Liveblogging the War: Monday July 17th
Aussie Dave | Jul 17, 2006 | 30 comments
Katushas have continued to rain down on northern Israel, landing north of Nahariya, in the western Galilee communities, and in the Akko area. There have been reports of 4 people being lightly injured. One rocket directly hit a house, ;wounding the father of a family, while his wife and children were not hurt.Southern Israel has not been immune to attack either. At least 20 Kassams landed in Sderot and south of Ashkelon, lightly wounding two people.
IDF operations in the south and north continued overnight and this morning. The IAF have struck more targets in Lebanon, including the port of Beirut, a fishing port, and the Lebanese army’s radar system in bases in the northern city of Tripoli and in the town of Abada. The IDF have targeted the radar systems since they had been used by Hizbullah to hit a ship on Friday. According to Ha’aretz, the IDF have “all but accused the Lebanese military of lending its support to Hizbullah.”
Meanwhile on the southern front, the IAF have bombed the Palestinian Foreign Ministry building in Gaza city, as well as the north Gaza offices of a Hamas-led security force. An IDF soldier was lightly wounded by terrorists in the Gaza Strip, and 6 other soldiers were wounded in Nablus overnight, after a bomb was thrown at their patrol. And in a further demonstration of the IDF’s efforts to minimize civilian casualties during this war:
An Associated Press reporter in Gaza City heard an Israeli broadcast on a radio frequency usually used by a Hamas station calling on residents to stay out of the way of the fighting. “We are not gong to stop in Gaza until the terrorists hand over the soldier Gilad Shalit,” said the broadcaster, apparently an IDF soldier, in broken Arabic.
Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)
Tuesday updates here.
11:32PM: 11 people have been wounded from a Katusha barrage on Safed.
11:23PM: And more rockets hit northern Israel, including a medical center in the Galilee, and open areas near Haifa.
I cannot imagine what my fellow Israelis up north are going through. Although we are living in the same country, the loudest noise I am hearing here is the noise of the IAF planes flying overhead about once every hour.
10:42PM: The sirens are being heard in Haifa.
10:38PM: And the rockets keep raining down in the north.
10:28PM: Remember the claim that an IAF plane was shot down? The initial theory (see 2:08PM update) was that it was a pamphlet container. Now it seems as though it was a Hizbullah missile that misfired.
IDF sources estimate Monday that the ‚Äúdowned Israel Air Force jet seen falling from Beirut‚Äôs skies” was actually a Zelzal-type long-range missile, which is capable of reaching central Israel.According to army sources, the Air Force struck a missile launching device, and as a result one rocket was accidentally fired but landed nearby.
I’m just glad it wasn’t a plane, and a long-range missile was wasted.
9:50PM: The IDF has said that its operations in Lebanon will continue at least a week.
8:58PM: Hizbullah claim that only 4 of their operatives have been killed since the onset of fighting 5 days ago.
8:35PM: The IAF have destroyed at least one long-range Iranian missile capable of hitting Tel Aviv.
8:26PM: Thousands are demonstrating in support of Israel in front of the UN headquarters in New York.
8:12PM: Mustafa just called – this is result of the interview. And if you don’t speak Arabic, you can get an idea of the content by using the Google language tool.
8:07PM: Does anyone read Arabic?
I am assuming this is the result of the interview I had with Mustafa, from the BBC Arabic site.
6:30PM: The IDF soldier who was killed today was Osher Damari, 21.
Osher was born and raised in the coastal city of Netanya. The family has a business called “Flowers of Happiness,” named after their first born son Osher (Osher means Happiness in Hebrew). Lately the family moved the Emek Hefer. “He loved the beach and the house we bought near the beach.” said his father.Jerar Damari said Osher wanted to serve in combat unit in the IDF. Following pre-service examinations Osher was chosen to serve in Haruv commando unit.“He loved the army and wanted to be combat soldier, nothing less. There was a time when he was transferred to another unit and could have stayed there and go home every day, but he contested the transfer and fought hard get back to his unit.”
6:08PM: According to Lebanese bloggeer Doha, an IAF plane did go down.
It’s confirmed, an IDF plane has fallen in Kfarshima, east of Beirut, and both of its pilots have died. The IDF is denying these reports.
I would like to know what his source is.
6:05PM: Sandmonkey on why there will never be peace in the Middle East:
I think that the Israeli want peace with us because they don’t want their lives disrupted. They don’t want to have the IDF soldiers fighting in Gaza, rockets coming into their towns from Hamas or having to go to wars against Hezbollah to get their soldiers back. I think they want peace because they want their peace of mind. They view us as if we were a headache. We view them as if they are a cancer.
