π️Lonny's War Update- October 225, 2023 - May 18, 2024 (cont)
π️Day 225 (cont) that 128 of our hostages in Hamas captivity
**There is nothing more important than getting them home! NOTHING!**
“I’ve never met them,But I miss them. I’ve never met them,but I think of them every second. I’ve never met them,but they are my family. BRING THEM HOME NOW!!!”
There is no victory until all of the hostages are home!ΧΧΧ Χ Χ¦ΧΧΧ Χ’Χ Χ©ΧΧ ΧΧΧΧΧ€ΧΧ ΧΧΧΧͺ
Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements
*3:55pm- north- hostile aircraft intrusion- Iftach, Ramat Naftali, Dishon, Malkia. Lower Golan and upper Galilee *5:15pm- north- hostile aircraft intrusion-Dovev, Sasa, Matat*6:00pm- north-rockets Shtula*6:05pm-north- hostile aircraft intrusion-upper and western Galilee *6:50pm- north- hostile aircraft intrusion-upper Galilee *7:55pm-north- hostile aircraft intrusion-Golan
Hostage Updates
- **Relatives of Captives Outside the Kirya: "Netanyahu is Sabotaging Negotiations for Political Considerations"**
Yehuda Cohen, father of Nimrod Cohen: "We tell the war cabinet: You must return everyone now. You must immediately rescue all the living hostages and bring the fallen for burial in Israel. The only way to do this is through a deal. We heard the clear words of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant about Netanyahu's systematic refusal to advance a plan for the day after, including an alternative to Hamas rule. When Netanyahu does not advance replacing Hamas rule, he strengthens Hamas just as he has strengthened it for years."
Yifat Kalderon, cousin of Ofer Kalderon: "The very entry into Rafah endangers the lives of the hostages and jeopardizes a deal to return them. Deepening the operation and Netanyahu's refusal to advance a plan for the day after is evidence of abandonment: Netanyahu's government will no longer be able to claim that the war's objectives - returning the hostages and toppling Hamas - are intertwined. Expanding operations in Rafah means abandoning living hostages."
Einav Tzengaker, mother of captive Menachem Tzengaker, addressed cabinet ministers from the National camp Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot: "You joined the government to save lives, and yet, a whole week you did not discuss the hostages in cabinet meetings. Eight minutes you devoted to it the day before yesterday and continuing the discussion was only scheduled for the evening. This while our family members are undergoing captivity, starvation and abuse. Why do you continue allowing Netanyahu to sabotage negotiations for a deal? Why don't you go public, as Gallant did? And why did you support entering Rafah, when you know it jeopardizes a prisoner exchange deal and the captives themselves? You are normalizing abandonment and cooperating with it. You tell yourselves you are influencing, but the bottom line is the hostages are not here, and we only receive coffins. Your moral duty is to urgently remove Netanyahu from power, because he is abandoning the hostages to their deaths." link
- IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari is delivering a special statement to the media this evening (Saturday). This comes against the backdrop of an announcement from the Headquarters for the Return of the Captives, which stated: "The Headquarters bows its head and mourns upon receiving the difficult news about the murder of Ron Binyamin by Hamas militants, and the abduction of his body to Gaza."
Hostage Updates
- **Relatives of Captives Outside the Kirya: "Netanyahu is Sabotaging Negotiations for Political Considerations"**
Yifat Kalderon, cousin of Ofer Kalderon: "The very entry into Rafah endangers the lives of the hostages and jeopardizes a deal to return them. Deepening the operation and Netanyahu's refusal to advance a plan for the day after is evidence of abandonment: Netanyahu's government will no longer be able to claim that the war's objectives - returning the hostages and toppling Hamas - are intertwined. Expanding operations in Rafah means abandoning living hostages."
