It remains unclear if Hezbollah will open a second front from Lebanon. Israel has threatened to destroy the Syrian capital Damascus, which backs the Shi’ite Muslim terror group, should the war broaden to the north.

Families of the kidnapped, missing and 2,200 wounded civilians are begging for news. Israel remains shrouded by military censorship. Nor is the news from the 2.3 million people in Gaza any clearer. Al-Jazeera, for example, lists out-of-date statistics. Based on data reported by the Palestinian Health Ministry, the Red Crescent Society and Israeli Medical Services, 560 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed. Those numbers are likely to rise exponentially in the coming hours and days.

More than 48 hours since the war broke out, the IDF spokesman announced the the army has neutralized the terrorists who overcame 22 cities and villages near the Gaza Strip. Israelis, meanwhile, are being evacuated from the border area in anticipation of a ground invasion. Some are being housed in empty hotels near the Dead Sea.

I’ve offered up our adjoining apartment. All our AirBnB guests have cancelled. Apart from the Israeli carrier El Al, airlines have stopped flying to Ben-Gurion Airport. The financial losses to the tourism industry will be enormous.

More surreal is the number of the dead, missing and wounded. The IDF has called up 300,000 reservists in the last 48 hours for what it has termed “Operation Swords of Iron.” Among them is my nephew Guy Carmeli, a Canadian-Israeli dual citizen and veteran tank gunner who lives in Herzliya with his wife Yael and 2-year-old son Oz.

Randi doesn’t know of his call-up. Maybe she’ll read it here. My wife doesn’t do well with stress.

At the same time, a news release from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies Egypt is trying to broker a ceasefire. It reads: “No message has arrived from Egypt and the prime minister has neither spoken, nor met, with the head of Egyptian intelligence since the formation of the government, neither directly nor indirectly. This is totally fake news.”