Today’s Image
This is NOT a “Field of Dreams”. This is a “Field of Nightmares”. This is the football field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams where 11 young people aged 10 to 20 were killed today by a rocket launched by Hezbollah. More details follow below.
Gaza Rockets
Several rockets were fired yesterday from Gaza targeting the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. It has been more than 90 days since something like this happened. All rockets were either intercepted by Iron Dome or landed in open fields.
Casualties
The IDF announced today the passing of Yehonatan Greenblat resulting from severe injuries he suffered in an incident in Rafah on July 20.
Gaza Operations
This afternoon the IDF conducted an air strike on an UNRWA school being used by Hamas as a provisional military operations center in the Gaza town of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. According to the IDF the facility was used not only as an operations center but also an arms manufacturing and storage facility. Prior to the attack the IDF maintained surveillance on the facility for more than 24 hours in order to ensure that civilians were not located in the facility. You can read more here.
In a separate operation, IDF fighter jets struck several targets in the Zeittoun neighborhood of Gaza City. IDF troops are continuing their operation in Rafah and are expanding the breadth of their operation in Khan Younis.
Lebanon Operations
In what is, without doubt, the most significant escalation from Hezbollah on the northern border today, by the last count 11 people were killed today by a rocket launched by Hezbollah that landed in the town of Majdal Shams. Majdal Shams is an Arab village occupied by Druze. It is on the easternmost border with Syria. So far, all of those reported killed were children and young people. At first Hezbollah tried to deny it was their rockets, but that denial lasted only about 15 minutes. The attack hit a soccer field where a game was under way with many spectators in the stands. Some 30 other victims at the scene were rushed to hospitals in the north. No update has been given of their conditions. You can read more details here. On that site is posted a video where you can hear the siren blasting and then watch the rocket land from a distance.
An investigation by the IDF is underway. Sirens were sounded in Mahdal Shams but it appears that it was not sustained long enough to prompt the population to seek nearby shelters. It is not clear yet why the Iron Dome system did not detect and neutralize the rocket.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has called his trip to the USA short and already boarded his flight to come back. Members of the government AND nearly all opposition leaders are demanding that the IDF initiate operations to restore its deterrence on the northern border. I do not know yet whether this means full war or not, but I do not see how any force is going to stop Israel from launching a major offensive now against Hezbollah. The civilian population will demand nothing less. More than 80,000 people were forcibly evacuated from their homes back in October and they have been told that they will not be able to return at the beginning of the school term this September.
Remember that Hezbollah attacked Israel, unprovoked, immediately after Hamas launched its attack on October 7. It did so before Israel launched any air attacks or ground forces into Gaza. So all their nonsensical statements about attacking Israel because of what it is doing in Gaza is a lie. They attacked Israel to establish a northern front and distract Israeli troops.
Immediately after Hezbollah started its attacks in October Defence Minister Gallant and the Chief of Staff Halevi wanted to initiate serious operations against Hezbollah. They were stopped by Prime Minister Netanyahu who came under pressure from President Biden to avoid opening a second front. But it is hard to imagine how this incident doesn’t lead to full out war. They have been playing with matches for 9 months and now they are likely to have started a fire.
The IDF head of the Northern Command, Major General Ori Gordon met with senior leaders from the Majhal Shams community this evening along with the spiritual leader of the Druze Community to express his deep sorrow over the innocent lives lost.
From his plane enroute back from the USA, Prime Minister Netanyahu called and spoke with Sheikh Miafak Tarif, the spiritual head of the Druze Community in Israel saying:
We are horrified at the murder of the children and innocents by Hezbollah. On behalf of the entire country please accept our heartfelt condolences to the families of those murdered and the entire Druze Community.
Earlierhe Sheikh Miafak Tarif issued this statement:
Its impossible to image and describe the horrific images of children and their smashed [body] parts strewn on the grass. A proper country cannot allow itself the continued harming of its citizens and residents. This is the ongoing reality for nine months in northern communities. This evening crossed all possible lines.