Einav Tzengaker, mother of captive Menachem Tzengaker, addressed cabinet ministers from the National camp Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot: "You joined the government to save lives, and yet, a whole week you did not discuss the hostages in cabinet meetings. Eight minutes you devoted to it the day before yesterday and continuing the discussion was only scheduled for the evening. This while our family members are undergoing captivity, starvation and abuse. Why do you continue allowing Netanyahu to sabotage negotiations for a deal? Why don't you go public, as Gallant did? And why did you support entering Rafah, when you know it jeopardizes a prisoner exchange deal and the captives themselves? You are normalizing abandonment and cooperating with it. You tell yourselves you are influencing, but the bottom line is the hostages are not here, and we only receive coffins. Your moral duty is to urgently remove Netanyahu from power, because he is abandoning the hostages to their deaths." link
- IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari is delivering a special statement to the media this evening (Saturday). This comes against the backdrop of an announcement from the Headquarters for the Return of the Captives, which stated: "The Headquarters bows its head and mourns upon receiving the difficult news about the murder of Ron Binyamin by Hamas militants, and the abduction of his body to Gaza."
The Families' Headquarters said: "Returning his body to Israel is a sacred mission, enabling his family to lay him to rest in the soil of Israel." The Families' Headquarters added: "128 captives have been waiting to be redeemed and return to Israel for 225 long days and nights. The Israeli government must focus on the sole important mission - to send out negotiating teams this very evening, and fight for their return home - the living for rehabilitation, and the murdered for dignified burial, as was made possible for Ron Binyamin this evening."
Ron Binyamin (53), married to Ayelet and father to Shai and Gil, was a family man who loved cycling and would go out every Saturday for a bike ride, like on the Black Saturday when he was abducted from the area of Kibbutz Beeri while on a cycling trip. Ron loved .
.hiking in Israel and around the world, and loved music
May his memory be a blessing
Ron Binyamin. Ten Minutes Before the Attack Began
- My brothers’s twitter post: To be clear: Hamas is responsible for the murder of the hostages, but the military pressure won’t bring them home, only a deal with Hamas will bring them home.
- I just came home from the weekly demonstration for the release of the Hostages. And each week, I leave the demonstration with very mixed feelings. I am saddened by the stories of the families and all they are going through. I am strengthened by all the others who feel as I do that the hostages are our family and we are all family of hostages, but also saddened that not everyone feels that way. And I am pissed as hell that we even have to be there to demonstrate, that it isn't obvious and a given that this must be the priority of the government, of the war cabinet, of the Prime Minister, and that the families, instead of being comforted and work on healing, have to fight with our own government to make a deal and get our hostages home. Following a weekend like this where we were informed that they managed to rescue 4 more hostage bodies, 3 of who the families had still hoped they were alive, I'm even angrier than I was before. There is only one person standing in the way of getting all the hostages home, and hopefully most of them still alive, and that one person is our Prime Minister. All he has to do is give the word to the negotiating team to do what is necessary to bring them home, and poof!, a deal will be made. But his political preservation remains his first priority and he knows that his extremist coalition partners do not value the lives of the hostages and he will not risk them bringing the government down because that would mean new elections. And Netanyahu knows that if elections are held in the near future, there is no way that he will be Prime Minister. And for that, he is willing to sacrifice the lives of the hostages and the healing of the nation, which can't come before bringing the hostages home.
Ron Binyamin. Ten Minutes Before the Attack Began
- My brothers’s twitter post: To be clear: Hamas is responsible for the murder of the hostages, but the military pressure won’t bring them home, only a deal with Hamas will bring them home.
- I just came home from the weekly demonstration for the release of the Hostages. And each week, I leave the demonstration with very mixed feelings. I am saddened by the stories of the families and all they are going through. I am strengthened by all the others who feel as I do that the hostages are our family and we are all family of hostages, but also saddened that not everyone feels that way. And I am pissed as hell that we even have to be there to demonstrate, that it isn't obvious and a given that this must be the priority of the government, of the war cabinet, of the Prime Minister, and that the families, instead of being comforted and work on healing, have to fight with our own government to make a deal and get our hostages home. Following a weekend like this where we were informed that they managed to rescue 4 more hostage bodies, 3 of who the families had still hoped they were alive, I'm even angrier than I was before. There is only one person standing in the way of getting all the hostages home, and hopefully most of them still alive, and that one person is our Prime Minister. All he has to do is give the word to the negotiating team to do what is necessary to bring them home, and poof!, a deal will be made. But his political preservation remains his first priority and he knows that his extremist coalition partners do not value the lives of the hostages and he will not risk them bringing the government down because that would mean new elections. And Netanyahu knows that if elections are held in the near future, there is no way that he will be Prime Minister. And for that, he is willing to sacrifice the lives of the hostages and the healing of the nation, which can't come before bringing the hostages home.
