🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 372, 2023 - October 12, 2024 🎗️

  

🎗️Day 372  that 101 of our hostages in Hamas captivity
**There is nothing more important than getting them home! NOTHING!**

“I’ve never met them,

But I miss them. 

I’ve never met them,

but I think of them every second. 

I’ve never met them,

but they are my family. 

BRING THEM HOME NOW!!!”

We’re waiting for you, all of you.
A deal is the only way to bring
all the hostages home- the murdered for burial and the living for rehabilitation.

#BringThemHomeNow #TurnTheHorrorIntoHope

There is no victory until all of the hostages are home!

‎אין נצחון עד שכל החטופים בבית

 The two sections at the end, personal stories and Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages are very important to read, as important or more than the news of the day.

Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements

*4:25pm yesterday- north- rockets/missiles

*4:30pm yesterday- north -rockets/missiles

*4:35pm  yesterday - north - hostile aircraft - Amuka, Hahar Hayarden, Eliezer, Mishmar Hayarden, Yesod Hamaaleh, Huleta, Gadot, Ayelet Hashahar, Ahuzat Yarden, Biryia
*4:40pm yesterday -north - rockets/missiles
*4:50pm yesterday - north - rockets/missiles
*5:10pm yesterday - north -rockets/missiles
*5:20pm yesterday - north - rockets/missiles
*5:45pm yesterday - north -rockets/missiles
*6:15pm yesterday - north - rockets/missiles
*7:55pm yesterday - north -rockets/missiles
*8:50pm yesterday - north -rockets/missiles

*9:00pm yesterday - north -rockets/missiles

*9:20pm yesterday - north -rockets/missiles 

*9:50pm yesterday - center - hostile aircraft - Givat Hen, Hod Hasharon, Ramat Hasharon, Herzlia, Kfar Shmaryahu -A building in Herzliya that was hit in a drone attack on Yom Kippur is a retirement home, the Ynet news site reports.

The strike sparked a small fire that was put out by the fire department. There are no reports of physical injuries. The Herzliya municipality tells residents that they can leave their safe rooms, but urges them to closely follow instructions from the Home Front Command.

*10:05pm yesterday - north -rockets/missiles
*1:10am - north -rockets/missiles
*1:35am - north -rockets/missiles

*2:15am - north -rockets/missiles
*2:40am -north - rockets/missiles
*3:50am - north -rockets/missiles
*3:50am - north - rockets/missiles
*10:05am - north -rockets/missiles

A picture taken from the southern Lebanese city of Tyre shows rockets being fired from the region toward Israel on October 11, 2024. (KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)

*10:20am - north - rockets/missiles
*10:55am - north - rockets/missiles
*12:15pm -north - rockets/missiles
*12:20pm -  north - rockets/missiles
*1:05pm - Haifa, Atlit and all areas around - The IDF says it intercepted two rockets over the Haifa area
*1:10pm -north - rockets/missiles -The army says some 30 rockets were launched at Israel from Lebanon in the past hour
*3:15pm - Acre and areas south and north of Acre and north of Haifa - Some 35 rockets were fired from Lebanon toward northern Israel a short time ago, the Israel Defense Forces says.

The military says some of the rockets were intercepted. The barrage triggered sirens in Acre and the surrounding communities. - video of rockets and interceptions above Acre

*4:50pm - north - rockets/missiles -Some 15 rockets were fired from Lebanon toward northern Israel in a recent rocket barrage, the Israel Defense Forces says.

The military says that some of the rockets were intercepted.

*5:10pm - South - Ashkelon - rockets - Two rockets were fired at Ashkelon from northern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces says.

The two projectiles struck open ground. There were no injuries reported.

The army announced the death of a soldier killed in battle in Southern Gaza

First Sergeant Itai Fogelman, 22

Itai, a tank commander in the 46th Battalion, was killed in battle in the southern Gaza Strip • Itai left behind his parents and four brothers, his cousin was killed a few weeks ago in an operation in Jenin • Chairman of the Yishuv Yakir: "We are hurt and shocked"

May his memory forever be a blessing 

Hostage Updates 

• "I ask myself every day why I didn't fight like Einav Tzangauker"

  

  
  Chen Arad knows well the great danger awaiting the families of the hostages: "Now it's clear that we regret it." He decided to attend protests and return - in his own way - to the public arena: "I see the tsunami falling on us." In an interview, he talks about the attitude he conveyed to his family - which became a burden in the eyes of the state - and admits: "I look at myself every day and ask myself where I went wrong."

