Sirens Blast All Day in Israel

Sirens blasted all over north and central Israel, all day Monday, creating much havoc with people running up-and-down ready-made shelters.

In total sirens sounded in more than 194 towns, cities and locations in Israel with graphic posts of the sound blasts as the army reported that up to two million Israelis went down to shelters.

It started since early morning with the social media counting the number of sirens that went off registering first at 122, 182 and the latest being 194 and even 200.

In one case, videoclips showed Ben Gurion Airport; there, and at one point, flights were suspended and were not allowed to land. It was reported by Israel’s Channel 12 that one El Al flight had to quickly divert and continued circling over the Dead Sea.  

And there was another videoclip of passengers on one plane huddling between the seats and the isles while the siren blast outside on the runway.

These siren blasts went off as Hezbollah rockets came in batches on different locations in Israel and at different times.

However big sirens blasts went off with warnings that ballistic missiles were being fired at the Tel Aviv area coming from Lebanon.

Everyone, Tuesday, is covering the missiles starting first with Israeli newspapers and websites like Walla which has been on the lookout to warn Israelis.

Missiles landing on Israel has never stopped since 23 September when Israeli warplanes begun to pound southern Lebanon up to the southern district of Beirut, seen as an Hezbollah stronghold and occasionally on the north of Lebanon.

Here, Tuesday, for example, Israeli warplanes bombed a building that was sheltering displaced people from the Christian village of Aitou were 18 people were killed.

Since the war on Lebanon where 1.2 million people have been displaced Hezbollah adopted a tit-for-tat strategy of “if you bomb us we will bomb you.”

The sirens and rockets have never stopped since Sunday night, reaching a new height when a squadron of missiles and drones landed on Haifa, including a military base south of the city in Binyamina where at least four were killed and 67 soldiers were injured according to Israeli army sources.

Today the number of missiles that have landed on Israel from across the border are register between 100 to 200 per day. It is estimated that 10,000 rockets and missiles were fired on Israel since 7 October, 2023 but the number could be much higher.

Continue reading
Iran Strike on 15 Israeli Sites Topped $53 Million in Damages – Report

The Iranian missile attack on Israel earlier this month caused significant damage to property, amounting to an estimated $53 million, according to an Israeli report published on Sunday by Yedioth Ahronoth. The attack, which occurred on 1 October, is now regarded as one of the most destructive since the beginning of the war starting 7 October 2023.

Citing recent data from Israel’s property tax authority, Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the damages to civilian property are estimated between 150 and 200 million shekels (approximately $40 to $53 million). This makes it the most costly single missile strike on the occupation state since the war began.

The report detailed damage in at least 15 locations, including Israeli military bases. In Hod HaSharon, a settlement in central Israel, around 100 apartments were damaged, with losses estimated at more than 10 million shekels ($2.6 million) for one building alone.

Israel announced earlier this month that Iran had launched approximately 180 missiles in a retaliatory strike for the assassinations of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, and Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Abbas Nilforoushan. The attack was described by Iran as revenge for these killings, which occurred in late September during Israeli airstrikes in Beirut and in July during an Israeli strike in Tehran.

Shortly after the incident, the Israeli military, as well as the Biden administration, denied that the strike had a significant influence according to the Quds News Network.

Continue reading
Three Israelis Dead, 67 Injured in Hezbollah Attack on Base Near Haifa

Hezbollah confirmed it launched a squadron of attack drones on a training camp for the Golani Brigade in Binyamina, south of Haifa. The party stressed it will remain present and ready to defend Lebanon and deter the Zionist enemy.

The devastating attack Sunday night, whick killed three soldiers and injured 67 while nine are in a critical condition, is being widely covered on the social media. Initially the social media reported Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi was killed in the attack but this was quickly denied as false rumor.

The attack on the military base is being described as the biggest since the 7 October, 2023 attacks in which 1200 Israelis were killed. A rocket landed on a dining room when it was packed with soldiers while there was no sirens heard beforehand with the Israeli authorities later saying they are opening up an investigation of what went wrong.

This was described as a double attack with drones and missiles launched by Hezbollah with mass thuds heard  as drones arrived and exploded at the Binyamina military base, south of Haifa that has been subject to daily attacks for at least the last two weeks.

