With the 6:00AM deadline of yesterday’s ultimatum passing, there were mixed messages coming from Gilad Shalit’s captors. On one hand, while they indicated that there would be no further discussions on his fate, and severed links with Egyptian mediators, a spokesman for the captors said that he would not be killed. “There are those who believe we will kill the soldier, but the principles of Islam command us to treat prisoners with respect and not to kill them.”
“They [the militant factions] may kill him, take him to another country or may hide him. All options are open,” al-Muzaini said.
12:38AM: Egypt has discovered a tunnel near Rafah, leading from the Gaza Strip to Sinai.
12:15AM: Yitro Asheri, father of Eliyahu z”l:
“The price we paid is terrible, no one asks for such a thing to happen to him, but this is God’s will. We have paid the dearest price there is. The recent prayers have not been for nothing, they elevate the people of Israel’s situation. The people have to understand what is the gift of the Land of Israel that God gave. The people of Israel are in need of education and love and we must educate them.”
Yitro also had this message for the international community:
“Check your conscience with a dense comb, as you may have assisted those terror organizations.”
9:46PM: The Cabinet is to meet tomorrow morning for an urgent session regarding the Kassam rocket attack on Ashkelon.
8:38PM: The IDF have confirmed that the Kassam that was fired into Ashkelon had the normal range of 9.5km, despite the terrorists’ claims that they upgraded the Kassam to achieve a range of 15km.
8:25PM: You can now hear my interview with “Tom Paine” of Shire Network News regarding Operation Summer Rains here.
8:22PM: JPost reports that “children playing soccer outside an Ort school on Rehov Ben Zvi were thrown back by the force of the explosion, witnesses reported, but were unharmed.”
8:20PM: Hamas have fired a Kassam into the Israeli city of Ashkelon. Although the Kassam hit a high school building, no injuries have been reported.
This represents the first time that a Kassam has landed in Ashkelon. If this is not war, I don’t know what is.
Rockets – pretty pathetic things, nobody gets injured, they’re homemade and you well know they [the Palestinians] have nothing much stronger than an AK-47. They have no RPG’s, they have no weapons and now you’re delivering some of the most sophisticated bombardment that’s ever been subjected to of defenceless people. Is that an act of terror would you say?