5:50PM: I can’t resist this Separated at Birth…a Bangladeshi Muslim at a protest denouncing Israel’s strikes on Lebanon, and a garden gnome.
5:35PM: Regarding the 5:03PM update, the IDF have stated that they are not familar with the name. Which sounds like the terrorists are again using psychological warfare.
5:25PM: Israel has closed Haifa port as a result of the latest rocket attacks.
5:03PM: Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades (Mahmoud Abbas’ boys) have issued a statement claiming they have kidnapped a soldier (and have named him). The IDF is currently investigating the claim.
5:00PM: A few hours ago, a Katusha directly hit a building in Haifa, causing it to collapse, and wounding 6 people.
2:58PM: The IDF have stated on Israeli television that the object seen shot down was a pamphlet container.
2:55PM: Regarding the reported downing of an IAF plane, PJM post that “Video on CNN International from LBC TV channel shows some piece of debris falling down in flames; the fast speed would probably indicate that it‚Äôs a relatively small piece, not a whole aircraft.”
2:50PM: Al Jazeera report that an IAF plane has been downed over Lebanon. The IDF has denied the report.
2:45PM: Katushas have hit Haifa, Tiberias and Safed. Israeli television reports that there were injuries in Haifa.
1:33PM:: Further to my 11:53AM update on the death of the IDF soldier:
Immediatley after the explosion, dozens of residents gathered around the soldier’s body and burst into shouts of happiness in front of the Arab media’s television cameras.
And this:
Parts of the soldier’s body were seized by Palestinians, but Palestinian security forces returned them to the IDF shortly after.
An armed Palestinian holds a boot belonging, according to Palestinians, to an Israeli soldier killed earlier in the Old City of Nablus Monday July 17, 2006.
12:35PM: This footage may give a small idea what it is like before a Katusha hits.
12:15PM: Police have foiled a major terror attack in Jerusalem, finding an explosive device in the bag of a 25-year-old palestinian at Tzahal Square.
12:07PM: British Prime Minister Tony Blair and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan have called for the deployment of an international force in southern Lebanon. Like that is going to help.
Meanwhile, the French are sending Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to Beirut on Monday to express support for Lebanon. Funny, but I don’t recall the French sending anyone to Haifa, Nahariya, and all the other communities being deliberately targeted by Hizbullah. And they wonder why we hate them.
11:53AM: Terrorists in Nablus have hurled an explosive device at IDF soldiers, killing 1 soldier and wounding 6 others, including the son of the Central Command chief.
11:50AM: From the Ha’aretz news ticker: Israel offers assistance in evacuation of foreign nationals from Lebanon (Sky News)
About the Author
An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.Filed Under: General
If you beat a dog why be suprised if it wants to bite you. The Israelis have squandered what little sympathy they ever had. Today they just seem a nasty beligerent combatant pushing its weight around. It is sad that that legacy of Belsen, Auschwitz etc should have taught them nothing except bully and mistreat the Palestinians in much the same way the Germans treated the Jews during the 30s and 40s.
Paddy Forsayeth
Australia.
Dream on Paddy. Israel has the right to live in peace and the right to defend itself. The Palestinians have rejected every opportunity to prosper because of their hatred of the Jewish people. They are liars, revisionists, any over 10 are corrupted beyond repair due to anti-semite conditioning and propaganda by their leaders and imans.
History will judge the Palestinians poorly. History will judge us all with sadness if we do not stand by Israel now for all the injustices perpetrated on them to get their Jewish homeland since the 1920′s.
Again, you are wrong, there is a lot of support for Israel – go back and read what the leaders of the world are saying : tacit support with “restraint” – that’s support Paddy!
Paddy
Your world view seems to be that the Jewish people being subjegated and oppressed is a naturally consigned role. It’s OK for thousands of missiles to rain down on Israel, but its not OK for Israel to move towards removing this existential threat?
Your comparison is repugnant. The Nazi’s set an ideology of genocide and murder against the Jewish people. The Israeli’s go beyond the bounds of reasonable action to avoid civilian death. The Nazi’s program is murder, the Israeli program is one of peaceful relations with those who will accept their presence. Morally, they could not be further apart from each other.
The big difference between the two is that today the Jewish people have a State and an army to defend itself. The citizens of the State, supported by its Diaspora, proudly reserve the right to defend ourselves. But it goes further than that Paddy. We are the first line of defence. If Israel is defeated by the Islamofascist terrorist religious radical murderers of Hamas and Hizbollah, then Australia will be defeated too.
