Yom Shleeshee
Tuesday
9 Cheshvan 5784
October 24 2023
UPDATE 10:00 PM
It has been a violent 6 hours since our last update:
A terrorist infiltration at Zikim; 9 terrorists who entered Israel from the sea were killed.
The missile barrages at the Center and South at 5:01 were the largest since the beginning of the war on October 7:
The massive attack targeted from Ashkelon to north of Tel Aviv.
Major cities hit: Or Yehuda, Rishon Lezion, Holon, Mikve Yisrael, Bat-Yam, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Givatayim, Ramat Gan, Rehovot, Beer Ya’akov, Ramla, Yehud-Monoson, Savion, Givat Shmuel, Petah Tikva, Hod Hasharon, Kfar Saba, Bnei Brak, Kiryat Ono, Herzliya, Kfar Shemarihu, Ramat Hasharon, Ra’anana, Ashdod, Nes Ziona, Yavne.
Other missile and mortar attacks in the center and south:
Nahal Oz (4:23 pm); Nahal Oz 4:33; Or Yehuda, Rishon LeZion, Sdot Dan (5:01); Holon (5:03) 2 wounded; Be’er Ganim (7:01); Sufa, Holit (8:11); Bnei Yehuda, Givat Yoav (8:16).
Missile attacks in the North
Two missile launches from Syria (Mekerot) hit open areas in the Golan. The IDF responded with artillery fire.
12 missiles and 7 anti-tank missiles were fired from Lebanon that hit open areas in the western Galilee and Upper Galilee between 4:30-5:30 pm.–three terror squads were attacked.
Missiles also targeted: Mt. Dov (4:46), Manara (5:05), Al Khosh (5:22).
The IAF attacked a terror cell on Mt. Dov (4:29).
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The 4 Houthi missiles that targeted Eilat the other day and were shot down by the USS Carney each had a warhead of 410 kg. They specifically were aimed at the hotels in Eilat which are packed with refugees from southern Israel.
UPDATE 4:00 PM
Ground Invasion Postponed
What seemed imminent a week ago suddenly seems further away than ever this afternoon.
And exactly for one of the reasons that we have written on this blog. After giving the greenlight for the ground invasion a week ago, PM Netanyahu quickly withdrew it after talking to Gen. (res) Yitzhak Barik.
Barik has spent years warning that the IDF is unprepared–made all the more so by a succession of incompetent IDF Chiefs of Staff including Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot. In July, he predicted exactly what happened on October 7–how an over-reliance on technology (especially the Gaza security fence) would enable HamISIS to overcome the barrier and massacre the Gaza border communities.
But nobody was listening especially the IDF General Command who disregarded Barik as a crackpot.
For the last few days, Barik has been on television telling anyone who will listen that a ground invasion at this point would be a suicide mission because the IDF does not have the capabilities or leadership to attempt such an operation. In particular, Barik has called for a number of commanders who were responsible for the October 7 tragedy to be replaced immediately.
Now, Netanyahu has listened, and apparently put the invasion on indefinite hold. The new plan is simply to continue to pulverize northern Gaza, and try to recover as many hostages as possible.
One last thought: one can never be sure about anything here in Israel. Just the fact that the PM’s office allowed this information to be leaked may mean it is a ruse designed to catch HamISIS off guard.
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Meanwhile, no ground invasion means that the soldiers massed on the border and the citizens of southern and to a lesser extent central Israel will remain missile fodder. Click here to see a HamISIS video of mortars being fired at IDF soldiers.
The dramatic decrease in missile fire we reported this morning has evaporated this afternoon.
In the last two hours alone, the following areas have been targeted:
Ashdod, Beersheva, Rosh Hayin, Or Yehuda, Palmachim, Givat Brenner, Yavne, Lod (Ben Gurion Airport temporarily closed again), Nes Ziona, Beer Yakov, Nahal Oz, Nirim, and Yad Mordechai.
UPDATE 1:00 PM
Yochaved Lifshitz, one of the two elderly hostages who was released last night gave an incredibly disorganized press conference from her wheelchair one hour ago.
