🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 242, 2023 - June 4, 2024 🎗️

  

🎗️Day 242 that 124 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

*9:10am-hostile aircraft intrusion Dishon, Yiftach

*9:15am- north - rockets/missiles Beit Hillel, Kiryat Shemona

*9:15am- north - hostile aircraft intrusion  Golan and Upper Galilee

*11:55am- north - hostile aircraft intrusion- Arab Al aramsha

*12:00pm- north- rockets/missiles Hanita, Yaara, Shlomi

*12:00- north - hostile aircraft intrusion Upper Galilee

*4:35pm- north- rockets/missiles - Shlomi, Rosh Hanikra

*6:35pm- north- rockets/missiles Hanita, Rosh Hanikra

Hostage Updates 

• Protests After Announcement of Captives' Deaths, Demonstrators Block Ayalon and Begin Highways - Then Dispersed

  
  

  Hundreds took to spontaneous protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem following the terrible news about the four captives killed in Hamas captivity: "The blood of our friends is on the conscience of Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben Gvir".

  
  

  Families of the hostages took to the streets in anger tonight (between Monday and Tuesday) after the news of the deaths of the four hostages- Haim Peri, Yoram Metzger, Amiram Cooper and Nadav Popellwell - in Hamas captivity. Ila Metzger, Yoram's daughter-in-law, called on the public to take to the streets en masse: "I am prevented from arriving. The government continues to abandon the hostages, who are being killed in captivity. The blood is on the hands of Netanyahu and the government. There are already hundreds on Begin Road. Take to the streets. We must save lives."

  
  

  Protests for a Hostage Deal

  The demonstrators blocked the Ayalon, parts of Begin Road - where a bonfire was lit on the road. A blockage was also recorded at the Karkor junction. They waved torches and captives' signs and chanted: "Deal now! Everyone including everyone." Later they shouted "Begin is ours." The protesters pointed an accusing finger at the government, sprayed the names of the hostages all over the road and next to each one they wrote "sorry." "Their murder in captivity is a mark of shame and a sad indication of the meaning of delaying previous deals. Immediately approve Netanyahu's deal," said the headquarters of the hostages' families. "Immediately approve Netanyahu's deal." They also wrote: "The heartbreak with the painful news should shake every citizen in the State of Israel and bring every leader to deep soul-searching. Haim, Yoram, Amiram and Nadav - were captured alive. The government of Israel must dispatch a negotiating team this evening and return all 124 hostages, living and murdered, to their homes."

  

  
  

  
  

  The announcement also resonated in the political system. Among the Knesset members who called for advancing a deal was, unprecedentedly, also a member of the government, Labor Minister Yoav Ben Tzur (Shas). "The news of the murder of the hostages Amiram Cooper, Haim Peri, Yoram Metzger and Nadav Popelwell, may God avenge their blood, proves to us in blood what a cruel and dangerous reality the captives are in," he wrote. "As a moral people that sanctifies life and not victory, what stands before our eyes is first and foremost to return the hostages home alive." However, one who has yet to issue a statement is Prime Minister Netanyahu.

  
  

  Ofer Sofer of the National Religious movement wrote: "In this difficult hour, my heart goes out to the families of the hostages Amiram Cooper, Haim Peri, Yoram Metzger and Nadav Popelwell. The terrible pain with the difficult news this evening does not subside. The pain of all the families of the hostages waiting day by day for the return of our brothers and sisters home. Our basic moral obligation is to bring them all home."

  
  

  Earlier today, United Torah Judaism Chairman Minister Goldknopf said: "I told the representatives of the hostages' families today that our position is that there is nothing greater than the value of life and the mitzvah of redeeming hostages, because there is a real and tangible danger to their lives. Therefore, any proposal that would lead to the release of the captives, we will support it."

  
  

  "The heart is broken with the news of their deaths in captivity of Nadav Popelwell, Yoram Metzger, Amiram Cooper and Haim Peri," Opposition Leader Yair Lapid wrote. "Every day that passes endangers the lives of our brothers and sisters in Hamas' tunnels. We must reach a deal. It is possible to reach a deal. There is the required majority for it in the Knesset. Let's bring them home."

