Today’s Image
This evening starts the Jewish holiday of L’ag B’Omer. Starting on Pesach (Passover) one counts the omer each day until the holiday of Shavuot. A prayer is said each evening either alone or part of the evening prayers at synagogue, in which one counts the omer. Altogether there are 49 days, between the start and end of the “counting of the omer”. Passover is the day on which the ancient Hebrews left Egypt to start their journey to the Land of Israel. Shavuot, 49 days later, is the day on which Moses presented the ancient Hebrews with the Torah, the divinely ordained laws by which Hebrews, Jews and Israelis lived for millennia.
The word L’ag, refers to the number 33 in Hebrew. According to Jewish Tradition, it was on the 33rd day of counting the omer that the famous Rabbi Shimon Ben Yochai, also known as Rashbi, died sometime in the 2nd Century AD. He was the most famous talmudic scholar studying under the famous Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva and his students were mercilessly tortured and killed by the Romans for teaching the talmud despite Roman prohibitions.
Rabbi Yochai settled in the Galil near an area called Meron today. His grave is marked there and is a place of worship in modern Israel. On L’ag B’Omer bonfires are lit all over Israel while specific prayers are said and dancing ensues. On the evening of the holiday, tonight, ordinarily. many, many Jews will congregate. The numbers can easily range in the thousands…. This year, due to the war, the festivities in Meron were cancelled as it has been a target of Hezbollah aerial attacks.
Hamas Gaza Rockets
No rockets fired from Gaza crossed the border with Israel in the past 4 days.
Casualties
There have been no reported IDF casualties in the past 3 days.
Gaza Operations
Reports from Jabaliya make it clear that combat there is still intense. Close quarters combat between IDF infantry and Hamas combatants continues. The IDF estimates that more than 50 terrorists combatants have been killed in the last two days of operations there. And many buildings and tunnels housing rocket launchers have been uncovered, then later destroyed.
In central Gaza a dozen or so combatants attempted attacks on IDF infantry only to meet their end.
And IDF troops in Rafah continue to build in number while operations there continue. Three cells of combatants emerged from tunnels firing on IDF troops. All were killed, and the tunnel entrances were destroyed. It appears to be a common tactic that as tunnel entrances are uncovered they are often, not always, destroyed by airborne missiles. They are then mapped. When intelligence uncovered shows some significant terror target in the tunnel connected to the entrance, IDF specials forces are called in, along with the Orketz unit (canine), to map out the tunnel, extract intelligence, confirm that hostages are not present and ultimately, destroy underground facilities and tunnel. It almost never happens that the tunnels are destroyed at time of discovery.
Lebanon Operations
In Lebanese Media it was announced today that the mother of Hassan Nasrallah, Haifa Umm Hassan, dies of natural causes. It is not clear that Nasrallah will attend his mother’s funeral as it will require him to come to the surface. Nasrallah, in fear of being assassinated by the IDF has lived below Beirut in a tunnel for more than 20 years.
More than 30 rockets launched from Lebanon struck the Israeli villages of Manara and Dover along the border. There was damage to buildings, but no injuries reported. Later in the day Israeli fighter jets struck Hezbollah facilities in southern Lebanon including those sites from where the rockets were launched. Later in the evening two anti-tank missiles were fired by Hezbollah.
On Friday, the IAF intercepted an Hezbollah kamikaze drone before it could reach its target in Israel.
Yemen
US Central Command reported that the Iranian backed Houthis launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles today in the Red Sea. No damage or injuries were reported. It was not clear what the targets of the attack were.
Syria/Iraq/Jordan/Egypt
An automobile exploded in the Mazeh District of Damascus with one person killed due to an explosive device planted in the vehicle. This type of incident is not rare in Syria and Damascus. What makes it notable is that this neighborhood is known for hosting many Iranian high level military people and their families.
On Friday, two UAVs were detected heading towards the southern Israeli city of Eilat from Iraq, across Jordanian air space. Israeli fighter jets destroyed them before entering Israeli air space.
