October 266, 2023, "The War"
Today’s Image
This is the mug shot of Chief of Hamas Operations Raad Saad, who the IDF believes it assassinated earlier today in Gaza City. Details follow.
Gaza Rockets
Two rockets launched from Gaza landed in open fields inside Israel this morning.
Casualties
One IDF soldiers succumbed to injuries sustained in fighting in Rafah: Sgt First Class (Res.) Malkia Gross - 25 (Z’’L).
One of you sent me a side note asking about details regarding injured IDF troops. I do not have all the details but here is what I can cite from this article appearing about five days agohttps://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/391720. Including what transpired on October 7, about 8,700 members of the IDF, active or reserves, have been classified as wounded. About a third of those are dealing with the mental and emotional aftermath of seeing comrades blown to bits and many other related battle stress items. The range of “wounded” varies a lot. There I can only drawn from anecdotal news. For example, the son of dear friends of ours was seriously injured during the fighting on October 7. He has lost both his legs and has been in intensive care units for the past eight months. Then, at the other extreme, a son of different friends returned from his unit with a gunshot wound to his hand. After some physical therapy his hand is now operating normally, but will not be allowed to return to combat.
The IDF is super worried, as are most Israelis, about the lingering PTSD everyone expects to see surfacing more and more. As each reserver or active duty soldier is released from the IDF back to civilian life, they are required to attend a one week “off site” at the Dead Sea where they attend group sessions, psychologists and soldiers who have gone through the same experience. I am personal friends with the CEO of the FIDF (Friends of the IDF). He recently told me that they have raised about $60M USD that will be dedicated to helping deal with the PTSD issues. Some of those funds are being used to create the first dedicated PTSD wards at Israel’s top hospital. Some of the rest is intended for using in hiring large numbers of psychologists and social workers to receive special training in PTSD. As he told me by phone, “The IDF does not want to lose another generation like it did after 1973,”
Gaza Operations
Earlier today the IDF struck two Hamas Operational Facilities in a neighborhood of Gaza City where Hamas senior commander, Raad Saad was thought to be operating. Saad is the overall chief of Hamas Operations. At this time, the IDF is trying to determine if the strike was successful in killing Saad or not. Here are some images from the aftermath of the strike. Saad is the fourth highest ranking Hamas official in Gaza, Sinwar is #1, Mohammed Deif is #2 and I do not know who is #3. If you look at the photos, it will be hard for Israel to confirm the death of Saad for a long time.
There have been false reports coming from UN aid agencies claiming deliberate military attacks on their staff. Earlier today, armed Hamas combatants attempted to move on the guarded facilities storing the massive amount of aid that has accumulated on the Gaza side of the border. IDF infantry neutralized the combatants while aid workers from the UN’s World Food Program were working to load some of the pallets onto trucks for delivery. At no time were the aid workers exposed to direct fire, despite UN claims to the contraary.
And yesterday claims were made by the International Red Cross, ICRC, that the IDF deliberately attacked civilians near one of its facilities in a humanitarian zone. The IDF launched an investigation that is still ongoing. So far it has found that there was no direct attack against any ICRC facility. Meantime the EUForeign Affairs Chief Josep Borrell has demanded a full investigation.
Lebanon Operations
Earlier today the IDF assassinated a high ranking Hamas official, Ayman Ghatma by firing a missile at his moving automobile from a drone. The successful attack took place in Lebanon’s Beqa’a Valley, near its border with Syria. Ghatma and his senior aides were killed Ghatma had been responsible for securing arms for Hamas’s forces in Lebanon as well as those of a second Sunni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya.
This evening, IDF fighter jets struck several Hezbollah military facilities in southern Lebanon that were being used as observation towers and rocket launching sites. This was after Hezbollah successfully launched two anti-tank missiles (they have very short ranges) striking the very northernmost Israeli town of Metula. The strikes sparked fires on the two home it hit, but no one was injured.
Both Canada and Kuwait have issued advisories to their citizens currently in Lebanon suggesting that they leave as soon as possible.
Yemen Operations
After the successful sinking of its second commercial ship off its coast, the Houthis now seem to be raising its targets. Earlier today the Houthis announced that its forces had attacked the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, an aircraft carrier. This has been denied by the US Army who added that the Eisenhower has been been ordered to return to its home port of Norfolk, VA, from its months of operations in the Mediterranean and Red Seas.