  
  

  "Every day I fight shoulder to shoulder with Ila Metzger," said Yfat Kalderon, cousin of the captive Ofer Kalderon, in a voice broken and choked with tears. "She is already more than family. A partner. In these months we have become a family fighting for our loved ones. For a hostage country. Ila, we will continue to shake up the country, set it ablaze and do whatever it takes to bring back those who remain alive and also those who are no longer alive."

  
  

  She then addressed Prime Minister Netanyahu, with shouts in the background: "This is your money time. You could have brought back so many people who were alive. The blood is on your hands and those of all the cabinet members."

  
  

  The "Hope" Forum of hostages' Families, which supports increasing military pressure in order to reach a deal, said: "We are all shaken by the murder of the four hostages, may God avenge their blood, by Hamas terrorists. These are hostages who were murdered in cold blood in captivity. With this enemy, one must not go for a deal that will bring us back to October 6th. This enemy must be eliminated. This is a sub-human organization that belongs in the grave. The hostages must be rescued immediately through the strongest possible military strikes, no dallying, no stoppages and no humanitarian aid whatsoever."

  
  

  "We received with sorrow and deep shock the difficult news of the murder in captivity of our four dear friends to the community who were abducted from their homes," said Gadi Yarkoni, head of the Eshkol Regional Council. "Every day that the hostages are still in captivity is a life-threatening danger for them. We cannot recover as long as they are still there. We call for the return of all hostages and a deal now! We must not abandon those who were abandoned on October 7th already. Their return is the paramount and most important mission. The living to rehabilitation and the dead we did not manage to save for burial."

  
  

  The Kibbutz Movement said: "Our blood boils and our hearts weep. Our dear friends were abandoned on October 7th in their homes to human animals, and abandoned once again to die in the tunnels of Gaza. The blood of our dead friends lies on the conscience of Benjamin Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben Gvir and the entire government of Israel."
  link  The Hope Forum is a small minority of the Families of Hostages who are against any deal with includes ending the war. They were originally organized by staff of the Prime Minister's Office in the early months of the war to counter the demands of the Forum of the Hostage Families. They bought into the false narrative that only more military pressure will bring the hostages home. We have seen that the military pressure has only brought us more dead hostages and dead soldiers.
  

  
  
  

  
  

• An Israeli delegation is expected to arrive in Cairo in the coming hours to give Israel’s position on the latest proposal for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, according to Egyptian sources quoted by Lebanese news outlet al-Akhbar, which is affiliated with Hezbollah. The sources claim the deal could enter into force at the beginning of next week, in light of American pressure on Israel and regional diplomatic efforts. They add, however, that Cairo fears that “the Israeli government will not adhere to the ceasefire after receiving some of the hostages.”

  Al-Akhbar says Egypt and Qatar have asked Hamas not to carry out attacks on Israeli territory in exchange for a “verbal pledge by the US to end the war and a guarantee to prevent its resumption,” amid concerns that Washington will not feel bound by such a commitment once the US election campaign gets underway. The paper adds that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has held talks with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry, and the two top diplomats have agreed that Gaza’s postwar reconstruction should only be launched after a security mechanism is devised to prevent renewed clashes between Israel and Hamas.  link

• The Haredi Shas party will support the the hostage deal proposal presented by US President Joe Biden last week, it says.

  “At the faction meeting that took place yesterday, the Israeli proposal for the abductees deal was discussed. In the end, the faction decided to fully support the Israeli proposal, which includes far-reaching measures for the return of the hostages and the observance of the miztvah of redeeming captives,” the party says in a statement.

  “Shas supports the proposal and backs the prime minister and the war cabinet in facing off all pressure, reaching a deal and saving the lives of many of our brothers and sisters who are in distress and captivity.”

  Shas’s support comes less than a day after United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf tweeted that his party “will support any proposal that will lead to the release of the hostages.”