Gaza Aid
Due to high swells and winds along the Mediterranean coast in the past couple of days, several parts vessels that physically support the temporary pier built by the US Army off the coast of Gaza broke free from their moorings, drifted in the water and landed several nautical miles north of Gaza, not far from the city of Ashkelon. The Israeli Navy is assisting the US Army in recovering the structures in order that they can be towed back to the original location. The US Army specifically announced that no US Army Personnel stepped foot on Gaza territory as part of this effort. So far, this operation of bringing aid by the pier has not been successful as only 97 truckloads of aid have transited through the pier and landed in warehouses of the NGO World Food Program.
Three US troops suffered non-combat related, but serious, injuries during the operation of the floating pier on Friday. They were air lifted to Israeli hospitals for treatment by IDF helicopters.
On Friday, 281 truck loads of aid entered Gaza through the northern aid border crossings and 17 truck loads entered through the temporary pier, before the accident described above ensued.
And it now appears that, after the Biden Administration applied pressure to Egypt, that trucks with aid will cross through the southern Kerem Shalom border crossing. Egypt still refuses to transit aid through the Rafah border crossing.
Italy announced that it will rejoin others that have resumed funding to UNRWA. It is frustrating for us here that this happens all the time.
Corruption and collaboration with terrorists is uncovered,
Donor countries demand an investigation,
Either there is no investigation, it is superficial or it is outright falsified,
Claims of suffering of civilians follow,
And finally the donor countries capitulate and resume the funding.
Hostages
The biggest news here is that during IDF operations in Jabaliya, the bodies of three more hostages were recovered from a newly discovered tunnel on Friday. The hostage bodies recovered include those of: Michel Nisenbaum 59 (Z’’L), Orion Hernandez Radoux 30 (Z’’L), Hanan Yablonka 42 (Z’’L). Based on video footage taken on October 7 as well as intelligence reports the IDF knew, in advance, that all three hostages were killed on the day of their abduction. According to reports the entire operation of finding the bodies, based on intelligence reports, as well as their recovery was very complex involving IDF special forces. You can read more details about the operation and the hostages here. Nisenbaum was a dual Brazilian-Israeli citizen. He was on his way to rescue his 4 year old granddaughter on October 7 when he was captured. It is not clear from the report if he died in captivity or during the course of activities on October 7. Yablonka was taken hostage alive while attending the music festival and died in captivity. Radoux was a French-Mexican citizen living in Mexico but visiting a girl friend in Israel while attending the music festival. He was captured alive and died while in captivity.
After some preliminary discussions amongst the negotiation mediators in Paris - USA, Egypt & Qatar - the Israeli Chief of Mossad returned to Israel. Israel intends to dispatch a negotiating team to Cairo, Egypt to see if the negotiations can be revived. In the meantime, Hamas officials are denying that talks are resuming as they still insist that a permanent ceasefire is a minimal condition for them.
IDF - General
Yesterday, a video appeared on social media of an IDF soldier serving in reserves while in Gaza, masked and in uniform, demanding that he and others will not follow the directive of Defense Minister Gallant, only those of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s directions to continue the war until victory. Further, they will refuse to follow any orders issued from Gallant. As you might recall, about one week ago Defense Minister Gallant made public a demand from the Prime Minister that he will state that an IDF military occupation of Gaza was not one of the options under consideration. This soldier, appears to demand that the PA would not return to govern Gaza as he, and others, claim that it would just lead to a return of Hamas. Here you can view the soldier and the controversial video. This is being viewed as insubordination and the IDF has launched an investigation. It is likely that should they find the individual who made the recording, he will serve time in a military prison. Prime Minister Netanyahu issued a statement calling any reservists refusing their obligation to serve is a form of insubordination.
In a totally separate incident, several IDF soldiers posted a video on social media in which they appear to throw a copy of the Koran onto a fire in a captured building. You can see it here. I have no idea how or why they think it is the Koran since it is unreadable in the video and the soldiers says nothing. Nonetheless the IDF announced that it was launching an investigation. The whole episode is a bit strange, as is the one reported in the previous paragraph. Before entering Gaza ALL IDF soldiers must check in their mobile phones as no one wants to risk they locations being traced via GPS nor deal with incidents like those reported here. What also makes this strange is that from my discussions with IDF troops returning from Gaza operations, they are finding that the homes they enter have no books, with only several rare exceptions.
