Nadene Goldfoot
Israel's surrounding neighbors have been invaded by terrorist groups who are being used by Iran as ammunition depots and forward attacks against Israel. Lebanon and Syria are main centers loaded with rockets to use against this tiny country. Lately, Israel has been attacking places with pin-pointing accuracy to bomb and destroy these munition centers. The latest hit was on the Syrian port of Latakia. It's a seaport located on the Mediterranean sea in the city of Latakia. Established on 12 February 1950, it has since served as Syria's main seaport.
We all remember the week of constant attack that happened most recently. May 2021: Rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, targeting civilian facilities in Israeli cities, towns and villages, resulted in 13 deaths and many casualties. Other terror attacks were responsible for two more deaths and additional casualties, bringing the total number of fatal casualties in May to fifteen, with 168 non-fatal casualties. Apart from the over 4500 rocket launchings from Gaza, there were also incidents of stone-throwing, small-arms fire, pipe bomb, grenade and arson attacks as well as one vehicular attack.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah maintain large stockpiles of ballistic rockets, in addition to mortars, anti-tank missiles, and other munitions. While Hamas does have Iranian-made weaponry, a significant amount of its arsenal has historically been indigenously made, as a result of the ongoing blockade against the Gaza Strip. Hamas has produced several types of rockets, notably the Qassam series. Hezbollah’s stockpile has in the past consisted of former Soviet models, including Grads and Katyushas, but like Hamas now has Iranian made heavy and long distance rockets like the Fajr series. Estimates of Hezbollah rocket stockpiles vary from 150,000-200,000, while Hamas’ is estimated to be around 10,000.
The primary Syrian port of Latakia was attacked again early yesterday, allegedly by Israel. The port was previously attacked on Dec. 7. A Syrian military official said Israeli missiles were fired from the sea, west of Latakia, hitting the terminal and igniting fires that caused major damage. Syria’s state-run Al-Ikhbariyah TV ran footage showing flames and smoke rising from the terminal. Maj. Mohannad Jafaar, head of the Latakia fire department, said 12 fire trucks worked for hours to contain the fire. Port manager Amjad Suleiman told Al-Ikhbariyah the damage was much larger than that caused by the Dec. 7 attack and required a major effort to move in-tact containers away from the flames.
In a year-end statement issued by the IDF, chief of staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi stated of the IDF success in disrupting weapons shipments to Israel’s enemies in the region.
He said, “The increase in the scope of operations over the past year has led to a significant disruption of the movement of weapons into the various arenas by our enemies."
In its year-end assessment, the IDF confirmed carrying out strikes on dozens of targets in Syria in what it called “the campaign between the wars.” Three targets also were struck in Lebanon, it said. It gave no further details. It also reported about 100 operations by the Israeli Navy, including dozens of “special operations.”
Between Mossad and technical capabilities of the IDF, today's wars are being fought in a new way. Israel, though a drop in the bucket compared to the size of neighbors that chose to be her enemies, has the Heb שכל sékhel, Yiddish שׂכל séykhl (intelligence) to defend itself.
My teacher in Israel was a Kohavi. I bet they're related. My gosh, he could speak/understand 16 different languages. I'll never forget that! Aviv means Spring.
Resource:
IsraelAM
https://www.jpost.com/tags/rocket-attack-on-israel
https://mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/terrorism/palestinian/pages/wave-of-terror-october-2015.aspx
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