Today’s Image
While I was at the gym today, I saw the video of this guy (pictured above) dancing around holding a leg of lamb with a big grin on his face. Fresh meat from refrigerated aid trucks started entering Gaza through the aid convoys. There is a small, but growing movement within Israel to start withholding aid other than food and water from entering until the hostages are released. There were even videos shown on Israeli TV of brand new Sony Playstation’s for sale in the markets in Gaza…
Gaza Rockets
Two rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel on Friday. One landed in the sea and the other was intercepted.
Casualties
No casualties, civilian or military, were reported resulting from The War in the past 3 days.
Gaza Operations
At a high level, the pace and intensity of operations in Gaza are rapidly declining. Some fighting remains in some neighborhoods inside the southern city of Rafah and along the Netzarim corridor crossing the east-west belt in Gaza. Other than this, there are occasional strategic operations acting on intelligence and some air directed strikes when Hamas combatants are identified as congregating. Those air strikes take place typically after a period of observation in an effort to avoid civilian casualties, but those efforts are not always 100% successful. On Saturday the IDF conducted an air strike on a section of a former school in Gaza City, Shuhada al-Zeitoun School, after identifying armed terrorists congregating there.
On Friday, two rockets were fired at the Israeli city of Ashkelon, one being intercepted and one landing in the sea. Today, the IDF dropped leaflets in the northern city of Beit Lahiya in Gaza notifying the few residents remaining there to evacuate to a designated humanitarian zone. The rockets were fired from this area and troops will be going in on a search and destroy mission.
On Saturday, IDF fighter jets struck two buildings in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City that were being use by Hamas to manufacture weapons.
Lebanon Operations
Two soldiers were lightly injured this evening, Sunday, when two Hezbollah kamikaze drones struck a position in the northern Golan Heights. No reports of damage. Earlier today IDF fighter jets struck 20 Hezbollah rocket launchers, including a major strike in an area due north from Metula, Israel’s most northern town. Here you can see a video of one of the strikes showing rockets firing in random directions in the aftermath. This was after Hezbollah fired more than 40 rockets into northern Israel. This pace of rockets is far beyond what Israel had previously seen and is largely contributing to the atmosphere that something must now be done in the north. The country cannot tolerate a daily toll like this. No country would or could.
In a rather bizarre incident, a northern IDF commander issued the command to drop leaflets across southern Lebanon advising the residents to leave in advance of an attack. It is weird because this was done without permission from his superiors.
Late Saturday night IDF fighter jets conducted several air strikes deep inside Lebanon near the Syrian border in the Beqaa Valley and Baalbek. The targets were several weapons storage facilities.
Earlier that day an IDF drone struck a motorcycle near Lebanon’s coastal city of Sidon. Also on Saturday several kamikaze drones hit areas near the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona.
Altogether, on Friday Hezbollah launched more than 55 rockets and ratcheting up the quantity and intensity of attacks from previous levels. There were no reports of injuries or serious damage. Shortly after IDF artillery struck the sites from where the rockets were launched. The IDF posted these videos of the strikes where you can see the secondary explosions from the stored weapons.
Yemen Operations
The big story of the day here is the interception of a Houthi ballistic missile penetrating Israeli air space from the eastern border with Jordan and the subsequent shrapnel which fell over parts of central Israel, near the towns of Modi’in and Lod, not far from the Israeli airport. The IDF has launched an investigation into why the missile wasn’t intercepted before entering Israeli air space. This was the first missile launched by the Houthis against Israel, since Israel struck its port 54 days ago. No one was hurt and there was minimal damage resulting from the falling shrapnel. Several people suffered minor injuries while scrambling to their bomb shelters once the sirens went off. And several small fires erupted in the wooded areas where much of the shrapnel fell. I wonder if the IDF is planning another operation against the Houthi port in Yemen.
The Houthis claimed that the missile fired was a hypersonic missile but the IDF insists it was a conventional ballistic missile.
Syria/Iran/Jordan/Egypt/Iraq/Turkiye
Iran claims that it successfully launched a 60 kg satellite into a 550km orbit in space. According to their public reports, the intention of the satellite is testing hardware and software, but it is military in nature since the IRGC was behind the launch.
Also coming from Iran, it is reported that 34 imprisoned Iranian women have started a hunger strike marking two years since they were arrested on charges of inappropriate dress.
