Yom Shnee
Monday
27 Tevet 5784
January 8 2024
UPDATE 10:30 PM
Three Revealing Quotes of the Day from Defense Minister Gallant
“In the south we are not yet in the middle of the war; in the north we haven’t even started.”
Really? Not yet in the middle of the war in Gaza?
“With Hezbollah we will have reach a political settlement because we are not able to destroy them completely.”
Why would Gallant laud Hezbollah as indestructible?
“Even when the residents return to their homes on the Gaza border, there will still be a trickle of gunfire.”
This is not very comforting to those who hoped that the threat from HamISIS would be completely eliminated.
On the Ground in the South
*14 missiles were fired at Sderot; 3 were intercepted above the city. 46 missiles have targeted the city since January 1.
*Islamic Jihad promised that it would “set Tel Aviv on fire” at 6:00 p.m. That turned out to be a gross overstatement. At 5:45 pm, a small barrage of missiles targeted Netzor Sireni, Rehovot, Ramla, Holon, and Gan Yavne. Nothing made it to Tel Aviv.
*IDF Division 36 has uncovered the largest weapons production facility in Gaza so far. The photo below of long range missiles was found at a massive site 30 meters underground:
Another photo from the same facility:
On the Ground in the North
The IAF killed Hassan Akasha this afternoon. Akasha was the HamISIS terrorist responsible for firing missiles into Israel in recent weeks from Syria.
UPDATE 5:00 PM
On the Ground in the North
The car in which Wissam (Jawad) Al-Taweel was riding.
Wissam Al-Taweel was killed yesterday in a targeted strike by the IDF.
The head of Hezbollah operations in southern Lebanon, Al-Taweel died when his car was hit by a missile fired by an IAF drone or when an IED was detonated as his car passed through the town of Khirbet Salem.
Al-Taweel was the senior commander of the Radwan Brigade, and was apparently either the son-in-law or brother-in-law of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
More specifically, he was in charge of Saturday’s attack on the IAF base near Miron. That attack damaged some strategic assets at the base but did not succeed in “blinding” the IAF as to what is going on in southern Lebanon.
The Curse of Soleimani
The curse remains intact. Almost every terrorist leader who was ever photographed with Soleimani has been killed. Last week it was Saleh Al-Arouri, this week Wissan Al-Taweel. In the photo below (obviously taken before Soleimani was killed, Al-Taweel can be seen as the driver of the car.
Ashdod in the Crosshairs
Nasrallah delivered this threat yesterday: “If the ‘occupation’ continues with aggression in Lebanon and Beirut, he will see how Ashdod is hit by 70 precision missiles on sensitive sites.”
On the Ground in the South
As we have noted in recent blogs, the war in Gaza seems to be winding down or at least moving to a new stage–an observation confirmed by Defense Minister Gallant in an interview with an American newspaper yesterday: “We are moving from the maneuver phase to a special operations phase.”
Shortly after the interview was printed, Gallant backtracked slightly and said this new phase would take place soon.
Hostages
These before and after photos have not been seen like this before. They were published in British newspaper “The Guardian” yesterday. The “after” photos were taken by HamISIS on October 7th after the women were taken to Gaza.
Karina Ariev (19), Agam Berger (19), Liri Albag (18), Daniela Gilboa (18): we can only pray that they are still alive given what condition they were in 94 days ago..
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.