1. All is quiet in the North, thank G-d (the Home Front Service’s recent announcement of an alert in the North turned out to be the result of human error). Senior U.S. officials say no Hizbullah intervention is expected.
2. The IDF continues to launch heavy airstrikes against the Gaza Strip. One of the founders of the Hamas organization has been eliminated. Our army’s efforts are concentrated on eliminating Hamas leaders, both military commanders and various officials. The hunting for terrotists continues as well. They are being chased in homes and on the streets. At the moment, many hundreds of them have already been eliminated.
3. There has been a decision to establish a national state of emergency government. As I understand its role is to mobilize the national effort to achieve victory in the war. All other matters are delayed until the war is over.
The advantage of such a government is obvious — it strengthens legitimacy in the eyes of the left and thus contributes to our unity. However, its main and very serious disadvantage is also clear, and it involves the fact that the leftists in the government are able to block the most important army actions necessary for our victory. After all, their very doctrines and “concepts” have led to the present terrible consequences. Can we expect different approaches from them now? For example, are they prepared for the need to take over a sector in order to destroy Hamas there?
In other words, from a political point of view, the entry of leftist leaders into the government is good, but this is not likely to contribute to ending Hamas, rather the opposite.
Unfortunately, we have no choice. Nor is there any other solution but to destroy Hamas, which three days ago brutally murdered 1,200 Jews in the most brutal of ways — beheading, slaughtering babies and children, entire families, old and young, and even in the most horrific way boasting about it to the whole world, something even the terrorists of ISIS have not allowed themselves!
We, the people of the country, can only pray that this time it will be different. That this time, the horror that happened on Saturday will penetrate even the leftists — the very military prosecutors and their bosses who hang heavy on the arms of our army. Maybe after seeing the gruesome footage from the liberated kibbutzim, they will finally realize that we must put an end to this monster. This means that we cannot escape the complete liberation of the Gaza Strip and the destruction of Hamas there, once and for all. And that means we will have to act decisively and toughly, not as usual.
4. There were several direct missile hits in Ashkelon today. One hit a newsstand, others hit cars near the buildings. By the grace of G-d and His miracles revealed to us, only a few people were lightly wounded.
5. Russia and China have not yet issued a strong condemnation of the horrific massacre. We have only heard something indistinct from them.
In Belarus, a vassal state of Russia, they even said that the massacre in Kfar Aza was a fake! Putin today, instead of expressing support for Israel, said, “Everything happened because they have not yet established a Palestinian state!” And not a word about the brutality of Hamas!
The Kremlin spokesman did indeed condemn Hamas, but immediately added that “we need to understand the background of the violence”....
6. Today, the IDF destroyed the airborne target detection system that Hamas had painstakingly built over several years, placing expensive and high-quality cameras hidden inside solar heaters on the roofs of many buildings in the Gaza Strip. This, by the way, shows once again how far Hamas has progressed in developing its military capabilities, all as a direct result of the treasonous “Oslo” agreements and then the “Disengagement” — the expulsion of Jews from the Gaza Strip and the withdrawal of our army from there.
7. So far, more than 3,000 people have been admitted to Israeli hospitals with varying degrees of injuries, some 470 of whom are still hospitalized.
8. From the Gaza Strip there are reports of a thousand terrorists eliminated in the Strip by our army, and more than 1,000 more dead bodies of the enemies who broke into our towns and villages and were destroyed in the battles are in the hands of our army. All this, of course, is not enough.
Let us pray for a speedy Redemption, when all the dead will be resurrected, all the martyrs who died will return to us, for as our sacred texts say, all Jews who died for being Jews become righteous of the highest level, and therefore will surely be resurrected to life immediately at the beginning of the resurrection process, together with all the righteous of the people of Israel of all generations.
Until that happens — we must fight Hamas, defeat it and destroy it!