Monday
Yom Shnee
13 Tevet 5785
January 13 2025
May Her Memory Be For A Blessing
Tamar Edri was critically wounded when a Hezbollah missile hit her home on Jabotinsky Street in Nahariya two months ago. She has been fighting for her life since then. Tragically. she died yesterday leaving behind her husband Yossi, her children Yarden, Sagit, Oshrat, and Liron and many grandchildren.
The View from Ashdod
It was a normal night here in Ashdod, which is to say that it was a night of explosions emanating from Gaza. The oddity was that huge, house-shaking explosions punctuating the usual lower intensity booms happened every two hours beginning at about 10:30 pm. One of the most concussive blasts was at 12:32, a blast that was felt all the way north to Netanya. Of course, residents further south in Ashkelon, Sderot, and border communities reported a much more powerful blast.
This morning, we hear from the IDF that those blasts came from bunker busting bombs being used to destroy tunnels in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza-–the location where so many of our Nahal soldiers have been killed in recent days.
The Netanyahu-Biden Conversation Yesterday
In what may well turn out to be the last conversation the two have before Biden leaves office in a week, the two leaders had a conversation described differently by each:
From the White House:
“The parties discussed the ceasefire outline and the hostage deal, as well as changes in the region following the ceasefire in Lebanon, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, and the weakening of Iran in the region. The President emphasized that the fighting in Gaza must end as soon as possible and that humanitarian aid must be increased.”
Interestingly, the White House announcement does not mention PM Netanyahu by name and of course ends by emphasizing humanitarian aid for the Palestinians.
From PM Netanyahu’s Office:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has now spoken with US President Joe Biden.
The Prime Minister discussed with the American President the progress in negotiations for the release of our hostages, and updated him on the mandate he gave to the negotiating delegation to Doha, to promote the release of our hostages.
The Prime Minister wished to thank US President Biden and incoming President Donald Trump for their cooperation in the sacred mission.
Note that the announcement focuses on the hostages, but no mention is made of a ceasefire or of “humanitarian aid”. It ends with thanks to Biden and incoming President Trump (the reference to Trump undoubtedly rankles the White House).
By the way, Israel’s COGAT unit reported yesterday that 104,000 tons of humanitarian aid entered Gaza in December – an increase of 134% compared to the average for November and October.
On the Ground in Gaza
*Following the ambush and booby-trap deaths of our soldiers, one senior officer in the Southern Command came out yesterday to sharply criticize IDF Chief of Staff Halevi and the General Staff:
“The shuffling of soldiers in and out of Gaza in raids on places we have already been results in dozens of deaths every month, The method of raids from areas that the IDF has already occupied simply does not work. The enemy enters any space where we finished fighting and resumes attacks from there. The method must be to conquer and hold.”
If this sounds familiar, it should. It is the same opinion that we have been expressing at OneIsrael for months–especially after the recent attacks in Beit Hanoun.
*Speaking of Beit Hanoun, the Qatari Al-Jazeera Channel (aka the mouthpiece of Hamas) said yesterday that during the IDF’s three-week long maneuver in northern Gaza 5000 Gazans have been killed or are missing, more than 9,500 have been wounded, and more than 2,600 have been detained. The channel also noted that northern Gaza is “almost completely destroyed.”
Of course the numbers above are exaggerated and do not differentiate between terrorists and others, but they do give a sense of what the IDF has accomplished in Beit Hanoun and elsewhere in northern Gaza.
*Now that the IDF controls the Philadelphi route and has virtually stopped smuggling of weapons from the Egyptian Sinai into Gaza, a new smuggling route was disclosed yesterday.
The new route is Iran to Jordan to Israel where Bedouins are using drones to ferry weapons such as pistols, M16s, and ammunition to terrorists in Gaza.
On the Ground in Lebanon
The IAF was busy in Lebanon yesterday attacking in 4 separate waves the areas around Arabsalim, Khoumin al-Fawqa (25 km from Metulla and north of the Litani River), Deir al-Zahrani, and Rumin. This is a photo of a Hezbollah missile warehouse exploding in Deir al-Zahrani–note the secondary missile explosions going up in all directions:
The IDF also reports that on Saturday night, three Hezbollah terrorists were identified in the Har Dov area advancing in proximity to Israeli territory. They were eliminated.
Elsewhere in the Neighborhood
Remember the wonderful, joint Israel-Jordan plans that were on the verge of being enacted to create a Red Sea-Dead Sea desalination plant? The Jordanians have thrown those plans in the garbage.
Yesterday, the Jordanians announced “the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken in Jordan”–a Red Sea desalination plant which will supply 300 million cubic meters of drinking water to Jordan at a cost of $5 billion dollars.
Jordan’s new partner is France and French infrastructure company Meridiam will be in charge. The project will take 4 years.
We here at OneIsrael have only one statement to make: “Good riddance.” The less we have to do with Jordan the better.
And so it goes in Israel this morning . . . so far . . .
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.