Syria Says Israeli Strikes Kill One Soldier Wound Seven
Israeli strikes on the Syrian capital Damascus and a military site near the western city of Homs early on Thursday (24th) killed one soldier and injured seven, the Syrian defense ministry said.
The attacks targeted the central Damascus neighborhood of Kfar Sousa and a military site in the Homs countryside, the ministry said in a statement, adding the strike caused “material damage” without elaborating.
Earlier in the day, Syrian state media said explosions were heard in Damascus after Israel struck a residential building in Kfar Sousa.
Israel typically does not comment on specific reports of strikes in Syria.
Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iranian-linked targets in Syria for years, but has ramped up raids since last year’s October 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian terror group Hamas that killed 1,200 Israeli civilians and took 251 hostages to Gaza.
Hezbollah Fires Rockets At Tel Aviv, Year After Simchat Torah Attack, IDF On Alert At Gaza Border
As Israelis began to mark the beginning of Simchat Torah Wednesday night (23rd), several rockets launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon triggered sirens in Tel Aviv and towns across central Israel.
The IDF said four rockets were launched in the attack. Two of the launchers were intercepted, and one fell in an open area, the military said. The fourth impacted in an undisclosed location.
A total of some 135 rockets were launched at Israel throughout the day, according to the IDF. The rocket attacks mostly attacked northern israel. There were no reported casualties.
Palestinian media reported that one of the rockets fired, or fragments from an interceptor, landed in the Palestinian village of Ras Atiya, near the West Bank security barrier. Footage from the scene appeared to show damage to vehicles. A security source told Kan News that one Palestinian was slightly injured.
Hezbollah claimed in a statement that it had hit a military factory in the Tel Aviv suburbs.
Meanwhile, the military ordered its troops along the Gaza Strip’s border to be on high alert amid concerns that the Hamas terror group would try to fire rockets or carry out an attack on the Hebrew calendar anniversary of its October 7, 2023 onslaught, which it launched on the Simchat Torah holiday last year, according to a TV report.
A year ago, the holiday was devastatingly marred by Hamas’ slaughter of 1,200 people, mostly civilians, as it took 251 people hostage to Gaza from southern Israel.
Similar preparations were made ahead of the Gregorian calendar anniversary earlier this month. The Hamas terror group, decimated by war and based in an enclave largely reduced to rubble, managed to fire a handful of rockets into Israel on October 7.
The October 7 rockets, fired at Israeli communities near the border and at the Tel Aviv area, were a small fraction of the firepower Hamas once possessed.
Also on the anniversary, Channel 12 published photos and footage of some of the October 7 victims as they celebrated Sukkot and Simchat Torah one year ago, shortly before disaster befell them.
One photo showed then-nine-month-old Kfir Bibas being held under the Kibbutz Nir Oz sukkah last year. Bibas was kidnapped with his four-year-old brother Ariel and parents Shiri and Yarden. All four remain held in Gaza, with their fate unclear.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two soldiers who were killed in 2014.
Netanyahu: Hezbollah Planned To Invade Israel With Jeeps And Missiles
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told French broadcasters on Wednesday (23rd) that Israel had uncovered a plot by the Hezbollah terrorist organization to attack Israel via underground tunnels involving jeeps and missiles.
Netanyahu was quoted as having told French broadcasters CNews and Europe 1 that had the plan succeeded, the attack would have been more damaging than the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel.
“A hundred meters, two hundred meters from the border we found tunnels, tunnels that were preparing an invasion of Israel, an attack even greater than on October 7,” Netanyahu said, according to a simultaneous translation provided by the networks.
“With jeeps, with motorbikes, with rockets, with missiles – they were planning an invasion,” he added.
The IDF confirmed two weeks ago that, several months earlier, soldiers located a tunnel on the Lebanese border that penetrated into Israeli territory.
Earlier this week, IDF soldiers located and destroyed four underground Hezbollah terrorist infrastructures. IDF troops, including special units, scanned the tunnels, which included living quarters with kitchens, weapons, explosive devices, and anti-tanks missiles.
Iran Unveils ‘No Hostage Will Be Released’ Blood-Splattered Mural In Tehran
Authorities in Tehran released a blood-splattered mural depicting photos of Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 with the text “no hostages will be released” in Hebrew, Iran international and local media reported.
The mural was reportedly put up in Tehran’s Palestine Square on Tuesday (22nd) according to Tehran Times.
Among the photos of the hostages is Noa Argamani, who despite Tehran’s caption on the mural, was freed by IDF soldiers in an operation in June along with three other hostages.
Tehran, an ally of Hamas, has launched two mass aerial attacks on the Jewish state since the beginning of the war and was recently caught paying Israeli citizens and residents to assassinate and spy on behalf of the Islamic Republic.
Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, Iran-backed proxies have launched their own waves of attacks on Israel – leading to the IDF now conducting ground operations in Lebanon.
