🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 231, 2023 - May 24, 2024 (cont)🎗️

   

🎗️Day 231(cont) that 125 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!

‎אין נצחון עד שכל החטופים בבית

Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements

*5:20pm- north- rockets Kibbutz Malkia

*5:40pm- north- rockets Kiryat Shemona 

*6:25pm- north- hostile aircraft intrusion-Keira, Shabak, Golan Heights 

*6:30pm-north- rockets Dovev

*6:35pm- north- hostile aircraft intrusion- Majdal Shams, Shaal, Upper Golan Heights and Upper Galilee 

*6:40pm-north- hostile aircraft intrusion Kiryat Shemona, Metulla, Golan Heights, Upper Galilee 

*7:15pm-north- hostile aircraft intrusion- Golan Heoghts and Galilee region

Hostage Updates 

• War cabinet said to expand mandate of negotiating team for potential hostage deal: 

Netanyahu reportedly opposed the move but was swayed by release of Oct. 7 footage of female soldiers, and consensus among Gallant, Gantz, Eizenkot, Dermer to continue talks.

The war cabinet expanded the mandate of the team negotiating a deal for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, according to Hebrew media reports on Thursday.

The Ynet news site reported that there was a wide consensus among the security establishment, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, ministers Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot and Ron Dermer, and cabinet observer Aryeh Deri that the negotiation team’s “leash” should be lengthened.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was originally against expanding the negotiation team’s mandate, according to the reports, but was swayed by the broad support for the move and the recent release of footage showing the kidnapping of female IDF soldiers on October 7. However, the mandate was not broadened as much as the team had requested. One of the negotiators, IDF Maj. Gen. (Res.) Nitzan Alon, reportedly suggested that the team should be given a mandate that is more in line with Hamas’s demands.

Alon was also quoted as saying that the team must speak to both mediating parties, Egypt and Qatar, after Israel had stopped communicating with the latter. Ynet reported that this suggestion may have been influenced by the CNN report that said Egypt changed the terms of a previous deal presented to Hamas, causing negotiations to blow up.

Egypt threatened on Wednesday that it may cease acting as a mediator following criticism of its conduct in light of the CNN report. IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi reportedly said at the war cabinet meeting that pursuing a hostage deal is the best course of action militarily, strategically and morally. In the short term, Halevi argued, a deal, by creating a truce in Gaza, will allow for negotiations to end hostilities in the north with the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, CIA director William Burns will travel to Europe to meet with Mossad chief David Barnea and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in an effort to revive the hostage talks, two officials told The Times of Israel on Thursday. 

The most recent round of hostage talks broke down earlier this month and negotiations have yet to reconvene, with the sides unable to bridge the gap on the fundamental issue in the talks: Hamas is looking for a hostage deal that permanently ends the war triggered by its October 7 onslaught, while Israel is only willing to agree to a temporary ceasefire, as it aims to finish dismantling the terror group. link  -- Unfortunately, this is not the first time that Netanyahu has agreed to give the negotiating team some more leeway, only to contact them later (without the knowledge or agreement of the War Cabinet) to remove that same leeway. Everyone is hoping that he won't do the same thing now, even though it is very doubtful that the team truly received the necessary leeway to make the deal. It was reported that Sara Netanyahu saw the video of the kidnapping of the army observers that the Forum of Hostage Families released and was very affected by it. As a reminder, it wasn't until she met with Gilad Schalit's family after almost 5 years of captivity that she told her husband that it's enough and he needs to get him home. Only then did he agree to make the major concessions to allow a deal to be made and Gilad was brought home. No one knows why she has such strong sway with her husband but she does. My brother advised the Families to contact and meet with her to try to get her to push her husband. They have met with her a number of times, especially the 5 mothers of the Army Observer women soldiers. Sara said it was the first time she saw the video and it hit her very hard. We can only hope that it will have the necessary force to push her husband to finally make the deal. Unfortunately, her desire to be the Prime Minister's wife is no less than his desire to remain prime minister and that can be the thing that prevents her from the final push that is needed for him to tell the negotiators to 'Bring them home".

Gaza 

• Judges at the top United Nations court have ordered Israel to halt its military assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah. : Reading out a ruling by the International Court of Justice or World Court, the body’s president Nawaf Salam says provisional measures ordered by the court in March did not fully address the situation in the besieged Palestinian enclave now, and conditions had been met for a new emergency order.

