Yom Shabbat
Saturday
3 Iyar 5784
May 11 2024
May His Memory Be For A Blessing
A badly bruised Nadav Popplewell, 51 years old, kidnapped on October 7th, as he appeared in a HamISIS video yesterday.
In a bizarre sequence today, HamISIS first released a 10-second video of Nadav Popplewell, who was taken captive with his mother, Channah Peri, 79, on October 7 from their home in Kibbutz Nirim.
His mother was subsequently released on November 24th but Nadav was not.
After releasing the video, HamISIS then issued a statement saying that Nadav is dead–and as usual the terrorists claimed he had been killed by an Israeli airstrike.
UPDATE 7:00 PM
On the Ground in Gaza
*Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired 4 missiles at the Kerem Shalom “humanitarian aid” Crossing this afternoon. 3 of the missiles were intercepted; the other one fell in an open area.
*Not that anyone in the world will believe the revised figures, but the United Nations announced yesterday that the number of Palestinian fatalities reported by the Gaza Health Ministry are dramatically overstated. The U.N. says that it can only identify 24,686 dead–not the 34,844 claimed. Of this number, the U.N. suggests that more than 10,000 of these are HamISIS terrorists, and at least another 2000 are people who died of natural causes.
*The IDF says that around 300,000 Palestinians have now left Rafah and relocated to the Muwasi safe zone:
An IDF graphic showing the movement out of Rafah.
*The IDF carried out massive attacks throughout last night and today in all areas of Gaza. Residents of Ashkelon report that there were 5 straight hours of nonstop explosions. Especially hard hit were Rafah, Zeitoun, Gaza City, Khan Younis, Jabaliya, and Beit Lahia. Dozens of terrorists have been eliminated.
*The IAF destroyed the launch sites from which missiles were fired at Beersheva two days ago and Kerem Shalom today.
On the Ground in the North
A follow-up to the breaking news ticker at the top of the page: there were at least 35 missiles fired at Kiryat Shmona in the latest Hezbollah barrage. 15 were intercepted, but the others caused massive damage in the city. Fortunately, no Israelis were physically wounded.
On the Ground in the United States
Your humble servant has been in the U.S. for the last two weeks confronting the HamISIS supporters on my old campus–the University of California, Davis.
At Davis, the anti-Israel group has basically taken over the quad in the center of the campus, setting up an enclosed tent encampment consisting of some 50-75 tents. All of the group of supporters are masked to hide their identity. The outer rim of the encampment has numerous anti-Israel messages affixed.
There is one entrance to the encampment which is tightly controlled by the HamISIS supporters and on each of side of which the demands of the students and their supporting activists are listed.
At intervals of about 15 feet around the enclosure are stationed people with umbrellas who rush forward with open umbrellas to block anyone trying to take a photo of anything inside the camp.
A few photos that I took:
Davis to Gaza intifada: all around and inside the encampment were signs supporting the PLO, PFLP, and other terror organizations.
And:
The tightly guarded entrance to the camp. Note the demands.
And:
One of the umbrella people coming toward me to block me from taking photos.
Your humble servant will return to the UCD Quad today for more confrontations.
In the meantime, we again wish our soldiers and you:
SHABBAT SHALOM!
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.