The opening airstrikes against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror group in the Gaza Strip were launched on Lag B’Omer. What makes Lag B’Omer different than all other days of the year? One major difference is that Israelis gather in open areas throughout the country to light bonfires. That difference posed a problem in the case of PIJ retaliatory rocket launches against Israel. The protocol for the costly Iron Dome interceptions is that the missile defense system isn’t activated if a rocket is headed to an open unpopulated area. But on Lag B’Omer, many otherwise unpopulated areas are filled with people. According to an Army Radio report, the IDF revised the Iron Dome protocol for the first day of the operation to intercept missiles headed for unpopulated areas.

The FDNY was on the scene of a working structure fire in Flatbush on Sunday afternoon. The fire started just after 2:00PM in a garage behind a home on East 12th Street between Avenue M and Avenue N. Dramatic footage showed a fast moving fire burning out of control, and quickly spreading to a second garage. Thankfully, the FDNY was able to contain it without spreading to nearby homes. Flatbush Hatzolah staged on the scene, but Bichasdei Hashem, it did not appear that anyone was injured. THIS STORY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED ON THE FLATBUSH SCOOP STATUS CLICK HERE SIGN UP TO THE FLATBUSH SCOOP WHATSAPP STATUS TO BE INFORMED OF FLATBUSH NEWS IN LIVE TIME (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

In an intelligence initiative that began eight months ago, senior Israeli security officials assembled teams of Shin Bet and military intelligence operatives along with Air Force officials who closely studied every move of Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders (PIJ) in the Gaza Strip, Channel 12 News reported on Sunday morning. According to a source quoted by the report, the team members became so familiar with the lives of the PIJ commanders that they knew them “even better than their spouses.” They knew their schedules – what time they ate, prayed, and went to sleep – their families, friends and associates, their vehicles, and of course, their terror activities.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu opened the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday morning by praising Israel’s accomplishments during Operation Shield and Arrow, which ended with a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group on Motzei Shabbos. “Last night we successfully completed five days of fighting against the terrorist organization of the Islamic Jihad. Before the start of the operation, the instructions I issued together with the Defense Minister to the IDF and the Shin Bet can be summed up in two words: ‘Initiative and surprise’. Yesterday I congratulated the IDF Chief of Staff and the head of the Shin Bet – also with two words: ‘Well done’. And the execution was indeed perfect.

Shortly after Marine Daniel Penny was charged by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg over the chokehold death of mentally unstable Jordan Neely on a Big Apple subway, he got a powerful – if not unexpected – ally: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. After Penny’s Friday arraignment on a second-degree manslaughter charge, DeSantis shared a legal defense fundraiser for the embattler Marine and called him a Good Samaritan. “We must defeat the Soros-Funded DAs, stop the Left’s pro-criminal agenda, and take back the streets for law abiding citizens. We stand with Good Samaritans like Daniel Penny. Let’s show this Marine… America’s got his back,” DeSantis tweeted. We must defeat the Soros-Funded DAs, stop the Left's pro-criminal agenda, and take back the streets for law abiding citizens.

According to an Al Jazeera report on Motzei Shabbos, Israel, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group have agreed to an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire beginning at Motzei Shabbos at 10 p.m. Heavy rocket fire continued over Shabbos, with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group launching a barrage of rockets toward southern Israel on Shabbos morning. A Palestinian resident of Gaza who was working in an Israeli yishuv near the Gaza border was killed by rocket shrapnel on Shabbos and his brother was seriously injured. The IDF continued carrying out extensive strikes again PIJ targets in the Gaza Strip, including military command centers in residential buildings after warning residents to leave the area. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

A barrage of rockets were launched toward Jerusalem and surrounding areas early Friday afternoon, the fourth day of Operation Shield and Arrow. Red alert sirens were heard in Beitar Illit, Beit Shemesh, Efrat and other yishuvim in Gush Etzion, and communities in the Jerusalem Hills. Rockets were also launched at towns near the Gaza border. One rocket landed in an open area near Bat Ayin, a second rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome, and a third rocket was intercepted by the David’s Sling missile defense system, its second interception since the start of the operation. Baruch Hashem, there were no reports of injuries. There was a direct hit on a home in Sderot. B’Chasdei Hashem, there were no injuries.

In the first reference of Daas Torah to the boycott of Angel Bakery, HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Zilberstein said that whoever buys Angel’s products is showing that kavod haTorah is not important to him. The issue arose in a letter to HaRav Zilberstein by a Chareidi mother whose 11-year-old son is very particular about food. He is used to eating Angel products and every day he takes bread, rugelach and berokas to school and he says he can’t eat baked goods from other companies. The mother wanted Daas Torah on whether she can allow her son to eat Angel products since he simply won’t eat if he doesn’t have the food he likes. HaRav Zilberstein’s response was published in a monthly booklet published by the Beis Dovid kollel in Holon.

Following the attack at a shul in Djerba, Tunisia on Lag B’Omer that killed two Jews, H’yd, The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency have been monitoring a serious threat to the Jewish community in Djerba for months. According to the report, a senior Israeli government official told Jewish leaders in a closed discussion two months ago that “in a small Jewish community in Tunisia, Jews are being picked on by the press and by local police, with a sense of antisemitism coming from the local government.” “We’re working on monitoring the situation with the Jewish Agency and with the Aliyah and Integration Ministry, trying to create an impact and try to bring these Jews to Israel.” Is there a secret plan for the mass aliyah of Tunisian Jews?

One person was killed and five people were injured on Thursday evening when a rocket scored a direct hit on a three-story residential building in the central city of Rechovot. Four people in moderate condition and one person in light condition were evacuated to Kaplan Hospital in the city. One man, who is conscious, was trapped under a fallen beam. A woman suffered a wound on her head from a piece of shrapnel. In Sdot Negev, a woman was lightly injured by a rocket that fell in the yard of a home. A foreign worker was seriously injured by shrapnel that fell in a yishuv in the Eshkol Regional Council, close to the Gaza border. There are also reports of two rockets that fell in Sderot. At least one person was lightly injured. This is a developing story.