The Gaza War: Day 166 . . . The War in the North

Yom Reva’ee

Wednesday

10 Adar II 5784

March 20 2024

 

May His Memory Be For a Blessing

Maj. Haion, 51, from Rosh Ha’Ayin, commander in the 401st Battalion, fell in battle at the Shifa Hospital yesterday.

Not to state the obvious, but why in the world doesn’t Israel simply destroy Shifa once and for all and stop risking the lives of our soldiers?

Photos of the Day

First, a photo of the beach that your humble servant took yesterday in front of our house here in Ashdod. Then photos of what we found there:

What We Found Yesterday

Hundreds of bottles of what appear to be cooking oil and . . .

Bottles of salsa, packages of nutri-bars, and packages of sandals

And this is not to mention more women’s hygiene packets, bottles of facial cream, and, and, and . . . literally, the beach is trashed with “humanitarian aid” to Gaza that was accidentally dumped into the Mediterranean.

One can easily imagine that if hundreds of bottles of cooking oil are on the beach, thousands more must have sunk into the water causing an environmental hazard. But who cares? All of this is subservient to the “needs” of the “poor” Palestinians.

Quote of the Day

“We cannot rely on the U.S. to bring us weapons. We need to produce weapons ourselves so that Israel can fight for a long time without the American weapons pipeline.”

Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu speaking yesterday about reports that the Biden Administration is slowing down the flow of weapons because of disagreements with the government about attacking Rafah.

Of course, Eliyahu is more than right. It is long past time for Israel to wean itself off of weapons being supplied (usually “bought)” from other countries, especially the United States. When fighting a war, being dependent on others is a recipe for disaster. Just yesterday, Canada announced that it will longer supply weapons to us.

You can be sure that more countries will quickly follow suit.

Israel has extraordinarily robust defense industries. The irony is that while these industries sell weapons all over the world, they are not involved in making specific weapons necessary for our soldiers fighting in Gaza.

UPDATE 9:00 AM

On the Ground in Gaza

The battle continues in and around the Shifa Hospital.

The IDF spokesperson:

“Approximately 300 suspects were arrested and dozens of terrorists were eliminated at Shifa Hospital led by Division 162 in conjunction with the 13th Fleet, and the Duvdevan unit.

Dozens of prominent terrorists in the terrorist organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who were involved in directing terrorism against Israel and the IDF are among the dead and captured.”

Among those killed yesterday were:

5 senior members of the pro-Iranian militias were killed overnight in Syria; one of those killed was a Hezbollah commander.

IDF spokesperson speaking about IDF attacks in southern Lebanon:

“We hit terrorist infrastructures and military buildings in five areas: a short time ago, the IAF attacked military structures of Hezbollah in the areas of Aita al-Sha’ab, Mis al-Jabal and al-Adaisa. Additional terrorist infrastructures of the organization were attacked in the area of al-Nakura and in the area and village of Kila.

During the day, a number of launches from Lebanese territory to Israeli territory were detected in several areas. The IDF attacked the sources of the fire with artillery. Also, a suspicious aerial target crossed from Lebanese territory into Israeli territory in the Shushan region and was successfully intercepted by the air defense fighters.

As a result of launches into the Manara area, two IDF soldiers were slightly and moderately injured and were evacuated to receive medical treatment at a hospital; their families were informed.”

The On Again Off Again Hostage Negotiations Are On Again

According to sources, “the teams in Doha are first trying to reach an understanding regarding the release of the security prisoners in exchange for the release of 40 Israeli hostages. Therefore, the discussions are currently focused on the number of prisoners that will be released and on the question of whether the parties will have a veto right on their identity. Only after that, the parties will discuss issues related to the return of residents to the north of the Gaza Strip. According to officials at the political level, this is a more complex issue, because it obscures the achievements of the war.”

In other words, it must be decided how many “security prisoners” (aka “terrorists”) will be released for 40 hostages. And then it must be decided if Israel or Hamas can veto specific “security prisoners.”

This is just incomprehensible. 

It is bad enough that Israel will end up releasing dozens of terrorists for each hostage, but are we really going to allow the possibility that HamISIS can pick and choose which terrorists it wants released?

Terror in Judea

At 4:15 p.m. yesterday afternoon, a Palestinian terrorist from Jenin shot two members of a Shin Bet force near the Gush Etzion Junction. Both were evacuated to hospitals and are in “serious” condition this morning. The terrorist was killed.

Can You Believe This?

Yesterday in the Knesset’s Labor and Welfare Committee hearings, a representative from the Ministry of Defense objected to a proposed law that would enable victims of terror to sue the terrorists and terror organizations that carried out the terror.

Yes, you read that correctly. Our own Defense Minister does not want to enable Israeli victims of terror to sue organizations like the PLO, HamISIS, and Islamic Jihad.

Why? Because it might destabilize the PLO if it has to pay for the terrorism it finances.

Unbelievable.