25-Oct-15: A day in the life of a society under siege

From the Metzad community's website 

Not a quiet day here.

• At about 10:00 this morning (Sunday), an Israeli driving his vehicle near Metzad, a community in the Gush Etzion area, came under rock attack. He exited the vehicle for reasons about which we can speculate and was approached by one man or two who might have been dressed in clothing that made them look like Haredi Jews (those details are un-confirmed), one of whom attacked him with a knife, inflicting serious stabbing wounds and injuring him. The attackers fled, and are being pursued at this moment. The victim, aged about 58, was taken conscious by MDA ambulance to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem with stab wounds to the upper body and trauma injuries to the head from being hit by a hurled rock. [Info source: Israel National News]
• Just before 10:00 am this morning, a Palestinian Arab passing through Tapuah Junction in Samaria was stopped for questioning by Border Police and was found to have a concealed knife on his person. There's an understandable reluctance to accept 'explanations' these days, and he was promptly arrested and taken in for questioning. [Info source: Israel National News]
• Around 1:30 pm today (Sunday), Israeli security forces foiled yet another stabbing attack, this time at a checkpoint in Hebron adjacent to the ancient Tomb of the Patriarchs. The attacker, a Palestinian Arab woman who pulled a knife at the site, was shot and died of her injuries. She failed in inflicting harm on the Israelis at the site. Hers will not be the last such attempt. [Info source: Times of Israel] For the record, the unsuccessful and thwarted stabbing attack is reported in a sadly familiar way by the Palestinian Arab Ma'an News Agency today: "Israeli border police shot and killed a Palestinian women in Hebron city near the Ibrahimi Mosque in the southern occupied West Bank, witnesses said." True and factual, but incomplete, entirely free of meaningful context and calculated to mislead. 
• Early this morning, police arrested an Arab male traveling on an inter-city bus who was overheard saying he intended to become a shahid, or martyr. He had boarded the bus on Route 90 near Kibbutz Gesher, several kilometers south of Tiberias. When the bus reached Tiberias, he was arrested, and removed. Police then found a knife and a kippa (Jewish-style skull-cap) in his possession. But after interrogation, the police released him, issuing a statement that they were satisfied he had not been planning to carry out a terror attack.
• Important revelations arising from the fatal attack (one Israeli killed, 10 injured) at Be'er Sheva's central bus station exactly a week ago (on Sunday October 18, 2015), carried out by Muhanad Al-Aqabi (also writtem Al-Okabi), 21, an Israeli citizen from Hura. It now emerges from the ongoing enquiry that Al-Aqabi, who was killed by security personnel in the course of his attack, had maintained contact with terrorists in the service of Hamas prior to mounting the terror assault. Israel National News reports today that he had images of Hamas terrorists, weapons and other materials on his mobile phone. The new data discovered by police indicates the attack was planned with Hamas.
• Around 5:15 pm, according to an unpublished report. there was another stabbing attack at Tapuah Junction, the second of the day. The victim suffered stab wounds to the chest, causing him serious-to-critical injuries. The attacker fled and we assume is being pursued. (We see that Times of Israel is reporting on a stabbing at about the same time, but at Ariel Junction, near the Samarian city of Ariel. For the moment, we assume the two reports are referring to the same attack.)

The day goes on.

12-Aug-06: The peace toll

The toll from yesterday's missile attacks on Israel:

• 68 missile landings
• Injured by shrapnel: 8 people
• Treated for shock: 17 people
• The damage toll since 12th July: Missiles striking Israel: 3,650; Missiles landing in an urban area of Israel: 835

Missile strikes in the area of:

• Kiryat Shmona: 930
• Nahariya: 730
• Maalot: 584
• Safed: 448
• Tiberias: 181

And of course many deaths and many injuries.

The civilian toll so far today (Sunday):

• Heavy missile barrages all morning in the general direction of Israel's northern communities, with several landings in the Haifa suburbs. (UPDATE: Yediot says there have been 153 missile landings so far today, Sunday.) (5.45pm UPDATE: The tally of missiles has risen to more than 210 for the day. The havoc and hatred that every one of them delivers is incalculable.) (8.15pm UPDATE: 250 missile so far; 6 hits on Haifa at 7pm, and some sixteen separate rounds fired at Haifa throughout the day)
• One person, a man of about 70, killed following a direct missile hit on a house in Shlomi (the town itself is pictured above)
• Nine injured - most of them treated in Safed and Nahariya public hospitals, both of which have been struck several times themselves by Hizbollah's missiles.
• Street demonstrations in the United States and Europe yesterday, supporting the people who launch these missiles at Israel, are extensively photographed in Sunday's media. What puzzles us most about these images and reports is that AP and Reuters consistently refer to the people holding Hizbollah posters and pictures of the fanatical Shi'ite leader Nasrallah in these often-violent demonstrations, as 'peace' protesters.

We check routinely, and have yet to see a single caption referring to Israeli efforts at stopping Nasrullah's monumentally large missile arsenal as being related to peace. But the fact is, for anyone close enough to the action to not be misled by distorted reportage, that when Nasrullah's arsenal is destroyed, there will be peace. We Israelis expect little more than the peace of the graveyard until that time.