Israel Airstrikes Target Hamas; SABOTAGE at Iran Missile Base? | Watchman Newscast

Today on the newscast, Israel strikes Hamas in Gaza and may have just struck inside Iran as well. Get my take next. Hey folks, Eric Stakelbeck here. Welcome to the Watchman newscast. We told you here yesterday that things are heating up between Israel and Hamas in Gaza for three reasons. Number one, Hamas has been meeting in recent weeks, as we have documented here on the newscast, with various terror groups usually in Beirut, Lebanon, as they are plotting a larger strategy against Israel. Essentially, Hamas is calling for other Iran-backed, mostly, terror groups in the region to unite against Israel and increase their attacks, in particular during the high holiday season, which we are in the midst of right now. Number two, along those lines, in recent weeks, Hamas has instigated violent riots along the Israel-Gaza border, where IDF soldiers have been fired at by Palestinian rioters, egged on by Hamas, including Hamas members involved in these riots. And number three, and we mentioned this on yesterday's newscast, these incendiary balloons. Once again, Hamas is sailing, I guess you would say, or floating these flammable balloons over the border into southern Israel, where in the past, they have scorched thousands of acres of land in southern Israel and severely impacted the economy there. And again, folks, these balloons, they look like the kind of balloons you'd see handed out at a little kid's birthday party, but Hamas is using them as flammable incendiary devices. It's a rudimentary technique, but guess what? It has caused a lot of economic damage over the past few years. It is an intolerable situation for Israel. So as I'm coming to you around 1 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, September 26th, Israel is carrying out airstrikes against Hamas military targets in Gaza, including drone strikes against some of the perpetrators of these balloon attacks. And you may laugh again and be dismissive and say, they're just balloons. Well, as you'll see in a minute, we're heading to southern Israel. An interview I did a few years back with an Israeli in southern Israel, whose life and livelihood had been severely impacted by these flammable devices that Hamas is using really throughout the region in southern Israel, a major impact, disastrous impact. So we'll go there in a minute on the ground. We're going to take you there, but want to get you up to speed on what's going on right now in Israel south. Will this escalate? Certainly Hamas, as I mentioned a minute ago in recent weeks has been calling for an escalation against Israel for them. This is the perfect time to do it, do it during the high holiday season and keep an eye on the temple Mount in Jerusalem. Every time in recent years, it seems when Hamas instigates a new conflict with Israel, they're using the temple Mount as basically a cudgel to come against Israel with. They're saying that Israel is defiling the Al-Aqsa Mosque and they're using that to provoke conflict. So we're watching all of that very closely in the meantime, and God willing, it won't escalate into a larger conflict once again, but that's up to Hamas. If Hamas continues to push and press and attack Israelis and attack Israeli soldiers, then Israel will have no choice but to respond. In the meantime, Hamas is master, ultimately the Iranian regime. Also some very interesting reports coming out of Iran today. There is a ballistic missile base in the Western half of Iran near Karamabad, a city there. It is called the Imam Ali base. There are two underground missile silos in that area of Western Iran. And reportedly last night, Monday night overnight, there were some very large explosions and a rumbling of the ground felt in that area. Now, these missile silos, the Imam Ali silos are about 20 miles West of Karamabad and citizens in that city said, wow, we were shocked. We were woken up in the middle of the night. We thought it may have been an earthquake. The Iranian regime's not saying anything folks, but reports out of the region are that perhaps Israel carried out an operation against one of these underground missile silos that may have involved drones. Again, these are reports out of the region, no official verification. Of course, Israel hasn't said anything and the Iranian regime has not accused Israel of doing anything there, but clearly a very suspicious incident, especially considering that these underground silos contain mid range ballistic missiles, which have a range of over 1200 miles, meaning they can reach Israel. And secondly, these missiles reportedly can carry a nuclear warhead. So certainly Israel would have motivation to carry out some sort of sabotage attack there. And it fits with the pattern, right folks, over the years that we've documented for you here in the newscast of Israel's Mossad carrying out daring and very effective operations on Iranian soil, not only against Iran's nuclear program, against Iranian ballistic missile factories, but against Iranian scientists who are involved in that nuclear weapons program. So a lot going on in the world's most volatile and chaotic region. Hey, I promised you