DAY 178 OF THE GAZA WAR: Drone Hits Eilat Naval Base, High Ranking Iranian Quds Force Officers Killed, Fake News is Dangerous for Israel

Tel Aviv Diary, April 1, 2024

Last night, a suicide drone from Iraq targeted the naval base in Eilat, damaging one building. The success of the attack raises serious questions about Israel's air defense capabilities. It is troubling that the IDF does not seem to have learned lessons from the Ukraine War to invest in enhancing its drone interception technologies. Distinguishing drones from birds on radar poses significant technical difficulties. The Ukrainians have improvised with some ingenious solutions, such as mounting cell phones on poles along the border, which then detect the approach of incoming drones. When tied to a computer system, the phones can provide early warnings. While this may not be the ideal solution for Israel, it raises questions about the effectiveness of investing in expensive F-35s as the sole approach to enhancing national defense.

GAZA

Israel completed its operation at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City last night, pulling out its troops. During the operation, 1,000 individuals were detained, of which 500 were confirmed as members of either Hamas or Islamic Jihad. An additional 200 terrorists were killed. Although there had been hope the terrorists would surrender, they chose to fight to the death. The fighting resulted in significant damage to the hospital. It is important to note that during the entire operation, no legitimate hospital personnel or patients were harmed.

In Khan Younis, the IDF sadly suffered its 600th casualty of the war. Staff Sergeant Nadav Cohen (20) died when his armored vehicle was struck by a missile.

THE NORTH

Today, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the top commander of the Iranian Quds Forces in Syria and Lebanon, along with his deputy, Mohammad Haj Rahimi, were killed when an unidentified missile struck the Iranian Embassy compound in Damascus. The attack demolished one of the buildings, reportedly killing seven members of the IRGC Quds Force, according to Iranian sources. Given the circumstances, Iran has attributed the attack to Israel, a reasonable assertion, and has vowed to take revenge. Meanwhile, in the North, it was a very typical day, with a series of assaults on Israeli communities and IDF retaliatory strikes on Hezbollah positions in Southern Lebanon. What tomorrow holds remains uncertain.

FAKE NEWS FROM GAZA

The ongoing acceptance by foreign news media and governments of the statistics disseminated by Palestinian authorities in Gaza represents one of Israel’s greatest vulnerabilities. As I have noted, claims I heard in the British parliament that Israel is depriving Palestinians in Gaza of essential resources — and of course the figures concerning starving children are even repeated by members of the US administration. This situation aligns with a notion attributed to Goebbels: if a statement is repeated often enough, people will start to believe it, and it gains an aura of truth.

Right now, one of the most pernicious lies being spread about Israel’s behavior in Gaza involves constant talk about starvation. While I am sure there is a level of food insecurity in Gaza — given that it is a war zone and the people of the North were told to leave the areas months ago — there is food in the North, and there is no starvation. Most importantly, despite repeated pleas for Israel to allow more food into Gaza, Israel has not been the bottleneck.

Several recent facts highlight this point:

•  Between 120-200 aid trucks have been entering Gaza daily, marking an increase of 80% from before the war. Although the UN claims there is not enough water in Gaza, in reality, the two desalination plants are operational, and together with a working water pipeline, they deliver 20 liters of water per person per day. Yes, there are problems, and yes, Israel should be more proactive. However, to the best of my knowledge, there is no starvation in Gaza.

• Verifying or disputing overall casualty numbers is challenging, but the proportion of women and children versus men reported to have died appears clearly inaccurate. Hamas figures often show a low number of men killed compared to women and children. Two points of reference are significant: firstly, the number of UNWRA personnel killed. Male UNWRA workers constituted 62% of the total fatalities during the war, despite only representing 41% of the entire UNWRA workforce.

• The “official” death tolls announced by the Hamas Ministry of Health combine hospital deaths and “reliable sources.” In one week in March, the distribution was 91 (61.1%) men, 30 (20.1%) women, and 28 (18.8%) children. Out of the 28 children, 24 were boys, which could easily have been older teenagers active in Hamas.

These facts should make anyone reporting statistics provided by Hamas very cautious. Would foreign media or foreign governments accept numbers released by ISIS?