Originally Posted By dlkozy I thought that I would share this email with my friends at LP. This was sent to me by a friend who has dear friends in Galilee. It is the straight scoop and not a doctored version coming from the major news stations or CNN. >>>"Update from Ann in Galilee, Aug. 3rd. Hello all, and thank you for your tolerance when I let off steam the other day. Today is Tisha b'Av, a day of mourning for the destruction of the first and second temples in Jerusalem. It is a day when we remember past attempts to destroy the Jewish people, so it is especially poignant today. Israel's self-imposed pause didn't last very long. It started at 2am and already in the morning there were katushyas, albeit a lot less than we normally get. By about noon or so Israel had already bombed targets in southern Lebanon in support of ground troops, so the pause lasted less than 6 hours. Even so, there was considerably less air activity for those 48 hours. Monday night / Tuesday morning Israeli attacked about ten Lebanese towns simultaneously, whereas before we had been attacking only one place at a time. Most of these towns sit up on a series of ridges, so they control the highground and can control the flats below them on either side. All of them are Hisballah operational centers, and all have been used for launching rockets and mortars. Our goal is to take control of these towns first, then clean out the areas between them and the Israeli border later. We are trying to push the Hisballa back far enough to reduce the places their rockets can reach within Israel, which is what the 1982 war was all about, and the Litani Operation in the late 70s. We also want to be in control of as much strategic area as possible before the international troops, whoever they may be, are brought in. I think that this change in tactics (before we were only focusing on one village at a time) was a result of the extremely stormy meeting which our ! prime minister had with the 7 members of his special military advisory committee on Monday afternoon. Israeli reporters said that they could hear the shouting out in the foyer where they were waiting. Tuesday morning about 3 am I am pretty sure that I saw my son on Fox news. I knew he had gone into Lebanon just west of Metulla, to the area around Taibe (Altaybeh). The news clip was filmed through a green night lense and showed soldiers getting ready to go in. I saw him twice for just an instant. I am not 100ure it was him because it was at night and his face was painted green, but he had the same hair, the same ears and the same walk. It was really exciting to see him, if I ignored the "why" part of it. On Tuesday there were already rockets fairly regularly throughout the day. We have been averaging about 100 rockets a day throughout the north. Wednesday morning everything changed. I had been up all night following the reports of the Baalbek raid and the fighting in Taibe (Altaybeh), where Bryan is. I went to bed about 8 in the morning. Just after 9 in the morning we were told to go to the shelters immediately. Within about 40 minutes we got over 70 rockets just in our area alone (around Tiberius and the Golani Junction). Several fell in houses, on main streets, etc. A lot fell in the upper part of Tiberius, including one by the Paz gas station and another by the turnoff to the the road that goes to the hospital. One fell about 100 meters from my friend Gary's house, which is just a couple of streets above where Reuben, Susan and Mary Kahn live. Another fell by the bank in Kfar Tabor. Another fell near Kanaf on the Golan. We also got several quite close to us. We think that one fell on the hill behind us which separates the Beduoin camp from Migdal. It was intense. There were another 70-80 rockets around the rest o! f the north as well. Laurie and Todd, one fell in Dir El Asad, the Druze village where you stayed, the one with the great breakfast. The area of Haifa didn't get hit, but the areas to the east did. Also, in the early hours of Wednesday morning (1-2 am) Israeli helicopters dropped paratroopers into the northern Lebanese city of Baalbek. Baalbek is on my list of places I would love to see for decades, but that is besides the point. Baalbek is the spiritual center of the Hisballa, the city where they were founded, and where many of their top leaders live. Israel had received credible information that our two soldiers, whose kidnapping triggered the war, were being held in Baalbek. Three or four groups of paratroopers were dropped at different sites around the city, the most important being a private "hospital". There were several hours of fighting, and the Hisballa kept reporting that they had captured soldiers and had others "trapped", plus they had shot down a helicopter. In reality, Israel captured several of their leaders and returned safely home a few hours later. At the military briefing which we get nearly every evening from the army, they showed the films not only! of the troops landing, but also some of what they found in the "hospital" : anti-tank missiles inside of filing cabinets (the anti-tank missiles are just slightly larger than hand grenades), kalatchnikov rifles, recoiless rifles, etc. There was no sign of anything even remotely medical-looking. Even the beds were large, and set inside very ornate rooms. Outside, the building looked like a villa. In addition to the information which the captured fighters may provide, the attack was a huge morale boost for Israel, and a huge morale blow to the Hisballa. The rockets seem to be taking a break for a bit. A few minutes ago the phone rang and the caller identified herself as Bryan's company clerk. I had a short heart attack. She immediately reassured me and said that she was "just" calling all the parents to let them know that their sons were okay, to ask if we had any messages for them, and to wish us Shabbat Shalom. I wanted to kiss her feet. She explained that none of them had phones because they were "deep inside Lebanon", but that all were well and accounted for. I thanked her probably about a thousand times (she was very sweet) and then had a short but intense cry for a couple of minutes after I hung up. You can find plenty to complain about here, but the acts of true kindness like this are why I love this country. Bless that clerk! And bless her parents too!"<<<