  
  

  It happened on one Friday: Three women entered the Ohel Moshe synagogue in Herzliya to distribute flyers mainly intended for one special worshipper in the congregation - the chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, MK Yuli Edelstein. All three were arrested and taken to the local police station, in a manner that caused ripples far beyond the pastoral setting of Herzliya Pituach. Even the Police Commissioner asked to check the propriety of the matter - so it was expected that on the following Saturday, interest in what was happening there would grow.

  
  

  Those same 20 determined activists, local residents who make sure to come every Saturday morning, showed up this time as well. But one less routine guest stood out among them, who at some point left the synagogue, wearing a kippah, and addressed those present: "Families of hostages and missing persons are considered horses in Israel," he stated. "If you do what the system tells you, you're a noble horse, if you don't - you're a wild horse. Please act according to your conscience."

  
  

  This direction for the protest for the hostages was given by none other than Chen Arad. There's probably no one more veteran or experienced than him - he is the younger brother of missing fighter pilot Ron Arad, an IDF officer (Air Force Navigator who parachuted to safety over Lebanon) who was captured on Lebanese soil. More than 38 years have passed since that cursed day. Arad's new challenge can also be interpreted as self-criticism, or as regret for his own family's behavior, which was known for its very official conduct towards Israeli governments from 1986 until today.

  

  Ron Arad - missing 38 years

  
  

  "It simply drives me crazy"

  In his first interview like this since October 7, 2023, Arad confirms to N12 the regret in his words. "Your faith in the system, especially in a family that serves in the security forces, is completely clear. And it's also clear now that we regret it, but that's hindsight, you know. And hindsight is always stronger than anything."

  
  

  **Is this regret felt even more since October 7?**

  "Each case is different, and I'm not coming now as an expert on hostage and missing persons affairs to say what's right or wrong. I'm a very simple man, I just see the process and can say, 'Listen, this is what I went through,' and from that, each person will draw their own lessons. There's no way to pretend here. Since October 7, a process of regression in the treatment of these people has begun - suddenly they are a burden and a load on the system. As if they're interfering with its ability to live."

  

  "The relatives of the abductees are suddenly a burden and a burden on the system, as if they are disturbing the system." Chen Arad in the Knesset, archive | Photo: Kobi Gideon, Flash 90

  
  

  "I'm not coming to grade the government or the opposition," Arad emphasizes, with the sounds of protest against Edelstein in the background. "I look at the 120 Knesset members and am horrified by the fact that people trusted the state and had their husband, wife, children, partner taken from them - and the feeling that comes across is that they're like 'Kaplanists' (the protesters from Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv last year against the government's planned judicial takeover) or I don't know what, and so is everyone who comes to support these families. And it simply drives me crazy. We can't ignore this. Suddenly, everyone who supports these guys is 'doing yoga and drinking beer,' to quote Edelstein's words."

  
  

  "If you don't come - you won't get Ron's letters"

  **Did you also become a burden at some point?**

  "Certainly. I'll even give you the point where it happened. In one of the cases where they decided that Ron wouldn't be in a prisoner exchange deal, they informed us that letters from Ron had arrived and told us we were requested to come to the Kirya to pick them up. When we asked them to bring them to us, the man who was then in charge of hostage and missing persons affairs said, 'If you don't come to my office to receive them, you won't get the letters.' Many were involved in this process, the number of 'falafels' (army insignias for high rank) who were aware of this conduct was infinite. Everyone buried their head in the sand. And it's not a right-wing government, not a left-wing government, I know how to identify what happens in the system when it feels uncomfortable, whether it's because pressure is being applied to it, and what forces it can exert on them."

  

  Ron and Tammy Arad

  
  

  **Did you identify this point of becoming a burden also with the families of the October 7 hostages?**

  "I don't have a specific point in time. I can only say that when I went to support the families on Saturdays, and people I had never met before can testify to this, I stood as one of the people outside, quietly, and listened. I return from the protest and suddenly find a group of 12-year-old children and an older man next to them shouting at the families. I say to myself: God help us, what's happening here? Is this how people today delegitimize these wonderful families?"

