At 06:30 Wednesday morning, alarms were heard in Tel Aviv, Glilot (home of the Cinema City theaters), Ramat Gan, Netanya, and several other settlements in the Sharon. The shooting from Lebanon took place hours after the IDF had attacked south of Beirut. It was the first time ever that a missile had been launched from Lebanon into the center of Israel.
Yours truly heard the boom of an Iron Dome interception of the missile while in mid-prayer in his quiet living room. The boom was followed by weak sirens suggesting the event had taken place far away from Ra’anana. Our neighbors watched admiringly my emerging from our apartment in my tallit and tefillin. Yours truly felt so proud.
The IDF spokesperson informed that it had been a single launch of a surface-to-surface missile which was intercepted by the air defense systems (David’s Sling this time). The intercept was visible in the skies over central Israel. About half an hour after the shooting, the Home Front Command announced that for the time being there was no change in the instructions, and schools in the area operate as usual.
Saudi TV’s Al-Hadath channel reported that Hezbollah launched at least one missile in the direction of Gush Dan (metropolitan Tel Aviv, named after the tribe that settled there). In addition, the Saudi channel claimed that the missile was aimed at the Glilot army base, where Unit 8200 which performs the IDF’s techno-miracles is located. But it could be they were aiming for the movie theaters.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah has confirmed that an IDF attack on a 6-story residential building in the Shiite Dahieh neighborhood in south Beirut killed Ibrahim Kubeysi, commander of the terrorist organization’s missiles corps. The Saudi Al-Arabi Al-Jadid channel reported that six individuals were killed and 15 wounded in the attack, and at least some of the dead were members of Kubeysi’s staff. Three floors of the building were destroyed. According to Reuters, Kubeysi was killed in an assassination. His death was later confirmed by the IDF.
It’s important in this context to note one verse in this week’s Haftara: “Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set sentries who shall never be silent day or by night. Do not be silent, you who recall God.” (Isaiah 62:6)
