Today’s Image
If you want to see a moving sight, you can watch this video. In it, the parents of Andrey Kozlov, one of the four hostages released yesterday arrive at the hospital to meet with him. His parents live in Russia. The government flew them in to meet with Andrey and this was the scene. And here is an article with a video on the family reunions with the other hostages. Also very moving.
Gaza Rockets
No rockets were fired from Gaza and crossed the Israeli border.
Casualties
No IDF casualties were reported in the past 24 hours resulting from operations in either Gaza or Lebanon.
Gaza Operations
In the aftermath of the daring hostage rescue form yesterday, the IDF continues with its operations in central Gaza, in east Bureij and east Deer al-Balah, towns near Nuseirat, where the rescue took place. Meanwhile, in Rafah troops continue to uncover tunnel entrances as well as weapons storage facilities as there are arms and tunnels everywhere in Gaza. Then combatants fired on IDF troops on the Netzarim corridor that traverses east-west in Gaza from the Islamic University in Gaza City. IDF troops returned fire taking out the team firing.
There were rumors floated that the IDF somehow used the newly established floating pier during its rescue operation. Those claims are not only false, but they make no sense.
Lebanon Operations
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant went to visit the troops along the Lebanese border. Unlike previous visits from him and Chief of Staff Herzi Haley, Gallant did not tell the officers there that some operation with Hezbollah is imminent. I do not know how to read that and what it implies. In any case, he said that it was important that the IDF forces continue to eliminate Hezbollah terrorists and their commanders.
Meantime, Hezbollah fired rockets in the Misgav Am community only 1 km from the Lebanese border. This was followed by IDF fighter jet strikes on Hezbollah rocket and missile launch sites.
Yemen Operations
The Houthis claim that they fired on the HMS Diamond, a British destroyer class naval vessel. It is defined by the British Defense Ministry. They also claim to have attacked two commercial vessels, the Norderney and Tavvishi. A private security company confirmed that the Norderney was hit but the crew quickly extinguished the fire with minimal damage to the boat. The two ships carried the flags of Antigua and Barbuda. The owners or nature of the cargo were not disclosed.
Aid
The floating pier is operational again. It is reported that 100,000 kg of aid transited through the pier on Saturday.
Hostages/Ceasefire
Overall Prime Minister Netanyahu is taking as much political capital he can muster in the aftermath of the hostage rescue. He met with the hostages and their families yesterday. Today he spoke in front of a second group of families who lost loved ones in combat, calling themselves the Gvura Forum (Heroism Forum). Unlike the larger, family of hostages, group demonstrating every night in Tel Aviv, this group opposes a deal ending the fighting. In addressing this group he said:
We are committed to total victory. We don’t want to and cannot abandon the arena not just because of the amazing boys that were killed, but because it’s the future of our country, we have no choice. We are committed to returning the hostages via various means, I won’t elaborate.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is flying back to the Middle East to see what he can do to push the deal on the table across the finish line. I think this will be hard since Hamas has yet to formally respond to the proposal “on the table”.
IDF General
Today the second high level IDF official resigned while taking part responsibility for the failures leading up to and immediately after October 7. The first was the former IDF Director of Intelligence. And now it’s Brig. Gen. Avi Rosenfeld, Commander of the IDF’s Gaza Division.
Today, the country buried the hero of the hostage rescue operation, Arnon Zmora (Z’’L). Several thousand people lined the streets leading up to Mount Herzl where he was put to rest and many thousand attended the funeral. Whenever a lone soldier or former lone soldier is killed in action, this is what happens. The whole country pours out in support.
International
According to Rami Abdul, chairman of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, the patriarch of one of the '“civilian families” holding the three men was an Abdullah Al-Jamal. Then according to the Quds new agency, an arm of Hamas, Al-Jamal was identified as a contributor to Al-Jazeera and a US published magazine, The Palestine Chronicle. That’s right, a reporter for Al-Jazeera collaborated with Hamas, or more likely is a member of Hamas, and complicity in holding hostages captive against all Geneva Conventions. I, personally, take issue with this whole definition of “civilian families”. Anyone who collaborates with either the capture or holding of hostages against their will is complicit in the act itself. Therefore, one cannot call them “civilians”. They are combatants. In any case, Al-Jazeera was quick to distance themselves saying that Al-Jamal was a free lancer who worked for Al-Jazeera in the past. More details here. And you can see his mug shot here. And more here. It amazes me as to how much detail the IDF has on each individual involved in this operation. It is my best guess that Al-Jazeera is going to have to wait many, many months before the Israeli Government will permit them to operate in Israel again.
This report appeared in one of the financial newspapers in Israel, originally in Hebrew, but has been translated here. It describes some of the consequences of the war on international trade and potential boycotts. The two most significant impacts were the announcement by Turkiye that it was blocking all trade with Israel. But it turns out that much of the trade is still happening but through intermediaries in Greece and Cyprus, probably with the knowledge of Turkiye. But it did drive up prices on some items. And the second was the recent announcement by Columbia to boycott its supply of coal to Israel. I am actually surprised since I had thought that Israel phased out all of its coal fired power plants. But, ironically it turns out that both South Africa and Russia have stepped in to replace Columbia as a coal supplier.
Politics/Protests
As expected War Minister Benny Gantz announced his resignation from the government today. In his address to the nation, he called on the Prime Minister to set a date for new elections so the country can decide who should lead and gain their trust. Gantz argued that the current government prevents Israel from reaching a true victory, which he defined as “return of the hostages, replacement of Hamas as the governing body in Gaza and the creation of a regional alliance against Iran.” He argues that the Prime Minister prevents the country from reaching this “true victory”. It is my opinion that he is making a mistake, politically for his own future. He was not a part of the decision making that gave the green light to the IDF to move forward with the daring rescue operation. Moreover, his second in command, former Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot, was known to have pushed hard to capitulate to the demands of Hamas in a ceasefire deal, saying that a serious rescue operation was not possible. So far the IDF has executed almost flawlessly on three such operations to date. But, the chances of another rescue like this is unlikely as Hamas is certain to increase the number of combatants guarding the hostages and they are certain to place them all in tunnels, complicating these missions enormously. I believe that all this is going to hurt Gantz’s future chances in an election.
In the meantime, sensing the departure of Gantz, that pesky National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who leads an extremist right wing party, is pushing to participate in the War Cabinet. I believe that if Netanyahu is crazy enough to permit this, the entire country will be out in the streets protesting. Ben Gvir was as recently as a week ago demanding the resignation of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant who continues to prove that he is the real hero in this entire war.
The violence at the anti-government protests is picking up pace. Last night more than 33 people were arrested when crowds spilled onto the most densely travelled freeway in the country.
And In Your Copious Spare Time…
There are a few voices popping up in Europe calling for the West to pay attention to the decay within its societies resulting in “decline of Western Civilization”. One is Bernard Henri Levy in France. And here is another one worth reading, from Germany - Herta Muller.
And many of you may remember that I was among the first to break the news on the major shift, in one day, on the casualty reporting of the Hamas Health Ministry more than a month ago that showed that the actual rate of civilian casualties as a percentage of the whole was about half the rate reported originally by Hamas, implying that the combatant: civilian ratio was now close to 1:1. Well finally the Associate Press decided to sit down and look at the same numbers, coming up with a similar conclusion. Here is their article. I wonder now if they and all their syndicated media outlets, including The New York Times, will issue retractions to all those headlines reported for more than seven months claiming all these civilian casualties??? Somehow, I think not since that might put Israel in a more favorable light.