Sat 31st July

A Qassam missile, fired from Gaza, hit a children’s hydrotherapy centre situated in Sderot’s Sapir College. The centre, that was totally destroyed, provides therapy and workshops for special-needs children who live in the Western Negev and is used by children from the entire country.

On any other day, a catastrophe would have taken place, killing all the children at the centre. During week days, the Centre closes at 10 p.m. and is packed with hundreds of children and therapists.

The missile strikes of Sat 24th July, Fri 30th July (reported last week) and Sat 31st July were not reported on the news bulletins or Ceefax. The counter strike by the Israelis was, with a brief reference that it was in retaliation for a missile strike on Ashkelon.

Mon 2nd August: Missiles fired at Israeli resort town of Eilat

Terrorists operating out of the Sinai Peninsula fired five missiles toward the resort city of Eilat at the southern tip of Israel on Monday morning.

Two of the missiles landed in the neighbouring Jordanian resort and port city of Aqaba. One of those missiles hit the beach adjacent to the Intercontinental Hotel and wounded four people, one seriously.

Two of the missiles landed in the Red Sea, and another hit just behind the main row of luxury hotels in Eilat.

Tues 3rd August

The Israeli and Lebanese armies engaged in an exchange of fire along Israel’s northern border on Tuesday.
According to Israeli military sources, the incident was sparked when Lebanese soldiers confronted Israeli troops conducted routine operations along a disputed section of the border. The Lebanese refused to depart the area and instead opened fire on the Israelis.

In the Lebanese version of events, it was Lebanese soldiers who were operating in the area, and the Israelis who refused to leave. The Lebanese said they fired warning shots to scare off the Israelis, but were instead met by Israeli tank fire.

To the surprise of many Israelis, the United Nations on Wednesday confirmed that Israeli soldiers were unjustly attacked by Lebanese Army forces during routine maintenance along the border a day earlier.

Lebanon-Israel Blue Line

Location of Tuesday's incident marked in red, clearly on the Israeli side of the border.

A member of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) released a statement noting that the Israeli army had notified the world body of its intention to conduct maintenance work very close to the Blue Line, which is the internationally-recognized border.
Israel regularly cuts down large trees in the area between the Israeli security fence and the Blue Line (which is still sovereign Israeli territory) in order to deny Lebanese terrorist forces cover for attacks on Israeli border towns.

“I can confirm that we received notification from the IDF about the work and we passed the information on to the Lebanese Army,” a Hungarian diplomat working with UNIFIL stated.

But the Lebanese used the information to set up an ambush. As the Israelis began their work, again, on Israel’s side of the UN-demarcated border, Lebanese army snipers opened fire, killing the Israeli unit’s commander and critically wounding one of his deputies. Israeli tanks returned fire, and were attacked by Lebanese anti-tank missiles. Israeli artillery then pounded the area.
Israeli army commanders noted that Arab journalists were already present on the Lebanese side of the border, proving that the clash was a planned ambush.

Israel continues to be a leader in cutting edge technology

A new sniff-sensing device designed in Israel may help the severely paralyzed to communicate, surf the Net and steer their wheelchairs.

Sniffing is a precise motor skill that is controlled partly by the soft palate, which in turn is controlled by several nerves that connect directly through the braincase.

A stroke patient locked into her body for seven months unable to move or communicate was able to write an email to her family using a new device developed in Israel that allows severely disabled people to communicate and steer a wheelchair by sniffing.
The revolutionary new device identifies changes in air pressure inside the nostrils and translates these into electrical signals which can then be used either to write messages or to move a wheelchair.

Simple to learn, cheap to produce

One patient who had been locked into his body after a traffic accident 18 years ago, wrote that the new device was much easier to use than one based on blinking. Another 10 patients, all quadriplegics, succeeded in operating a computer and writing messages through sniffing.

In addition to communication, the device can function as a steering mechanism for wheelchairs: Two successive sniffs tell it to go forward, two out mean reverse, out and then in turn it left, and in and out turn it right. After 15 minutes of practice, the researchers found that a patient paralyzed from the neck down could navigate a wheelchair through a complex route – sharp turns and all – as well as a non-disabled volunteer.

Sniffs can be in or out, strong or shallow, long or short; and this gives the device’s developers the opportunity to create a complex ‘language’ with multiple signals.

With thanks to Israel Today, ICEJ, Israel 21c and the Jerusalem Post