Thursday
Yom Chamishee
18 Kislev 5785
December 19 2024
UPDATE 1:00 PM ISRAEL TIME
The View from Ashdod
At 2:36 am this morning we were jolted awake here in Ashdod by a large explosion. When I went online to find out what it was, I saw that at that precise moment a ballistic missile was intercepted, and the alarms that you see below were being sounded (we could hear them here in Ashdod):
Shortly thereafter, we could see on television that a school had been hit in Ramat Efal (a neighborhood in Ramat Gan):
The damage you see in the photo was supposedly from the “interceptor” rocket (the only interceptors that Israel uses against ballistic missiles are Arrow missiles).
However, anyone can see that something is definitely amiss when you look at the extensive damage (read below).
Not long after that came news that the IAF was aggressively attacking Yemen.
14 IAF jets hit the Haziz power plant south of Sanaa and the D’Habban power station north of the capital of Yemini capital, as well as all the tugboats that ferry larger cargo vessels to ports in Hodeidah, Ras Issa, and Al-Salif. In addition, oil storage tanks were also hit:
The overall purpose of the attacks was to paralyze Yemeni ports in order to strangle Yemen economically.
But back to the ballistic missile for a moment.
It turns out that numerous people, included ones here in Ashdod, actually took photos of either the missile or the moment the missile was intercepted–which would suggest that the IDF description of the missile being intercepted before it crossed into Israel was false:
As of this hour, the IDF has a new story. The current narrative is that the missile from Yemen was not intercepted and in fact exploded at Ramat Efal. To sum up the morning events, a missile was fired; it was NOT intercepted; it caused extensive damage on impact at the school; Israel broadly struck the Houthis in Yemen.
A small postcript: Security officials have revealed that small fragments of an interceptor missile landed beside the Knesset in Jerusalem.
The Knesset in Jerusalem, a school in Ramat Efal–a distance of 65km.
If All That Is Not Enough
*At 11:45 am, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza launched drones at the border communities of Magen and Ein Habsor.
*At 10:52 am, Hezbollah fired missiles at Kiryat Shmona and Manara.
Of course, as usual, the IDF is eager to declare that the drones and missiles were “false alarms”. However, in the case of the drones, a bomb squad actually discovered where the drones exploded.
And in Syria
The IAF hit numerous targets overnight including the Qamishli AFB in northeast Syria. Here are a few photos of what is left of the base:
And so it goes in Israel today . . . so far . . .
Special Notice:
OneIsrael’s Chanukah Fund For Soldiers
Chanukah (Hanukkah) begins on December 25 and ends on January 2. We are accepting donations for a Chanukah Fund for Our Soldiers.
OneIsrael will be working with organizations to lift the spirits of our soldiers by bringing them warm clothing, souvganiot (doughnuts), and latkes.
Please donate by clicking the “donate button” on the right of this page.
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.