International
Based on tips from Israeli Intelligence, the German Police after an extensive investigation, arrested several Hamas operatives in Germany that had active plans to attack the Israeli Embassy in Berlin along with an USA Army base in the western party of Germany. The terrorists were recruited and trained in Lebanon. The full details of the plan were on the mobile phones confiscated by the German Police after capture.
As you may have heard, South Africa issued a request (demand?) to the International Court of Justice ICJ that IDF forces be required to stop any and all operations in/around Rafah. I spoke about this in previous posts in the past few days. It is part of South Africa’s demand that the ICJ rule that Israel is “committing genocide” in Gaza. After the court’s ruling it has become clear that there is some disagreement amongst the judges on the interpretation of the ruling. Nawaf Salam, the presiding president of the ICJ read the judgement issued by the ICJ as
The state of Israel shall (…) immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
The South African judge announced that this means that Israel must halt any and all operations in/around Rafah. But at least five judges on the court announced that Israel will be in compliance of the order if it ensures that the operations poses no risk to destroying the civilian population. In response, this evening (Saturday) Israeli National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi announced
What they are asking us [at the ICJ], is not to commit genocide in Rafah. We did not commit genocide and we will not commit genocide.
Needless to say, IDF operations in Rafah continue and are likely to intensify in the coming day. I think that the judgement rendered by the court provides an excellent example of how the Pro-Hamas and Western Media distort the news:
Here is the actual judgement rendered by the ICJ court, in English, on their own web site.
Here is how it is reported in the Israeli Press. Here is one in English. One in Hebrew.
And here is how it is being reported in the UK and the USA. BBC , CNN, MSNBC, New York Times, Washington Post.
And here are a couple in the Arab Media - Al Jazeera, Al-Arabiya
You read, compare for yourself and decide how much mainstream western media is objective in its reporting… Actually between the Western Press and Arabic Press, the one news outlet that comes closest to getting it right is Al Arabiya. Many of you who have been following me since the start will note that I have remarked on this before. That is, I trust more the reports coming from the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al-Arabiya more than the New York Times. In the Al-Arabiya report they stress that the ICJ ruled that Israel must immediately open the Rafah border crossing for aid. The truth is that it is open, but the Egyptians refuse to cooperate and transport aid across that border crossing. See “Aid” section above.
In response to the ICJ decision, President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken issued separate statements essentially attempting to use the ICJ judgement to validate their previous positions that the IDF should not enter Rafah. But, here in Israel the attitude you most commonly hear is “The US opposes our operations in Gaza, until we initiate them. Then when they see that they were wrong, they move on to support the operation.” There have been many examples of this throughout the war, including even before the IDF entered Gaza. At that time, the Biden Administration was sending US Army officers to tell Israel that they should not enter Gaza other than special operations as their casualties will be very high… Each time the US Military Advisors have been wrong, either because their experiences are different or their motivations are politically driven by their superiors…. or both.
Politics/Demonstrations
It is Saturday night here and that means that there are large anti-government and hostage family demonstrations in Tel Aviv and smaller ones elsewhere in the country. The demonstrations in Tel Aviv got violent with fires lit in major thoroughfares and many confrontations with police. I could not find reports on the estimated number of people in attendance. But it does seem like these protests have reached a “steady state” without signs of increasing numbers in attendance.
In Your Copious Spare Time…
Here is a roundtable discussion amongst several knowledgable Middle East Analysts with a range of views - from Jeremy Ben-Ami (founder of J Street) through Elliot Abrams. They talk about all the issues, including the multiple fronts, Israel encounters today and how they might be resolved. It is a bit long, but worthwhile.
Here is an article from The Wall Street Journal describing how the Biden Administration got their position regarding Rafah wrong. It is timely as the Administration, in light of the ICJ decision, seems to be still pushing the idea that the IDF should not enter Rafah.
Here is an article, a bit dated, written by Edward Luttwak describing how the IDF’s strategy in the Gaza War is likely to succeed. For many Luttwak is considered a bit controversial as an historian. So any reading of this article should take that into consideration.