Today’s Image
Today’s image was captured from a popular music video released recently by a local Israeli musical group calling themselves the HaTikvah 6. Here is the link to the actual musical which you should take the time to watch/listen. It is in Hebrew with English subtitles. The stereotypical superhero which in my youth was found reading comic books, was someone with superpowers, humility, disguised as someone else ordinarily and kept their uniform hidden but ready to be put on in order to “save the day”. I don’t think anyone reads comic books anymore, but the same themes run in the Marvel and DC movies produced by either Disney or Warner Brothers. For many Israelis, our superheroes are those young men and women who have day jobs doing everything from driving a bus to running a start-up, who when called up from reserves by the IDF kiss their spouses goodbye, then their children, grab their uniform and make their way to the war front, without complaints and without pounding their chests. For Israel, these are our superheroes. Since this video came out about three months ago there have been at least two other versions created by other groups. I will try to find links to them so you can view them as well.
Gaza Rockets
No rockets were fired from Gaza in the past 72 hours.
Casualties
There has been one casualty in the past 24 hours. Cpt. Alon Sacgiu - 22 (Z’’L) was killed by a roadside bomb planted by terrorists outside the city of Jenin in Samaria (West Bank). One bomb detonated as an Armored Personnel Carrier passed the location. There was only minor damage and no one inside was hurt. But as forces moved to rescue those inside, a second bomb was detonated remotely. It is a common tactic, unfortunately.
Gaza Operations
The IDF has issued warnings, including dropping leaflets from the air, to what few residents remain in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City to leave for a well marked humanitarian zone. You can test your Arabic reading skills on the IDF Arabic spokesperson’s twitter account here. Air strikes have started in this neighborhood and I suspect that we can expect a ground incursion to start sometime tonight or tomorrow. There are reports that IDF tanks are advancing on key facilities in the neighborhood.
Earlier this morning an IDF fighter jet struck an evacuated UNRWA school in the city of Khan Younis. According to the IDF the school was being used by Hamas as a command center in order to gather its forces and plan attacks against the IDF.
Like many of its claims, UNRWA still appears to be exaggerating/lying about the extent of damage in Gaza. According to this report released by the United Nations Satellite Center (UNOSAT) about 55% of the buildings in Gaza have been subject to some level of damage as a result of The War. When you read the details the report states that 14% of the buildings are destroyed, 17% moderately damaged and 14% possibly damaged. A destroyed building means that it is not safe to make repairs to make it habitable. Nonetheless, in this recent UNRWA twitter post, it is claimed that more than half of all buildings are destroyed. As you might recall, this was my fourth principal, as described in my post on June 20th.
The Corruption of United Nations Agencies and other International NGOs
The IDF has conducted its own assessment and found that 16% of the buildings in Gaza were destroyed to the point that they could not be safely repaired. This is very close to the assessment of UNOSAT.
Lebanon Operations
There is something brewing in Lebanon. I reported previously that the Canadian and Kuwaiti governments requested that all their citizens leave Lebanon as quickly as possible. Today, the Dutch and German governments have urged their nationals to leave Lebanon. And the US issued a warning to its citizens that they strongly recommend not going to Lebanon. And according to reports/rumors many Western embassies in Beirut are looking for appropriate beaches from which to evacuate their staff in an emergency. The pace of activity is picking up. Perhaps, a potential Israeli ground attack was discussed between Defense Minister Gallant and his peers during his trip to Washington??
A motorcycle rider in the Lebanese town of Sohmor, about 20 km from the Israeli border was killed by a missile fired from an IDF drone in the Al-Beqaa area of Lebanon. The target was identified as Ali al-Din, who the IDF says was behind drone attacks on northern Israel.
According to the military, the Hezbollah operative, identified by the terror group as Ali al-Din, was behind drone attacks on northern Israel.
A wave of kamikaze drones were launched by Hezbollah and reached the northern Israeli city of Rosh Hanikra, near the coast. No reports of damage or injuries.
A report from the British Financial Times describes a 5 km “dead zone” along the perimeter of the Israeli-Lebanese border wherein nearly all buildings have been destroyed. The FT has a strict paywall, sorry. Using satellite images they note that only a handful of buildings remain standing. Nearly all Lebanese civilians evacuated the area between the Israeli border and the Litani River in the second week of October, 2023. According to UN Security Council Resolution 1701 Hezbollah was to evacuate the area between the Israeli border and the Litani River, leaving it to the Lebanese Army to patrol. But immediately after the Resolution passed it was completely ignored.
I FEEL COMPELLED TO REMIND MY READERS OF A VERY IMPORTANT FACT. You will hear ad infinitum from any European Leader or many US leaders that the fundamental problem is that a Two State solution is not implemented and that is the reason for frustrated terrorists to strike Israel. I have talked before why this is a total fallacy so I won’t jump in it again. But if you need proof just look at the situation with Hezbollah. Israel was attacked by Hamas on October 7. And without Israel doing anything, Hezbollah started firing rockets into Israel immediately thereafter. They did not say it was because there wasn’t two states, because we know that it is irrelevant. It is simply because they wish to destroy our state and don’t care about building their own. During a moment of mental weakness, the current leader of the opposition in Israel was Prime Minister about two years ago. He signed a maritime agreement with the USA that enabled Lebanon to start exploring for gas fields. The argument this former Prime Minister used was that this would reduce the incentive for Hezbollah to attack Israel as they would have “something to lose”. So much for that bright idea, huh? The reality is that the only reason that Hezbollah would launch rockets at Israel is in the hope that it eventually leads to the destruction of Israel. It has nothing to do with two states. This is what they (and Iran and Hamas and Palestinian Authority and Islamic Jihad and…) say and this is how they act.
