Motzei Shabbat/Saturday Night Roundup.

Well, I guess I can't say I'm surprised by this past Shabbat's events. Getting a beeper in the middle of Maariv on Friday night (just when starting to say Shma) can never be a good sign.

Here are the main stories from this past Friday evening through Saturday night -- not neccessarily in chronological order.

Since the start of the Hizbolla shelling of Northen Israel, over 500 people have been wounded as a result of over 700 Katyusha rockets and mortars. Keep these numbers in mind when you hear the World media chastise Israel for a "disproportionate response". (Hebrew sources via rotter.net and YNET). See table in Hebrew of identified Katyusha rockets hits by city.

1. Shabbat afternoon and evening. For the first time in years (since the 1948 war?) Tibereas/Tverya on the Western edge of the Sea of Galilee was hit by a barrage of Katyusha rockets; Total 54 wounded, lots of damaged homes. (Ynet)

2. Israel Naval boat targeted by Hizbolla terrorists, who launched an Iranian made C802 guided missile. This surface to surface guided cruise missile has a range of 120 kilometers, flies as low as five meters above the surface of the sea in its terminal phase, has a speed of 1,013 kilometers per hour -- and carries a warhead of 165 kg. (363 lb.) of explosives.

This missile struck the Israel warboat 16 Kilometers (about 10 miles) off the shores of Beirut, Lebanon. 4 soldiers were declared "missing" -- one of their bodies has been recovered so far. What makes this incident so severe is that Israeli military intellignce was unaware that Hizbolla even had this sort of missile in it's arsenal, and the anti-rocket systems on the Israeli warboat were not activated. During preparations for the Friday evening meal at 8:30 PM, the missile hit the boat. (Data from Ynet, here, and here)

Confirmed Killed in Action:

First Sergeant Tal Amgar 21, of Ashdod

Missing Sailors:
Sergeant Yaniv Herschkowitz, 21, of Haifa
Corporal Shai Atias, 19, of Rishon Lezion
Master Sergeant Dov Sternshus, 37, of Carmiel

3. In Meiron, a Grandmother and grandson were killed by a Friday night Katyusha attack. The victims are Yehudit Itzkovitz, 58, and Omer Paschov, 7 (visiting from Nahariya) [yeshanews]

4. IDF data revealed that the largest number of Katyusha rockets so far has hit the city of Safed. About 34 rockets hit Safed in the past few days, while 24 rockets fell in Nahariya. Three Patriot batteries, aimed at intercepting ballistic missiles, were deployed in Haifa. Patriot missiles were stationed across the country for the last time in 2003 during the Iraq War. IDF sources said that the batteries’ deployment is the result of “an evaluation of the situation." (Ynet)

5. 10:00 PM - 11:00 PM Saturday night; Rockets target Kiryat Shmona and Carmiel. No injuries reported.

Shavua Tov, A good week!

Good night...from Israel.

Jameel.


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael