Archive for month: October, 2024

News Update

An Israeli farmer and 4 foreign workers were killed today in a direct rocket strike on an agricultural field near the border town of Metula. Another person was seriously wounded. The IDF intercepted 30 rockets that were part of a large barrage fired by Hezbollah at the northern town of Karmiel. Six rockets fell in open areas.

The IDF announced that it had completed a large-scale demolition operation in the south Lebanon village of Matmoura, located right near Israel’s northern border. The village was used as a base for Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces. For more, click here.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Wednesday evening that he hopes a cease-fire with Israel will be signed ” within the coming hours or days.” Mikati also stated that Lebanon will no longer agree to receive aircraft assistance from Iran or Iraq, after Israel threatened to attack Iranian aircraft transporting military equipment to Beirut. He said, “We don’t want to expose Beirut airport to danger. If Iran or Iraq want to help us it will be via the sea.” For more, click here.

A senior Iranian source reportedly told CNN that Iran would retaliate against Israel before the U.S. election and that the response will be “definitive and painful”. The White House warned Iran not to respond. Israel has warned that if will hit Iran much harder if it responds. Now that Israel knocked out Irans air-defenses in its previous strike, the next strike could target nuclear facilities.

The Shin Bet continues to uncover Iranian espionage operations carried out by Israeli citizens. For more, click here.

Security forces eliminated a key Hamas terrorist in Tulkarm, who was planning imminent terror attacks.

The IDF announced the formation of a new division to defend the eastern border. The IDF said, “The mission of the division is to strengthen defenses in the border area, Route 90 and the communities, and to respond to terrorist incidents and weapons smuggling while maintaining a peaceful border and strengthening cooperation with the Jordanian army.”

The Paris Commercial Court ruled Wednesday in favor of a petition by the Manufacturers Association of Israel, Israel Shipyards and the France-Israel Chamber of Commerce, allowing Israeli companies to participate in the Euronaval maritime defense exhibition, set to take place in Paris in early November. The ruling overrules French President Emmanuel Macron and the French government, that banned Israel from participating in the event.

News Update

The exact damage caused by Israel’s strike against Iran on Saturday is still unclear. We know that over 100 Israeli fighter jets, in several waves, destroyed several advanced Russian made Iranian aerial defense systems and damaged facilities related to missile production and storage in Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran provinces as well as air-defense batteries in Syria and Iraq. One of Israel’s hits was at the Parchin military site, where Iran once worked on nuclear weapons capabilities, according to the U.N. atomic agency. Four buildings were hit there, including three solid-propellant facilities for missiles. The entire attack took 4 hours and all Israeli aircraft returned safely. Israel avoided hitting Iranian nuclear facilities or oil fields due to pressure from the U.S.

Afshon Ostovar, an expert on Iran’s military at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. said, “Iran’s anti-air defenses are vulnerable to superior strike technology. They’re insufficient to protect Iran’s airspace from better-equipped adversaries, Israel in particular. Those systems aren’t easily replaced. Iran probably has some redundancies, but even so, Israel might have paved the way for future attacks to be easier and less restricted.”

While the massive attack cause significant damage to Iran’s missile production and aerial defense capabilities, at least in the short term, it did not cross any of Iran’s “red lines”, like nuclear or oil related facilities, which gives Iran the chance to call it even with Israel and not retaliate again. Israel has warned that an Iranian retaliation would cause Israel to strike Iran even harder, possibly targeting nuclear sites.

Israel reportedly informed Washington and several Arab countries prior to the strike, and some of those Arab countries reportedly informed Iran. Prime Minister Netanyahu denies the notion that Iran was informed prior to the attack.

Police are investigating the suspected ramming attack at the Glilot junction near Herzliya yesterday, in which 1 man was killed and 36 injured, to determine whether it was an attack or just a freak accident potentially caused by a heart attack to the driver. The driver, identified as Rami Nasrallah from Qalansawe, reportedly had about 70 previous traffic violations and had recently undergone open heart surgery. His family claims that he had no connections to any terror groups or activities. For more, click here.