Yemen Operations
The Houthis are boasting that they have a new weapon in their arsenal, an Iranian hypersonic missile with intelligent control and maneuverability. They claim that it was used against a commercial container ship, MSC Sarah V, earlier this week. That vessel carried a Liberian flag. Despite their claim, the ship was apparently not hit by this new weapon. The ship reported that it was not damaged and that it was proceeding to its next port of call as scheduled. The Houthis claim that the ship has some association with Israel, but they seem to be mistaken about that too.
A merchant vessel issued a distress call reporting being hit by. a missile about 135 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen in the Red Sea. No more details available yet.
The Saudi Arabian Defence Minister, Khaled bin Salman, has flown off to China seeking the countries help in trying to mitigate the Houthi’s stranglehold on shipping in and around the Gulf States. Personally, I do not know what the Chinese can do. Only the Iranians can stop this…. but they don’t want to. But when you read the details, the Saudis seem to be acting on their interests as them announced a willingness to make some concessions to Yemen, which shares a border with Saudi Arabia, if they refrain from firing on ships going to/from Saudi Arabia. I guess that the French writer Alexandre Dumas and The Three Musketeers are unknown in Saudi Arabia - you know “All for one, and one for All!!”?
Egypt/Syria/Jordan/Iraq
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that a missile strike from some fighter jet struck a service center used by pro-Iranian militia in Syria, including Hezbollah. The strike took place late last night near the town of Sayyida Zeinab. That area is full of pro-Iranian militias planted there during the Syrian Civil War to bolster the regime of Bashir Al Assad. At the same time, Syrian Army announced that it “was engaged” in fighting foreign fighter jets.
IDF General
Earlier this week the IDF announced that they successfully tested some new missile without providing any details. Apparently it landed in the sea, not too far from Malta. That would place it about 1200 km from Israel. Now reports from a Russia blogger are claiming that Israel tested a missile having the ability to strike Iran. Tehran is about 800 km from Israel.
Aid
International
Here is another story on the dual roles that Hamas Operatives have while working for International NGO aid organizations. This one involves an UNRWA School Principal and President of the UNRWA Teachers Union in Lebanon, Fathi al-Sharif. This article describes the in depth investigation into al-Sharif and shows pictures of him receiving awards from various UN organizations and other pictures of him with high ranking officials within Hamas, within which he has a high ranking position. According to the article, only in response to actions taken by a newly appointed UNRWA Director in Lebanon, German Dorothee Klaus, was any action taken against al-Sharif. When Israel started raising its issues with UNRWA publicly, showing all the evidence of its collaboration with Hamas in Gaza, European Donors to UNRWA demanded that its officials be integrated into UNRWA to be allowed to investigate. Much is what is known about al-Fathi came from Klaus’ investigations. You will find additional details here.
Two days ago, I posted a link to an UN Report of The Famine Review Committee and quoted from its Executive Summary. On the same day, The Washington Post published this article which appeared on Apple News. Those of you with either a Mac, iPhone or iPad should be able to either read it or at least view the headlines. But here is the headline -
Half-million Gazans face ‘catastrophic’ hunger levels, U.N.-backed report says
They are citing the exact same article and this is the headline that this “newspaper” publishes. Remember my post from June 20th and the four principles I laid out???
The Corruption of Western Media News Reporting,
I am happy to report that Josep Borrell, the EU Foreign Policy Chief, is leaving his post. He is second only to my favorite personality in this International Mess, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese. I, for one, will miss Borrell and all his outrageous lies and exaggerations about Israel. He lost this position as a result of the major shift in political orientation in the recent Europe wide elections for the European Parliament that distinctly shifted to the right. I will miss Josep. But, since I know how these UN NGOs operate I am confident that he will pop up elsewhere, perhaps head of UNRWA or perhaps some other fine UN organization. These kinds of people never go away. Here are more details about his replacement.
Defense Minister Gallant concluded his three day trip to Washington DC. He and his US counterparts claim that much of the misunderstandings related to arms shipments have now been cleared up. So, according to them everything should start moving again except for that one shipment of large smart bombs.
And In Your Copious Spare Time…
This is a video need to watch!!!! Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett addresses attendees at an international cyber security conference recently held here in Tel Aviv. I am biased as I have voted for Bennett and his partner, Ayelet Shaked, in every election here in Israel since 2012. There are rumors that he might re-enter politics in the event of a new election. I think that his speech really nails the situation in Israel well. The only item where I think he is wrong is expecting 1,000,000 Jews from outside Israel to move to Israel over then next decade or so. I just don’t see that happening. But he can be excused for being a bit over optimistic.
And here is an excellent analysis of the unintended consequences of creating a powerful defensive weapon such as Iron Dome and how it enabled Israel to become too complacent. It is written by Former Ambassador to the USA, Michael Oren.