Gaza
IDF Spokesman: Activity Continues in East Rafah, Around 50 Militants Eliminated: The IDF launched several targeted raids on terror infrastructure in eastern Rafah today. According to the military statement, combat troops from the 401st Brigade commanded by the 162nd Division deepened their raid into the eastern part of the city, and during the activity eliminated around 50 militants and located dozens of tunnel shafts that are undergoing investigation and demolition. "So far, hundreds of terror infrastructures have been destroyed, including weapons manufacturing sites and launch sites ready for firing."
Trucks carrying badly needed aid to the Gaza Strip rolled across a newly built US pier and into the Palestinian enclave for the first time Friday, after seven months of intense fighting in the Israel-Hamas war.
The shipment is the first in an operation that American military officials anticipate could scale up to 150 truckloads a day, all while Israel presses in on the southern city of Rafah in its campaign against Hamas. At the White House, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said “more than 300 pallets” of aid were in the initial delivery and handed over to the United Nations, which was preparing it for distribution.
The Israel Defense Forces and the Defense Ministry also issued a statement confirming that over 300 pallets of supplies had been transferred via the pier. Kirby said the US has gotten indications that “some of that aid was already moving into Gaza.”
But the US, the UN and aid groups warn that the floating pier project is not a substitute for land deliveries that could bring in all the food, water and fuel needed in Gaza. Before the war, more than 500 truckloads entered the Palestinian territory on an average day.
The operation’s success also remains tenuous because of the risk of terrorist attacks, logistical hurdles and a growing shortage of fuel for the aid trucks due to Israeli restrictions since Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 252 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault. Aid agencies say they are running out of food in southern Gaza, while the UN World Food Program says famine has already taken hold in Gaza’s north.
Troops finished installing the floating pier on Thursday, and the US military’s Central Command said the first aid crossed into Gaza at 9 a.m. Friday. It said no American troops went ashore in the operation.
The Pentagon said no backups were expected in the distribution process. The US plan is for the United Nations, through the World Food Program, to take charge of the aid once it leaves the pier. This will involve coordinating the arrival of empty trucks and their registration, overseeing the transfer of goods coming through the floating dock to the trucks and their dispatch to warehouses across Gaza, and, finally, handing over the supplies to aid groups for delivery. The UK said some of its aid for Gaza was in the first shipment that went ashore, including the first of 8,400 kits to provide temporary shelters made of plastic sheeting. And it said more aid, including 2,000 additional shelter kits, 900 tents, five forklift trucks and 9,200 hygiene kits, will follow in the coming weeks.
“This is the culmination of a Herculean joint international effort,” said British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. “We know the maritime route is not the only answer. We need to see more land routes open, including via the Rafah crossing, to ensure much more aid gets safely to civilians in desperate need of help.”
Aid distribution had not yet begun as of Friday afternoon, said a UN official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The official said the process of unloading and reloading cargo was still ongoing.
- Dozens of militants were neutralized in the heart of Jabaliya, documentation: Armed men fled to the roof of a building - and were attacked. A combat team from the Paratroopers Brigade neutralized many militants in clashes in the heart of the city • In one of the documentations, a cell went up to the roof of a building during an exchange of fire with IDF forces - and was neutralized. A combat team from the Paratroopers Brigade neutralized dozens of militants in clashes in the city of Jabaliya in the Gaza Strip, the IDF reported tonight (Saturday).
