Schools Open In Kiryat Shmona After 16 Months Of War
Schools in Kiryat Shmona reopened on Sunday morning (9th), nearly 16 months after they were evacuated because of Israel’s war with Hezbollah.
In spite of the celebrations, many residents and public workers said Education Minister Yoav Kirsch was rushing the return, claiming it was “too quick” to reopen schools.
Kirsch arrived to cut the ceremonial ribbon for the school opening, but Kiryat Shmona mayor Avichai Stern was not there.
Stern claimed that the education system is not ready to support students and their parents. According to him, informal education systems, community centers, municipal services, and commercial life have not yet returned to a functioning level, and it is not right to operate the education system when the overall environment is not yet ready to receive students.
Half of the Kiryat Shmona students returned to study in the city.
“Dozens, if not hundreds of students remain without a framework,” said Golan Buchris, chairman of the Kiryat Shmona municipal parents’ committee, who returned to the city after nearly a year and a half in Eilat.
“We suggested waiting until July. The mental state of the students is concerning. There are no psychologists or therapists who can help them, and this has not been addressed,” Buchris added.
A significant part of the preparation work for school opening in Kiryat Shmona was done with the help of many volunteers from around the country who spent several weeks in Kiryat Shmona.
According to Simcha Edri, a teacher at Danziger School and volunteer coordinator in Kiryat Shmona, “The education system opened Sunday morning (9th) thanks to the people of Israel who embraced us and helped hand-in-hand, making it clear that Kiryat Shmona is also our homeland.”
Former Head Of IDF’s Foreign Liaison Unit Named New Military Spokesman
BG Effie Defrin, a former tank commander and chief of the military’s international cooperation unit, was appointed on Sunday (9th) by new Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff LG Eyal Zamir as the next IDF spokesman.
The appointment was approved by Defense Minister Israel Katz, the IDF said.
Defrin, 53, will be replacing Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, who served as IDF spokesman for the past two years. Hagari announced on Friday (7th) that he was retiring from the military.
The IDF said the handover would take place “in the coming period.”
Defrin will be the latest in a line of career military officers to command the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, ending a previously common practice of naming civilians with a deep background in journalism or communications for the role.
Defrin began his service in the IDF in 1991 as a tank commander, serving in the 7th Armored Brigade. He was seriously wounded in the 2006 Second Lebanon War when he was the commander of the 401st Armored Brigade’s 9th Battalion.
He later commanded the 27th reserve Armored Brigade, before its closure in 2014, and after that, he was the deputy commander of the 35th Division.
Defrin was appointed as Israel’s defense attache to India in 2016.
In 2019 he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and was appointed as the head of the IDF’s international cooperation unit, known as Tevel. That was his last role in the military, before retiring last year and beginning work for the Rafael defense firm.
At the request of Zamir, also a tank commander, Defrin will return to the military and command the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.
In a 2022 interview with the Haaretz daily, Defrin revealed he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his injury in 2006.
Defrin has a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from Ben Gurion University and a master’s degree in defense from Hebrew University, He also graduated from the Royal College of Defense Studies in the United KIngdom.
He is married and the father of four.
Israel Orders Immediate Cutoff Of Electricity In Gaza Amid Stalled Talks
Energy Minister and Cabinet member Eli Cohen has signed an order to immediately halt the supply of electricity to the Gaza Strip. “In accordance with my authority, I am instructing the Israel Electric Corporation to stop the transfer of electricity to Gaza,” Cohen wrote in his directive. His decision was made independently and was not based on a government or cabinet resolution.
A senior Israeli official said that cutting off water supply to Gaza is also under consideration . “As part of Israel’s toolbox, severing water pipelines to Gaza is on the table. The first pipeline to be cut would be the one supplying northern Gaza, but no decision has been made yet,” the official said.
At the outset of the war, Israel announced it would cease supplying electricity to Gaza. However, under pressure from the United States and European countries, the supply initially continued.
The Gaza Electricity Company had previously extended cables along Salah al-Din Street to directly power a desalination and wastewater treatment facility west of Deir al-Balah using electricity from Israel.
Since the outbreak of the war on Oct. 7, Israel has not supplied electricity to Gaza, except for one line–known as the Qalaa line–which directly powers desalinated facilities. At the beginning of the war, approximately 10 power lines from Israel supplied Gaza, but most were subsequently disabled. Aside from the single remaining Israeli power line, Hamas has relied on generators to provide electricity to residents.
Gaza’s power plant ceased operations early in the war. If Hamas runs out of fuel – following Israel’s recent decision to halt humanitarian aid deliveries and close border crossings – it will no longer be able to operate the generators. International organizations estimate that Hamas has enough fuel to run generators for approximately 45 more days.
The Israeli military has recently stated that maintaining the Qalaa power line was necessary to prevent the spread of disease, which could endanger both hostages and soldiers operating in the area. However, Cohen has now ordered a complete halt to the transfer of electricity.
Last week, the municipality of Deir al-Balah announced that Israel had cut off electricity to two desalination plants that supply 70% of the city’s water needs. Israeli officials, however, stated that there had been no deliberate cutoff and that a local malfunction had disrupted supply. They said that repairs had not yet been approved due to ongoing military operations in the area.
