Tuesday
Yom Shleeshee
3 Nisan 5785
April 1 2025
UPDATE 11:00 AM ISRAEL TIME
On the Ground in Gaza
*At 8:36 am this morning:
According to the IDF, one missile was launched at Sderot from Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza and it was intercepted by the Iron Dome. No Israelis were physically wounded; there are no reports yet about how many Israeli women, children, and men were traumatized.
The IDF has just ordered that Palestinians immediately evacuate Beit Hanoun.
*As we noted yesterday, we seem to inching toward another ceasefire/hostage release.
“Inching” should probably be changed to “barely inching”. The Israeli proposal that Hamas just rejected:
–a 40-day ceasefire
–the release of 10 live hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian terrorist murderers
–the release of Idan Alexander (the only Israeli-American hostage still alive)
–on the fifth day, Hamas will finally provide information of all hostages, living and dead
–on the 10th day, Hamas will release 16 bodies
–during the 40 days, negotiations will begin on Stage 2
It is not surprising that Hamas rejected this. In the first place, Hamas wants to dribble out the release of live hostages, two or three at a time, so they can maintain leverage against Israel. Second, Hamas has steadfastly refused throughout the entire 16 months of the war to provide information on the hostages. Third, if Hamas released 11 live hostages and 16 dead hostages, this would mean that their storehouse of hostages would be reduced by half.
On the Ground in Lebanon
From the IDF spokesman:
“IDF fighter jets, under the direction of the Shin Bet, attacked a Hezbollah terrorist in the Dahiyya area of Beirut who had recently been directing Hamas operatives and assisting them in an attempt to carry out a serious attack in the immediate future against Israeli citizens. The terrorist posed a real and immediate threat, and therefore the IDF and Shin Bet acted to attack him in order to remove the threat. The IDF and Shin Bet will continue to act to remove any threat to the citizens of the State of Israel.”
When you stop and think about it, this was quite an unusual announcement.
IAF jets hit a building in Dahiyya in Beirut, killed a Hezbollah terrorist, who was directing Hamas terrorists, who were about to carry out “a real and immediate” attack against Israelis.
According to the Lebanese, three were killed in the attack and 7 were wounded–2 critically.
On the Ground in Syria
The Defense Ministry released these facts yesterday:
“To thwart the Syrian threat, Israel has established the security zone east of the Golan Heights, which is about 18 km wide and 80 km long. Nine large outposts have been built along it, the central one being located at the crest of Mount Hermon. The IDF will remain in these areas until further notice. The army will stand between the enemies and the residents of Israel.”
On the Ground in Yemen
The Houthi TV channel recently reported several attacks by the US Air Force against several targets in the Saada province, in northwestern Yemen.
On the Ground in Egypt
From an Israeli report:
“Israel has asked Egypt and the US to begin the process of dismantling the military infrastructure built by the Egyptian army in Sinai in violation of the peace agreement with the countries . A senior security official, speaking to reporters, described the Egyptian actions as a ‘significant violation’ of the security annex.”
Regular readers will remember that we posted photos of the Egyptian buildup back in February.
On the Ground in Judea and Samaria
From the Shin Bet Spokesman (emphasis mine):
“A terrorist cell from Shechem that operated under the direction and funding of the Hamas headquarters in Turkey to carry out shooting and explosive attacks was foiled. As part of the investigation, an M16 weapon and tens of thousands of dollars in cash were seized.
The Shin Bet and police investigation revealed that the cell operated under the direct direction of the Hamas terrorist organization from within Turkey, with the suspects receiving funding of tens of thousands of dollars to carry out attacks against security forces and other targets in the Judea and Samaria region.
During the arrests of three of the suspects on January 29, an M-16 weapon was seized as well as approximately $40,000 in cash. Another suspect who was arrested that day handed over an additional $20,000 to the forces. Three more suspects were subsequently arrested. All of the detainees were transferred for questioning to the General Security Service and the central unit of the Sha’i District.
Following the investigation and after one of the detainees was identified, the forces arrived at a road near the Jith junction in Samaria where a buried wire bomb was located. The bomb consisted of a large metal case containing explosives. The bomb was removed from the scene using a shovel and destroyed in a controlled manner by bomb disposal experts.
The investigation led to the exposure of the terrorist infrastructure, the cell’s ties with elements abroad, and the manner in which funds were transferred to finance the activity. Significant evidence was collected that allowed not only the thwarting of the planned attacks, but also the formation of an evidentiary infrastructure that led to the prosecution of all those involved.“
Here Yesterday, Gone Today
We should have guessed it.
Yesterday, we noted how the announcement of Eli Sharvit as the new Shin Bet head was greeted with gushing accolades from the leftist opposition.
It turns out that in an unusual blunder, PM Netanyahu simply did not thoroughly vet Sharvit.
In the first place, Sharvit took an extremely active role in the anti-judicial reform protests in Tel Aviv in March 2023. Second, Sharvit was out front supporting the idiotic maritime deal that Israel signed with the U.S. to turn over Israeli maritime territory to Lebanon. Both of these actions infuriated members of the Netanyahu coalition and all conservative Israelis.
To top it off, back in January, just 3 days after Trump was inaugurated, Sharvit authored an article in the Israeli economic Calcalist in which he criticized President Trump for his environmental policies.
“Criticized” is too mild a description for this:
“Trump’s shortsightedness sends a shocking message of disregard for scientific reality, humanity’s welfare, and responsibility for future generations . . . This approach is nothing less than ‘eat and drink for tomorrow we die’ in a political guise — a strategy to evade global consequences by satisfying immediate interests of polluting fuel industries.”
To make a long story, 24 hours after being named the new head of Shin Bet, Eli Sharvit is gone.
And so it goes in Israel this hazy morning . . . so far . . .
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.