  
  

  Arad himself testifies that until now, throughout the year, he has refrained from any public reference to the situation, and certainly from active participation in any protest. What brought Arad, a resident of Ramat Gan, out to the synagogue in Herzliya on that Saturday morning and later that evening also to the weekly protest of the hostages' families on Begin Street, was the famous flyer incident a week earlier: one of the three arrestees in that event is a family friend. This fact, he says, drove him out of his mind, in the sense of the straw that broke the camel's back.

  
  

  "I was simply shocked. All these years, all I was busy with was entering my anonymity, retreating into my shell and not doing anything. But to see a law enforcement officer taking the law into his own hands and handcuffing three ladies for eight and a half hours on false pretenses, I just wanted to vomit. I realized that the direction this country is going in is very bad."
  

  

  The flyers that were placed in the synagogue where Yuli Edelstein prays

  
  

  "A war is being waged against these families"

  
  

  "They did the thing to us where they 'killed' Ron nicely. And here I am sitting and saying that I don't want to let this happen again," Arad adds painfully. "In my life, I try to be a private person. After so many years of walking down the street and everyone pointing at you, all you want is to go back to being anonymous. Now I felt that as a citizen in this country, there's a stage where you need to stand up and say things. I'm not from the right, I'm not from the left, I'm not from anything. I'm a concerned citizen who sees the tsunami falling on us."

  
  

  "There's a process here," Arad adds. "Look what Edelstein said now about three pensioners who chased him with flyers, and what was in these flyers after all? A picture of the Bibas family and a picture of injured girls in captivity. And from here on, they're raising a whole police force for me and everyone is lying to each other. You see here some kind of holy triangle: the synagogue says 'it's not me, it's the police,' the police say 'I received a complaint' and Edelstein says 'I support everyone.'"

  

  Demonstration of support for the arrested protesters, in front of the Gillot police station Photo: ELAN

  
  

  "For what? They took women and detained them for eight and a half hours, handcuffed. And again I ask: for what? For a flyer in an open synagogue? So don't you understand that some kind of war is being waged here against these families? It's clear to me that it is. I have to tell you, when I met Edelstein at the synagogue on Saturday and shook his hand, I said only one word to him: enough." Since our conversation, it has become clear that two police officers were investigated by the Police Internal Investigations Department. The suspicion: in the arrest of the three women, the officers - with ranks of Lieutenant Colonel and Chief Inspector - misused their position's power and breached trust.

  
  

  Despite the protest and the meeting with Edelstein, Arad is not at all convinced that he will continue to publicly stand by the protesters from now on. "There's some kind of preoccupation here, as if these 101 families of the hostages are a collection of idiots. But when they see a collection of people who are busy - let's think just about the recent period - with changing the judicial system, appointing associates or the money Israel transfers to Uman for travelers, so tell me, are we at war? These people (the families of the hostages - Y.K.) see that the politicians' focus is not on them. So what do they expect them to do, sit and clap?"

  
  

  

  Demonstrators chanting "shame" on Edelstein's way to the synagogue after the arrests Photography: Yair Pelti
  

  
  

  "Someone here is busy tearing us apart"
  **There's sometimes a feeling that you, the families of the hostages and missing persons, are convenient at some point to turn into a symbol: to invite to events, to give a lot of respect, but to leave you only as a symbol.**

  
  

  "Being a symbol is the worst thing you can be. At the end of the day, you're the one who gets up in the morning alone, looks in the mirror and thinks in retrospect - what did I do, where did I contribute and where did I mess up? So being a symbol is nice when it shines on your lapel, not when it sits on you, on your daily conscience. It's very possible that these families are now also being turned into a symbol. But you know what, their situation is worse than mine. Because they're now being turned into trash, not a symbol. They're being turned into exteriors. As if it's not a case that should be at the forefront of everyone's mind. That's why I said what I said on Saturday - whoever has criticism for these families should come and stand in their shoes. The wrapping and talk about 'all of us' and again 'all of us' - you can't just come with words."

  
  

  **Both when you're forgotten and when you've already become a symbol, what's the source from which you can draw hope?**

  
  

  "Only the shared grip together, without all the statements of, what's his name, the guy with the Rolex (Minister Dudi Amsalem - Y.K.) and all these guys who are always busy with these things. Only the 'together'. Only the definition that we're all brothers and unite. And again I say - everyone knows that the enemy is in Gaza, the enemy is not here, but everyone knows that someone here is busy breaking us apart, I have no other word."

