Yom Shabbat-Yom Rishon
Saturday-Sunday
22-23 Iyar 5783
May 13-14 2023
Special Note:
As regular readers of OneIsrael know, we do not publish a blog on Shabbat unless circumstances warrant. Today, circumstances warrant.
UPDATE: 12 am (Sunday) Israel Time
An agreement of sorts has been reached between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad which supposedly began at 10:00 pm.
The agreement appears to be that silence (no missiles or mortars) from Jihad will be met with silence from Israel.
None of the conditions that Jihad demanded of Israel were agreed to.
Israel will continue to target Islamic Jihad leaders if the missile fire continues; Israel will proceed with the Flag Day festivities this coming Thursday; no bodies will be turned over to Jihad.
We say that the agreement is “of sorts” because Islamic Jihad has already violated the agreement with missiles launched at 10:07 pm, 10:11 pm, and 11:10 pm (Nirim and Ein Hashlosha) (5o minutes ago). Israel responded by attacking Gaza at 11:46 pm (14 minutes ago).
UPDATE: 6 pm (Saturday) Israel Time
The communities nearest Gaza have been pounded with missiles all day long with Netivot, Nahal Oz, Kerem Shalom, Ein Hashlosha, Sdot Negev, and Sderot bearing the brunt of the attacks.
Ashdod and Ashkelon have also been hit with multiple volleys.
As of this hour, our incomplete count (because the number of mortars fired is unclear) shows that 1437 missiles and mortars have been fired at Israel since this war began.
The official IDF count is that 1234 missiles have been fired–373 of which have been intercepted by the Iron Dome (now operating at 91% efficiency). The IDF count does not include mortars.
Injuries in the last 12 hours include 1 Israeli Bedouin, and 2 agricultural workers from Gaza who were wounded when a missile struck Shokada. One of the workers has died.
All ceasefire efforts have failed, and there is no reason to believe that they will succeed any time soon. Evacuation efforts in the Gaza envelope focused on Sderot will continue until Tuesday according to the Home Front Command.
IDF Chief of Staff Halevi commented this morning: “We are prepared to continue the targeted countermeasures and attacks. Islamic Jihad’s continued shooting makes it possible to deepen our achievements.”
We will post another update in 4 hours.
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.