WAR: October 9, 2023 Day 3
Israeli troops on patrol in the south
At least 900 Israelis have been killed, and over 2,600 wounded since the estimated 1,500 Hamas terrorist broke through the security fence separating Gaza from Israel on October 7, 2023 at 06:30 AM on pick-up trucks, motorcycles and on foot. Over 100 hostages were taken including at least four US citizens. Among the hostages were women and children, elderly and infants. Reportedly, Hamas is holding over 100 hostages and Islamic Jihad another 30.
On Oct 7 Hamas forces used a tractor and even simple wire cutters, to tear down the 37-miles long fence in eight places. They also invaded through an underground tunnel. Using armed drones the terrorists destroyed the observation towers that also contained sophisticated communications equipment.
Terrorists then overwhelmed the 11 military outposts, each 200 meters back from the fence, and each containing a tank and other weaponry. All were neutralized. The border was then essentially defenseless and cut off.
The invasion was obviously well planned and executed. Experts say the planning was done by Iran. Hamas said they’d been training for the invasion for a year. Pundits say some of the leaders were sent to Iran for training. And that Iran had sent in engineers from Indonesia to design weapons.
According to the Times of Israel, US President Joe Biden has said that 11 Americans have been killed by Hamas and others held hostage. Biden announced he is sending the US aircraft carrier Gerald Ford, with accompanying ships, to the middle east. Pundits say this is to act as a warning to Iran not to get directly involved in the fighting, or send more proxies, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, into battle.
Speaking on TV, Israeli Army Spokesman Gen Daniel Hagari said Israeli troops and police have sealed up all of the holes in the fence, bombed the tunnel used to enter Israel, and regained control of the settlements along the Gaza border, killing nearly all of the terrorists. There are still reports of fighting from the few terrorists who escaped. The army is combing the area searching for any others who might be hiding. The Israelis held in the Kibbutz Re’em dining hall were freed and the terrorists killed. Details of the rescue were scarce.
On Monday morning Israel destroyed a boat with terrorists trying to enter at the Zikim beach in southern Israel. On Monday evening, soldiers killed two terrorists on a motorcycle making their way from the southern settlements to the southern seaside town of Ashkelon.
Gaza buildings hit by Israeli bombs
On Sunday, Israel began air attacks on Hamas targets in Gaza. By Monday, Israel had attacked over 1,200 targets dropping over 1,000 tons of bombs. Among the targets were hi-rise buildings Hamas was proud of, banks Hamas used to finance their activities, apartments and homes of Hamas leaders, who had already taken shelter in deep underground tunnels.
The Times of Israel reported that 300,000 reserve soldiers have been called up within 48 hours. Some of the troops have been sent to the northern border to prevent Hezbollah, the terrorist organization based in Lebanon, from repeating what Hamas did on the Gaza border.
Channel 13tv had an interview with an air force pilot who said he had been part of the protests against the Judicial Reforms and had refused to appear for reserve duty. But he said he didn’t hesitate when the war started, nor did any of the other pilots in his group. This response was reported all across the different segments of the army.
Former Prime Minister Neftali Bennet
“More than 150% of the reserve soldiers showed up,” said Neftali Bennet, former Israeli PM. “Israel has to be united at a time like this. And we are.”
Bennet was in one of the communities in the south that he said was in desperate need of supplies. “They didn’t even have a toothbrush,” he said of some of the residents. He said he’d contacted donors and raised over 4 million shekels (about $1,250,000) for the communities
Meanwhile, Hamas continued to bombard Israel with missiles that hit as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. On Monday, in the Jerusalem suburb of Beitar Elite a missile hit a home killing an elderly man and wounding three others. At least two people were critically injured when rockets fell in Ashkelon.
All day Sunday and Monday the air was filled with the sound of booms from missiles intercepted by the Iron Dome. Or landing on some target. Or the sound of Jet planes racing to Gaza for a bombing run. Hamas reportedly stopped the missile attack at 23:40 Monday night expecting to begin cease-fire negotiations. An expectation analysts say is not going to be met.
Most military experts on the tv panels say that there is now no alternative but to destroy Hamas and every one of its leaders no matter where they are. Hamas’ leadership is not only in Gaza but is spread out through Arab countries in the middle east. The complication, say analysts, is the hostages.
Still, Israel is expected to invade Gaza in the coming days once the south has been cleared of terrorists and all of the reserve troops have arrived at their positions and received their equipment.
The fear of a second front became more real on Monday afternoon when a Hezbollah terrorist cell from Lebanon tried to infiltrate into Israel, five terrorists were killed by Israeli army troops. The government had already issued an advisory to those settlements along the border to either enter bomb shelters, stay in their homes, or leave for safer areas if they could.
Not long after the warnings, Hezbollah fired ten missiles into Israel from Lebanon. Israel responded with tank fire on a Hezbollah watch tower. According to Channel 12tv’s military correspondent Nir Devori, this was a standard tit-for-tat situation that had been the usual procedure for years. The problem now, said Devori, was that the strike and retaliation cycle could easily spin out of control..
