Israel’s 137th Day of War

On this 137^th day of the war, 21 Israeli soldiers were killed yesterday afternoon when they came under attack in the southern Gaza Strip, triggering a blast that collapsed two buildings with soldiers inside them, the military said early this morning. The buildings were being rigged for demolition by troops when Palestinian gunmen fired an RPG at a tank securing the forces. A second blast then occurred in the buildings, possibly as a result of a second RPG, leading to their collapse. It was the single deadliest incident since the start of Israel’s ground offensive in the enclave, and raised the military death toll in the operation to 221.

At a press conference Tuesday morning, IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that troops were operating in an area around 600 meters from the border, across from the southern Israeli community of Kissufim. They were destroying structures and Hamas sites as part of the army’s efforts to establish a buffer zone to allow residents of Israeli border communities to return to their homes.

“At around 4 p.m., an RPG was fired by gunmen at a tank securing the forces, and simultaneously, an explosion occurred in two two-story buildings. The buildings collapsed due to this explosion, while most of the forces were inside and near them,” he said.

In the north, the IDF on Monday struck two Hizballah weapon depots near Sidon, 30 km north of the border with Lebanon, in response to a drone attack on northern Israel. The explosive-laden drone struck an open field near the town of Arbel in the Lower Galilee, close to the Sea of Galilee, 30 km. south of the border with Lebanon.

The US has proposed a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for a temporary ceasefire in the war against Hamas and opposing a major ground offensive by Israel in Rafah. The move comes after the US signaled it would veto an Algerian-drafted resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. The US draft resolution would see the Security Council “underscore its support for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza as soon as practicable, based on the formula of all hostages being released, and calls for lifting all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale.” The US does “not plan to rush” to a vote and intends to allow time for negotiations, a senior US administration official said Monday.

Future Leadership

Another candidate for future leadership is Mati Gill, CEO of AION Labs, a venture studio with a first-of-its-kind company creation model for new start-ups utilizing AI for drug discovery and development.

Prior to founding AION Labs, Mati was a senior executive at Teva Pharmaceuticals and served as Chief of Staff for Israel’s Minister of Public Security.

Mati is an experienced healthcare innovation leader and manager with more than 10 years of leadership experience in the biopharma industry. Adept at accomplishing complex tasks and establishing new entities, his expertise lies in coalition building, alliance management, corporate innovation, strategic relationship development, team leadership, and partner management. He is results-oriented and skilled in recruitment, coalition development, operations, policy, innovation, business development, and entrepreneurship.

Matti has an extensive network, both within the Israeli ecosystem and globally, having served on numerous advisory boards and boards of directors.

He is an IDF veteran (Maj. res.)`and currently serves on the boards of the Israel Advanced Technology Industries Association (IATI) and the Israel America Chamber of Commerce (AmCham). He holds LLB and MBA degrees from Reichman Universsity (formerly IDC Herzlia).

By now my readers should have realized that we have no shortage of capable people who, if willing, can be engaged to redesign post-war Israel and set us on a path to achievement even beyond what we had accomplished in the first 75 years of independence.

To understand the real spirit of this country take a few minutes and watch this short video….

http://tinyurl.com/2uh8ptjy

May the Lord bless them all and bring the troops and the hostages home safely and whole.