  “Israel must immediately halt its military offensive” in Rafah, he says. Salam also says the situation in Gaza had deteriorated since they last ordered Israel to take urgent steps to alleviate the humanitarian crisis there. Salam asserts that provisional measures ordered by the court in March did not fully address the situation in the enclave now.

  The court backs a South African request to order Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah, a week after Pretoria called for the measure in a case accusing Israel of genocide. The court is the highest UN body for hearing disputes between states. Its rulings are final and binding but have been ignored in the past. The court has no enforcement powers.

  A decision against Israel could heap more diplomatic pressure on the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

  The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court – a separate court also based in The Hague – announced on Monday he had filed an application for arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as leaders of Hamas. link  The court order actually says that Israel must stop the Rafah operation that endangers the lives of the Palestinian civilians. At the end of the court order, the president also ordered the immediate and unconditional order to release all hostages in captivity in Gaza. Unfortunately, the court did not condition the ending of the Rafah operation on the release of the hostages. That should have been the major part of an order like this. Not conditioning that and no mention of the Massacre of October 7 makes the court order very cynical. In addition, there was no mention of the intentional attacks against civilians in Israel by Hamas rocket attacks. 

• Four ICJ judges argue that court order does not require IDF halting all Rafah operations

At least four of the justices at the International Court of Justice argue that the court decision’s operative clause, handed out today, does not require that Israel immediately halt all military operations in Rafah, but, rather, that it specifically halt military operations that “could bring about physical destruction in whole or in part” of the Palestinians.

The relevant clause in the ruling states that Israel must “Immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

Former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak, who serves as an ad-hoc judge on the ICJ bench in the case brought against Israel by South Africa, writes, in his dissenting opinion, that the majority decision “requires Israel to halt its military offensive in the Rafah Governorate only in so far as is necessary to comply with Israel’s obligations under the Genocide Convention.”

Therefore, according to Barak, “Israel is not prevented from carrying out its military operation in the Rafah Governorate as long as it fulfills its obligations under the Genocide Convention.”

“As a result,” Barak continues, “the measure is a qualified one, which preserves Israel’s right to prevent and repel threats and attacks by Hamas, defend itself and its citizens, and free the hostages.”

The German judge, Georg Nolte, and the Romanian judge, Bogdan Aurescu – who are both among the 13 judges who voted in favor of this measure – also support Barak’s interpretation of the decree.

It is expected that this interpretation – that Israel is not required to halt any and all operations in Rafah – will become the official position of the Justice Ministry and attorney general.

ICJ Vice President Julia Sebutinde (Uganda), who voted against all decisions today, warns against misunderstanding the court’s directive as requiring a unilateral Israeli ceasefire in Rafah. “This measure does not entirely prohibit the Israeli military from operating in Rafah. Instead, it only operates to partially restrict Israel’s offensive in Rafah to the extent it implicates rights under the Genocide Convention,” she writes.

She cautions: “… this directive may be misunderstood as mandating a unilateral ceasefire in Rafah and amounts to micromanaging the hostilities in Gaza by restricting Israel’s ability to pursue its legitimate military objectives, while leaving its enemies, including Hamas, free to attack without Israel being able to respond.”

The South African judge, Tire Tladi, holds the opposite opinion: “Today, the Court has, in explicit terms, ordered the State of Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah. The Court has previously, albeit in implicit and indirect ways, ordered the State of Israel not to conduct military operations elsewhere in Gaza because such operations prevent the delivery of

human assistance and cause harm to the Palestinian people. The Court has also reiterated its urgent call for Hamas to release the hostages.”

Adds Taldi: “The reference to ‘offensive’ operations illustrates that legitimate defensive actions, within the strict confines of international law, to repel specific attacks, would be consistent with the Order of the Court. What would not be consistent is the continuation of the offensive military operation in Rafah, and elsewhere, whose consequences for the rights protected under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide has been devastating.”  link

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah

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West Bank

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Politics and the Region

• 2 hand grenades thrown at the Belgian Embassy, no reports of injuries 
  
  

Acronyms and Glossary

COGAT - Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories

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 Mazen

PMO- Prime Minister's Office

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