- IDF forces neutralized a militant cell in a clash after the latter fled to the roof of a building and fired at the forces. The fighters struck the building where they were hiding and neutralized the cell, with no casualties on our side. The IDF reports that the forces are fighting in the heart of Jabaliya in neighborhoods where they have not operated in the past in the city, which was one of the first cities in the Gaza Strip that Israel invaded as part of the fighting. According to the military, the fighters are raiding terrorist targets in a densely populated area and fighting between and inside fortified buildings and compounds and destroying them. In the meantime, paratroopers are engaged in dozens of battles against militants, neutralizing them and locating many means of combat, explosives, weapons and mortar shells.
Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah
IDF Spokesman: Activity Continues in East Rafah, Around 50 Militants Eliminated: The IDF launched several targeted raids on terror infrastructure in eastern Rafah today. According to the military statement, combat troops from the 401st Brigade commanded by the 162nd Division deepened their raid into the eastern part of the city, and during the activity eliminated around 50 militants and located dozens of tunnel shafts that are undergoing investigation and demolition. "So far, hundreds of terror infrastructures have been destroyed, including weapons manufacturing sites and launch sites ready for firing."
Trucks carrying badly needed aid to the Gaza Strip rolled across a newly built US pier and into the Palestinian enclave for the first time Friday, after seven months of intense fighting in the Israel-Hamas war.
The shipment is the first in an operation that American military officials anticipate could scale up to 150 truckloads a day, all while Israel presses in on the southern city of Rafah in its campaign against Hamas. At the White House, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said “more than 300 pallets” of aid were in the initial delivery and handed over to the United Nations, which was preparing it for distribution.
The Israel Defense Forces and the Defense Ministry also issued a statement confirming that over 300 pallets of supplies had been transferred via the pier. Kirby said the US has gotten indications that “some of that aid was already moving into Gaza.”
But the US, the UN and aid groups warn that the floating pier project is not a substitute for land deliveries that could bring in all the food, water and fuel needed in Gaza. Before the war, more than 500 truckloads entered the Palestinian territory on an average day.
The operation’s success also remains tenuous because of the risk of terrorist attacks, logistical hurdles and a growing shortage of fuel for the aid trucks due to Israeli restrictions since Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 252 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault. Aid agencies say they are running out of food in southern Gaza, while the UN World Food Program says famine has already taken hold in Gaza’s north.
Troops finished installing the floating pier on Thursday, and the US military’s Central Command said the first aid crossed into Gaza at 9 a.m. Friday. It said no American troops went ashore in the operation.
The Pentagon said no backups were expected in the distribution process. The US plan is for the United Nations, through the World Food Program, to take charge of the aid once it leaves the pier. This will involve coordinating the arrival of empty trucks and their registration, overseeing the transfer of goods coming through the floating dock to the trucks and their dispatch to warehouses across Gaza, and, finally, handing over the supplies to aid groups for delivery. The UK said some of its aid for Gaza was in the first shipment that went ashore, including the first of 8,400 kits to provide temporary shelters made of plastic sheeting. And it said more aid, including 2,000 additional shelter kits, 900 tents, five forklift trucks and 9,200 hygiene kits, will follow in the coming weeks.
“This is the culmination of a Herculean joint international effort,” said British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. “We know the maritime route is not the only answer. We need to see more land routes open, including via the Rafah crossing, to ensure much more aid gets safely to civilians in desperate need of help.”
Aid distribution had not yet begun as of Friday afternoon, said a UN official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The official said the process of unloading and reloading cargo was still ongoing.
- Dozens of militants were neutralized in the heart of Jabaliya, documentation: Armed men fled to the roof of a building - and were attacked. A combat team from the Paratroopers Brigade neutralized many militants in clashes in the heart of the city • In one of the documentations, a cell went up to the roof of a building during an exchange of fire with IDF forces - and was neutralized. A combat team from the Paratroopers Brigade neutralized dozens of militants in clashes in the city of Jabaliya in the Gaza Strip, the IDF reported tonight (Saturday).
