Yom Shleeshee
Tuesday
29 Kislev 5784
December 12 2023
A Special Request
Winter weather has hit Israel–and Gaza. Today we have had heavy thunderstorms, sleet, and even hail. All of these combined with the cold weather–reaching 13 C with 21 km/hr winds this week–make for miserable conditions for our soldiers. We urge you to use the Donate Button in the right hand column. All donations go straight to support our heroic warriors!
Happy 6th night of Chanukah! (image courtesy of rotter.net).
UPDATE 10:00 PM
Two more “hostages” have been found dead.
Eden Zakaria and Ziv Dado. Murdered by Palestinian HamISIS terrorists. May their memories be for a blessing.
Eden Zakaria (27) who was at the Forest Peace Party on October 7 and IDF Warrant Officer Ziv Dado (36) a logistics soldier in the 51st Battalion of the Golani Brigade were both thought to be hostages (though it was thought that Dado might be dead). But their bodies were found two days ago by an IDF force sent to rescue them. Tragically, two of the IDF rescuers were killed in the operation which located their bodies.
30 more wounded soldiers arrived at Soroka Hospital in Beersheva today with varying degrees of wounds.
On the Ground Today in Gaza
From Defense Minister Galant speaking a few hours ago in Gaza at the forward headquarters of Division 162:
“I would like to say that the city of Gaza and the north of the Gaza are about to break. This division alone killed hundreds of terrorists on the eastern side of Gaza in the area of Jabaliya and its surroundings. There are also hundreds of terrorists who have surrendered. These operations are not only carried out above ground, but there is also a deep descent into the depths of the ground, to a storehouse of bunkers, military bases, communication rooms, ammunition depots, discussion rooms. We will see these things in the photographs in the coming days.”
This is the first revelation that our soldiers are also fighting “deep underground.”
Missile and Mortar Fire So Far Today
In the South:
Sderot, Nir Am (21:00); Sderot, Nir Am (12:52); Yad Mordechai, Ashkelon (11:29); Mivtahim, Yesha (10:32); Zimrat, Shuva (07:18).
In the North:
Baram (14:57); Betzet, Shlomi (13:38); Bustan HaGalil, Akko (13:20); Shlomi (13:18); Shtula, Zarit (11:42); Abirim, Alkosh (11:27); Idmit, Eilon, Goren, Arab Al-Aramshe (11:22).
At Sea
Not much is reported about the activities of the Israeli Navy; however, we here in Ashdod see naval vessels at sea every time we look out our windows.
The IDF released this information today:
“Since the beginning of the fighting in the Gaza Strip, the flotilla of missile ships and regular security ships have attacked hundreds of targets. Navy forces eliminated terrorists, including dozens of operatives in the Hamas naval formation. Also, most of the commanders of the Hamas naval force, which numbers hundreds of terrorists and specializes in carrying out attacks in the maritime area, were attacked and killed.
At the same time, the missile ships of the naval arm continue to operate in the Red Sea area, in accordance with the situation assessment and as part of the increased defense effort. This week ‘Saar 6’ ship, the Ahi Magen pictured below, joined the operational activity of the sea arm in Eilat. . .”
Col. Eldad Borochovitz is quoted in the press release: “In cooperation with the Air Force, we are carrying out defense against the enemy coming from the south and east. We are over 1,000 fighters at sea, we do not intend to stop even for a moment – Until the destruction of the last of the terrorists.”
Israeli Political Disunity Surges
This past week has seen a parade of failed politicians and failed military leaders renew the attack on the government in general and PM Netanyahu in particular.
Former PM Ehud Barak who ordered the disastrous unilateral withdrawal from south Lebanon decades ago and now leads the anti-government movement here, has ordered his anti-government forces to rebrand their demonstrations under the banner of “October 7.” The idea is that now that “judicial reform” is dead, the way to go after Netanyahu and the government is to blame what happened on Netanyahu.
Joining Barak is failed IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz who led Israeli forces in the failed 2006 war with Hezbollah. Halutz yesterday said that demonstrators should start referring to the October 7 massacres as the “Netanyahu massacres.”
Joining Barak and Halutz is, as we have already reported here, former PM and convicted felon Ehud Olmert who tried to give away Jerusalem to the PLO in 2007-2008. Olmert has taken to calling members of the current government “murderers” and “butchers.“
And the list goes on and on. At least the public remains fully unified behind our soldiers, but we can expect to see anti-government demonstrations in the streets in the coming weeks.
In the middle of a war.
