IDF reports that 21 towns (including two cities) and sub-divisions near the Gaza border infiltrated.

I don't believe that the terrorists will reach Be'er Sheva (southeast of Gaza) alive but that seems to be the direction that they're taking for now.

IDF confirms that at least two Israeli towns are Hamas controlled.

One of the Israeli towns that Hamas overran was a retirement community, including at least some Holocaust survivors.

Hezbollah claims that they are in contact with Hamas leaders in Gaza and are "monitoring the situation". They also warn Israel to "choose wisely".

Whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean, I take it that Hezbollah isn't interested in today's adventure.

IDF is fighting Hamas terrorists in Kfar Aza, Sderot, Sufa, Nahal Oz, Magen, Be'eri, and the Re'im military base.

Israeli air strikes in Gaza are coming non-stop. IAF fighter-bombers can be seen lined up for miles deep into the Mediterranean, waiting their turn to roll in hot. Rocket fire should slow down soon.

Over 300 hundred wounded civilians reported at Israeli hospitals, so far.

Terrorists still pouring through the border fence in at least two locations.

I expect this location (video below) to be cluster bombed very soon, if it hasn't been already.

Israeli air force not bothering with "roof-knocking" warnings in Gaza city.

Israeli Apache gunships operating near the Gaza border.

IAF says they've fired 16 tons of munitions into Gaza so far and show no signs of stopping anytime soon.

IAF also says that they're conducting targeted assassinations of terrorist leaders all over Gaza.

The terrorists have at least one shoulder fired anti-aircraft launcher.

If you ever wanted to know how to get a 500lb JDAM dropped on your head, this is a sure fire way to make that happen...

Hamas releases video showing four live IDF soldiers captured.

They also released a different video of them parading an elderly and very obviously senile Israeli woman around Gaza city.

ok now we know how they knocked out the Merkava 4 at the border fence.

Very large armor piercing warhead, dropped from a drone.

Current lost IDF vehicle count:

One Merkava 4 destroyed, one captured (minus engine).

One Nakpadon heavy APC captured (also down for repairs).

Four M-113 APC's captured (couldn't find the keys).

One mini-MRAP and one Humvee captured.

Calibre Obscura reporting that the shoulder fired SAM seen in the video up thread was a 9K310 Igla-1, with the original thermal battery.

And it missed.

Rockets still coming. Be'er Sheva the target this time.

"Israeli police recovering materiel from an al Qassam attack squad in southern #Israel, including a quantity of PG-7VR RPG projectiles and YM-2 AT mines, all of which appear to be Iranian made. Oh and locally made line charges?"
- Calibre Obscura

Two different vehicles in these images. Not sure if same location.

Reports that at least 57 Israeli civilians and soldiers have been kidnapped and taken back to Gaza.

Rate of rocket fire from Gaza has definitely slowed down.

IAF pounding the launch sites.

IDF still working to clear the terrorists from Israeli territory.

Official IDF account on the Hell Site stopped tweeting an hour ago, leaving just this image...

Current Israeli death toll at 22 confirmed dead, 300 to 500 wounded (depending on source).

Those numbers are going to skyrocket before the counting is over. I counted over 40 just from the early videos.

Israeli Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai says there are currently 21 active fronts in southern Israel where security forces are battling Hamas terrorists.

Multiple Thai and Philippine workers have been kidnapped from the Gaza border this morning and taken into Gaza by Hamas militants.

@Render 😲

@Render 😲

@Render: When they hit back, they don't tend to half-commit.

I imagine the White House telephones are lit TF up.

@Render: I still do not understand the shouting of "God is great" when they do that, but then I don't really understand religion. I mean... I do, but I don't "get" it.

@thedisasterautist @Render They'll be screaming into the void when they pass - the nothingness that envelops them will freeze them, silencing all thought, enveloping them in the embrace of total annihilation...

Nothing's there to catch them. Their last fragments of consciousness will evaporate in the instant they start to realize everything they believed in was a lie, & their confidence becomes a silent soul-rending scream.

It's not fun. I've been close.

Serves the terrorist bastards right.

@IrelandTorin @Render: I died once, though for only just over 2mins. 30sec., on an O/R table. when I was 22. Circled the drain and almost went down it again seven years later, in 1999.

For my money, I figure some of them are so whacked-out on the religion that they'll be happy as clams until they stop existing. Others, however, are going to realize too late that this was real life, that they're gonna die horribly without escape, and that they'll pray it's quick.

@thedisasterautist @IrelandTorin

You're missing something important.

It's called Captagon and it's produced in Syria in massive amounts that are then smuggled all over the Middle East.

@Render @thedisasterautist @IrelandTorin Whats that?

@Render @IrelandTorin: I had to look it up. Fenethylline. Honestly, I didn't know it was still a think, but when I read about it and saw it's a big party drug in the Middle East... then I remembered how the kamikaze were drugged up, how a lot of Nazi soldiers were drugged up, and so on. Kinda like a Jonestown thing.

@thedisasterautist @Render @IrelandTorin

I was looking it up as well. Damn.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/9/what-is-captagon-the-addictive-drug-mass-produced-in-syria

@Render @thedisasterautist As someone who was once prescribed high doses of amphetamines (due to a sleep disorder) - while that might help them run right up to the edge of death, I don't think it'll do much for them once they cross over the precipice.

Based on the experiences of people I knew, it might make matters worse for em - amphetamine hallucinations have a distinctly paranoid, frightening bent. Dying w/ a brain full of shadowy, terrifying hallucinations'd probably feel like hell to them.

@Render: I reckon those Hamas folks are trying to feel strong, masculine, and consequential before they die.

@Render: Now I'm wondering where the CIA, MI, and other intelligence agencies have been and what they've been doing up to this happening. I imagine the same questions have been flying transatlantically and at the highest possible levels.

@thedisasterautist My guess for the moment is that they mimicked al Qaeda's old communications system.

Word of Mouth. Verbal couriers.

No electronic or wired communications.

Hamas leader tells flunky "Memorize these words and repeat them PIJ leader So-n-So."

@Render: I'd forgotten about that.

@Render: Are they wanting to trade eventually? Are they collecting hostages to threaten later?

@thedisasterautist Human shields first, trade later dead or alive.

@Render: Alas.

@Render 😲

@Render Fuckinell.

@Render holy shit

@Render This will end in a lot of suffering.

@Render
Hamas moved fast to get this footage out... Suppose you better get it out quickly when your days are numbered tho.

@Render: In this situation they'd be fools to give any kinds of heads-ups.

@Render: I would say, "This is lunacy," but sadly it isn't uncommon behavior. I don't mean "for Muslims" either. I mean no small amount of humanity. Iran/Hamas *had* to absolutely know what was going to happen when they hatched this. I cannot figure anything but all the folks engaged on the ground there are ready to get their rewards and that Iran/Hamas is totally there for it.

@Render

remember, Munich 72

someone made the choice for the Israelis.

and it sure as fuck wasn't the civilians in those towns

@Render: Hezbollah may be shitting themselves currently, locally anyway.

@Render

look, war is horrible, armed conflict is horrible. But seeing the Iron Dome in action makes me tingly