Yom Shabbat
Saturday
30 Sivan 5784
July 6 2024
On the Hostage Front
Our original optimism about an immediate hostage deal has been somewhat tempered. Mossad head Barnea returned to Israel from Doha last night with news that there are still “gaps” between Israel and Hamas. He will apparently return to Qatar in the coming week. Reports are that Barnea still believes a hostage deal will happen soon.
On the Ground in Gaza
*Terrorist headquarters were hit by the IAF in Deir al-Balach, Muazzi, Nuseirat, and Gaza City.
*The news from Rafah is troubling. It appears that the IDF is no longer advancing on the city. In the last few days, only small advances have been made to the west and north. In fact, less than 25% of the city has been taken with the IDF General Command explaining that the government has not given the army the signal to take the city. Instead, it claims that its only mission is to disable HamISIS assets there.
On the Ground in the North
After the massive barrage of missiles and drones the day before, Hezbollah seemed to dial back the attacks yesterday.
There were missile attacks targeting Betzet, Shlomi (18:37), Kiryat Shmona, Beit Hillel, Tel Hai (18:58), Alma (20:34), and Margaliot (21:19).
However today seems to telling a different story. Already at 5:38 am this morning there was a combined missile and drone attack on Kfar Yuval and Ma’ayan Baruch. Another suicide drone attacked Kiryat Shmona at 8:13 am, and Kibbutz Dan was targeted by missiles at 8:30 am–less than five minutes ago.
The IDF Spokesman in the last hour:
“During the night, fighter jets and aircraft of the air force attacked a number of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. Among the targets that were attacked: a military structure in the Kfar Kila area, a number of terrorists identified in Bint Jbeil, and Hezbollah terrorist infrastructures in the Yarin and Bint Jbeil.”
On the Ground in Judea and Samaria
An IDF undercover (Duvdevan) unit eliminated 7 terrorists in Jenin yesterday including the terror cell that was responsible for the roadside IED that killed Capt. Alon Sacgiu several days ago.
And so it goes in Israel this Shabbat morning. As always we wish our soldiers and you dear readers:
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.