Mossad Director David Barnea began talks in Doha on Sunday with CIA Director Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al Thani to try to reach an agreement to release the hostages. The Egyptians proposed a brief 48-hour cease-fire and the release of some Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of four hostages, but Hamas is not willing to budge from its demands for a permanent cease-fire and the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza. For more, click here.

Israel is moving forward with the development and production of the Iron Beam defense system, which uses lasers to destroy missiles, mortar shells and drones, at a fraction of the cost of conventional systems. For more, click here.

News Update

Hezbollah fired at least 50 rockets towards Safed and other areas of northern Israel today, wounding 2 people and causing minor damage to a home. Earlier today, IDF jets struck a Hezbollah weapons cache stored in an underground facility in Beirut’s Dahieh district. The IDF had warned residents of specific buildings in the Hezbollah-controlled suburb to evacuate immediately. The IDF said extensive precautions were taken to minimize civilian casualties. The IDF also carried out extensive airstrikes in southern Lebanon, including in the city of Nabatieh. Fighting continues in southern Lebanon and throughout Gaza.

The IDF is reportedly removing landmines and establishing new barriers on the frontier between the Golan Heights and a demilitarized strip bordering Syria. The IDF could use this area to launch missions against Hezbollah from the east. For more, click here. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have warned Israel that if it does not allow the transfer of American humanitarian aid to Gaza within 30 days, the U.S. may halt military assistance. [Is it a coincidence that we’re 3 weeks before the election?] For more, click here. 

The Shin Bet arrested Vladimir Verchovsky, a resident of Petah Tikva, who agreed to assassinate an Israeli scientist for $100,000 on behalf of Iranian intelligence. Verchovsky had been carrying out various missions for Iranian operatives, including tagging graffiti, distributing posters, and gathering intelligence on a targeted Israeli. He allegedly traveled by taxi from Tel Aviv to Modiin, where he collected a bag containing a handgun, a matching magazine and 15 bullets. Upon returning to his home, he was arrested. For more, click here. 

Does Israel even have the capability of destroying, or significantly setting back, Iran’s nuclear program? Or would attempting to do that cause Iran to speed up development of a nuclear weapon? To read an article with some insight into these questions, click here.

The holiday of Sukkot (Tabernacles) begins tonight and runs through next weekend.

During Sukkot Jews live (eat and sleep) in a hut-like structure called a Sukkah.

The Talmud states two reasons for the mitzvah of living in the Sukkah for seven days.

The first is to commemorate that our ancestors dwelled in Sukkahs in the wilderness. The second is to remember the “clouds of glory” that surrounded and protected the Jews in the desert. The Talmud seems to lean towards the second explanation. If this is the case, then why do we use a hut to represent the clouds? Wouldn’t it make more sense for us to live out in the open air, under the clouds? Wouldn’t that give us more of a feeling of complete dependence on the protection given us by God?

Although, in truth, living out “under the clouds” does starkly represent total dependence on God, real life isn’t as clear cut. We all try to build structures to provide us with security and protection. We live in these structures and feel safe and in control. We view these structures as permanent and without them we could not function. The reality, however, is that our structures are really just flimsy huts that create for us the illusion of permanence and security. They fall apart when we least expect them too.

The Sukkah that we live in for seven days reminds us that our own structures of security – our houses, careers, social status – are just temporary. They last for a week, a month, a year, several years, but are then taken down. The Sukkah reminds us that our real security and protection comes not from the walls that we build but from the graces of God.

May we all be blessed with the wisdom to differentiate between the security that is true and comes only from God and the false security of the hut that just looks real, but is only an illusion. And may we blessed with peace in Israel and the entire world.

[Taken from my book Deep Waters.]

IsraelAM will not be publishing tomorrow and Friday.

News Update

An attack drone launched by Hezbollah manage to evade Israeli defenses and hit the dining hall on a Golani army base used for training recruits, near Binyamina, killing 4 soldiers and injuring 67. No alarms were triggered.

The 4 soldiers killed are:

Sergeant Omri Tamari, 19, from Mazkeret Batya.