Aid
There is a growing ad hoc movement within Israel related to aid going into Gaza. Many are arguing that it is absurd to enable aid other than basics -food and water- to enter Gaza while Hamas blocks any release of hostages. Videos like this are pushing those who argue in favor of decreasing aid entering Gaza.
On Friday more than 176 aid trucks entered Gaza, leaving their cargo in the staging areas. Aid organizations picked up 125 trucks worth of cargo for distribution, including refrigerated meat like that posted in Today’s Image section. And here is another report on the rethinking of aid going into Gaza.
Altogether more than 520,000 children have been vaccinated for Polio in Gaza. In a couple of days the vaccination campaign will be complete.
IDF
After a lengthy investigation, the IDF announced that it has concluded that three IDF soldiers held hostage were killed, by accident, as a consequence of an air strike on a nearby senior Hamas battalion commander back in November 2023. Their bodies were recovered by the IDF in December.
Politics/Protests
The weekly hostage family + anti-government protests took place on Saturday night, which is the most popular night for protests. According to organizers, the number of participants at the Tel Aviv protests numbered about 100,000. There were scuffles with both police and opposing protesters with major highways temporarily shut down.
A meeting of the Security Cabinet was postponed. The main topic was intended to be the Lebanese border and what to do about the increased intensity of Hezbollah strikes. But there is a disagreement between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant. Gallant prefers to enter the war after a ceasefire has been reached in Gaza, arguing that a war with Hezbollah will reduce the chances of getting the hostages back. But, there is no deal to be done with Hamas at this stage anyway since the leadership has toughened its position. And the reality is that should war break out with Hezbollah, Hamas would be in a position that it would renew fighting (with whatever forces it still has) anyway. So, personally I do not see much difference in which direction is taken and I think that Gallant is misreading Yahyah Sinwar. But, the reality is that he is more intimately familiar with the situation than any of us.
In a sign of the tensions and associated aggressive behavior, three women were arrested over the weekend for placing leaflets urging the immediate conclusion of a hostage/ceasefire deal on the seats of members of the synagogue (Beit Knesset) where a leading Likud Minister, Yuli Edelstein, regularly attends. The arrests have triggered an investigation. Initially the women were being questioned for breaking and entering, but security cameras showed that they just walked into the building when no one was around. Undoubtedly the women will be released since they didn’t really break any laws. But the episode has caused some embarrassment. No doubt the synagogue will be locked this coming shabbat. The whole incident is absurd - the distribution of the flyers inside private property and then the arrest of the women.
But accompanying those women was a whole parade of protestors interfering with Minister Edelstein’s walk to the synagogue for prayer. While he was walking they walked alongside him, shouting and yelling slogans at him. This, at least to me, seems way out of line… but not illegal. I do not see what they expect to accomplish with such crass exhibitions. They are certainly not gathering more sympathy to their cause.. They are just pissing people off by these actions. Here is a thoughtful opinion from a member of the synagogue subjected to these weekly shouting demonstrators. I urge you to read it.
The issue related to the draft of the ultra-orthodox in Israel is not going away. According to the ultra-orthodox political parties in the government, Prime Minister Netanyahu has promised that legislation providing general exemption will be finished before the onset of the upcoming holidays so it wlll be ready to submit to committee hearings soon after the end of the holidays. Firstly, they are complaining because this has not happened. But, I do not see th point. The Supreme Court has ruled that any exemptions are illegal since they discriminate one section of the population. So they are likely to reject anything this government submits… Certainly feels like a brewing coalition crisis to me. But, it is my opinion that at the last minute the ultra-orthodox parties will seek some kind of compromise. This is because should this government fall, any deal with a subsequent government will be much worse.
International
Prime Minister Netanyahu is expecting to address the UN General Assembly again this year in the annual parade of speeches coming from heads of state around the globe. He is scheduled for Friday, September 27. I wonder how many pro-Hamas rioters it will attract?
The United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed stated in a post on X.com that his country will not play any role in the “day after” in Gaza unless a Palestinian state is established.
Today, in Istanbul, a senior Hamas official was interviewed by an Associated Press reporter. during the course of the interview he said:
The resistance has a high ability to continue. There were martyrs and there were sacrifices… but in return, there was an accumulation of experiences and the recruitment of new generations into the resistance.
And In Your Copious Spare Time…
In this brief report, the author documents the deliberate slow down in arms sales/shipments to Israel due to politically motivated stalling tactics by Germany’s Foreign Ministry, whose leader frequents Israel posing as a true friend in a time of need.