Vigil for the safe return
of Israeli hostages and MIAs

"The sword is worse than death, famine is harder than the sword, captivity is worst of all..." (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Bava Batra 8b)

Timeline of recent events

JUNE 25 – Corp. Gilad Shalit, 19, was abducted by Hamas operatives and their terrorist allies who infiltrated Israeli territory in the area of Kibbutz Kerem Shalom. Lt. Hanan Barak, 20, of Arad and Staff-Sgt. Pavel Slutzker, 20, of Dimona, were both killed in this terrorist raid.

Eliahu Pinhas Asheri, 18, of Itamar, was kidnapped by terrorists from the Popular Resistance Committees while hitchhiking to Neveh Tzuf, where he was studying. His body was found on June 29 in Ramallah. He had been shot in the head.

      Gilad Shalit                Pavel Slutsker         Hanan Barak         Eliyahu Asheri

JULY 12 - Hezbollah terrorists attacked two IDF armoured jeeps patrolling the border with Lebanon, killing three soldiers and kidnapping two. Four more soldiers were declared missing and presumed dead after their tank hit a mine and exploded. An eighth soldier was killed when IDF troops entered Lebanon to try to retrieve the bodies of the tank crew.

The two kidnapped soldiers are Ehud Goldwasser, 31, of Nahariya, and Eldad Regev, 26, of Kiryat Motzkin.

JULY 13  - Monica Seidman, 40, of Nahariya was killed and more than 70 others were wounded by Hezbullah-fired Katyusha rockets, which struck civilian-populated areas throughout northern Israel.

Haifa is hit by Hezbollah rockets

JULY 14 - An Israeli navy ship was severely damaged by an Iran-manufactured missile fired by

On Friday evening, Omer Pesachov, 7, of Naharia and his grandmother Yehudit Itzkovitch, 58, of Moshav Meron were killed by a Katyusha rocket in Meron.

 
JULY 15 - Katyusha rockets landed for the first time in Tiberias, located 35 kilometers from the Lebanese border on the Sea of Galilee, as well as in nearby communities.

JULY 16 - Rockets began falling on the Haifa area shortly after 9:00 a.m. Eight employees of Israel Railways at the Haifa train depot were killed in a direct hit by a Fajar missile made in Syria. A total of over 50 people were wounded in Haifa and the Haifa Bay area.

JULY 17 -  Over 50 rockets were fired towards the eastern and upper Galilee on Monday night. A Katyusha rocket hit the Rebecca Sieff Hospital in Safed, causing damage to infrastructure; five patients, two doctors and two other hospital employees were injured. Earlier, 11 people were wounded in Haifa when a 3-story apartment building was hit by missile.

The Israel Air Force destroyed at least ten long-range Iranian-made missiles capable of hitting Tel Aviv, targeting a Hizbullah truck carrying the missiles before they could be launched. To date, missiles have been fired up to 40 kilometers into Israel.

JULY 18 -  Andrei Zelinksy, 36, was killed Tuesday evening in Nahariya outside a bomb shelter.
Some 130 rockets were fired at the north on Tuesday, 100 of them within one hour and a half - also landing in the Haifa area, Karmiel, Tiberias, Safed, Maalot and Rosh Pina. About 60 people injured were evacuated to hospitals in Safed and Nahariya.

JULY 19 -  Two soldiers were killed and nine wounded in exchanges of fire between IDF and Hizbullah in Maroun al-Ras, in southern Lebanon, near Moshav Avivim. The Israeli force had crossed the border to destroy the Hizbullah rocket-launching position at the former IDF outpost of Shaked.
Rabia Abed Taluzi (3) and his brother Mahmoud (7) who were playing soccer outside their house were killed and dozens were wounded in two Katyusha rocket attacks on the Israeli Arab city of Nazareth.

JULY 20 - Five IDF soldiers were killed and five wounded in continuing exchanges of fire in the Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras, where two soldiers were killed on Wednesday. The body of the fifth soldier, St.-Sgt. Yonatan (Sergei) Vlasyuk, 21, of Kibbutz Lahav was retrieved on July 22.
An IDF officer was killed and three soldiers were wounded as two Apache (Cobra) combat helicopters on their way to Lebanon to assist IDF forces operating against Hizbullah terrorists near Avivim collided and then crashed south of Kiryat Shmona.

- PM Olmert, DM Peretz and FMLivni approved the establishment of a "humanitarian corridor" between Lebanon and Cyprus.

JULY 23 - Shimon Glicklich, 60, of Haifa was killed Sunday morning (11:00) while driving his car in Haifa. Habib Isa Awad, 48, of Iblin, was killed while working in the carpentry shop in Kiryat Ata. Another 12 were wounded in the morning barrage in Haifa, and more later in the day as over 90 rockets were fired at Haifa,  Akko, Kiryat Shmona, and elsewhere in northern Israel.
- World diplomats come to Israel for talks: French FM Douste-Blazy, German FM Steinmeier, British Minister of State Howells.

JULY 24 - An IDF officer and soldier were killed and 14 soldiers were wounded in heavy exchanges of fire between IDF forces and Hizbullah terrorists near the town of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon, which had become Hizbullah's main base of terror operations since Israel's withdrawal in 2000. Two Hizbullah terrorists were taken captive.

- Two pilots were killed Monday afternoon when their Apache helicopter crashed north of Safed  while assisting ground troops in Lebanon.
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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in Israel for talks.

JULY 25  - Doua Abbas, a 15-year-old girl, was killed when a rocket struck her home near the mosque in the Galilee village of Maghar, home to Israeli Druze and Moslems.

- PM Olmert meets with Secy of State Rice.

JULY 26 -  Nine IDF soldiers were killed and 25 wounded in fighting with Hizbullah terrorists in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, which IDF infantry and armored corps had surrounded a day earlier, and later in fighting near Maroun al-Ras.

International Conference for Lebanon convened in Rome, co-chaired by Italy and the United States, and attended by the foreign ministers and top representatives of the Lebanon Core Group and other invitees.

JULY 28 - Long-range missiles hit Afula.

JULY 29 - US Secy of State returns to the region.

JULY 30 - Israel expresses regret at civilian deaths in Kafr Qana but places blame on Hizbullah for using them as "human shields" to fire rockets at Israel.

Israel agrees to 48-hour suspension of aerial activity in south Lebanon.

UN Security Council convenes.