Yom Reva’ee
Wednesday
29 Elul 5784
October 2 2024
UPDATE 6:00 PM ISRAEL TIME
More disastrous news from south Lebanon. The IDF has published the names of 5 more soldiers who have been killed :
Capt. Itai Ariel Giat, 23 years old, from Shoham, an officer in the Combat Engineering Corps in the Yalam unit, fell in battle in southern Lebanon.
Maj. Noam Barzilay, 22 years old, from Kochav Yair, a fighter in the Egoz unit, a commando formation, fell in battle in southern Lebanon.
Maj. Or Mantzur, 21 years old, from Beit Aryeh, a fighter in the Egoz unit, the commando formation, fell in battle in southern Lebanon.
Sgt. Almken Terefe, 21 years old, from Jerusalem, a fighter in the Golani Patrol, Golani Brigade, fell in battle in southern Lebanon.
Sgt. Ido Broyer, 21 years old, from Menas Ziona, a fighter in the Golani Patrol, Golani Brigade, was killed in battle in southern Lebanon.
Also, more than 25 more soldiers were wounded in the battle in which the Egoz Unit members were killed.
In addition the sixth person killed in the terror attack last night in Tel Aviv has been identified:
May the memories of all these be for a blessing.
UPDATE 4:00 PM ISRAEL TIME
Another victim of the terror in Yaffo has been identified even though we have no details yet. He was a Greek citizen, and his death was announced by the Greek Embassy.
To add to the pain today, the first three soldiers have fallen in the ground operations in southern Lebanon. All three were members of the Egoz unit, an elite commando unit specializing in counter-terrorism in rough terrain:
Apparently the Egoz Unit was ambushed inside a house. There are few details at this time.
UPDATE 1:00 PM ISRAEL TIME
The death toll from the terror attack in Tel Aviv last night has risen to 8. The identities of three more have been released:
Nadia Sokolenko, 40 years old from Yaffo, was the mother of a little girl; she immigrated to Israel from Moldova.
Revital Bronstein, 24, a computer science student from Bat Yam and the receiver of numerous academic awards.
Ilia Nozadze, 42, a citizen of Georgia who was visiting Israel.
May their memories be for a blessing.
If you can believe this . . .
Yesterday, the terrorists went into a mosque and warned the worshipers there not to leave so that they would not be harmed. When they left, no one in the mosque warned anybody.
It turns out that one of the terrorists was not killed, but is now in a hospital being cared for.
Unbelievable.
It’s about time . . .
FM Israel Katz has declared UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres an undesirable personality in Israel and thereby banned his entry into the country.
In doing so Katz said: “He who is unable to unequivocally condemn Iran’s criminal attack on Israel is not fit to set foot on Israeli soil. This is an Israel-hating Secretary-General, who gives support to terrorists, rapists and murderers. Guterres will be remembered as a stain on the history of the United Nations.”
Why did it take so long?
UPDATE 10:00 AM ISRAEL TIME
Special Message
Rosh HaShana begins at sundown tonight. After the events of yesterday, we can celebrate with family and friends tonight that Israel lives, the Israeli people survive, and that we hopefully have a better year to look forward to.
Some will not celebrate.
Here are two of the 7 Israelis who were murdered by terrorists last night on Yerushalayim Street in Yaffo/Tel Aviv:
Shahar Goldman, 30, a resident of the city of Lod, was married just over a year ago. She was an outstanding international dancer and leaves behind her husband Tai, her sisters Esther, Dikla, Merav, and her parents Avraham and Ruth Goldman.
Inbar Segev Vigdar (33) leaves behind her husband, and her 9-month-old son Ari.
In a post she published last February, she wrote, “My wish for 2024 is that we can all live here, a safe, beautiful, full and exciting life. For us and for our children.”
May the memories of Shahar and Inbar be for a blessing.
The View from Ashdod (and all over Israel)
By anyone’s description, it was a wild night. Our family was watching television when he heard of a terror attack in Tel Aviv. Almost immediately we saw two terrorists leaving a light rail train car, one carrying a gun and the other a bag of ammunition.
They were looking for people to kill after having shot people inside the light rail.
This morning we know the extent of their terror: 7 people were murdered, and another 10 wounded, some critically. From Hevron, the two terrorists were eventually killed by citizens and a security guard. One of the citizens who shot and killed the terrorists:
While this terror was still ongoing, the three of us in Ashdod suddenly received loud warnings on our phone “The is an urgent emergency warning. Go immediately to a protected place.”
We jumped up and ran to our bomb shelter.
Over the next hour and a half this sequence repeated itself 4 more times–with the difference that the last 4 were accompanied by blaring incoming missile alarms in the neighborhood.
Unlike in previous missile assaults from Gaza, we heard no explosions outside.
Except on the 3rd run to the bomb shelter when we heard 5 large booms in close vicinity. As of this morning, we still have no idea what was hit here in Ashdod.
After the 5th trip to the bomb shelter came a message on our phones that we were free to leave our fortified places and that the immediate threat was over.
So What Do We Know About The Missile Attack Last Night?
*Apparently, more ballistic missiles were fired at Israel last night than in any other ballistic missile attack in history. This morning we are still unsure about how many were launched, how many were shot down before they got here, how many were shot down over Israel, and how many got through and exploded on the ground.
*The first reports last night were that “more than 300 missiles were fired”; then this was increased to “more than 400”; then this was all decreased this morning to “181 missiles were launched from Iran.” It is reported this morning that the US, France, Jordan, and other countries “worked with Israel to intercept hundreds of missiles”–but that most of the missiles were intercepted by the Arrow system.”
The missiles themselves were of the type “Fattah”, apparently hypersonic, and took 12 minutes to arrive here from Iran.
*In terms of casualties, no Israelis were killed in the missile onslaught; several people were wounded by shattered glass and shrapnel–none seriously. Numerous homes and buildings were damaged–100 in Hod HaSharon alone. One Gazan-Palestinian in Jericho was killed when hit by a falling missile part.
*Iran claims to have only targeted military bases yet civilian areas were among the hardest hit. Also in the crosshairs were Jerusalem and Dimona. We all know what is in Dimona.
What’s Next?
Last night, we had the absurd news that Iran has let it be known that “if Israel does not respond, then we consider the event over.”
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
What a joke. Without any doubt, Israel is going to respond strongly to the Iranian assault. Will we hit the Iranian oil fields, the nuclear facilities, or something else?
Missile Attacks So Far This Morning
From 05:15 am this morning until now (10:00), Hezbollah has launched 19 missile barrages at communities along the border. Hardest hit has been Metulla which was struck at (07:08), (07:25), (08:35), (09:17).
And so it goes this morning in Israel as everyone hurriedly shops for Rosh Hashana tonight. Am Israel Chai!
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.