The Gaza War: Day 5

Yom Reva’ee

Wednesday

26 Tishrei 5784

October 11 2023

UPDATE 6:00 AM 

Volleys of missiles just struck Beersheva, Ashkelon, and here in Ashdod.

Here in Ashdod 6 incoming missiles were intercepted directly over our house.

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An emergency unity government has been formed.

A small War Cabinet will be created consisting only of PM Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Benny Gantz. Ron Dermer and Gadi Eisenkot will be observers.

Until the war is over, Gantz, Eisenkot, Sa’ar and two others from Gantz’s party will be included in the broader Security Cabinet.

No legislation or government resolutions will be advanced during the war that are not related to managing the war.

As we have written many times, Gantz and Eisenkot were miserable failures as IDF Chiefs of Staff; to give them a voice in how the war should be managed bodes poorly. 

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The bodies of 250 terrorists have been found in Kibbutz Be’eri. Unfortunately, they were not killed until they had massacred the residents of the kibbutz.

UPDATE 1:00 AM

It is apparent that war with Hezbollah is imminent.

Hezbollah has informed the Lebanese army and the international peacekeeping force UNIFIL to evacuate all sites on the Israeli border immediately.

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Moti Bokatsin, spokesman for ZAKA–the organization that retrieves dead bodies from terror scenes–said this today in regard to the slaughter scene at the “Forest Party”:

“Understand that what we see there, no eye has seen. What has always been said about ISIS, the Holocaust, everything is dwarfed by what we have seen to date, what we have heard and known – we will not repeat the descriptions, they did not just shoot, they abused and brutalized the bodies . . .” 

UPDATE 11:00 AM

Missile fire in the last 2 hours:

9:08 am: Sderot, Ivys, Nirim: 4 direct hits in Sderot, 40-year-old man wounded

10:41 am: Netiv HaAsara

For the first time since 2006, IDF Mantach rocket launchers were used by the 334th Thunder Battalion of the 282nd Fire Brigade to take out Hamas facilities and hopefully Hamas terrorists as well (click here to see one attack yesterday).

Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir said this morning that Sderot will now become a city in which every person is enabled to have a weapon.

The Government Communications Bureau in Gaza: “We are facing a humanitarian disaster, when the power plant shuts down within hours due to a lack of fuel.” Your humble servant never wants to ever hear the word “humanitarian” in relationship to Gaza anymore. 

In the north in the last hour, anti-tank rockets from Lebanon targeted a military position near the small Israeli Bedouin village of Arab El Aramshe on the border. There are no reports of casualties.

UPDATE 9:00 AM

A hero’s welcome. Click here to see Rabbi Elia Levantal who killed 6 terrorists in saving Kibbutz Sufa.

Missile fire in the last hour:

8:05 am: Sderot, Ivys, Nir Am (direct hit in Sderot)

8:43 am: Nirim

–The IDF spokesman claims that no terrorist has crossed the fence in the last two days (since Monday).

—Due to the large number of dead in the Gaza communities and the shortage of cemetery space, the Ministry of Religion has authorized burying two or more people in each grave.

—In the north, nothing has happened on the Lebanese border so far this morning–following the launches from Lebanon yesterday and the deaths of 3 IDF soldiers who repelled Hezbollah terrorists. On the Syrian border, more than a dozen mortars were fired into the Golan Heights.

—There will probably be an announcement of a unity government today, but it is sickening to see how Benny Gantz is delaying the announcement by making political demands. The real irony is that both former IDF Chiefs of Staff Gantz and Gadi Eizenkot were incompetent disasters as the heads of the military. There is nothing they can contribute to our defense.

UPDATE 8:00 AM

–The number of dead has risen to 1,200.

–The number of wounded has risen to 2,900.

Even at this late point, bodies are still being found in the border communities as soldiers go through the decimated, booby-trapped, communities. The horrors they discover as they go through are impossible to fully describe.

–14 more IDF soldiers have been killed–169 in total.

–The IAF continues extensive, intensive, strikes on Hamas strongholds in Gaza. Hamas has ordered residents of buildings that have been given warnings to leave by the IDF to stay in the buildings and die so that their bodies can be shown to the world as evidence of Israeli war crimes.

–El Al continues to ferry reservists who are overseas by the thousands to Israel. The planes are so full that seats usually reserved for flight attendants and even seats in the cockpit are being utilized.