News Digest — 8/12/24
Israeli Intel Believes Iran Will Attack Directly Within Days
Iran might carry out an attack on Israel in the coming days, potentially even before the upcoming Thursday summit (15th) on the hostage deal negotiations, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
This represents a shift from recent assessments, which suggested that international pressure was restraining Iran from launching a direct attack against Israel.
The most recent evaluation by the Israeli intelligence community, formed within the past 24 hours, indicates that Iran has decided to directly target Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh.
The sources noted that this marks a significant change from recent assessments, which suggested that international pressure was preventing Iran from executing a direct strike against Israel.
A source with knowledge of the situation revealed that in recent days, there has been an internal debate in Iran between the Revolutionary Guards and the new Iranian president and his advisers. The debate centers on the nature and timing of the response to Haniyeh’s assassination. The revolutionary Guards have been advocating for a more severe and widespread response than the April 13 attack, while the president and his advisers believe that such a harsh response should be avoided.
Another source familiar with what’s going on said that the situation “remains fluid,” with the internal debate in Iran ongoing, which means that the Iranian decision-making could still change.
IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari posted on X that there is no change in the Home Front Command directives following reports of an upcoming Iranian attack, saying that they will inform the public if any changes are necessary and that the IDF is monitoring enemy forces throughout the Middle East – with an emphasis on Iran and Hezbollah.
One Killed, One Wounded In Jordan Valley Shooting Attack
A 23-year-old man, identified as Yehonatan Deutsch, from Beit Shean, was murdered on Sunday afternoon (11th) and a 33-year-old man was moderately wounded by shots fired from a passing car at two vehicles on Route 90 in the Jordan Valley. Magen David Adom medics and paramedics in collaboration with the IDFmedical force provided initial treatment to the injured, but had to pronounce the death of the critically injured young man. The moderately injured man was taken by helicopter to the Rambam Hospital in Haifa. The security forces launched a hunt for the terrorists who carried out the shooting.
The IDF reported the attack in a statement: “Following the initial report regarding the shooting attack in the area of the Mehola Junction on Route 90, terrorists opened fire from a passing car at a number of vehicles in the area, As a result of the attack, an Israeli civilian was killed, and an additional Israeli civilian was injured and is currently receiving treatment from medical teams. IDF soldiers have begun pursuing the terrorists, blocking routes, and conducting thorough searches in the area.”
Later Sunday (11th) the Hamas terror organization claimed responsibility for the Jordan Valley attack.
Last week, Palestinian terrorists twice tried to ambush IDF troops with remotely detonated roadside bombs near the Jordan Valley town of Beka’ot, located 9 miles south west of Mehola.
In the first six months of 2024, medical authorities recorded 3,272 terror attacks in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley, including 1,868 cases of rock-throwing, 456 fire-bombings, 296 IED charges and 109 shootings.
Israel Names 19 Terrorists Killed In Military Headquarters at Gaza School – Emanuel Fabian
The IDF and Israel Security Agency on Saturday night (10th) named 19 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror operatives killed in an airstrike on a Hamas and Islamic Jihad command room embedded within a mosque at the Tabi’een school in Gaza City. The IDF said the strike was carried out using three “precision munitions” and that footage after the strike showed that there was no major damage to the surrounding school complex. It also said that the missiles “could not have caused the damage that corresponds to the casualty reports of the government media office in Gaza.”
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said, “Increasingly in recent months Hamas has focused on exploiting school buildings, often where civilians are sheltering inside, to use them as military facilities, command and control centers, for storing weapons, and to execute terrorist attacks.”
“Over the last few weeks, our intelligence has been closely monitoring an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility, where approximately two dozen Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were operating. After we received clear intelligence of the threat posed by these terrorists and in accordance with international humanitarian law, we took numerous steps to mitigate the risk to civilians, including using aerial surveillance prior to the strike and selecting very precise munitions to avoid civilian casualties….Early Saturday morning (10th), the IDF conducted a precision strike against the terrorists in one specific building of the compound – an area that, according to our intelligence, no women or children were present.”
According to military assessments, Hamas operatives are struggling to remain inside tunnels and are increasingly moving to above-ground sites, while hiding among innocents. (Times of Israel)
This Is Why Jews Won’t Flee Israel – Zina Rakhamilova
It has been 10 months of war in Israel with no end in sight. The days following Oct. 7 were the worst of our lives. It became a regular occurrence to hear from friends and neighbors: “My cousin died at Nova” or “My friend from school is a hostage.” There was a devastating sadness everywhere. Our streets were plastered with hostage posters, half of our cities felt empty because so many reservists were called up. I received more phone calls than I can count from friends and family, begging me to get on a plane and leave.