A leading source in Hezbollah confirmed the latest strikes shows the capabilities of the resistance are still strong, intact and capable of reaching the Israeli depth regardless of the relentless Israeli bombing of southern Lebanon, the southern district and even the capital, Beirut.

In addition, Hezbollah said that after closely monitoring a secret attempt by the Israeli enemy forces to infiltrate the outskirts of the town of Mays al-Jabal at (7:30) in the evening of Sunday 13-10-2024, its fighters ambushed the forces and showered them with a barrage of rockets and machine guns.

Hezbollah pointed out that violent clashes took place with the infiltrating force from zero distance, killing and wounding its members, and the enemy force withdrew amid the screams and wails of the attacking soldiers.

Continue reading
Hamas Derails ‘Generals’ Plan’ in North Gaza

Military expert Dr. Nidal Abu Zeid has confirmed that despite separating the northern Gaza Strip from Gaza City, the Israeli army has not succeeded in implementing the so-called “generals’ plan” so far.

He added that what is happening on the ground can only be classified as “tactical success but strategic failure in light of the heavy losses suffered by the Israeli army in northern Gaza.

Abu Zeid added to Jordan24 that the resistance is still operating in pockets close to the separation line established by the occupation, while it seems that the Netzarim axis model is being repeated in northern Gaza, which puts the occupation in a fragile position and vulnerable to the strikes of the resistance, which has exchanged geography for losses, meaning that it has given land to the occupation but inflicts losses in wide areas of deployment.

Failure with Hezbollah

Regarding what is happening in southern Lebanon, Abu Zeid said the equation of proportionality and gradualism is still prevailing in military with Haifa has become opposite equation to the southern suburb and Tel Aviv to Beirut in targetting and bombing.

He added that this is while the occupation forces have yet failed after 13 days of ground fighting to achieve any significant progress, and everything the Israeli army is doing falls within the framework of reconnaissance operations by force in an attempt to determine the weak points of Hezbollah, which is defending in an unconventional manner on the front edge of the battle zone.

Iran Stop!

Abu Zeid pointed out that events are accelerating, as indicators of the Israeli response to the Iranian response have begun to increase and its features have begun to become clear, which will change the equation of the conflict in light of an American desire not to expand the circle of conflict as much as it is a desire to clip Iran’s nails in the region.

Continue reading
Maariv: Cabinet Must “Think” Before Israel Falls in Regional Mud

A year after the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip and the war’s spread to Lebanon, Israeli politicians must now be involved in a real soul-searching process and study the course of this war on all fronts so may may see whether Israel succeeds in changing the strategic reality in the region or is begining the process of drowning in the mud on all fronts.

According to the Maariv newspaper, Israel is not built for  long wars and/or wars of attrition. The Israeli economy relies on human capital and therefore long wars could lead to the collapse of the economy.

To this day, the newspaper says, “three army divisions are conducting maneuvers in the Strip. But so far no combat goal has been achieved in Gaza.

“The Southern Command has not presented an exit plan, the Israeli army has not yet achieved most of the war’s goals: It has not released the 101 remaining hostages, it has not eliminated Yahya Sinwar, and has not been able to dissolve Hamas. It seems that day-after-day we will drown in the Gaza mud,” it said.

The Israeli army is relying on evacuating border villages. In general, the army has taken control of most of the line north of the border fence, but plans for the future are unclear.

For its part, Hezbollah has announced that it intends to operate in a guerrilla style to: Take advantage of the fact that Israel is not interested in a war of attrition.

In the West Bank, the newspaper says, the army is operating in Nablus, Jenin and Tulkarm. It is trying, in cooperation with the Shin Bet, to maintain a level of attack and operations in a way that does not turn the West Bank into another strong front.

In Iran, the Israeli government has not decided what it wants to do. Israel is obligated to attack forcefully after the Iranian attack two weeks ago, but the Iranian issue is complicated.

This is also due to the international community led by the United States, and countries in the Middle East warning of the repercussions of any Israeli response on the economy and oil and gas prices, the expected damage from Iran to the assets of the United States or moderate countries, and its impact on the elections in the USA.

All of these are part of the considerations that the Israeli government must make in order to evaluate what is happening on all fronts, because the future has become unanswerable.

Continue reading