UPDATE 11:30
With the addition of another fallen soldier announced this morning, 105 soldiers have now been killed in the Gaza ground operation.
However, in a distressing post this morning, the IDF reports that 20 of these soldiers were killed in operational accidents and “bilateral shootings” (aka “friendly fire”).
More specifically:
13 died by friendly fire (some hit from the air, some by tanks, and some from fire on the ground).
1 fighter fell as a result of a “shooting deviation” – that is, a stray bullet, a shot by our forces that was fired in his direction without the intention of hitting him.
2 fell as a result of accidents and run overs by RCM vehicles – tanks and APCs.
2 fell as a result of machine gun bullets (unclear what this means).
2 fell as a result of IDF shrapnel from our forces (for example a grenade thrown our forces that also hit IDF fighters).
According to IDF, these deaths are related to “the huge amount of forces in the field, the duration and nature of the fighting, fatigue, lack of operational discipline, lack of coordination between forces and other reasons.”
Whatever the cause, these deaths were tragic and preventable.
Two-State Solution
Two state solution, two state solution, two state solution. Hardly a day goes by that we don’t hear President Biden or Secretary of State Blinken, or someone in the European Union, or, or, or . . . droning on about the importance of a two state solution.
I for one am sick of hearing about a two state solution.
Beginning in 1994, a Palestinian country was established in Areas A and B of Judea and Samaria. Call it what you want: a Palestinian state or a Palestinian territory, but the fact is that it is a Palestinian country. It has its own elected national government (when Abu Mazen permits a vote), and locally elected municipal governments. These governments are solely responsible for administration in this Palestinian country which, by the way, has its own heavily armed army disguised as a police force.
Then in 2007, another Palestinian country came into existence in Gaza–elected by the people of Gaza. This country also had its own local governments which administrated all facets of life in Gaza and its own army disguised as HamISIS, Islamic Jihad, and a myriad of other terror organizations.
These two Palestinian countries on either side of us have never deviated from their goal of eliminating Israel. We see how the one based in Ramallah does everything to incite its people to murder us–going so far as to even pay them or their families for how many of us they kill. As for Gaza, look no further than October 7, and all of its comments since.
Why should we ever agree to a two state solution? Obviously the two state solution between 1994-2007 was an utter failure, and the three state solution since then even more so. Why should we ever agree to a Palestinian country?
UPDATE 8:00 AM
A very strange night here in Ashdod: the normal booming concussive blasts coming from Gaza were temporarily replaced by intermittent vibrations that rumbled through our house creating the sensation that a very heavy person was walking on our roof. This went on for several hours.
This morning comes news that we were not alone. Apparently, the same sensations were felt in homes throughout southern Israel and are being attributed to the fact that the IAF was dropping “vibrating bombs” aimed at collapsing tunnels in Gaza.
Stop and think about this for a moment. We are located 25 km (16 miles) north of northern Gaza and about 50 km (32 miles) north of Khan Younis. If the bombs dropped there were having such an effect here, we can only hope they were having a dramatically more powerful impact there.
The Hostages’ Increasingly Dire Situation
There are unconfirmed reports today that Israel has asked Egypt and Qatar to mediate another hostage release. However, several HamISIS leaders have immediately rejected any release until Israel stops all military activity in Gaza.
Which is never.
There are increasingly dire reports concerning the hostages as Israeli troops close in the tunnels–with some reports that HamISIS is threatening to execute more of them.
As you may not know, in addition to the stories of severe torture emerging from hostages who have been released, it is now believed that HamISIS has murdered at least 20 since October 7th.
This 20 is in addition to the dead “hostages” that the Palestinian terrorists took back to Gaza on October 7th.
The Sheer Number of Missiles and Weapons in Gaza Is Staggering
Not a day goes by that our soldiers do not discover another huge storehouse of HamISIS weapons.
Yesterday morning, Duvdevan fighters raided a HamISIS building and found more than 250 missiles, mortars, and RPGs. Hours later, a combat team from the Givati Brigade found a factory for the production of weapons and discovered hundreds of grenades, mortars, and long range missiles.
In Judea and Samaria This Morning
At least 4 Palestinian terrorists were killed in a strike in the heart of Jenin.
Back to Low-Tech?
One mistake that has been realized since October 7 is that clearing land along our borders from minefields in order to provide land for agriculture and construction was foolhardy.
Instead of relying on cameras and hi-tech sensing systems, “good old-fashioned” mines provide a ready defense against terrorists attempting to infiltrate the country.
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.