Yet the thought of leaving felt worse than running into a shelter from rockets. Tens of thousands of Israelis – civilians and reservists – had rushed back to Israel to help the Jewish state in its time of need. There was a collective understanding that if the Jewish people don’t have Israel, then we have nothing. Staying in Israel after Oct. 7 meant I experienced more pain than I have ever felt in my life, but I also saw acts of kindness and unity that exist nowhere else in the world. The way Israeli society rallied and went above and beyond for one another was beautiful and made the whole situation easier to digest.
Now, reports are coming in about the impending attack from Iran, but Israelis are still going about their day. Many are asking us why we would stay in a war zone. The answer might not be a logical one, but the reality is that Israel needs both its army and its civilians. Those of us who choose to stay in Israel during these times do so because this is our home, and we have decided we will not allow terrorism to dictate our lives. (Jerusalem Post)
Life-Saving Medical Device Donated By American-Israeli Treats Soldiers Wounded In Gaza
An Israeli-born Harvard University business professor who founded a medical technology company in Massachusetts nearly half a century ago has donated 50 life-saving medical devices designed to replace blood lost during hemorrhaging to Israeli hospitals in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre.
The medical systems, which are used in almost all emergency rooms and trauma centers in the US, were donated to about 20 Israeli hospitals and trauma centers nationwide that went on emergency war-footing last fall in the wake of the worst single-day attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
“We should do all we can to save the wounded men and women who are defending Israel,” Belmont Medical Technologies founder Regina Herzlinger said in a statement to JNS.
The rapid blood infuser device, whose hospital list price is $35,000-$40,000, instantly warms blood lost due to an injury, accident or transplant to 37 degrees Celsius, eliminates any air bubbles so there is not risk of an air embolism, and infuses up to a liter of blood per minute.
Blood is usually stored in hospital refrigerators at 5 degrees Celsius.
The adult body typically holds 5 liters of blood, so in theory the entire blood supply can be replaced in 5 minutes using this device.
The rapid blood infusers have received rave reviews from Israeli hospital staff who have been using them to save lives as the war against Hamas continues.
“Many lives were saved both in the trauma room, in the operating room and in intensive care thanks to the system,” said Professor Moti Klein, head of the Trauma Unit at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva. He called the blood infusers “simple to operate, reliable and life-saving.”
“It’s great to hear how much the equipment contributed and is contributing to saving lives,” said Moshe Sade, CEO of Clalit Medical Engineering, which partnered in the implementation of the project in Israel.
Herzlinger, an entrepreneur and academic who teaches at the Harvard Business School, was born in Tel Aviv to parents who fled Nazi Germany for the pre-state of Israel before emigrating to the United States when she was a child.
In addition to her academic teaching and business, she has advised the United States Congress and President George W. Bush on healthcare policy, and served on the Scientific Advisory Group of the United States Air Force.
Young Jewish Man Stabbed In NYC By Attacker Yelling ‘Free Palestine’
A young Jewish man was stabbed early Saturday morning (10th) near the Chabad movement’s headquarters in New York City by a man yelling “Free Palestine,” according to a local rabbi who said he knows the victim, as well as CCTV footage of the incident published online.
Yaacov Behrman tweeted that during Shabbat, the young male attacker asked the man: “Do you want to die?” He then stabbed him.
“The victim was taken to the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery due to the location of his wounds,” Behrman said.
A video of the incident posted online showed the assailant approaching a group of young Jewish men in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn and then stabbing one of them. The victim was seen looking down at his injuries, but remained standing.
Behrman said other community members chased the attacker and pinned him down until police arrived and arrested him.
“This is an extremely serious incident,” Behrman said. “The victim could have been killed. This act of hateful violence highlights the dangerous impact of anti-Semitic incitement and hate propagated by some local politicians and leaders in New York and across the United States.
According to the Yeshiva World News website, the victim was a member of the Lubavitch community and the assailant was a man of color in his early 20s.
It is reported that the incident is being investigated by New York police as a hate crime.
NYPD Deputy Chief Richie Taylor of the Community Affairs Bureau told the outlet that there will be increased police presence in the area of the stabbing at Eastern Parkway and Kingston Avenue until after the coming High Holidays’ period in October.
The incident came amid a spike in anti-Semitism around the world against the backdrop of Israel’s ongoing war against the Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The war erupted when Hamas led a devastating cross border attack on Israel October 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 as hostages in Gaza.
Israel responded with a military campaign to destroy Hamas and free the hostages.
The conflict brought a swell of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activism including a spike in assaults on Jewish people in which assailants referenced the war or made pro-Palestinian remarks.