According to Channel 12tv’s Arab affairs correspondent Ohad Hemo, Hezbollah’s public information spokesman Sheik Mohamed Afif warned Israel not to go over the “red line” or Hezbollah would enter the war. It was not to clear to Hemo or others on the panel what the “red line” was although the Hemo thought that Israel’s invasion of Gaza would probably qualify.
The Israeli TV news channels were all showing amazing stories of heroism. One father told of holding the door to his “secure room,” a bomb shelter built into his home, while terrorists tried to open it and get inside. He held the door for over 20 hours to protect his wife and child. The terrorists started a fire in the house to drive the family out. But the father took the opportunity to sneak his family out of the shelter through a side window.
His was not the only story of an Israeli holding the handle of his shelter to keep the terrorists from entering. An elderly woman in Ofakim entertained the terrorists who had broken into her house by plying them with food and drink until the police broke into her house and killed the terrorists. Luckily for her, one of the policemen was her son who knew the way to sneak police into the house.
The Israeli news was also filled with stories of parents looking for their children who kidnapped on Saturday night Oct 7 by Hamas terrorists from the music festival just outside of Kibbutz Re’em. By Monday over 260 bodies were found on the grounds of the music festival. One famous picture shows a terrified beautiful young girl on a motorcycle between two terrorists screaming for help. Her father appeared on TV in tears begging for the government to organize her release.
The Israeli media was also filled with stories of heroism by Israeli troops, police and civilians who fought the terrorists. And a sad reading of the names of the fallen. There were also volunteer stories. Taxi drivers and other citizens who showed up to drive reserve soldiers to their bases. Who came down to the southern settlements with food and clothing.
One volunteer story was when Gil received a call that his friend’s father was stranded in a Gaza border community and needed to be taken to the hospital for dialysis. No government service was around to help, so Gil drove from the far north of the country all the way to the Gaza border, only stopping along the way to pick up his brother-in-law Adam. Both had been in elite combat units. They arrived in the settlement, loaded the elderly man into their car and drove him to the hospital.
Where was the government? Where was official help? Channel 12tv’s Danny Kasharov asked why with a government of over 30 cabinet ministers no one was out visiting the distressed communities in the south. These and other questions were raised over and over in TV interviews with residents of the southern communities some of whom had no electricity or water or food.
Most of those generals interviewed refused to directly blame the government for failing to prevent the surprise attack or adequately respond to the needs of the citizens following the attack. Almost all said that the time for placing blame would come after the war was won.
Except for Channel 12’s political correspondent Avraham Rabinovitch, who had himself been badly injured in the flawed1973 Yom Kippur War. Rabinovitch placed the blame squarely on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s head. “He had nine months to strengthen the security situation. He was warned repeatedly by military experts but he chose to ignore everyone and focus on the Judicial Reforms. Now we’re paying the price for that.”
Rabinovitch also called the Hamas invasion and killing of Israeli citizens a “pogrom.” Others have likened the Hamas massacre as something similar to what the Nazis SS troops carried out in the “Aktion” when they massacred entire villages of Jews in Poland.
Former Prime Minister Neftali Bennet said that “Hamas acted like Nazis. Killing women and children. And they should be dealt with as if they’re Nazis.”
On Monday night, Oct 9, 2023, Prime Minister Netanyahu appeared on TV and said that now was the time for unity. That Israel would win the war. He likened Hamas to ISIS and said they were one in the same. “What we will do now to Hamas will be spoken about for generations,” said Netanyahu. He ended his short speech with the words, “Am Yisrael Chai,” Long Live Israel.
Yair Lapid Avigdor Leiberman PM Netanyahu, Gadi Eisenkot, Benny Gantz
What bothered the political commentators was Netanyahu’s brief reference to the National Unity Government he was supposedly assembling. Opposition leader Gen (ret.) Benny Gantz, former Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army, and his National Unity party colleague Gen (ret.)Gadi Eizenkot also a former Chief-of-Staff, have volunteered to join Netanyahu’s government and be part of a tight, scaled down war cabinet.
Avigdor Leiberman of Yisrael Beiteinu has also said he’d join such a government, but Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid has said he won’t join as long as ultra-right wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotritch and ultra-right wing National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir are in that government.
Critics say that as of now Netanyahu’s security cabinet has few if any members with top level military experience. So far, Netanyahu has not accepted Gantz’s proposal and said in his TV appearance that Gantz had set out pre-conditions that were not acceptable.
The political commentators took Netanyahu to task. Channel 12tv’s Shirki read Gantz’s ‘preconditions” and couldn’t understand what the problem was, nor why Netanyahu was waiting so long to form a national unity government and put together a war cabinet with men like Gantz who knew how to organize a battle. His colleague Amit Segal couldn’t understand why Netanyahu was waiting until Tuesday afternoon to make a decision, and why Netanyahu had sent his attorney to talk with Gantz and not had the conversation himself.
Israel’s present government has a lot to answer for. But all that has to wait until after the war.
Then there will be commissions of inquiry to dissect what went wrong. Meanwhile, the war will go into a new gear once Israel enters Gaza.
The question is, who will be running the war cabinet, those with experience, or those with ego and little else.