My advice to you is to go and learn some history, and ask yourself what you would expect Australia to do if a country like Malaysia or Indonesia started firing rockets into Australian cities. Then ask yourself if you are standing on the right side of history, and also whether your spiteful comments about the Jewish psyche in relation to the horrors of Hitler are perhaps a little far fetched, and maybe a tad offensive.
b’shalom
Andrew
Perth, Australia
The Fwench are coming!
Shy Guy
Yes-the Palastininas are to blame for there current predicament but I was
just wondering will the Israelis keep there end of the bargain at all?
ie stop expanding settlements, I mean isn’t that kinda part of the deal?
Even when you were dicussing the road map with Bush you were still agressively
expanding. Youv’e already sabotaged the peace process before it had any time to
begin.
Peter
Perth Australia
Here is what happened in the aftermath of your 11:53 posting:
“Some body parts of the dead soldier were left behind, Palestinian witnesses said. Hundreds of Palestinians later gathered at the scene to view parts of the soldier’s leg, and many of them reacted with celebratory chants, the witnesses said.”
What bargain, Peter?
The Oslo Accords never banned Israel continuing to build communities in Judea and Samaria. What bargain? No, it wasn’t part of the deal, not with Rabin, not with Peres, not with Netanyahu, Not with Barak, not with Sharon and not with Olmert. But you just keep swallowing the Arab demands, hook line and sinker. To quote W.C. Fields, “there’s a sucker born every minute.” BTW, we have many of our own suckers here. No foreigners need apply.
And what does building in Judea and Samaria have to do with this war?
And how do you know we were “agressively expanding”? Maybe we were “savagely expanding” or “grotesquely expanding” or “cancerously expanding” or “vultourously expanding” or…………………. whatever.
Israel gave up land for peace. Israel has lost a lot of land but received no peace and much death and terror in return, more than before Rabin shook Arabfat’s hand on the White House lawn. It is not us who have sabotaged the “peace process.” It is those who still have Israel’s annihilation as their permanent aspirations and dreams and even have it enscribed as such to this day in their national charter.
The Palis can go to hell. Hopefully one day, Israel will snap out of its stupor and send them there.
Shy Guy
Thanks for providing all these updates, Dave. Thinking of you in Jerusalem.
Be safe Aussie Dave — though we’re still gonna kick your arse in the Ashes.
I think it’s hilarious that you’re talking about jews going back to their homeland in the 1920s. Weren’t some people living there? Actually yes, a group of people usually called palestenians were living there in a multi-religious community of moslems, christians and jews, all of which were arabs and had the same culture. Enter zionist militias with their massacres like Deir Yasseen, killing of thousands, terrrorizing the rest.
Anyway, I could go on and on about that but you will probably just call me an anti-semite (kind of meaningless since i’m arab i.e. a semite). I just want anyone with a fair conscious to tell me what he would do if some people came from every part of the world claiming his land to be theirs according to some ‘holy’ book they have. Viva La Resistance everyone
Hey, is it just me, or does that guy look like he’s kissing a picture of Michael Moore?
Aly,
Putting aside:
- your notion of the “resistance” as a French romantic story, contrasting with the reality of scores of dead children on both sides, which makes me wonder how much value you place on any life (Muslim or Jew)
- your use of “i am a semite too” get-out-of-jail card (anti-Judaic is harder to dodge)
- your selective list of massacres (the next one hundred you add to your list would invariably HAVE to be those where Muslims killed Jews)
… I am most curious in the rubbishing of the Old Testament, since it is a holy book for Jews, Christians and Muslims. I can only presume that you are an angry atheist. I would steer clear of the Islamic theocracy police – they do not deal kindly with apostates.
As for homelands, I think the Dead Sea Scrolls provides more than enough evidence of who was there first. Jews are the Aboriginal people of “Palestine”.
An Israeli air force spokesman reported he had canvassed all the air crews over Lebanon and none were missing. He explained the vague object shown over Lebanese TV apparently dropping from the sky: There was a direct aerial hit of a truck carrying long-range rockets. The cargo caught fire and exploding missiles flew in all directions.
Al Jazeera have cut the first part of the sequence. On this site (I don’t speak russian, so don’t ask me to translate) there is a gallery of the full sequence:
http://www.newsru.co.il/pict/big/48958.html
It really does look like what the IAF described. It goes up, and then it falls down.
Your ignorance is matched only by your stupidity.
Consider Arafat’s “uncle” and mentor — famous Nazi lover and helper.