  
  

  Until now, Arad hasn't had the chance to meet anyone from the families of the hostages. On that Saturday, after meeting with Edelstein at the protest, he came for the first time to the weekly demonstration of the families' headquarters on Begin Road in Tel Aviv, near the entrance gate to the Kirya. At the end of the demonstration, he went behind the scenes of the stage to say hello to those present. There he met Einav Tzangauker, the mother of the hostage Matan Tzangauker, and she is actually the first of the family members he happened to meet.

  

  Arad on Einav Tsengauker: "You can always say to yourself, 'I fought in every possible way'"

  
  

  "I told her that I'm with her and I said that everything she's doing - she shouldn't hesitate, and she should do everything she can. I said that everything she's doing - she's doing right. In her place, I look at myself every day and ask myself where I went wrong and why I didn't fight like her for Ron. She will always be able to tell herself, 'I fought in every possible way.'" link

Gaza 

•  

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria

• A 27-year-old foreign worker from Thailand was killed Friday and another worker was wounded when unexploded ordnance blew up in an orchard by the northern community of Kibbutz Yir’on in the Upper Galilee.

  Security officials were still investigating but said they believed the cause was a munition previously fired by Hezbollah. It was not clear whether the blast was caused by one of the victims handling or interacting with the weaponry in some way.

  The worker’s death was originally reported as being the result of an anti-tank missile attack from Lebanon, however, the Israel Defense Forces later issued a statement saying the results of its preliminary investigation indicated that ordnance on the ground had been the cause.

  
  

• The Israel Defense Forces say that jets hit several Hezbollah rocket launchers that were used in recent barrages. 

  Israel’s security chiefs vowed in remarks published Friday that Israel will push on with its offensive in southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is pushed away from the border and would continue to act there in the future if it sees terror groups trying to reestablish a presence along the Israeli frontier.

  At a Thursday night security assessment in the field in southern Lebanon, alongside Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi vowed, “we will continue to fight the enemy, and we will not stop” until the displaced residents of Israel’s north have long-term security.”

  The comments were published as Israel continued striking at Hezbollah senior leaders and pushed more troops into the operation that Israel says is aimed at destroying Hezbollah’s ability to wage war across the border and attack Israeli communities.

  More than 20 rockets were fired at northern Israel over the past hours, setting several fires.

  It also came as Lebanon urged the UN to demand an “immediate” ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah and indicated that Hezbollah was prepared to accept a deal that would that would limit its role in southern Lebanon.

  “We are working on all fronts, both in the Beqaa Valley and in Beirut; north of the Litani River and south of the Litani River,” Halevi told soldiers, in video meeting that was published by the IDF on Friday.

  “If someone comes to build up these villages again, he’ll say it’s not worthwhile to rebuild terror infrastructure, because [in that case] the IDF will destroy the village again,” Halevi said.

  Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar added: “The State of Israel can’t protect its residents from terrorists just using security guards at the mall, or from missiles just using protected rooms. It must be in the terrorists’ own dens and on their production lines.”

  “Therefore, for a border of peace — defense on both sides of the border, with freedom to operate. In recent years we’ve seen Hamas establish itself in Lebanon, that will increase because they’re leaving Gaza and the investment will be here. We will continue to pursue them everywhere,” he said.”

  “We will always remember the massacre of October 7, and we will ensure they remember the lesson of October 8,” Bar said.

  Some 60,000 residents were evacuated from northern towns on the Lebanon border shortly after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, amid fears Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack, and increasing rocket and missile fire by the terror group.

  In Lebanon, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in a televised address that the foreign ministry would ask the UN Security Council to issue a resolution calling for a “full and immediate ceasefire.”

  He said his government was committed to “the full application of Resolution 1701,” which was adopted in 2006 and called for the Lebanese army and peacekeepers to be the only armed forces deployed in the south of the country.

  Lebanon is committed to “the deployment of the army in the south and the bolstering of its presence along the border,” he said.

  “Hezbollah is in agreement on this issue,” he added — though the group has yet to comment on his speech.

