Motzei Shabbat News Update from Israel

1. 20-year old sergeant Nadav Rotenberg of Ramot HaShavim was killed in action fighting Hamas terrorists on Israel's border with Gaza on Friday night, on the day of his parents' 26th wedding anniversary, after the IDF identified several terrorists planting explosives near the security fence bordering central Gaza. Another soldier was moderately wounded and three others sustained light injuries. A preliminary IDF investigation concluded that friendly fire was responsible for the death and woundings, when a mortar strayed and struck the soldiers for an unknown reason. An investigative team is currently looking into the circumstances of the incident.

2. Four mortar shells exploded onto a kibbutz in the Sha'ar HaNegev regional council district (map), killing three Thai workers on Shabbat. One shell struck the building in which the workers lived, and one of the injured is undergoing surgery following shrapnel wounds to his chest. The Al-Quds Brigades military wing of the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility on Saturday night for the attack. Another shell hit Eshkol Regional Council district later Saturday evening. No injuries or damages were reported. IDF: "We will deal with those who fired the mortars and those who sent them." (INN, JPost)

 3. A Palestinian man carrying pipe bombs and a knife, who approached a checkpoint yelling "God is great", was shot to death by IDF soldiers at the Bekaot checkpoint near Tubas, southeast of Nablus. (YNet)

homemade rocket lands in eshkol

Militants in Gaza fired a homemade Kassam rocket into Israel on Wednesday night. The rocket fell in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council (map). There were no injuries.

Despite weekly, and sometimes daily, rocket fire into Israel, which causes an inconceivable level of fear and stress on the lives of Israelis in the area, there are miraculously low casualties as a result of the rockets (keyn hora). See this video below (in Hebrew only for now, sorry!) for an account of the miracles of the Gaza war, among them, the many instances of miraculous dodging of Hamas rocket fire.

Hashem Yirachem!