Yom Chamisee
Thursday
15 Shevat 5784
January 25 2024
UPDATE 9:00 PM
Excellent Photo of the Day
Not a single “humanitarian aid” truck made it through the Kerem Shalom Crossing today because it was blocked by protesters led by the families of the hostages. The protesters chanted “Not a drop of water until our hostages are released!”
Tomorrow, the protests are expected to be even larger. Kolakvod!
The Bizarre Quotes of the Day
Quote 1.
“Netanyahu’s attack on Qatar is puzzling. Qatar is the only effective mediator in the matter of the abductees. If we reach too great a crisis with them, my fear is that Qatar will run away from the negotiations and we will be left with no effective mediation.”
Former Mossad Head Yossi Cohen in an interview on Wallanews yesterday
Say what? Cohen surely knows that Netanyahu is absolutely correct. Qatar is HamISIS, and as such cannot be trusted at all.
By the way, whatever happened to the medicines that Qatar promised would be delivered to the hostages last week? They simply disappeared into the abyss that is Palestinian Gaza.
Quote 2
“Israel’s time for self-defense is over. An immediate humanitarian ceasefire must be pursued. Israel is not doing enough to prevent harm to civilians.”
Finnish FM Elina Valtonen speaking yesterday
It is simply astonishing how quickly the world forgets. Internationalists forget October 7, and they forget that HamISIS has repeatedly said that it wants to commit more October 7’s until there is no more Israel.
On the Hostage Front
The news is awash with talk of imminent hostage deals–deals which seem as far away as ever. Note how widely divergent these two reports from Israeli news sources are today:
Report 1 from Ha’aretz:
“Israel and Hamas have reached understandings in principle on most of the clauses of the deal for the release of all the abductees, a source familiar with the negotiations told Haaretz today (Thursday). According to the emerging outline, the framework of the deal will be 35 days, during which all the Israeli abductees remaining in the captivity of Hamas in the Gaza Strip will be released. In return, Israel will release Palestinian prisoners and bring humanitarian aid into the Strip. The source added that the key to release the prisoners has already been determined, but their identity is still under discussion.”
[This reported framework lacks many specifics, but seems to be a likely basis for an agreement.]
Report 2 from Channel 13:
“Between 10 and 14 days of ceasefire before beginning to release of hostages in phases.
Entire release process to take two months.
The release ratio in the humanitarian part: 100 prisoners for every abductee.
The release ratio following the deal: hundreds of prisoners for each abductee.
Complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.”
[This reported agreement is outrageous, and no Israeli government would ever agree to it.]
An Apparent Major Arms Agreement Between the U.S. and Israel
It is being reported today that the U.S. has signed off on providing Israel with:
*Another F-35 squadron of 25 aircraft
*Another 25 F15A1 aircraft
*A squadron of at least 12 Apache helicopters
*A massive amount of armaments
These items are supposedly to begin arriving soon–though we know that aircraft like the F35 take years to arrive. However, if the reports are accurate, this is a dramatic development.
The Last 24 Hours in the South
The IDF Spokesman has issued two statements this afternoon and evening concerning the intensive fighting going on in Khan Younis:
“*Terrorists have been eliminated with accurate sniper fire and close-range battles: the combat team of the paratrooper brigade has expanded the fighting in the west of Khan Younis.
The combat team fighters of the paratrooper brigade have expanded their fighting and are now operating in the ‘Al Amal’ neighborhood in the city of Khan Yunis. The fighters encounter terrorists and eliminate them at close range, raid terrorist infrastructures, locate and destroy weapons, mortars and rockets.
During a raid by the brigade’s forces on military sites of the terrorist organization Hamas, the fighters located dozens of Kalashnikov-type weapons, spray grenades, drone launcher charges and mortar bombs.
The forces encountered three terrorists in the building who shot at the force. The fighters responded with accurate fire at the terrorists, two of them were killed and the third was hit and ran into a building. The fighters brought up a drone to scan the building to which the terrorist fled, they identified him opening fire at the drone and eliminated him.
In addition, the sniper teams of the brigade are deployed in the area and eliminate through precise shooting dozens of armed terrorists who pose a threat to the forces, alongside the use of observation means and closing circles with armor, engineering and air forces.”
Statement 2:
“The commando formation continues the attack in the Khan Yunis area and deepens the operational control in the stronghold of the Hamas terrorists. The fighters who specialize in guerrilla warfare fight in particularly challenging terrain and bring to light their experience and operational skill.
The advance of the forces in the area was accompanied by a lot of friction with terrorist squads that were eliminated through sniper fire, accurate missile targeting and tank fire. In one of the cases, the Nut fighters identified three armed terrorists and launched a precision ‘steel sting’, type missile at them which eliminated them. In addition, in a raid on a building in the area, the fighters eliminated four terrorists in short-range encounters.
In a dedicated operation by the sniper force of the Egoz unit, the fighters carried out several precise assassinations in several hours using a method adapted to the enemy squads that come out of the underground. Thus, the fighters manage to mislead the enemy and eliminate him.
In addition, Magellan unit fighters operate vigorously in the field and eliminate many terrorists in fierce battles, raid terrorist targets and locate many weapons. The fighters raided the military headquarters of the commander of the intelligence formation of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad as well as the headquarters of Hamas where they located large quantities of cartridges, weapons, tactical radios, night vision equipment, maps and intelligence information of great value.”
The Last 24 Hours in the North
*An anti-tank missile was fired at an IDF post near Zerait.
*In the last hour, IDF tanks attacked two terrorist infrastructures of the terrorist organization Hezbollah in the area of Tir Harfa and the area of Ayita al-Sha’ab. A short time ago, the IDF attacked with artillery fire in the area of A-Dahira in southern Lebanon.
The Last 24 Hours in Judea and Samaria
A Palestinian terrorist fired at IDF soldiers at the Eliyahu Crossing. No Israelis were wounded, and the terrorist somehow escaped.
Elsewhere
There are reports of an Israeli attack in al-Mukhtaria in Homs, Syria.
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.