  Iran-backed Hezbollah is heavily armed and controls large swathes of Lebanon, and successive Lebanese governments have failed to subdue it and peacekeepers have also failed to enforce Resolution 1701.

  Israel meanwhile continued to target Hezbollah.

  An Israeli airstrike killed the commander of an anti-tank missile unit within the Hezbollah terror group’s elite Radwan forces on Friday, the military said in a statement, including video of the strike.

  According to the IDF, Ghareeb Alshuja’a had overseen the firing of anti-tank missiles toward the Ramot Naftali area.

  An airstrike targeting Alshuja’a was carried out in the Meiss Ej-Jabal area, in coordination with troops of the IDF’s 91st Division, the military said.

  In addition, over the last day, IDF troops operating in southern Lebanon uncovered and destroyed rocket launchers aimed at Israel, and several gunmen were eliminated while operating in a building close to where Israeli forces were located, the military said.

  It added that the Israeli Air Force also carried out multiple strikes against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon over the last day, including weapons warehouses, an observation post and rocket launchers. Full article

  
  

  
  

• Senior Hezbollah figure appears to escape as Israeli strikes rock central Beirut

  Lebanon says 22 others killed in attack on areas of Lebanese capital previously unscathed by conflict; IDF eases some restrictions in north even as rocket fire persists

  

  Large blasts shook Beirut on Thursday evening as Israeli airstrikes targeted at least one senior Hezbollah member in a previously untouched neighborhood in the Lebanese capital. The strike came as troops continued to raid villages in southern Lebanon and as Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets across the border into Israeli cities and towns.

  Wafiq Safa, Hezbollah’s Liason and Coordination Unit chief, was thought to be the target of one of the strikes, but managed to elude the attack on a third-floor apartment near central Beirut, three security sources told Reuters.

  The sources did not provide any further information.

  At least 22 other people were killed and more than 100 were injured in the strikes, Lebanon’s health ministry said, although a Lebanese medical source estimated that the toll was likely to rise as search and rescue operations continued.

  The IDF did not immediately comment on the strikes, which appeared to mark the deadliest attacks in the center of the capital since Israel escalated its campaign against Hezbollah last month.

  Shortly after nightfall, Lebanese media reported that an apartment in an eight-story building on the edge of the Al Nuwairi and Ras el-Nabaa neighborhoods had been targeted in an Israeli airstrike.

  A second building located in the nearby Basta neighborhood was also said to have been targeted minutes later.

  Lebanese civil defense members and other people inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike on the Basta neighborhood of Beirut on October 10, 2024. (Hassan Fneich/AFP)

  
  Lebanese civil defense members and other people inspect the site of an Israeli airstrike on the Basta neighborhood of Beirut on October 10, 2024. (Hassan Fneich/AFP)

  Neither of the locations had previously been targeted in Israeli airstrikes, and they were well removed from the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah’s headquarters are located.

  It was the third time that such a strike had taken place beyond Beirut’s southern suburbs, though there have also been Israeli strikes on Hezbollah assets across southern Lebanon and in the eastern Beqaa Valley.

  Reuters witnesses said at least one strike hit near a gas station and a thick column of smoke was visible. A large fire blazed in the background as rescue workers used torches to search the rubble for survivors, according to a video broadcast by Hezbollah’s al-Manar television.

  The attempt to kill Safa, whose role merges security and political affairs, marked a widening of targeting of Hezbollah officials by Israel, which had so far focused on the group’s military commanders and top leaders.

  Safa, whom Middle East media reports said was born in 1960, oversaw negotiations that led to a 2008 deal in which Hezbollah exchanged the bodies of Israeli soldiers captured in 2006 for Lebanese prisoners in Israel.

  
  Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa, right, alongside convicted terrorist Samir Kuntar, freed in a swap with Israel for the bodies of two soldiers, at the airport in Beirut on July 16, 2008. (Hassan Ibrahim/AFP)

  Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa, right, alongside convicted terrorist Samir Kuntar, freed in a swap with Israel for the bodies of two soldiers, at the airport in Beirut on July 16, 2008. (Hassan Ibrahim/AFP)Hezbollah’s deadly 2006 raid into northern Israel triggered a 34-day war with Israel.

  In 2021, Reuters reported that Safa warned the judge investigating Beirut’s catastrophic 2020 port explosion, who sought to question several politicians allied with Hezbollah, that Hezbollah would remove him from the probe.

