support of the hostage’s families. Several entertainers and international personalities addressed the crowd either in person or by pre-recorded messages. My problem with these rallies is that their theme is get the hostages back at any cost. But the government must take a “wholistic” view on this. It must trade lives of the hostages with lives of soldiers fighting in Gaza with families that wish to return to their homes near the Gaza border with the massive number of killers that would be released from Israeli jails in any trade. Those killers will kill again…
International
Reports in an Hezbollah affiliated media outlet in Lebanon, Al-Ahkbar, claim that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met recently with leaders from what are being called the “Arab Six” (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Qatar and Palestinian Authority) do discuss a plan for the “day after”. According to these reports the plan has two phases. The first phase calls for a ceasefire, Israel’s acceptance of the PA’s return to Gaza, release of hostages in exchange for some number of prisoners in Israeli jails and the formation of a technocratic government. The second phase of the plan includes normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia and some form of Peace Process. This would seem to deal with the needs of the USA and the Arab Six, but doesn’t integrate the needs of Israel, of course. To date, some efforts by Israel to enable to PA to take control of aspects of governance, such as border crossings, in Gaza have been refused.
In Your Copious Spare Time…
This well researched article recently appeared in the New York Times chronicling the emergence of an extreme Israeli fringe group of people taking the law into their own hands. Previously, I have called them vigilantes. While the authors have done justice to their efforts, they do not document the size of this extremist element, which is hard to know. One cannot claim that those voting for the extremist parties run by Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich fit into this category. I know several people who voted for these parties that either have buyer’s remorse and/or simply do not support the violence perpetrated by this extreme element.
And here is an excellent podcast in which Dan Senor interviews Sheryl Sandberg about her recently produced documentary on the atrocities that happened on October 7 - Screams Before Silence. It is 45 minutes long. And here is a link to where you can hear it without using Apple Podcast Application.