that we would head to Southern Israel. That's exactly what we are going to do. This was about four years ago. I believe this interview I conducted, that was when these balloon attacks were really at their height and they were scorching acre upon acre of land in Southern Israel when where agriculture is the driving force of the economy there, they were having a major impact. So I interviewed a regional official there about that impact. And folks, it's very timely right now as these incendiary balloon attacks ramp up once again. Take a look. Well, Chaim, we are about a mile from the Gaza border. People might hear the drones flying, monitoring Hamas activity there and also monitoring, Chaim, these terrorist balloons that have been causing a lot of trouble here in the communities in Southern Israel near the Gaza border. Tell us what's been going on here over the past few months. The direction of the wind take those balloons from the border into our fields, start here and go to the east. And, you know, it's every day land in different fields. The most damages were so June, July, where it's harvest time and the wheat is, the crop is ready to be harvested and it's very dry. And then a small piece, small fire make the whole field burning burn up. Now, Chaim, look, this is thousands of acres of land have been burned by these balloons. About 80 percent of the profit of those kibbutzim here. We have 10 kibbutzim in our area and one moshav. It's based on agriculture and mostly the open fields agriculture. This is their livelihood. This is this is how they make a living. And this is disrupting everything. These kites. Yeah. And also, I have to emphasize that it's not only the economic damage, it's also the let's say the moral damage or the psychological damage. You know, when farmer, which he started to agriculture guy, he start to work now in November and he grow up his wheat all over six months. His attitude to the field is like attitude to a child. They love the land. Yeah, I love the land. You love the crop. And he very, very loved to harvest and to make money and to make a living from it. And then in the in this special point of of the very most important point of time, you know, harvesting that everything is burned and burned up. Yeah, it's burned up. This hurts your morale. It hurts you mentally, psychologically. It's really an effective terror tactic used by Hamas. They are very, you know, it's they find they find a very effective system because it's very easy. It's very easy. It's very cheap. It's very easy. Very cheap. And we we have to solve it. And as you know, as you know, these Israelis, they will find a solution. Finally, it will take time, but they will find it. You can have four or five of these balloon bombings per day, every day. This is happening. Yeah, it's it's several times a day and people have to be ready to go out and, you know, to to put out the fire. They become firefighters. They have to be ready 24 hours. Let's say they cannot beat Israel militarily, but they're trying to wear you down and harm your quality of life. Right. They have to understand that here people, the agriculture, all the people of the communities, they're very strong. Nothing will cause them to move away. They're here and they will be here forever. And we will continue to make agriculture and we will find, as I told you before, the solution to to those balloons. Folks, please pray for those beautiful and brave communities in southern Israel right now as they are under the gun once again, constantly with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, these two Iranian proxies in Gaza trying to make the lives of the residents of southern Israel along the Gaza border a living hell. But those residents are, again, courageous. They're most of them are staying put. Some have left, no doubt, but many are saying, hey, this is our home and we're not going to let terror win. Even so, it is a very tough life there. So keep those folks in your prayers for sure in southern Israel. Also pray for the peace of Jerusalem and that Hamas doesn't instigate anything there. Prayer works and we need it more now than ever in these Bible prophetic times in which we are living. Hey, speaking of which, a quick programming note before we go. This Thursday, September 28th, we will have our Watchmen newscast live stream right here on the channel between 4 and 5 p.m. Eastern Time. Now, we usually come to you on Wednesday, but because of some scheduling conflicts over these past two weeks, we're coming to you Thursday. I'm sure we'll be back to Wednesday next week, but as for this week, join us 4 p.m. Eastern Time right here on the channel live and bring your questions for our Q&A session. That's Thursday, September 28th, live until tomorrow. Thanks so much for joining us here today on the Watchmen newscast. God bless you and remember, never hold your peace. Hey everyone, thanks for checking out the Watchmen newscast. Make sure you hit the subscribe button so you never miss an upload and tap the bell icon so you're notified every time a new video is posted. And don't forget to share your thoughts, insights, and comments below. Thanks for watching. We'll see you back here tomorrow.