Late yesterday the IDF suffered the worst single event loss during the ground war. A reservist unit was preparing 2 buildings for demolition when an RPG (Rocket propelled grenade) was fired at a tank that as covering the team. It apparently missed, detonated inside a building, and set of sympathetic explosions of all the freshly wired demolition charges. Both buildings collapsed. Injured survivors had to be dug out of the rubble. Among the dead were the son of one of our neighbors on Elazar and the son of a family from a nearby town where we went today for an inoculation at the medical clinic.
The father in law of another victim was interviewed on TV. He was quite upset and complained that the buildings should have been leveled by the air force. That really isn’t an option. Air attacks can take down a building, but cannot destroy the tunnel underneath or the access shaft concealed inside the structure.
This afternoon there will be funerals all over Israel. May the memory of all the 21 dead soldiers be a blessing.
The latest Hamas trick is to disguise rockets as dead bodies being carried to be buried. The launchers are concealed in the cemetery. If it works, the rocket can be fired; If not, accuse the Israelis of a war crime; interfering with burials. Cemeteries, like hospitals and schools, are supposed to be protected under international law. Of course, that protection no longer exists when the cemetery is used for military purposes
Wetherhorn 