Sergeant Yosef Hieb, 19, from Tuba-Zangariyye.

Sergeant Yoav Agmon, 19, from Binyamina-Giv’at Ada.

Sergeant Amitay Alon, 19, from Ramot Naftali.

The IDF shot down at least 5 rockets fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon today. One woman was injured by shrapnel from a strike near Karmiel.

IDF troops continue to uncover Hezbollah tunnels in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border, stocked with weapons and munitions and equipment, in preparation of a planned invasion of northern Israel. Some of the tunnels are just meters from UNIFIL posts. The IDF continues to eliminate Hezbollah leaders and commanders in strikes throughout Lebanon. For more, click here. 

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told the Cabinet that Hezbollah possesses less than a third of the missiles they had prior to the current conflict. Since the start of the war, Hezbollah has fired more than 14,000 rockets.

The U.S. had agreed to deploy a THAAD air defense system to Israel to help intercept ballistic missiles. Around 100 U.S. troops will be responsible for operating the system. The THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system is a mobile, high-altitude regional defense system, similar in capability to Israel’s Arrow system. It can intercept missiles outside the atmosphere, using kinetic energy to neutralize them. THAAD is designed to target various stages of an enemy missile’s flight path, as well as other threats. For more, click here.

According to a report on the Israeli news, Iran has conveyed a message to Israel saying that a limited Israeli response to the recent Iranian attack on Israel will be considered an end to the exchange between the 2 countries.

News Update

Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke by phone with President Biden yesterday. V.P. Kamala Harris was also on the call. Prior to the call, Netanyahu also spoke to former U.S. President Donald Trump, called the prime minister on his own initiative about a week ago, and congratulated him on the determined and powerful actions Israel took against Hezbollah. U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham also participated in the conversation.

The IDF has announced the death of Roni Genizat, 36, from Givat Shmuel, who was killed in the fighting in southern Lebanon as part of the Alon Brigade.

Rafael Mordechai Fishof, 35, died of injuries he sustained in yesterday’s terror attack in Hadera. He was a rabbi and father of 6.

A joint statement from the Israel Police and Shin Bet announced the successful prevention of a planned bombing at Tel Aviv’s Azrieli Mall. Five residents of Tayibe, forming an ISIS-affiliated terror cell, were arrested, with indictments pending. The suspects, led by Mahmoud Azam and Ibrahim Shaykh Yusuf, intended to use a vehicle bomb at the Azrieli Towers and had considered joining ISIS abroad. They recruited three others and were caught early in their planning. Weapons were seized, and evidence of large-scale attack discussions was found. Authorities praised the intelligence work that stopped the attack. For more, click here. 

Iranian sources suspect that Israel has infiltrated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), particularly those involved in operations in Lebanon, prompting an internal investigation. The inquiry is also looking into the deaths of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Quds Force commander Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, who were killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut. Nilforoushan had been overseeing operations in Syria and Lebanon, and flew to Beirut to meet Nasrallah shortly before the attack. Hezbollah sources suggest an Iranian security breach enabled the strike.

The Israeli developed “Iron Beam” laser defense system is expected to be operational in the coming months. The laser defense system is expected to dramatically improve and reduce the cost of intercepting rockets and drones launched at Israel. The system will be integrated alongside the Iron Dome, so that either weapon can be deployed depending on the specific threat. For more, click here. 

Yesterday, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that gender-segregated prayer could be held in Tel Aviv’s Meir Park. But despite the ruling, the Rosh Yehudi organization that organizes the prayer service announced that it will hold the services in a synagogue. The director of Rosh Yehudi wrote, “In times of war, when our soldiers are risking their lives in heroic battles, and the entire nation is praying for the safe return of our captives, the path to victory and the defeat of the enemy, as well as the return of our captives, lies in increasing holiness, unity and internal peace. Unfortunately, we have heard plans to disrupt this lawful prayer as well. We are choosing the responsible course of action, to be those who endure insults without retaliating, and we will hold Yom Kippur prayers in the synagogue.” Former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef also recommended that the services be held in the synagogue and not in a public park. For more, click here.