  He was sanctioned in 2019 by the US Treasury Department, which described him as Hezbollah’s interlocutor to the Lebanese security forces.

  “As the head of Hezbollah’s security apparatus, which is directly linked to Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, Safa has exploited Lebanon’s ports and border crossings to smuggle contraband and facilitate travel on behalf of Hezbollah, undermining the security and safety of the Lebanese people, while also draining valuable import duties and revenue away from the Lebanese government,” the Treasury Department wrote at the time.

  At the same time as details of the strikes in central Beirut continued to emerge, the IDF’s Arabic language spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee called on Lebanese civilians near two buildings in the southern suburb, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh, to evacuate immediately ahead of airstrikes.

  “You are in the vicinity of facilities belonging to Hezbollah,” Adraee warned, calling on civilians to distance themselves at least 500 meters from the targeted buildings, which were highlighted in two maps published alongside the statement.

  The IDF also warned civilians in southern Lebanon not to return to their homes to avoid being harmed by ongoing fighting, which injured two peacekeepers near a UNIFIL base in the coastal Naqoura area earlier in the day.

  Despite the incident, the UN peacekeeping force again rejected Israel’s request that it evacuate its posts along the border due to concerns the fighting could harm Blue Helmets stationed there.

  The peacekeeping force is deployed along the border to enforce the 2006 UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which bars Hezbollah from maintaining a military presence south of the Litani River.

  However, the terror group has blatantly violated the resolution for much of its existence, and the UN has failed to stop it from doing so, Israel charges.

  Rescuers search for survivors at the site following an overnight airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Derdghaiya on October 10, 2024. (Bilal Kashmar / AFP)

  Israel’s Channel 12 news reported Thursday evening that Foreign Minister Israel Katz had written to the UN Security Council lambasting the international body for its failure to enforce Resolution 1701.

  Israel launched its ground operation in southern Lebanon on September 30, aiming to demolish Hezbollah infrastructure near the Israeli border to enable the safe return of Israeli residents to their homes in the north of the country, after a year of near-daily cross-border attacks.

  Israel has ordered the evacuation of dozens of Lebanese localities amid the fighting, which the UN said has caused 600,000 people to become internally displaced.

  In a video statement distributed to the foreign press Thursday, IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said troops in an evacuated village “built by Hezbollah” were “raiding every house, seizing all equipment, and dismantling Hezbollah’s ability” to carry out a plan similar to last year’s October 7 Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel.

  “This is a terror base,” he said, “Every house here is ready for a raid against Israel.”

  The IDF revealed what it said was evidence of the Iran-backed terror group’s plans last week, presenting images and maps from the foiled mass invasion plot.

  The army says that numerous Hezbollah positions and tunnels, as well as thousands of weapons, have since been destroyed by troops.

  Hezbollah rockets continued to rain down on northern Israel on Thursday, even as the IDF’s Home Front Command announced that it was easing restrictions on gathering in certain areas to allow for communal High Holiday prayers.

  A barrage of some 50 rockets triggered sirens in multiple communities in the afternoon, including in Acre and Nahariya.

  No injuries were caused as a result, although several impacts were identified.

  Shortly after, the Israeli Air Force said it had intercepted a “hostile aircraft” over the Western Galilee, followed by a drone that crossed into the Upper Galilee from Lebanon.

  An IDF tank operates in southern Lebanon, October 10, 2024. (Lazar Berman/Times of Israel)

  Sirens were triggered in the area due to concerns that the interception would lead to falling fragments, but the IDF said that there had been no report of injuries.

  Despite the rocket fire, educational activities will be able to resume in the central Galilee under new guidelines issued by the army Thursday, so long as they take place near shelters. In the Upper Galilee, meanwhile, they will be able to resume only from within shelters.

  In the southern Golan Heights, Lower Galilee, the Carmel and Wadi Ara areas, the Home Front Command said gatherings could take place outdoors with 100 people or less, and indoors with 350 or less.link

• The Israeli military has ordered residents of 22 more southern Lebanese villages to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River, according to a statement.

  It also warns residents of south Lebanon “not to return” to their homes as troops continue fighting Hezbollah in the area.