The mural came as hostage families expressed great uncertainty about a future hostage release deal following the elimination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Some families believe that Sinwar’s death will open new diplomatic possibilities for the return of their loved ones.
Former Israeli hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin, who worked toward the release of Gilad Shalit in 2011, told the Telegraph that Sinwar’s death could mean “a moment of doom because there are rumors that Sinwar instructed people holding hostages that, should he be killed, they should kill their hostages.”
The rumors, unconfirmed, did not stop Baskin stating that Sinwar’s death could be “a moment of opportunity where Israel…” could offer “anyone who’s holding hostages that releases them will be given free passage for themselves and their family out of Gaza to another country as well as money.”
Gallant Sends Message To Iran From Air Force Base
On Wednesday (23rd) Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant visited the Hatzerim Air Force base, where he was given an overview by the base commander Lt. Col. Amichai Levin and the squadron commanders on operational activities in all combat arenas and on increasing levels of readiness for the possibility of offensive activity in additional arenas.
The Minister of Defense spoke with the air and ground teams and expressed his appreciation for their intense activity in the past year.
“You have been given the right to participate in the seven-front war and on all these fronts the IDF is present and the Air Force is present – Gaza, Lebanon, Judea and Samaria, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran.” he said.
“Wherever they tried to harm us, they paid a heavy price, and whoever in Gaza had dreams of slaughtering and annihilating us a year ago, today is not in that dream anymore. Sinwar is no more, as well as a long line of terrorist leaders. All this was done by the IDF.”
“The Air Force has a key element in this matter and anyone who tries to harm us will be harmed – this is also true regarding Iran. After we attack Iran, both the State of Israel and other places will understand what your preparation and readiness processes include, and we have very high confidence in your abilities, in each one of you personally, and as a group, a squadron, and of course, we have full trust in the IDF.”
Israelis In Sri Lanka Called To Evacuate Immediately Following Terror Threat At Tourist Beaches
Israel’s national security council called on Israelis on Wednesday (23rd) to immediately leave some tourist areas in southern Sri Lanka over the threat of a possible terrorist attack.
The agency said the warning pertained to the area of Arugam Bay and beaches in the south and west of Sri Lanka, and stemmed from “current information about a terrorist threat focused on tourist areas and beaches.”
The security council did not specify the exact nature of the threat and called on Israelis in the rest of Sri Lanka to be cautious and refrain from holding large gatherings in public areas.
“The Israeli security establishment… is in close contact with the security authorities in Sri Lanka and is following the developments.” it said.
The US embassy in Sri Lanka also released a security alert stating it had received “credible information warning of an attack targeting popular tourist locations in the Arugam Bay area.”
“US citizens are strongly urged to avoid the Arugam Bay area until further notice,” it added but did not give details.
Police security has been beefed up in the area and officials are on high alert, police spokesperson Nihal Thalduwa said in a video statement released in Colombo.
“This area is a popular spot for surfing and this has attracted a large number of Israeli tourists. We are working to ensure they remain safe,” Thalduwa said.
Sri Lanka, famed for its pristine beaches, tea plantations and historic temples, is seeing a resurgence in tourists as the island nation recovers from a severe financial crisis.
In the first eight months of this year, 1.5 million tourists arrived in Sri Lanka, including a total of 20,515 from Israel, government data showed.
How Postmodern Ideologies Twist Biblical Morality To Redefine Evil – Gerald M. Steinberg
The contrast between good and evil and between justice and injustice are fundamental themes throughout the Hebrew Bible as well as in the wider Western canon. However, in the postmodern 21st century, this fundamental moral framework has been abandoned and rejected, as reflected in the cliche: “One Man’s (or woman’s) terrorist is another’s freedom fighter.”
Those who, in past centuries, would have been tried, jailed, and cast out of society as evildoers – such as murderers and rapists – are now relieved of responsibility for their actions and recast as victims of circumstances or society, and thus not responsible for their deeds.
In the realms of war and peace, the distinction between aggressors (bad) and defenders (good) has been replaced with an ideological litmus test that instead divides the world between ostensible “colonizers” (bad) and victims of colonization, who are automatically good. Regardless of the massive destruction and atrocities that the so-called victims commit, they are treated like children, and cannot be held morally accountable for their actions.
In this false morality and reversal of good and evil, the Jewish people and Israel are absurdly relegated to the category of Western colonizers, and Palestinian Arabs are the unquestioned victims who cannot be held accountable for their actions.
When four presidents of prominent universities recently told a U.S. congressional committee that categorizing the mob attacks and intimidation targeting Jews as acts of hatred and anti-Semitism “depended on the context,” they were repeating the postmodern blindness to the essential difference between good and evil and between justice and injustice. These distinctions are essential to a moral human society.
The writer is founder and president of NGO Monitor and professor emeritus of politics at Bar-Ilan University.
(jpost.com)
