Gaza–The view from Jerusalem

[This is from a friend who lives in Jerusalem, and has a daughter serving in the IDF.]

Shalom Gerry!

Thank you so much for your support! Here are some updates of the events here:

It is the end if 18th day of Gaza conflict and it seems that the end is not yet close… We try to continue with our everyday life, which is not easy. Our hearts and thoughts are continuously with our soldiers in Gaza and with the bereaved families, being often stirred to pray. There is grief and pain the in the air, it is hard to explain…

Esther, our daughter was home overnight and now is back near Gaza to help her unit there. She washed their clothes for 3 hours today. Her service in the IDF is officially over since yesterday and she has all the right to have her three-week vacation, but she wants to continue to help any way possible. The soldiers she worked with during her army service belong to a special unit inside Golani brigade. They have been involved in very dangerous operations in Gaza, providing extremely valuable intelligence. We heard from her about their unbelievable heroic deeds, while some of them paying with their lives to save others.

Three civilians have been killed by the rocket fire – a Jew, an Arab and a worker from Thailand – the rockets do not make the distinction of the nationality. We are very saddened by all the casualties also on the Gaza side – but the problem is that Hamas loves death more than the Jews love life – watch a video, link below! The terror tunnels were prepared by the Hamas terrorists to kill, kidnap and destroy. It was only the matter of time. By today 35 soldiers have fallen in the battles to protect our beautiful country from the the tyranny of Hamas and from the brutal and savage terrorists.

As you can see yourself the international hatred against Israel has grown to tremendous proportions with violent demonstrations in Europe, blaming not only Israel, but all the Jews. The British Colonel Richard Kemp, who commanded British forces in Afghanistan, said that many armies look to Israel to learn how the country minimizes the casualties while fighting in an urban environment. “I do not know of any method used in this kind of scenario to [further] reduce civilian casualties,” he said.

Yesterday there was a very unfortunate incident where UNRWA school got hit and 15 people were killed. Whether it was IDF’s mistake or whether the shelling came from Hamas, is still under investigation. IDF had asked the school to be evacuated days before due to heavy fighting in the area. Hamas plays incredibly dirty. The soldiers have told of 13-14-year-old boys approaching them with suicide belts, elderly asking for water and wear suicide belts, animals loaded with explosives, not to mention mines and booby trapped houses. One of the new weapons in Hamas’s hands is Russian-made RPG-29, which is especially deadly. The stated mission of the ground operation is to find and destroy the tunnels. Our boys are working under constant fire. The location of many tunnels is known due to effective intelligence, but destroying the tunnels is very time consuming matter.

We are absolutely sure that many miracles take place on the battlefield. We hope to hear more about them later. One was presented by Israeli Channel 2 some days ago: soldiers carry hand grenades on their bomb vests. A Kalashnikov bullet hit one soldier’s grenade and it did not explode – nothing happened.

We have lived in Israel during several conflicts – Second Intifada, Second Lebanon War, Operation Cast Lead and Operation Pillar of Defense. Never before have we seen nation so united and never before was there such a consensus about the IDF’s operation. The whole nation is mobilized to support our boys – people donate truckloads of food and personal care products every day and send them to Gaza border. We went to visit one wounded soldier in a hospital and were amazed to see the hospital overcrowded with visitors. Our soldiers are everybody’s sons. The funeral of one of the lone soldier from California was attended by 30.000 people. Jerusalem is decorated with slogans: “We support our soldiers.” Even one the most leftist musician who has always been against the Israeli army, said that there is no time for leftism now.

Please pray – Hamas has called for the 3rd Intifada and there are increasing riots in Judea and Samaria, Eastern Jerusalem and in the Old City.

With love,

George and Sarah

P.S. We’d also recommend to watch some videos. First one shows, how IDF carefully prepared for several days the bombing of Al Wafa hospital in Gaza:www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM1F9oP80kc

IDF was in contact several times with the representative of the hospital to be 100% sure that everybody is evacuated from there. Only then the hospital that was used by Hamas was bombed. You can see many secondary explosions, indicating to the amount of weapons stored there.

The second one bring to you the words we quoted – Hamas loves death more than the Jews love life: