Friday
Yom Shishee
5 Kislev 5785
December 6 2024
The View from Ashdod
There are booms and there are BOOMS.
Last night was another strange night with hugely thunderous BOOMS emanating from Gaza. Every BOOM caused the windows in our house here to rattle, dogs in the neighborhood to start barking, and jackals out in the dunes between us and the sea to start howling.
The BOOMS had to be bunker busting bombs, but there are no reports yet of their being used in Gaza last night.
On the Ground in Gaza
*Talk about the wheels of the IDF moving slowly.
14 months after the October 7th disaster which saw numerous female observers on the Gaza border butchered or taken as hostages to Gaza, the IDF decided yesterday that every female observer will now be allowed to carry a personal Tavor-type weapon.
At least these observers will no longer be completely helpless should they be attacked.
Why in the world has it taken so long to arm them?
*The IDF Spokesman this morning:
“The terrorist Majdi Aqilan, who served as deputy commander of the Shati Battalion and a company commander, has been eliminated, one of the commanders of the massacre in Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7 and led terrorist plots against IDF forces maneuvering in northern and central Gaza.
In addition, the terrorist Mamdouh Mahana, who served as a senior member of the tunneling organization in Hamas’ Gaza Brigade, has been eliminated. Mahana raided Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7. As part of his role, he led the planning and construction of Hamas tunnels and the training of underground operatives.
Also, the terrorist Ahmed Suwaidan, a company commander in the Shati Battalion, who was involved in the kidnapping of Israeli civilians and their transfer to the Gaza Strip on October 7, was eliminated.
Senior figures in the Shati Battalion and the Gaza Brigade of the Hamas terrorist organization were involved in terrorist plots against the citizens of the State of Israel and IDF forces.”
*The IDF Spokesman last night:
“With the direction of IDF and ISA intelligence, the IAF struck and eliminated several terrorists who were in the Humanitarian Area in Khan Yunis. Among the terrorists eliminated was Osama Ghanim, a senior terrorist in Hamas’ Internal Security Forces. As part of his role, he was involved in activity to suppress the citizens of Gaza and was responsible for Hamas’ violence within the Gaza Strip.
Ghanim held a key role in implementing Hamas’ brutal methods, which included conducting harsh civilian interrogations while violating human rights, suppressing residents suspected of opposing Hamas, and persecuting civilians from the LGBTQ+ community.”
Persecuting the LGBTQ+ community? What a ridiculous statement. There are no openly gay people in Gaza.
On the Ground in the North
Some photos of our soldiers in Lebanon which were released by the IDF:
From the IDF Spokesman:
“Troops of the 91st Division continue their deployment in southern Lebanon to defend Israel and its citizens, carrying out defensive activities in communities near the border fence and neutralizing threats in the area, in accordance with the understanding between Israel and Lebanon.
Troops of the 188th Armored Brigade located and dismantled underground infrastructure tens of meters long. The infrastructure included an exit to a firing position aimed at communities and outposts within Israeli territory. The troops located numerous weapons, mortars, and rockets and the brigade’s engineering forces dismantled the underground infrastructure.”
*The IAF struck a Lebanese-Syrian border crossing in the Al-Qusair area. Three missiles destroyed several vehicles ferrying weapons.
On the Ground in Judea and Samaria
*IDF forces captured a number of armed infiltrators from Jordan in the areas of Neot HaKikar and Nahal Zin.
*The march toward Israeli sovereignty in Area C continues.
Yesterday, Finance Minister and Deputy Defense Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that 24,000 dunams of land in the area will now be classified as “state land.”
This is all the more amazing considering that in the last 30 years since the Oslo Accords only 50,000 dunams became state land.
Where the land being added:
*Ma’ale Adumim just outside of Jerusalem will receive 2,600 dunams to the south making it contiguous with the community/neighborhood of Kedar. This entire area is known as Area G.
Most significantly, these dunams will halt the illegal Palestinian and Bedouin construction going on there–and will further block Palestinian settlements in Judea from joining those in Samaria.
*Migdal Oz in Gush Etzion will have its territory doubled with the addition of 281 dunams–enough area to immediately build 500 more housing units.
*Susya in the south Hevron Hills will receive 109 dunams enabling it to build industrial buildings and an educational center.
*Yafit in the Jordan Valley will have 20,000 dunams added to its area.
All of these additions obviously cement Israeli hold on Area C and coupled with other recent moves (such as the extension of cellphone towers we reported on last week) signal that Israel is readying the area for a declaration of sovereignty. Hopefully, President Trump will facilitate this move.
Minister Smotrich commented:
“In a good time and with God’s blessing, today we completed a complex process of announcing 24,000 dunams of new state land in Judea and Samaria. This process creates a settlement continuum, builds land reserves for the development of settlements, infrastructure and roads, and ensures that we will continue to strengthen settlement. We are here to stay.”
*In a wonderful move yesterday, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas introduced legislation that will require all U.S. documents, publications, maps, and other materials to use the term “Judea and Samaria” instead of “West Bank.” The same legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives by Congresswoman Claudia Tenney of New York.
Senator Cotton spoke eloquently about the proposed change:
“The legal and historical rights of the Jewish people to Judea and Samaria span thousands of years. The United States should stop using the politically charged term ‘West Bank’ to refer to the biblical core of Israel.”
Kolakevod to Senator Cotton and Representative Tenney!
On the Ground in Syria
The rebel forces continued their advance toward Homs and Damascus overnight:
As you can see from the expanding “green” area of the map, the rebels are now within a stone’s throw of Damascus. After capturing the city of Hama, the rebels now hold six military airports and one civilian airport.
In capturing the airports, they have also captured dozens of aircraft and helicopters–none of which they know how to operate. One of the intriguing photographs from yesterday was a rebel sitting in the cockpit of a helicopter watching a youtube video describing how to operate a helicopter.
The road from Aleppo to Homs is now littered with Syrian tanks which the army simply abandoned.
The rapid disintegration of Assad’s forces has been shocking. It would seem that the only actions that will save his regime at this point would be a massive infusion of soldiers from Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon and a massive increase in Russian air power. Strangely however, neither Iran nor Russia seem anxious to dramatically enter the war–despite all their pronouncements to the contrary.
As we posed yesterday, the danger at this moment concerns what will happen if Assad and the regime fall. There is nothing to stop the rebels from proceeding straight to the Syrian-Israeli border.
And so it goes this morning . . . so far . . . in Israel.
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.