The Lebanese government said it:
condemns all acts of violence and aggression against civilians… Targeting civilians is a flagrant violation of international law and goes against the principles of humanity
President Isaac Herzog, who is currently in Paris attending the Olympic Opening Ceremony with other dignitaries, said:
Hezbollah, armed and funded by Iran, does not distinguish between child or adult, soldier or civilian, Jew or Muslim, Druze or Christian. Hezbollah terrorists brutally attacked and murdered children today, whose only crime was going out to play soccer. They did not return.
The White House announced:
Our support for Israel's security is iron-clad and unwavering against all Iranian backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah
The EU envoy to Israel released this telling message, telling because it lacks any real meaning or empathy:
Condolences to the bereaved families, wishes for speedy recovery to all injured…
A leader of one of the opposition parties posted this:
our response must tear apart Beirut
In separate operations, an IDF fighter jet attacked a set of Hezbollah operational facilities killing several Hezbollah combatants as well as one of their armories. Hezbollah claims that four of their operatives were killed.
Earlier in the day, four rockets launched by Hezbollah were fired towards the northern Israeli Arab village of Arab al_Aramshe. All landed in open fields without the need to be intercepted. Then, Hezbollah launched two kamikaze drones into Israel. One was intercepted and the other landed in an open field. Around the same time two rockets launched by Hezbollah landed in open fields near the Israeli town of Shtula in the north.
And one kamikaze drone headed in the direction of one of Israel’s offshore gas fields was intercepted by an Iron Dome system launched from an IDF naval ship.
Yemen Operations
US CENTCOM forces in the Red Sea area announced that they destroyed six Houthi launched aerial UAVs on Friday. Afterwards, they destroyed another three Unscrewed Surface Vessels USVs.
Syria/Iraq/Jordan
The last remaining US presence in Syria, in the easternmost part of the country came under missile fire today by forces linked to Iran and their proxies. These US troops help secure an ISIS refugee facility along with Kurdish troops from neighboring Iraq and Syria.
Aid
The World Health Organization announced that they will send an additional 1 million polio vaccines to Gaza. Early in the war the aid organizations administered the inoculation of 1 million residents of Gaza against polio.
Hostage/Ceasefire
Israel delivered its most recent edits to the current hostage/ceasefire negotiations to the Biden Administration during the Netanyahu visit. The changes, as being publicly disclosed, related to how Israel can prevent arms from being smuggled into Gaza through the Egyptian border and how to prevent Hamas operatives from migrating within the civilian population that is being permitted to return back to homes in the northern Gaza area.
Meanwhile, Hamas announced that it refuses to receive and/or review any new edits to the proposal being exchanged via the Egyptian and Qatari intermediaries. If this remains their position and the mediators can get them to modify their position, it is likely that the hostage/ceasefire talks will collapse.
Politics/Protests
After the Prime Minister’s speech and visit to the USA, polls here in Israel suggest that his popularity moved up a few percentage points. When asked who is the most favored candidate for prime minister he is favored by 36 to 28% of the population when compared to Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid Party, 32% to 28% when compared to Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity Party, BUT, 33% to 32$ when compared to former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. The same poll shows the population still having major distrust for Prime Minister Netanyahu and his intentions.
International
Those of you reading my posts for some time will recall that among all the international players I have a soft spot for two in particular:
Josep Borrell, Vice President of the European Commission and former EU Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights Situation in the Palestinian Territories.
In my view they compete for who can issue the most extreme and ridiculous anti-Israel statements. Borrell, from the Spanish Socialist Party, was recently replaced after the EU elections that shifted the political slant of the EU to the right. But that doesn’t stop him from issuing remarks on The War. But, I think that Albanese’s most recent statement takes the prize. In a recent post she made on Twitter she publicly supported the comparison between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Adolf Hitler. You can see it here. This drew a rebuke from the US’s representative to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield:
There is no place for antisemitism from UN-affiliated officials tasked with promoting human rights. While the United States has never supported Francesca Albanese’s mandate, it is clear she is not fit for this or any position at the UN.