  Israeli forces continue to “target Hezbollah posts in or near your villages,” military spokesman Avichay Adraee says on X. “For your own protection, do not return to your homes until further notice. Do not go south; anyone who goes south may put his life at risk.”

  In a separate post, Adraee reiterates an earlier call for health workers and medical teams in southern Lebanon to avoid using ambulances, saying they are being used by Hezbollah fighters.

  “We call on medical teams to avoid contact with Hezbollah members and not to cooperate with them,” he said.

  “The IDF affirms that the necessary actions will be taken against any vehicle transporting armed individuals, regardless of its type.”

West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel

•     

Politics and the War (general news)

• Classified doc reveals extent of demand for military equipment at start of war - Exclusive
According to Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beytenu), the hundreds of requests made outside the chain of command demonstrated the reality of missing equipment. 

A classified document obtained by The Jerusalem Post revealed the extent of the demand for military equipment in the weeks following the October 7 massacre: 350 requests.

The document was presented in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on October 23 and includes nearly 350 requests for military equipment gathered by an ad-hoc call center that MKs formed in the days after the massacre.

Notably, many of the requests came from regular army units and not just from reserve units. More surprisingly, this included special units. A significant portion of the requests originated from combat reserve units, while others came from military medical personnel and even the air force. Other requests were submitted by specific individuals, and one even came from a municipality.

The most common request was for bulletproof tactical vests, with a demand for approximately 4,000. Next were approximately 2,500 military helmets, of which 2,000 were specifically for lighter tactical helmets; around 600 special military knee pads (“Robocop,” “Ninja,” or silicon); 200 requests related to medical equipment, including 150 tourniquets and a number of fully equipped medical kits for doctors and medics; 40 reflector sights; and 20 rifles.Other notable requests in large numbers included tactical gloves, commando knives, tactical uniforms, and warm clothing; additional requests in smaller numbers included night-vision goggles, laser pointers, and tactical flashlights.

The demand for military equipment was likely much larger than recorded, as members of Knesset redirected many requests directly to donors without inserting them into the document. However, the document sheds new details on the scope of the demand for equipment in the first two weeks of the war.

Despite widespread reports of a lack of equipment in the early days following the war, IDF Spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari stated on October 9 that “no equipment was lacking” and that “patience was required,” adding that “even if it takes more time, everything will arrive.”

Hagari said the complaints stemmed from the fact that over 300,000 reservists had reported for duty – an unprecedented number – and that in some reserve units, recruitment levels reached 200%, meaning that over double the amount of personnel that were summoned showed up. Hagari also stressed that not all units needed commando-level tactical gear, so not all requests were critical.

However, MKs interviewed on the matter criticized the army’s conduct. According to Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beytenu), who was part of a team of MKs handling the issue, the hundreds of requests made outside the chain of command demonstrated the reality of missing equipment.

The IDF was ignoring reality and was unwilling to ease some of its restrictions to accept at least part of the equipment, according to Malinovsky. The military even knowingly lied about how much equipment it had, Malinovsky said.

While the IDF was justifiably concerned that the donations would include sub-par equipment that could endanger troops, Malinovsky said the army’s aloof and inflexible attitude showed that ego played a part as well, as the IDF did not want to be viewed as unprepared. Malinovsky even said that this attitude was a symptom of a deeper systemic problem in the military – traits she said contributed to the intelligence and operational failures of October 7.

MK Oded Forer (Yisrael Beytenu), who dealt in the Knesset operations room with obtaining rifles for civilian first-response teams, also said the IDF had not been truthful about the real situation on the ground. Regarding rifles, Forer said he and other MKs argued with officials in the Israel Police and the military to enable small towns – especially those near the borders – to obtain rifles. Only after the aforementioned document was presented to the Knesset Foreign Affairs Committee did the IDF begin to cooperate slightly more and began to take the MKs’ involvement seriously, Forer said.

“Due to the vast reporting [for service] of reservists at the start of the conflict, the IDF purchased tens of thousands of [pieces of] protective gear for the combat soldiers’ use. Throughout the war, the IDF has repeatedly stressed that the procurement of combat military equipment is organized in an orderly and professional manner,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in response. 