- IDF forces neutralized a militant cell in a clash after the latter fled to the roof of a building and fired at the forces. The fighters struck the building where they were hiding and neutralized the cell, with no casualties on our side. The IDF reports that the forces are fighting in the heart of Jabaliya in neighborhoods where they have not operated in the past in the city, which was one of the first cities in the Gaza Strip that Israel invaded as part of the fighting. According to the military, the fighters are raiding terrorist targets in a densely populated area and fighting between and inside fortified buildings and compounds and destroying them. In the meantime, paratroopers are engaged in dozens of battles against militants, neutralizing them and locating many means of combat, explosives, weapons and mortar shells.
Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah
Drone Exploded in the Margaliot Area, Consecutive Sirens in the Western Galilee and Upper Galilee: The IDF reported that a drone exploded in the Margaliot area, no injuries were reported. Additionally, due to concern over potential aircraft infiltration: a series of sirens sounded in communities in the Galilee region, including Kiryat Shmona, Metula, Dovev, and Sa'asa.
Drone Exploded in the Margaliot Area, Consecutive Sirens in the Western Galilee and Upper Galilee: The IDF reported that a drone exploded in the Margaliot area, no injuries were reported. Additionally, due to concern over potential aircraft infiltration: a series of sirens sounded in communities in the Galilee region, including Kiryat Shmona, Metula, Dovev, and Sa'asa.
West Bank
Politics and the Region
Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Friday claimed to have shot down an American drone, hours after footage circulated online of what appeared to be the wreckage of an MQ-9 Reaper drone. Early Saturday, a vessel also came under attack in the Red Sea.
The two incidents likely represent just the latest attacks by the Houthis as they press their campaign over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed that rebels shot down the Reaper on Thursday with a surface-to-air missile. He described the drone as “carrying out hostile actions” in Yemen’s Marib province, which remains held by allies of Yemen’s exiled, internationally recognized government. The Houthis later released footage they claimed showed the surface-to-air-missile being launched at night, along with night-vision footage of the missile hitting the drone. A man, whose voice had been digitally altered to apparently prevent identification, chanted the Houthi slogan: “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”
Online video showed wreckage resembling the pieces of the Reaper on the ground, as well as footage of that wreckage on fire.
The United States military did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press over the Houthi claim. While the rebels have made claims about attacks that turned out later not to be true, they have a history of shooting down US drones and have been armed by their main benefactor, Iran, with weapons capable of high-altitude attack. The drone shootdown comes as the Houthis launch attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding Israel ends the war against Hamas in Gaza.
The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, according to the US Maritime Administration. link
a US MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle
Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Friday claimed to have shot down an American drone, hours after footage circulated online of what appeared to be the wreckage of an MQ-9 Reaper drone. Early Saturday, a vessel also came under attack in the Red Sea.
The two incidents likely represent just the latest attacks by the Houthis as they press their campaign over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed that rebels shot down the Reaper on Thursday with a surface-to-air missile. He described the drone as “carrying out hostile actions” in Yemen’s Marib province, which remains held by allies of Yemen’s exiled, internationally recognized government. The Houthis later released footage they claimed showed the surface-to-air-missile being launched at night, along with night-vision footage of the missile hitting the drone. A man, whose voice had been digitally altered to apparently prevent identification, chanted the Houthi slogan: “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”
Online video showed wreckage resembling the pieces of the Reaper on the ground, as well as footage of that wreckage on fire.
The United States military did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press over the Houthi claim. While the rebels have made claims about attacks that turned out later not to be true, they have a history of shooting down US drones and have been armed by their main benefactor, Iran, with weapons capable of high-altitude attack. The drone shootdown comes as the Houthis launch attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding Israel ends the war against Hamas in Gaza.
The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, according to the US Maritime Administration. link
a US MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle
Acronyms and Glossary
ICC - International Criminal Court in the Hague
IJC - International Court of Justice in the Hague
UAV - Unmanned Aerial vehicle, Drone. Could be used for surveillance and reconnaissance, or be weaponized with missiles or contain explosives for 'suicide' explosion mission
PA - Palestinian Authority - President Mahmud Abbas, aka Abu MazenJoin my Whatsapp update group https://chat.whatsapp.com/IQ3OtwE6ydxBeBAxWNziB0
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