At first, she talked about how she was kidnapped:
“I went through an inferno I couldn’t imagine; they ran amok at our kibbutz. They kidnapped me and threw me over the back of a motorbike–my head on one side, my legs on the other and flew through the plowed fields towards Gaza beating me with a stick. They didn’t break my ribs but it was hard to breathe.”
Once in Gaza:
“I walked several kilometers and there is a huge network of tunnels that are connected like spider webs. When we got there they told us that they are people who believe in the Koran and will not harm us. And they will give us the same conditions they have in the tunnels.”
She went on to say that they were regularly seen by a doctor, given medicine and even feminine hygiene products. Apparently, the HamISIS people were obsessed with hygiene because of the danger of a sickness spreading in the tunnels so they kept everything very clean.
So what are we to say? HamISIS savages butchered her kibbutz, kidnapped and beat her, took her to the tunnels, and then treated her well.
Her elderly husband Oded is still a hostage. She has no idea about his fate. By the way both she and her husband have been peace activists for years. They made weekly trips taking ill Palestinian Gazans from the Erez Checkpoint to hospitals in Israel.
UPDATE 12:00 PM
*One of the two elderly women hostages released yesterday has aid that there were 50-60 other hostages being held in the same place she was.
*The tunnel problem: according to the best information, the HamISIS tunnel network under Gaza includes 1,300 tunnels totaling about 500 km in length with some of them being as deep as 70 meters underground.
*We are sick of the humanitarian cries coming from the world and out of Gaza about the desperate need for humanitarian supplies such as water (you should watch HamISIS firemen pouring water on fires), food (the food markets are open all over southern Gaza), and fuel. The poor hospitals are sobbing that their fuel has run out.
What a scam. It turns out that HamISIS has at least 500,000 liters of fuel stored in above ground tanks in southern Gaza:
HamISIS fuel tanks, unbombed in southern Gaza. Who knows how many hundreds of thousands more liters of fuel are in the tunnels underground?
UPDATE 9:00 AM
The number of missile attacks on southern Israel has dramatically decreased over the last two days. Whether this is because HamISIS stockpiles are running low, or the IAF is doing a good job of hitting launch sites, or HamISIS is simply restrategizing and will resume at any moment, the flow of the war seems to have slightly changed (at least for the moment).
As of this hour, we have only had one mortar attack on Nirim–targeting our soldiers in a staging area.
Last night:
The IAF hit over 400 targets. Here in Ashdod, we heard the heavy roar of aircraft overhead all night and the bombing in northern Gaza.
According to the IDF spokesman: “the IDF struck dozens of Hamas gunmen preparing to fire rockets and carry out terror attacks against the Israeli home front” and ” dozens of terror infrastructure and Hamas staging grounds in the neighborhoods of Shuja’iyya, Shati, Jabalia, Daraj Tuffah, and Zaytun [killing] the deputy commanders of the Nuseirat, Shati, and Furqan terror groups.”
Meanwhile in the North, the story seems much the same with the IAF again hitting a number of terror cells overnight after, or as they were launching anti-tank missiles at IDF positions.
Supposed Comments from the Biden Administration Yesterday:
“President Biden told PM Netanyahu that he prefers no ground invasion.” Israel Channel 12
“Biden Administration worried: ‘Israel has no achievable goals in Gaza. We have not seen a clear plan.’ ” New York Times
“U.S. President spoke with Netanyahu and welcomed the release of the two hostages and confirmed his commitment to release all the hostages and emphasized the need for humanitarian aid.” White House spokesman
Reporter: Do you support a ceasefire?
Biden: First they will release the hostages, then we’ll talk.
Reported on numerous media outlets.
Of course, one never knows whether to believe Israel’s Channel 12 or the New York Times, but the last two quotes appear to be accurate. Joe Biden believes, rightly so, that he is now in charge of the war.
“Then we’ll talk.”
Our citizens have been slaughtered, but we seemingly no longer control what was supposed to be the attempt to wipe out HamISIS.
All HamISIS has to do is dribble out one or two hostages a day (there are now 222 officially held) and the ground invasion of the Palestinian terror state of Gaza will never take place.
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.