“The IDF acts continuously to ensure that the donations that are received pass the necessary examinations – both in the context of the quality of the equipment and its appropriateness to its purpose and in ensuring the necessary safety standards. Donated equipment that does not meet the IDF’s standard will be prohibited from use. All units of the army are issued equipment that meets the standard and according to the quantities that correspond to the structure and organization of the field units for battle.”  link

 

The Region and the World

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Personal Stories

  Taken captive: Arbel Yehud, third generation on Kibbutz Nir Oz

Yehud and her boyfriend Ariel Cunio were taken hostage on October 7

Arbel Yehud, 28, was taken hostage with her boyfriend, Ariel Cunio, from their Kibbutz Nir Oz home on October 7, when Hamas terrorists launched an attack, killing and kidnapping a quarter of the kibbutz residents.

Arbel’s brother, Dolev Yehud, was killed on October 7 while defending the kibbutz and his remains were identified on June 3, 2024.

The Yehud siblings are the third generation of their family living on the kibbutz.

Arbel lives on the kibbutz with Ariel and is known as the favorite aunt who loves everything about outer space and astronomy.

Her sister-in-law, Sigi, said that Arbel is an aunt who “always comes, always plays, always takes, always cares.”

“More and more women were released and Arbel was not on the lists,” said Sigi Yehud. “It is important to us that they know that Arbel is there and she needs to return, like all the women and children.”

Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages

The Legend of Blood

Adv. Dina Zilber

Former Deputy Attorney General.

It was among the darkest of times that plagued the nation, in that new and disastrous era that would one day bear his name - a time when the sky was draped with a thick blanket of clouds that smothered all hope.

Those were days of anger, wrath, and indignation - days in which the people’s cries, their sighs, their shouts, their boiling tears, their distress, and their despair - all exploded against walls of indifference that continued to swell and rise, grow and thicken, separating the people and their broken hearts from their rulers.

At that time, the Ruler spent his days moving from one bubble to another - spaces outside of the time, space, and emotional spectrum where humans lived. He would move back and forth, restless and unfeeling, occasionally deaf, blind, or ignorant as the situation required whenever accountability loomed. Behind the dark curtains of his official limousines, in long convoys of decoys and flashing sirens, it was impossible to discern even a glimpse of reality or a sliver of the sky. Barriers, fences, and tight circles of security were all mechanisms to deepen the trenches of the moat of detachment, separating the Ruler from the real world outside, a world that oozed grief and could barely move as it dragged its fragmented shell along the ground. Inside that cold cell that once housed a human being, even the most sophisticated detectors of emotion failed to pick up any sign of compassion or simple humanity. It was a dark box in which the dials had been set to pure instrumentalism and to two singular desires: power and money. A great deal of money.

After crushing all the systems, undermining all the supervisory institutions, breaking all the rules, and eliminating any trace of opposition, his rule was ensured for generations to come. At his instruction, all pages containing the forbidden words “independence,” “freedom,” “elections,” “opposition,” and “alternative” were torn out of the dictionaries. Just in case. Armed with ownership of the present, his burning ambition was to secure the way he would be remembered in the future. A type of historical consciousness.

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the greatest leader of them all?” This question would resound daily throughout the halls of his palace. “Since Israel’s founding or since biblical times?” the sycophants would ask, duly trained to provide the correct answer. Although, say what they would, that internal void could never be filled.

From the palace windows, one could not see the scorched earth, the ruins rising to the sky, entire regions abandoned and burned—nor the nation’s bleeding heart. One could not witness the scalding tears of those whose lives had been broken nor hear the protests of the shouting masses. Even that sole protester - that one bereaved father who once stood in front of the Ruler’s home, day and night, through summer and winter, holding a sign that read “No more blood - stopped coming. He no longer disturbs his neighbors’ peace. They say his heart could not withstand the pain; others say he took his life over his son’s grave. Who knows. In the place where he once stood, there is now a tree. Whenever the wind blows through its leaves, one can hear a loud whisper: Neglect. Neglect.

From the ground, the truth shall spring.

Acronyms and Glossary

COGAT - Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories

ICC - International Criminal Court in the Hague

IJC - International Court of Justice in the Hague

MDA - Magen David Adom - Israel Ambulance Corp

PA - Palestinian Authority - President Mahmud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen

PMO- Prime Minister's Office

UAV - Unmanned Aerial vehicle, Drone. Could be used for surveillance and reconnaissance, or be weaponized with missiles or contain explosives for 'suicide' explosion mission

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