The Israeli Defense Forces previously justified supplying electricity to the desalination plant last summer explaining that it provided drinking water to displaced residents in Mawasi, Khan Younis, and Deir al-Balah before the withdrawal from the Netzarim corridor as part of a ceasefire agreement.
Last week, following Israel’s decision to halt humanitarian aid to Gaza, Israel’s Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich welcomed the move. “This is a step in the right direction, and I can assure you, it is only the beginning,” he said. “We are closing the gates of paradise and preparing to open the gates of hell. The next step will be cutting off electricity and water, followed by an intense, deadly, and rapid attack that will lead to the conquest of the territory and the implementation of the Trump plan to encourage emigration from Gaza.”
Syrian Druze Allowed To Enter Israel, Work In Golan Heights, Katz Confirms
Defense Minister Israel Katz on Sunday (9th) publicly confirmed recent reports that Israel will undertake the radical move of allowing Syrian Druze and Circassians to cross into the Israeli side of the Golan for work purposes.
The unusual move of allowing foreign citizens of a hostile state like Syria to work in Israel could have geopolitical ripples across the region and is a testament to how radically the Middle East has changed even just in the last few months.
Until December 7-8, Syria was run by the Assad regime, which while it kept a ceasefire with Israel since 1974, was formally in a state of war with the Jewish state and which was a critical link in the chain of Iranian efforts to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah.
Assad’s Syria also presented a direct threat to Syria from Iranian militias who might invade and from the Syrian military’s air force, long-range missiles, and chemical weapons.
The Syrian Druze were a minority in the Assad era who mostly kept to themselves, with some past positive history with Israel, especially Israel’s Druze community, but still mostly treated Jerusalem as a hostile party.
All of that changed when Ahmed al-Sharaa and his Syrian rebels ousted Assad, creating fear within Israel of a jihadist invasion and fear among Syrian Druze that they would be oppressed or attacked, even as he himself has said he wants quiet within Syria and along his borders.
Not trusting al-Sharaa due to his jihadist background, Israel moved quickly to create a buffer zone in southern Syria to prevent even the possibility of a new invasion by the new Syrian regime, and included in the buffer zone were large segments of the Syrian Druze population.
Throughout the three months that IDF Division 210 has been in southern Syria, there have been efforts to build stronger relations with the Syrian Druze to keep them calm about Israel’s presence there and to avoid friction.
But allowing the Syrian Druze to work inside Israel, even if restricted to the Golan, is a major escalation in seeking to deepen relations between Israel and that community.
It is also a sign that Israel plans to remain in southern Syria for an extended period, and seems to have been announced strategically after this past weekend when internal Syrian tensions turned into a large battle between a different Syrian ethnic minority, the Alawites and elements of the security forces of the new regime.
Several hundred or more have been reportedly killed, including many innocent civilians, leading much of the West to question once again whether the new Syrian regime can be trusted and can be integrated into the western economic system.
Technically, there is no clear international law basis for Israel to remain in Syria indefinitely. The Israeli argument that its extended presence in Syria benefits the local Syrians could help in debates over the legitimacy of the IDF presence there.
Katz credited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich with facilitating the move and said Israel would protect the Syrian Druze community from threats from the new regime.
Iranian Subversion In Jordan And The West Bank Post-October 7, 2023 -Odad Ailam (Jerusalem Center For Security And Foreign Affairs)
• While Iran has suffered significant blows in the past year with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, Hamas in Gaza, and in Iran itself, with targeted Israeli strikes on air defense systems and military assets, Tehran has not abandoned its long-term vision of jihadist expansion.
• The regime does not view these setbacks as a turning point but as temporary tactical challenges that must be navigated before resuming their broader objectives. Iran remains committed to its ideological war against Israel and the West.
• Iran’s strategic doctrine has long emphasized patience in achieving its objectives. Wherever Iran detects societal fissures, political fragility, or governance failures, it moves in to cultivate influence from the ground up, establishing deeply embedded networks that subvert sovereign authority and advance its long-term regional ambitions.
• Iran is exploiting regional vulnerabilities to destabilize Jordan’s pro-Western monarchy and establish a contiguous anti-Israel network. In the wake of the October 7 attacks, Iran has intensified its use of Iraqi militias to infiltrate Jordan, often under the guise of religious pilgrimages or commercial activity. Iranian-backed operatives have established logistical hubs in Jordanian cities.
• Tehran is also bolstering Palestinian factions, including small extremist groups in Jordan and Judea and Samaria, with weapons, financial support, and tactical training. Iran is reactivating dormant Islamist groups within Jordan, particularly factions of the Muslim Brotherhood, to weaken the government’s authority.
• Intelligence suggests that Iranian-backed operatives have contemplated operations against Jordanian leadership, including potential threats to King Abdullah II. Jordanian security forces have intercepted numerous Iranian-backed weapons shipments destined for Judea and Samaria.
The writer, a former head of the Counterterrorism Division in the Mossad, is a researcher at the Jerusalem Center.
(jcpa.org)
