Today’s Image
Meet Aryeh Zalmanovich - 86 (Z’’L). According to the recently rescued hostage, Qaid Farhan al-Qadi, Zalmanovich dies because he was denied his medication by his captors. And no efforts were made by Red Cross to get the medications that Israel put together for the hostages back in February.
Gaza Rockets
Two rockets fired from Gaza landed in open fields near the border town of Kissufim. No damage or injuries.
Casualties
No IDF casualties were reported in the past day.
Gaza Operations
In the past day the IDF conducted quite a few raids in the Rafah area. In one of them the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Intelligence Officer, Osama Gadallah, was killed. They estimate that in the past day dozens of Hamas combatants were killed either in close quarters fighting or by missiles launched from IDF drones. As a result of the ongoing operations by the IDF in Rafah it was announced today that Hamas’s Rafah Brigade has now collapsed and about 80% of all the tunnels in and around Rafah have been neutralized. More and more the IDF is seeing attempts by the terrorists to escape through tunnels from Rafah into the humanitarian zones carved out by the IDF on the western section of Gaza. Very few are making it across as the IDF has set up ambushes that kill the terrorists as they make their way into the tunnels. You can read more here.
And just to remind my readers, the US Biden Administration insisted, along with many European Leaders, that Israel should not enter Rafah as it risks too many civilian casualties and evacuating the civilians would take at least 3 months. It took the IDF 2 ½ weeks and there has not been a single civilian killed in Rafah during the fighting over the past three months. It was a shame that the government was threatened by the Biden Administration and prevented from entering Rafah earlier, back in March as it would have caused The War to be that much further along.
Likewise, the IDF continues tightening its noose around Deir al-Balah near Khan Younis. There several dozen terrorists were killed during operations conducted in the past two days.
Documents secured by IDF troops fighting in Gaza uncovered many intelligence documents recently that show how Hamas, in collaboration with the PSR Polling Institute to create fake statistics showing support for their cause amongst the population in Gaza. You can read more here.
Lebanon Operations
Israeli fighter jets fired missiles at several buildings housing Hezbollah operatives near the southern Lebanese town of Kafr Kila. Later in the day Hezbollah launched several kamikaze drones sounding off sirens in the Golan Heights. There are no reports of injuries or damage.
Yemen Operations
It has been 43 days since the IDF struck Yemen’s port of Al-Hodeidah, and without any missiles fired from Yemen towards Israel.
It appears that despite the ongoing burning of the Greek oil tanker, Sounion, there has yet to be a breach of the hull resulting in leakage of oil into the Red Sea.
Iran is reporting that the Houthis agreed to a ceasefire that would enable ships to come and rescue the leaking oil tanker. The Houthis have denied that they agreed to anything.
Syria/Iran/Jordan/Egypt/Iraq/Turkiye
A drone launched from Syria was intercepted by Israeli fighter jets before it entered Israeli air space.
The new Iranian President, Masoud Pezeshkian, claims to have launched a formal investigation into the death of a man taken into custody after a street brawl. The opposition claims that he was tortured to death.
And while everyone is focused elsewhere, Iran continues to march towards a nuclear bomb. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency Iran’s store of Uranium Hexaflouride, which is how the isotopes are separated, at a 60% purity level reached 164.7 kg. In theory that is 2 kg short of enough for 4 bombs.
And in a rather unusual event, Iraq shot down a Turkish drone which crossed into its air space today. The two countries share a border in their northern region. Turkiye routinely hunts and kills armed Kurdish fighters they claim are terrorists. They frequently cross the Iraqi border to evade the Turkish Army, then return.
Aid
Now that the polio vaccine vials and refrigeration equipment for storing them was dispatched into Gaza by Israel’s COGAT, there is talk of the IDF observing a ceasefire during certain time windows during the day and for preset days so the aid organizations can administer the vaccines to roughly 650,000 children. According to the World Health Organization the campaign will start on Sunday and is schedule to last three days.
And according to health officials, the one child who contracted a mutated strain of polio in Gaza was born after most of the population was vaccinated near the beginning of the war. According to these officials the WHO is largely to blame as they were not following standard isolation procedures. The belief is that those who were vaccinated excreted the mutated version of the virus in their waste, making it vulnerable to anyone not vaccinated.
Hostages/Ceasefire
The recently rescued hostage, Qaid Farhan al-Qadi, called the son of Aryeh Zalmanovich - 86 (Z’’L), to tell that he and his father were held together in Gaza as hostages for some time. According to al-Qadi, Zalmanovich was not given his medication and he passed while in the custody of the terrorists. I posted Zalmanovich’s photo above.
One of the Israeli TV stations, Channel 12, interviewed rescued hostage al-Qadi in detail. You can read more here. Just a few of the highlights. He was shot in the legs early on in his captivity. A physician operated on him to remove the bullets without an anesthetic. He witnessed several of the hostages dying while in captivity. He was kept underground in darkness most of the time he was held in Gaza. He survived quite awhile on bread alone.
Defense Minister Gallant, it appears, is promoting a document within the Security Cabinet explaining that it is the Defense Establishment’s view that if Israel does not arrive at a hostage/ceasefire deal soon, it could be facing a multi front war. I do not think that this is any news to anyone, but the question is obviously, why the need for this document. I presume that it is so the position of the senior military commanders are able to put their views to paper and leave it to the political leaders to decide the fate, thereby living with the consequences.
The current approach of the negotiations appears to be focused on ironing out all the implementation details, leaving decisions on the Rafah border crossing and the Netzarim Corridor to last. I guess everyone has to feel like they are making progress.
Politics/Protests
Yesterday, I reported on the caravan of cars organized by the Hostage Family Forum to draw attention to their demands to sign a deal now. This morning the families were at the border community of Nir Oz when some tried to burst across the border fence into Gaza, an active military zone. The IDF border guards had to intercede and stop them. You can read more here.
And In Your Copious Spare Time…
This lengthy article from the Begin Sadat Center focuses on what might become a new paradigm in Israeli military strategy - wars that go on for months.
Syria is one of the largest illegal drug production and distribution operations in the world. Assad would put the Medellin and Cali Cartels to shame. Much of these drugs are smuggled into the Gulf Countries. In an effort to try and stem this flow, some of the Gulf Countries made an effort to accept Syria back into the pan-Arab fold. This article describes why this is a flawed strategy that will accomplish nothing.