“When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28)
As the death toll of Israeli soldiers in Gaza rose to 18 on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the nation, reassuring Israelis that Operation Protective Edge will continue as long as necessary.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
“This operation will extend as long as is needed until quiet and peace are restored to Israel. We knew from the beginning that it could be a long operation, but the ‘eternal people’ are not daunted by a long journey,” Netanyahu said.
“There is no war which is more justified than that for which your sons have died,” he said. “We will complete the mission which they [the fallen soldiers] began. We will return quiet and peace to the communities in the South and to all of Israel.”
Although the seemingly unstoppable rain of Hamas rockets has brought life to a standstill in Israel for the last several weeks, Israel sent ground troops into Gaza reluctantly, and only after Hamas turned down repeated opportunities for a ceasefire.
Netanyahu decided after almost two weeks of constant shelling and after a decade of sustaining approximately 15,000 mortar shells, rocket and missile attacks that intermittent ceasefires was not the solution.
No society can function under such conditions, nor should it be expected to tolerate such aggression.
Israel launched a ground incursion into Gaza Thursday to destroy Hamas tunnels being used to hide rockets and attack civilian communities in Israel proper. These terrorist tunnel networks, which are nearly impossible to locate without troops on the ground, cannot be targeted by air alone.
This tunnel found near the Egyptian border is but one of many terrorist tunnels that Israel has uncovered in the past.
“We did not want this war, but we will continue until we succeed. We are undaunted. Last night we discovered more tunnels adding to those we have already uncovered, many of those leading to Israel. Hamas invested for years in its infrastructure for terrorism,” Netanyahu said, explaining that soldiers uncovered evidence such as handcuffs, sleeping gas, explosives, and communication cable, indications of planned terrorist attacks and kidnappings.
“A whole city of terror tunnels has been found,” Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett said Sunday. “Without the ground operation, we would have woken up one day to an Israeli Nine Eleven.”
Attempts to infiltrate Israel through tunnels are a major factor in the government’s decision to invade. On Thursday, 13 armed Palestinians emerged from a tunnel 250 meters within Israel and within two kilometers of a nearby kibbutz. The tunnel was then destroyed but the message was clear that all of the many tunnels cutting into Israel from Gaza would have to be closed by military means.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said the ground offensive was being expanded “to restore security and stability to Israel’s residents and citizens.”
In an earlier statement, the IDF had announced with regard to the incursion: “The IDF’s objective as defined by the Israeli government is to establish a reality in which Israeli residents can live in safety and security without continued indiscriminate terror, while striking a significant blow to Hamas’ terror infrastructure.” (JP)
Although Shuja’iya is a crowded neighborhood, terrorists have turned it into a fortress.
Early Sunday, Israeli troops, tanks and warplanes battled Hamas militants operating in the crowded Shuja’iya district east of Gaza City.
“A vicious rivalry between Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) has developed in Shuja’iya since the internal turmoil in Gaza of 2007. Both terrorist organizations have spent the past seven years actively trying to increase their influence in the neighborhood. The rivalry has created an arena in which each organization strives to be regarded as the leaders in the fight against Israel. This has resulted in the neighborhood’s deterioration from a civilian residential area into a terrorist fortress,” the IDF website states.
Although Israel had sent advance warning to Palestinian civilians to flee the area, they are being used as human shields to protect Hamas weapons and leaders. Palestinians have been encouraged by Hamas leadership to remain in their homes.
This vile human rights abuse is so pervasive, it includes religious leaders. One cleric interviewed on CNN stated that it was better for Palestinians to die in their homes than somewhere else.
Meanwhile, Israel has evacuated almost everyone except essential personnel from areas close to Gaza, which only have 15 seconds to reach bombs shelters. Many families spent the bulk of their time in their safe rooms, due to incessant bombs, work stoppage and business closures. Supplies run short as mothers with young children hesitate to venture out for food, diapers, and other daily necessities.
Many elderly sit alone in their homes and hungry, paralyzed by fear, because they are unable to respond quickly to Code Red sirens when they go out.
To relieve the humanitarian crisis that is developing in Gaza, Israel agreed to a Red Cross ceasefire on Sunday. Hamas, however, did not abide by it and continued firing. It is the second humanitarian ceasefire that Israel has honored.
An earlier five-hour UN sponsored humanitarian ceasefire, allowing Gaza residents to leave their homes to attain basic food and supplies was broken by Hamas after two hours while Israel honored the entire five-hour period.
The UN says it is running out of supplies to assist those seeking shelter at its schools while the total number of refugees is now estimated to exceed 100,000.
Diplomatic attempts to bring about a ceasefire by Egypt, Qatar, France and the UN, have failed.
Two so-called ceasefires have resulted in Israel’s cessation of air attacks while Hamas continued its shelling and rocket salvos on Israeli cities practically unabated.
Israeli President Shimon Peres tries to brighten the day of Israeli children who have been removed from their communities near Gaza to safety.
Casualties in Gaza continue to rise and several terrorists were killed Saturday after they crossed into Israel through a tunnel killing two Israeli soldiers Major (res.) Amotz Greenberg, 45 and Sgt. Adar Barsano, 20, in an attempt to infiltrate a local community.
This was followed by Hamas’ setting impossible conditions for a ceasefire and then continuing the rocket attacks.
On Sunday, 13 soldiers from the Golani Infantry Brigade fell protecting the people of Israel. Among them are Maj. Tzafrir Baror, 32; Cpt. Tsvi Kaplan, 28; Sgt. Gilad Rozenthal Yacoby, 21; Sgt. Oz Mendelovich, 21; and Sgt. Nissim Sean Carmeli, 21.
Thankfully the Iron Dome defensive system continues to shoot down 90 percent of those rockets heading toward residential areas but the risk of a horrendous event is still imminent demanding that the rockets and the infrastructure supporting them be totally removed.
IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said earlier that the IDF was setting back Hamas’ military capabilities by years. “Hamas and the other terror groups in Gaza are taking heavy, continuing blows. Years they’ve spent building up their force—rockets, missiles, planning terror attacks, tunnels—all of this is being smashed by the capabilities of Israel, of the IDF,” said Gantz.