The founder of “Palestinian” nationalism was a Nazi war criminal. This wanted Nazi war criminal, al-Husseini, was given sanctuary by both Egypt and Lebanon after World War II. He was also Arafat’s uncle and mentor.
Adolf Eichmann’s deputy, Dieter Wisliceny, testified at the Nuremberg Trials that Hajj Amin al-Husseini was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and had been a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of this plan. He was one of Eichmann’s best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures. At Auschwitz, al-Husseini reportedly admonished the guards running the gas chambers to work more diligently.
After the defeat of the Axis powers, Hajj Amin al-Husseini escaped indictment as a war criminal at Nuremberg by fleeing to Egypt, where he received political asylum and where he met the young Yasser Arafat, his distant cousin, who became a devoted protege to the point that the PLO recruited former Nazis as terrorist instructors. Up until the time of his death, Arafat continued to pay homage to the mufti as his hero and mentor.
Arbas and or muslims living in some alternate universe where lies are truth — I find that hard to believe…
Bak. Derk-derk-Allah, Derka derka, Mohammed Jihad. Baka sherpa-sherpa. Abaka-la. Zidane-zidane.
You posted the first estimate:
“The air force denied reports that an IAF fighter jet has crashed in Beirut, as reported by al-Manar television a short while ago. The IAF estimates that a crate of leaflets fell from one of the jets.”
Probalby mivtzaim contacted the crews and found doublechecked what happened, and then passed the info to the spoksmen unit.
Yup. After they hit the missile boat, Nasrallah gloated on TV that israeli missile boat is sinking. Later that day it sailed back to ashdod on its own power, didn’t even need to get towed. It will probably be back in action in no time.
Durka durka muhamed jihad?
Sorry for many comments, but I have to comment the first photo on this post…
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060717/photos_wl_me_afp/a5807ec5a31c22cc1b575546b52d82e3
It’s now or never,
come hold me tight
Kiss me my darling,
be mine tonight
Tomorrow will be too late,
it’s now or never
My love won’t wait.
When I first saw you
with your smile so tender
My heart was captured,
my soul surrendered
I’d spend a lifetime
waiting for the right time
Now that your near
the time is here at last.
It’s now or never,
come hold me tight
Kiss me my darling,
be mine tonight
Tomorrow will be too late,
it’s now or never
My love won’t wait.
Just like a willow,
we would cry an ocean
If we lost true love
and sweet devotion
Your lips excite me,
let your arms invite me
For who knows when
we’ll meet again this way
It’s now or never,
come hold me tight
Kiss me my darling,
be mine tonight
Tomorrow will be too late,
it’s now or never
My love won’t wait.
Derka-derka…
Clue: ‘There’s no “I” in Team America’
“The Palis can go to hell. Hopefully one day, Israel will snap out of its stupor and send them there.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself if I wanted to explain the bigotry Israelis exhibit towards Palestinians. I by no means condone any terrorist acts, but to lump the majority of Palestinians and Lebanese in with the fanatics of Hizbollah and the suicide bombers from Hamas is wrong.
So far a handful of innocent Israelis have died in this most recent war, which I find absolutely terrible. However, that does not wash the blood of the nearly 200 Lebanese civilians who have died off Israel’s hands.
It seems to me that Israel needs to understand they will NEVER be able to kill everyone who wants to harm innocent Israelis… but what they can do is stop giving them reasons to want to die.
If the palestinians had ANY sort of homeland that wasn’t filled with Israeli military checkpoints, surrounded by barbed wire and concrete fences they would be much less inclined to support terrorism. I find it terribly ironic that the living conditions of the Palestinians can be most closely equated to the fenced in ghettos of WWII. (i am not comparing israel to the evils nazi germany’s concentration camps, please dont try and flame me with anti-semetic rants, nothing on this earth will ever approach the evil of the nazi regime, and i know israel is not systematically killing palestinians)
Israelis also seem to be forgetting that before the foundation of Israel, Jewish settlers fighting for the creation of their homeland used bombings that today would be considered terrorist attacks to get attention for their cause.
“The [Irgun] carried out a series of attacks against British officials, police and soldiers, most notably the assassination of the British Minister Resident in the Middle East, Lord Moyne, and the murder of 28 British soldiers in a bomb attack in February 1948. Perhaps its most notorious attack, though, was the assassination of the United Nations negotiator Count Folke Bernadotte (right) in Paris in October 1948.”
quoted from https://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/Page453.html
Cameron … it’s not bigotry … continual terrorist assaults emanating from a particular group of people will result in countervailing force being used.
