The Gaza War: Day 19 . . . The War in the North

Yom Reva’ee

Wednesday

11 Cheshvan 5784

October 25 2023

UPDATE 9:00 PM

A warning went out from the Home Front Command an hour and a half ago addressed to residents of the Gaza border communities and, oddly, to residents here in Ashdod. The message was to remain close to our bomb shelters in the coming hours.

This warning sparked rampant speculation. Did we eliminate a senior Hamas leader? Was a ground invasion imminent?

Speculation was further fueled by the announcement that PM Netanyahu would make a nationwide address within the hour.

And so he did, but he really did not say very much except that he along with all the others who were in charge on October 7 would have to answer for what happened, and that October 7 will become a national memorial day.

The only thing that seemingly has happened since the warning is a very heavy pounding of northern Gaza. It’s hard to understand, but each bunker busting bomb that hits the ground there 25-30 km away sounds like it has detonated next door– badly shaking the house and rattling the windows.

This will be our final update of the day. See you in the morning.

UPDATE 6:00 PM

Usually on the hour, half hour, and quarter hours:  missile and mortar attacks:

In the last 5 hours fired from Gaza:

Sufa (5:47);Ashkelon (4:13); Eilat (3:26); Daliyat Carmel (1:01 pm) .

In the last 4 hours fired from Lebanon: Kiryat Shmona (4:26); Tel Hay, Kfar Giladi (4:27).

About Those Casualty Figures From Gaza

A note about the supposed casualty figures in Gaza. This is not our first rodeo; how many times in how many wars and mini-wars with HamISIS have we seen the Gaza Health Ministry brazenly lie about the number of casualties? 

So when we see the current number of dead reported by that Health Ministry, we have to remember the fraud the Ministry perpetrated a mere week ago concerning the hospital incident. At that incident, the Ministry initially reported 500, then 1000, then 2000, then 3000, all the way to 4000+ dead. 

Only when day dawned and we could actually see the unhit hospital did it scale the number killed back to 500. Even that number was a fraud…in the end, somewhere between 10 and 50 people were probably killed and they were all in the parking lot, not in the hospital. And remember–it it was an Islamic Jihad missile that killed them.

UPDATE 1:00 PM

The IDF Spokesman has just released the handwritten message that was given to the HamISIS terrorists before they left Gaza on their way to Israel on October 7. The message–found on the bodies of dead terrorists–read that they were to carry out a “merciless massacre”. Specifically, the message called on the terrorists to “decapitate, dislodge hearts and livers” and follow the examples of past Jihadist Muslim leaders who “massacred men and sold women and children into slavery.”

In the last 4 hours:

Usually on the hour, half hour, and quarter hour:  missile and mortar attacks on Ashkelon (9:01), Kissufim (10:00), Ein Hashlosha (10:29), Nahal Oz (12:45).

The IDF has announced that the commander of the north Khan Younis section of HamISIS has been killed in an IAF attack. Taysir Basher has been involved in murderous terror attacks through the years including the Atsmona High School Massacre in 2002 in which 5 students were murdered. To date, Basher’s group has been responsible for firing more than 300 mortars into southern Israel.

The Prime Minister of Qatar announced a few minutes ago that there has been “relative progress” in negotiations for the hostages. The perverse irony is that it was Qatar who funded most of the tunnel construction under Gaza, Qatar that built the command and control facility underground for the firing of missiles at Israel back in 2013-4, and Qatar that has been paying $30 million a month to HamISIS–money that was supposedly going to help “poor Gazans” but was really (as we always knew) going for more weapons to kill Israelis with. 

Of course, you must take anything Qatar says with a grain of salt. They are the mouthpiece for HamISIS.

In the North:

The IDF has attacked yet another anti-tank squad in the Mt. Dov area.

In Judea and Samaria:

Apparently, the IDF has issued new “open fire” orders to shoot anyone approaching the seam fence between Israel and PLO areas. In a statement issued by the PLO, it lamented that Israel is showing “no patience or proportionality . . . it’s something we’ve never seen before.”

It is a policy that should have instituted decades ago.

UPDATE 8:00 AM

Here in Ashdod, we heard the roar of planes on their way to Gaza all night–and are still hearing them at this hour. There was intermittent naval cannon fire, and even what sounded like naval gunfire at unknown targets; however it could have been related to the incident at Zikim (see below).

The war in the South:

HamISIS terrorists in Gaza continued firing missiles and mortars during the night targeting IDF staging areas: Eshkol (1:03 am), Ein Hashlosha (2:02), Kissufim (4:05).

The terrorist infiltration at Zikim is ongoing. Last night, 9 terrorists were killed who came in from a tunnel beside the sea. More infiltrators are still firing at our forces.

More information yesterday concerning the HamISIS attack. Not only did the terrorists use very low tech IEDs to blow holes in the supposedly high tech security fence, they also eluded Israeli intel by using landlines instead of cellphones.

In another insane proposal by government ministers, it is being suggested that Palestinians from Judea and Samaria be brought to the Gaza border communities to work in agriculture. This morning, PM Netanyahu is denying that he has approved the proposal.

On the Syrian front:

IAF aircraft hit Syrian Army outposts near the border during the night in response to missile attacks on the Golan.

24 U.S. soldiers were wounded in yesterday’s Iranian proxy attack on an American base.

In Judea and Samaria:

An IAF airstrike on a terrorist cell at Jenin killed 4 terrorists following an anti-tank missile attack on our security forces.