Yom Rishon
Sunday
30 Tishrei 5784
October 15 2023
UPDATE 9:00 PM (the final update of the day)
Hezbollah claims that it has attacked 5 IDF outposts on the Lebanese border today. The purpose of the attacks is to knock out Israel’s surveillance ability.
At the same time the Az ad-Din Al-Aksam Brigades in Lebanon (the military wing of Hamas) say that they launched 20 rockets towards Shlomi and Nahariya this afternoon.
Another round of missile volleys at 7:00 pm targeted southern and central Israel.
The first official number: there are 155 hostages in the Palestinian state of Gaza. There is no word as to how many are alive or dead.
A final observation for the day. Your humble servant has been thinking how the current situation of our troops stranded on the border reminds me of a speech of George C. Scott in the movie Patton:
“…right now the whole Nazi Reich is mine for the taking… Now I have precisely the right instrument, at precisely the right moment of history, in exactly the right place…this will change very quickly, like planets spinning off into the universe. A moment like this won’t come again for a thousand years. All I need is a few miserable gallons of gasoline.”
We are increasingly frustrated here in southern Israel. Every moment that Israel delays, the louder the cries of the self-professed humanitarians become and the less likely the IDF will be able to wipe Hamas out. We have the weapons, we have the moment . . . so everyone down here in southern Israel believes we should act before the moment spins off into the universe. The cost will be high, but it must be done. All we need are some political and military leaders with resolve.
UPDATE 5:00 PM
*”There is a war here which is a war between the sons of darkness and the sons of light. We are at the edge of a culture that does not accept our existence here, human savages, beasts of prey, who murdered our soldiers, our children, our citizens.
What I have seen here are displays of heroism by male and female soldiers, men and women, all these people together protected the State of Israel with their bodies . . . The bravery of the fighters who attacked with their bare hands, sometimes with grenades, with weapons they collected from terrorists, with equipment they brought from home on the spur of the moment; these things are extremely impressive.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaking today.
The people of darkness and the people of light. That is exactly the battle we are engaged in.
*9 anti-tank missiles have been fired at Israelis, IDF soldiers, and a military installation in Lebanon today; 5 were intercepted. 1 Israeli has been killed and multiple people wounded. In the latest incident at Hanita, an unknown number of people were killed and wounded. After each attack, the IDF has responded with artillery fire.
*There have been incoming missile alarms from Lebanon for Nahariya, Rosh Hanikra, and the western Galilee in the last hour.
*The government says that there are still 300 unidentified bodies from the Saturday massacres. Your humble servant realizes that identification may be difficult given the fact that people were beheaded and burned. However, one would think that by correlating the list of those missing to examination of the bodies, a faster determination of identification could be made.
If those 300 are added to the 1400 already identified as dead, well, you can do the math.
*Unfortunately, Israel has folded under American pressure this afternoon and turned on the water supply to Gaza . . . in return for nothing from the barbaric Palestinian monsters.
UPDATE 2:00 PM
“Allah willing, we will see similar scenes in the West Bank that we did on the Gaza Border.”
Jamal al-Khawail, the PLO Fatah Revolutionary Council
Al-Khawail is one of Mahmoud Abbas’ most senior advisors. He made this comment yesterday in a video–a video that contained the horrendous video of young Israeli women from the “Forest Peace Party” being stripped and tossed in a pickup truck and taken to Gaza.
These are core values of the Palestinians: rape, murder, and butchery.
UPDATE 10:00 AM
One of our soldiers in a holding pattern on the Gaza border.
*Heavy rains are now pounding coastal Israel.
*Palestinian Hamas has resumed firing mortars at our troops.
*More Palestinian terrorists keep coming out of the woodwork in the Gaza communities. One terrorist was just killed in Nirim.
*Since the beginning of the war, 1039 missiles have been fired at Ashkelon: 173 eluded the Iron Dome and exploded in the city.
*In the north, there was a direct hit on the Israeli village of Shtula. 5 people were wounded.
UPDATE 8:00 AM
Our soldiers remain poised on the Gaza border awaiting orders to go in. However, there are reports that their entry may be delayed by the weather–rain is predicted for today and tomorrow.
7 more IDF soldiers have fallen in battle bringing to 286 the number of IDF soldiers who have died. It appears that virtually all of these 286 soldiers died last Saturday in the Palestinian Hamas attack. It also appears that the IDF was aware of all of these deaths at the time, but has chosen to issue daily number updates to avoid what would have been an even greater uproar in the country.
According to the IDF spokesman:
*The IDF eliminated another senior member of Hamas overnight.
*The IDF killed the commander of Islamic Jihad’s missile array.
*The IDF killed terrorists emerging from a tunnel.
*The IDF attacked Hamas targets in Jabaliya, Zeytun, al-Furkan and Beit Hanoun. Terrorists were killed and dozens of mortar launchers were destroyed. In the evening, a Krav helicopter located a building where a number of terrorists were staying, attacked, and eliminated them.
There has been no missile fire from Palestinian terrorists in Gaza since 9:23 pm last night but that is sure to change in the coming hours.
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.