October 23, 2023

ITC Update: Operation Iron Sword

Day 17

The latest confirmed number of hostages in Hamas captivity has risen to 222 including 30 babies and children.

Monday 23.10.23

Hamas continued to fire rockets into Israel, now totaling over 7,600.

Northern Front: IDF continued to target cells of anti-tank missile launchers. Overnight Israel targeted Hezbollah military infrastructure including a military compound and an observation position. There are growing fears that this war could spiral into a wider regional or even global conflict through the involvement of Iran, its proxies in Syria and Lebanon, the United States and even Russia. 

Southern Front: Rocket sirens continue to sound in several Gaza Envelope communities, Ashkelon, Beersheba, and surrounds.

A tent city is being built at the Kfar Maccabiah complex in Ramat Gan to house some of the tens of

thousands of people who have left their homes since the outbreak of the war.  Eilat is also preparing to set up a similar infrastructure. According to the mayor, Eilat has doubled in size. Over 60,000 evacuees have arrived from the North and South of the country.

The Welfare Ministry on Sunday announced that at least 21 children in 13 families were left without parents. The number includes 16 cases in which both parents were killed, while the remaining children had one parent killed while the other was taken captive or has been missing since the deadly assault two weeks ago. The children include a 4-year-old girl held hostage in Gaza.

Empty strollers outside London Parliament representing kidnapped babies

ITC on the ground

ITC work with the Bedouin community:

In the Bedouin community of Arara in the Negev Desert, outside a house are two overturned, charred vehicles. When the rocket from Gaza hit them, they burst into flames, killing a little girl who was playing nearby.

The mourning tent literally faces out onto the spot where the missile landed. As previously reported ITC is providing support to Bedouin communities, including work with families of those kidnapped, and bereaved many of whom lost family members while working in the agricultural fields in the Gaza Envelope.  Below is the story of one such family:

When Hamas began its massacre, 5-year-old Attallah Abu Madigam was with his father and older brothers in the greenhouse of an agricultural community on the Gaza Envelope. Osama Abu Madigam, pleaded in Arabic that they were Arabs, but they called him more Jewish than the Jews and shot him to death. Attallah and his four brothers ran for shelter with the help of their uncle.

Commander of the Police Negev Desert force Magen, Chief Superintendent Ronen Halfon, was told to go towards Ofakim and reinforce communities that were fighting the terrorists. Near the greenhouses, he reports, a man came out of the shelter calling to them, shouting that he was from Rahat and was sheltering with his 5 nephews after their father was murdered. The police force called for an ambulance to evacuate Attallah who was shot in the chest. Yesterday, Halfon, his soldiers, and the Negev Region commander visited Attallah. The boy kissed the policemen and told him that he wanted to join the force when he grew up.

ITC work with First Responders: A team of 20 forensic volunteers from ZAKA, continue to sort through the wreckage of Kibbutz Be’eri, where over 20% of the kibbutz’s residents were killed, abducted, or declared missing following the Oct. 7 onslaught. These teams are dedicated to the Godly work of combing through rubble to find answers for devastated families. ITC provides emotional first aid and support to them and their families.

There are no words to describe the suffering of families who have seen their relatives butchered and relatives who live in the hope that those who were living peacefully in their homes just two weeks ago will come home. Everyday more needs. This is what we do.