SPECIAL NOTICE:
Israelstreet wishes all of our family and friends in the United States a very happy July 4th! We also salute the U.S. Armed Forces wherever they might be deployed.
If you happen to be here in Ashdod, you are invited to our annual beach bbq and party at 7:00 pm this evening!
UPDATES
9:00 am Israel time, Saturday, July 4 2015
**Who knows what is happening in the northern Sinai this morning?
Both IS and the Egyptian Army are engaged in a public relations war with both sides putting out videos of their attacks during the past few days. However, it has been confirmed that the Army killed three senior leaders of Ansar Al Maqdis, the IS-affiliated terror group in the Sinai in a helicopter attack last night around 10 pm.
Here in Ashdod, we heard intense bombing from about 10:30 to 11:00 pm last night. Presumably, Egyptian air force planes were striking in the vicinity of Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid.
**Who shot the missiles into the Eshkol region of southern Israel yesterday?
It is difficult to believe, but the IDF does not seem to be sure where the 3 missiles fired into Israel yesterday came from. Were they launched by Hamas-supported IS in the Sinai or by Hamas in Gaza?
All we know here in southern Israel is that our phone app for incoming missiles went off at 4:21 pm yesterday afternoon, and more than 200,000 Israeli men, women, and children living along the Gaza border had to run to their bomb shelters.
What were you doing at 4:21 pm yesterday?
**What are the results of the constant missile attacks on people in southern Israel?
The results of a joint study of the University of Haifa and NATAL (Victims of National Trauma) were released yesterday. The study documented the extent of new PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) that occurred in residents of the South during last summer’s war. It did not address the level of PTSD that was already in the population due to 15 years of missile attacks.
Specifically, researchers conducted “a daily evaluation of mental reactions among residents living under the constant threat of rocket barrages and immediate threat of terrorist tunnels.” The evaluations took place during and after the war.
The study’s findings:
40% of the population (of some 1,000,000 here in the South) experienced clinical symptoms of short-term PTSD.
2 months after the war, 47.5% of the 40% continued to experience full-level PTSD or depression.
4 months after the war, 35% of the 40% continued to experience PTSD.
One of the authors of the study, Dr. Tamar Lavi commented:
When you hear a boom right beside you, when you have 15 seconds to reach shelter, when you’re out, when your child is not around you, it happens every few minutes, this tremendous anxiety . . . The question is how to live like that for 15 years [since the missile fire began] . . .
TODAY’S BLOG:
This is the SUV that the Benjamin Brigade Commander Israel Shomer was riding in yesterday when a Palestinian terrorist threw a “rock” at it (picture IDF Spokesman’s office).
Yesterday saw yet another Ramadan terrorist incident, but one that ended in a decidedly different way this time.
Mohammed Sami al-Ksbeh, a 17-year-old according to the PLO, was out for a Friday morning Ramadan frolic with his friends in A-Ram, a Palestinian settlement northeast of Jerusalem. Their object of fun was ambushing an Israeli convoy of vehicles carrying officers and soldiers of the Benjamin Brigade. One of the vehicles was a SUV carrying Israel Shomer, the Commander of the Brigade.
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As the “rock” throwing continued and intensified, Shomer fired his weapon into the air as a warning for the terrorists to disperse.
They did not.
Instead, Ksbeh picked up a “rock” (note the size of the hole in the windshield) and threw it at Shomer’s vehicle. As you can see, the rock struck almost directly in front of the driver–placing the passengers of the vehicle in danger.
Shomer took out his gun and shot Ksbeh in the chest and in the head. Ksbeh died shortly thereafter.
The Palestinian version of the terrorist incident was hilarious. According to them, Ksbeh was simply attempting to climb the climb the separation fence so that he could get to Jerusalem and pray at the Al-Aksa Mosque.
Sure thing. Climb over the fence. Take a look, dear reader, at the separation fence that is in the background of the picture above. Note the IDF watchtower on the left. No one was trying to climb over anything. To pray at the Al-Aksa Mosque? Not possible. Every Muslim under 40 from Judea and Samaria has now been blocked from going to the Temple Mount in the wake of the last two weeks of Palestinian terrorism.
Meanwhile, the United Nations was quick to jump in with this blather from U.N. Middle East envoy Nikolai Mladenov:
“The U.N. condemns the killing of the Palestinian boy this morning by Benjamin Brigade Commander Israel Somer.”
Palestinian “boy”?
For once, however, the IDF General Command backed up its own officer and issued this statement in support of Shomer:
“The commander reacted exactly as expected given that the incident presented an immediate risk to life.”
Education Minister Naftali Bennett had this to say:
“If someone seeks to kill you, rise up and kill him. I back completely the Binyamin Brigade Commander who acted against a terrorist in order to defend his soldiers. Stones kill, just ask Adele Biton.”
Adele Biton, you may remember, was the 3-year-old Israeli girl who eventually died of the wounds she suffered when hit in the head by a rock while a passenger in her mother’s car.
Even Yair Lapid, a member of the opposition in the Knesset, said this:
“Stones kill, and IDF soldiers need to be able to defend themselves and know that their political leaders will back them up completely.”
Your humble servant would like to add his support for Israel Shomer this morning as well. It is about time that the IDF acted to defend itself from the endless assaults by Palestinian terrorists.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.