Egypt/Syria/Iraq
An air strike was conducted earlier today on the Syrian town of Al Bukamal near its border with Iraq. The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights reported several explosions in buildings described as military headquarters. This area is known for providing support to Iranian proxies conducting transportation of military equipment. Locals attribute the attack as coming from US forces in the area.
Aid
A part of the US Army’s floating pier washed up on a popular Tel Aviv beach earlier today. I guess that it had broken off a couple weeks ago when, for the second time, the pier broke under high swells.
Hostages/Ceasefire
According to a news report on Israel’s Channel 12 TV station, the negotiations seem to have come to a temporary end. The Moslem Brotherhood Qataris and Egyptian mediators do not have sufficient influence on the Hamas leader making the decisions, Yahya Sinwar, to get him to modify his position and accept President Biden’s “Three Stage” proposal. And it is quite clear to everyone here that Israel is unable to go any further than it has within this framework. Nonetheless, the anti-government and hostage family protests continue as they accuse Netanyahu of putting his ow interests ahead those of recovering the hostages.
Politics/Protests
The weekly anti-government and hostage family protests continue in Tel Aviv and scattered locations around the country. This evening, in Tel Aviv, the crowds garnered less than an estimated 20,000 protestors. At the height of the judicial reform demonstrations against the government crowds in Tel Aviv alone regularly numbered more than 150,000.
International
During the Washington DC visit of Israel’s Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, and Israel’s National Security Advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi, they received private and personal assurances that the US would back Israel in the event of a full out war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. This is according to CNN reports. But, honestly, no one here is banking on these “promises”. This is because it is becoming increasingly clear that Prime Minister Netanyahu was NOT delusional when he complained last week about deliberate steps taken by the Biden Administration to slow down deliveries of arms. Public, the Biden Administration announced that is was holding up delivery of smart bomb ammunitions larger than 1,000 lbs. because of its disagreements with Israel over its intended entry into Rafah. BUT, despite public statements by the Biden Administration to the effect that Israel is remaining within the guidelines pushed by Washington in how it handles Rafah, nothing has changed regarding that shipment. But that is what is out in the open. It now appears that there is much more going on and most likely it has to do with Washington’s fear of a full war on Israel’s northern border.
First, here is this article from Politico. It describes other shipments that have been deliberately held up since December, 2023. Many of these arms purchases were scheduled long before The War broke out and purchased either by Israel from its own budget or using the annual $3B military aid grant negotiated and signed during the Obama Administration. Specifically that order included what are called JDAM tail kits. These are accessories that can be added in the field to convert an existing aerial dropped “dumb” bomb into a guided missile. And the “hold” was placed long before there were any discussions on operations in Rafah. All this is puzzling because there are other sales/shipments that are being processed on normal schedules.
But now this article in Tablet may put some logic as to what is actually going on. Both Minister of Defence Gallant and a senior ranking IDF general, Major General Eyal Zamir, made separate trips to Washington for the main purpose of securing the flow of needed smart munitions that had been apparently, deliberately slowed down. Zamir, apparently returned after being informed that the process was “in review” suggesting that there was a deliberate slow down. The reason, according to Tablet, is that the intended use of these arms would be for a war with Hezbollah in the north. Then later Gallant went to Washington with the same intention, but this time he returned thinking that Washington was going to take its foot off the brakes. But, apparently this is not the case and Washington is deliberately slowing down the arms shipments for the purpose of keeping Israel from defending itself against this ongoing stream of kamikaze drones and rocket fire from Hezbollah.
It was announced today that Defense Minister Gallant will travel to the USA to see if he can work out what it takes to unblock the arms shipments.
And In Your Copious Spare Time…
Recalling my recent tirade about the four pillars of attacks on Israel and Western Civilization, I bring to your attention this article which recently appeared on the web site of the American Enterprise Institute. It goes into a modest level of details on the funding sources for the protest groups featured prominently on US campuses this past spring.
And here is a link to the web site of an organization started by a friend of mine in Santa Cruz, CA - AMCHA Initiative. This organization, started by Tammi Benjamin, has been tracking anti-semitic activity on US college campuses for more than 20 years now.
https://www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/saving-sinwar/
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/391662
https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-806809
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/391822
https://www.aei.org/articles/the-anti-semitism-money-and-power-network-and-how-to-smash-it/