Yom Chamishee
Thursday
10 Nisan 5784
April 18 2024
The Startling IDF Revelation Yesterday
The Defense Ministry issued new, highly disconcerting, statistics yesterday concerning the number of soldiers who have been wounded in the current Gaza War. If you remember, the last time such a number was released, the number of wounded soldiers was just over 2,000.
The new number is 7,209.
7,209.
Moreover, 2,111 of these soldiers are suffering from “emotional harm” (aka mainly “PTSD”).
In a breathtaking estimation, the Defense Ministry believes that 20,000 more soldiers will be wounded by the end of 2024 and that some 8,000 of these will suffer from PTSD.
These numbers are frankly startling.
By way of comparison, in all of Israel’s previous wars, battles, and encounters with terrorists put together, around 62,000 soldiers were wounded with 11,000 suffering PTSD.
(Thanks to Jpost for elements of this story.)
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Our OneIsrael Campaign For Our Soldiers
IDF soldiers on the ground need basic protective gear, armaments, and supplies.
Even during the recent Iranian attacks soldiers were forced to lie in open trenches to protect themselves from incoming missiles and drones as they have been doing for months on the Gaza and northern borders.
OneIsrael is now engaged in a campaign to help protect our soldiers. This campaign will extend through Passover and to Shavuot.
Please consider donating to our campaign by clicking on the donate button in the right hand column on this page. All donations go directly to our soldiers.
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An Observation
Consider that Israel has now called off at least two attacks on Iran.
The first came on the night of the Iranian assault when our planes were in the air headed for Iran when they were called back (apparently after a Netanyahu-Biden phone call).
The second call off was on Monday night. Planes were readying for take off when once again the War Cabinet decided against the strike.
We would like to think that there is method to these call offs, but they are more likely the result of the indecisiveness of PM Netanyahu and his Cabinet. Now it is being reported that we should not expect a response to the Iranians until after Passover.
The truth is that with each passing day the scope of our response diminishes.
And consider this:
Despite yesterday’s suicide drone and missile attack on Arab Al Aramshe (an Israeli Bedouin town 3 km from the Lebanese border) which resulted in 18 Israeli casualties including 14 reservists*, the War Cabinet decided last night to “label” the war against Hezbollah on the northern border as a “secondary arena” while labeling Gaza as the “primary arena.”
Why such labeling is necessary and why the Cabinet would waste time doing so is anyone’s guess–except to say that IDF action on the northern border and in Lebanon is not likely to change in the near future.
So to summarize the three main war fronts at the moment:
–we seem to be in a holding pattern insofar as the Iranians are concerned . . .
–we seem to have settled into a back and forth with Hezbollah on the northern border . . .
–we seem to be gradually increasing our forces in Gaza again, but a full on invasion of Rafah seems unlikely anytime soon . . .
UPDATE 9:00 AM
On the Ground in Gaza
We had just gone to bed last night at 10:00 pm when two minutes later a very large boom from the direction of Gaza rocked the house. Shortly thereafter, it was reported that at 10:02 the IAF attacked “an underground structure” on the Gaza-Egyptian border at Rafah.
Stop and think about that for a moment. The distance from here in Ashdod to Rafah is 68 kilometers or about 42 miles. Imagine the size of the bomb that had to be used to create such a blast.
On the Ground in the North
The day began this morning (5:58 am) the same way it ended at 11:58 pm last night with a Hezbollah missile attack on Metula.
On the Ground in Judea and Samaria
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on Jewish community members near Chomesh.
*An important correction:
Yesterday we reported here–based on a number of different media– that 1 Israeli had been killed in the attack on Arab Al-Aramshe yesterday. This morning, fortunately, we have discovered that the critically wounded person (still unidentified) has not died.
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.