The Palatinians have brought this on themselves. All they ad to do to end it was to stop launching ordnance at Israel.
Your moral equivalence argument is just plain silly … it looks just as silly here as it does when some leftard like Prof. Churchil tries to use it to excuse the 9-11 attack.
About the UFO shot down over Beirut today, maybe this (sorry, in Hebrew) explains it.
Dem’s fighting words Jack
Chrisse,
Melbourne,
Australia
Go do some updates on your reading of history you moron. Israel has accepted every UN resolution/pact for peace since the 1920′s- it was the other parties were rejected them, and usually started aggressions against Israel.
So now the widdle muslims want to go back to the old resolutions/pacts that they rejected cos they kept losing and are now in a worse position.
Two state solution : Israel and Jordan
There were no ‘palestinians’ living there. The people living there that would be classified as ‘arabs’ were mainly immigrants via the ottoman empire (turks, greeks, russians etc), the only group that could be consider longer term were the bedouins. Anyway 80% of them at least were part of the original two state solution – Transjordan, ie Jordan. The rest should have been moved into Transjordan as part of the Balfour Declaration.
Funny how it’s never mentioned that Jordan included as part of it’s constitution that jews could NOT immigrate into Jordan.
These people rejected the word ‘palestinian’, it also referred to the jewish people living there.
The jews also had many immigrants within them, but there has also been a jewish presence uninterrupted for thousands of years – not even the Romans could clear the area of the jews.
I repeat there is a two state solution in place that should be enforced – Israel and Jordan. (Pity the non-Palestinian Jordanians can’t stand the pali’s, but then again, does any arab nation like them or care about them?)
Greetings,
Send in “Peace Keepers”? What peace do they ever keep? What violence do they ever stop or prevent? They are a waste of time, effort, and money.
Even the UN itself is a shadow of what it once was. I would like to see it removed from my countries soil, the buildings torn down, and the property placed on the open realestate market!
Rick
Dude, they gotta stop that sh*t
Dude. President Bush is the man. It’s like he read my mind. From an Israeli Southerner – Israellycool’s post today: Liveblogging the War: Monday July
Yeah, just trying to give Aussie Dave a smile.
We just got stuffed — so maybe I’m being a tad over-optimistic there re thr a-kicking. And Oz will be out for a bout of pom bashing!.
Dave, I ran that Arabic article through 1-800-translate.com’s free translation engine, and this is what it came up with. As always with online translators, well… you know what I was gonna say, so I’m not gonna bother.
Here it is -
“Code had begun ” the (kououl) Israeli after the Israeli forces failed in 2003 in targeted one Palestinian terrorists..
But the main media dealt with the operation without a concern for a viewpoint in the world Israeli, also name these aimed terrorists ” gunmen..
But those means do interest an example on Israel in the missiles releasing operations also despite big raises on the Israelis life..
Had hit in that frustration and pushed from a theory direction to writing – the code idea came hence..
Help (qra‡) the code on seeing the picture complete through interjections and the bindings which appear on the Israeli press..
Gave three or four hours for code updating from temporary all days..
No for a dialogue Palestinian.
The code allows on the Internet net with Arabs codes friends and Moslems in the contact to me , and he what not can cause on the land..
Has good relations with codes friends Egyptian and Bahraini of whom conduct on participations in the comment, and that one the code interests..
Despite do not agree on numerous things, except keep in a big area from the respect and understanding exchanged in dialogue..
But am not have which the (ba) contact.”
i guess you failed to read my entire post. i am not drawing moral equivalency. like i said before, i do not support any attacks on innocent civilians regardless of the reason why. i was merely trying to prove that the israeli definition of terrorist changes depending on the position the country was in.
when the early jewish settlers were a minority fighting to establish their homeland, irgun bombings of the controlling power’s interests, soldiers and diplomats were considered valiant. do you not think the British would have considered those attacks terrorism? Because they served Israel’s goals… they were thought to be a good thing.
Now when the Palestinians are trying to establish their own country, without barbed wire, checkpoints and huge concrete walls surrounding tiny pieces of land, they are launching attacks of their own. While I do not believe that ANY Israelis deserve to die because of this, I believe the Palestinians think they are fighting for a just cause. Just as I believe the Israelis thought they were in the right when they bombed British interests during the foundation of Israel.
Obviously the solution is to give the palestinians a contiguous country, free of israeli settlers, that they can call their own. While this solution will not placate every last fanatic, it is clearly the best solution. Continuing on the present course is simply angering more people and creating more children who have a desire to take innocent life.