  While both ultra-Orthodox parties have now come out in favor of the proposal, which Biden presented as being Israeli in origin, the Knesset’s two far-right national religious parties, Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism, have both threatened to bring down the government if the deal is adopted, saying it amounts to a surrender to Hamas. link  This is an important support for the deal. It is now two Haredi parties in the coalition who have stated that they will support a deal to bring the hostages home even if it means ending the war. The interesting and sad thing is that the 2 religious 'Zionist' parties of Smotrich and Ben Gvir will not support the deal and it doesn't matter to them that the greatest Mitzvah according to the Ramban (Moses ben Nachman, commonly known as Nachmanides, a leading medieval Jewish scholar, Catalan rabbi, philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentator) and Rambam (Moses ben Maimon, commonly known as Maimonides and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam, was a Sephardic rabbi and philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages.), is the Redemption of prisoners. (“There is no greater mitzvah than redeeming captives”, writes Maimonides. The halakha is determined in the Shulchan Aruch: “Every moment that one delays in redeeming captives, when it is possible to expedite, it is considered as if one has shed blood” (Yoreh De'ah, 252:2).)

• U.S. on negotiations for prisoner exchange deal: "The ball is now in Hamas' court" : John Kirby, the U.S. National Security Council spokesman, said that Israel has the right to destroy Hamas' capabilities, but now is the time to start the first stage of the deal and release prisoners. "Now is the time to move to the next stage and start discussing the second stage. Once the first stage of the deal begins, Israel will stop its operation in Rafah," Kirby said. Arab foreign ministers in a joint statement: "We support the mediation efforts. We take the proposal seriously."  John Kirby, spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, addressed this evening (Monday) the speech given by U.S. President Joe Biden over the weekend regarding the Israeli proposal for a prisoner exchange deal. In his remarks this evening, Kirby said that "the ball is now in Hamas' court." 

  "We agree with the Prime Minister of Israel that Israel has the right to destroy Hamas' capabilities," Kirby said. "However, now is the time to move to the next stage, to start the first stage of releasing some of the prisoners and start discussing the second stage. Once the first stage of the deal begins, Israel will stop its operation in Rafah." 

  In response to whether Israel was notified before Biden's statement, Kirby replied: "Indeed, we notified Israel that the President would speak about the proposal before the speech." Kirby reiterated that this is an Israeli proposal, adding that the timing of the speech came after Hamas saw the proposal on Thursday. Kirby further stated that "President Biden thought it was appropriate to present the details of the proposal to everyone and show the world Israel's seriousness." 

  In parallel with Kirby's remarks, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt issued a joint statement: "We support the mediation efforts and emphasize the importance of seriously and positively addressing the proposal put forward by Biden in order to reach an agreement that ensures a permanent ceasefire and the provision of aid to all parts of the Gaza Strip."
  
  The ministers stressed: "There is a need to stop the aggression in Gaza, end the humanitarian disaster caused, return the displaced to their areas, in addition to the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the reconstruction of the Strip, alongside a comprehensive plan to implement the two-state solution."  link

• Qatar, which has been mediating on Gaza between Israel and Hamas, stresses that there should be a clear position from both parties in order to reach a ceasefire deal.

  “We are waiting for a clear Israeli position that represents the entire government in response to the US’s Gaza proposal,” says Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari.

  “The ceasefire deal should immediately end the long suffering of all people in Gaza and the hostages and their families and provide a roadmap for a permanent ceasefire and an end to the crisis,” Al-Ansari says.

  Qatar says it is still waiting to reach language that is agreed on by both parties.  link

• Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri says the terror group is unhappy with calls from Washington and the West for it to accept US President Joe Biden’s proposal on Gaza “considering it is not Hamas hampering the deal.”

  In comments reported by Hamas media, Abu Zuhri says Israel is not serious about reaching a deal in Gaza, and is still maneuvering under the US’s cover “despite the White House knowing that the problem lies with [Israel].” link  Although not an official response, Hamas has stated publicly that they are waiting to receive details, not a high level outline as well as commitment that the Israeli government, not just the war cabinet but the extremist hardliners are going to accept the deal before they come out with their official response or agree to return the non direct negotiating table.

• Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson says Doha delivered an Israeli ceasefire proposal to Hamas that reflects the positions stated by US President Joe Biden, but has yet to receive “concrete approvals” from either side, though the distance between them appears to have shrunk.
  Majed Al-Ansari stresses that there should be a clear position from both parties, with some members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet threatening to bolt the government over the proposal.
  “We are waiting for a clear Israeli position that represents the entire government in response to the US’s Gaza proposal,” Al-Ansari says at a press briefing.
  “We have already seen statements coming from Israeli ministers which doesn’t give us a lot of confidence of there being a unified position in Israel over this current proposal on the table,” he adds, according to Al Jazeera. “We can see also that there is a positive momentum building up on both sides.”  link  This update came out after my comments from the article above.

• 'The biggest party in Gaza': Former hostage recounts entering captivity on October 7

  “They felt like they had won a prize,” Moran Stella Yanai recalled. “It was the biggest party I’ve ever seen.”

  Moran Stella Yanai recalled the brutality of her kidnapping to Gaza by Hamas terrorists on October 7 from the Nova Music Festival in an interview published on Saturday with the Washington Post.

  Moran had gone to the festival to sell her handmade jewelry, a site which was her biggest venue yet. She had hoped it would boost her career. 

  In the morning of October 7, as terrorists rampaged through the site of the rave, Moran tried to escape, and for five hours, she ran or walked across a desert landscape and through potato fields, she told the Post, while sending voice messages to her parents as she was sure she would die. 

  Eventually, she ran into a group of terrorists, whom she convinced she was Arab, using her limited knowledge of Arabic and pointing at the necklace she was wearing. The necklace had her middle name in Arabic letters, a gift from a friend in Egypt. 

  This group of terrorists live-streamed a video of Moran begging for her life in a ditch. In the livestream, one man refers to her as “one of the Jewish dogs.” 

  After they let her go, she ran into another group of gunmen and used the same tactics to negotiate her release.

  After this, she climbed a thin tree to find a place to hide but fell and fractured her ankle in two places. While limping, she told the Washington Post that she encountered a larger and more organized group of terrorists, 13 in total, who captured her. 

  Moran said that they ripped off most of her jewelry and packed her into a stolen Israeli car. 

  She told the Post that from then on, and throughout her captivity, she was very much aware of her body and its vulnerabilities. 

  While in the car, the terrorists laid her body across their laps, she thought, similar to a hunted animal. 

  Throughout the car ride, they beat her. When she tried to close her eyes, the group’s leader pulled her hair and forced her to keep her eyes open, watch the gunmen as they glared at her, and see the Gazans line the streets celebrating upon her entry into the territory.

  Someone tried to strike her on the head as her captors transferred her from the car to a hospital, she recounted.

  “Welcome to Gaza,” the group’s leader told her. 

  “They felt like they had won a prize,” Moran recalled, the Washington Post reported. “It was the biggest party I’ve ever seen.”

  At the hospital, men surrounded her and ripped off her shoes, emptied her pockets, and took her jewelry. The doctor who treated her spoke Hebrew, however “he just smiled at me. That’s like a horror movie,” she said. “That was the moment I made the switch in my head, and I understand that I am in a very bad situation. From then on, it was — survival, commence.” 

  The doctor inspected her and put a cast on her ankle within minutes. 

While in captivity 

During one location transfer between hideouts, her guards tore off her cast and forced her to walk down six flights of stairs in high heels too large for her feet. Even though she told them she was in pain, they still told her to continue. Limping was not allowed. She told the Washington Post that she swallowed the pain and reminded herself that she must choose her battles carefully in this situation. 
She moved several times from house to house during her captivity, her guards changing each time. She depended on them for survival and was scared of them.  
 
“They didn’t rape me, they didn’t touch me,” she told the Washington Post. However, other hostages she met in captivity told her in confidence about the sexual abuse they encountered in captivity. 
“Their stories broke me a little bit,” she said. “But they also gave me so much strength to fight even harder for my brothers and sisters, to get them home.”
Regarding her experience with her guards, Moran said her captors were always in sight and slept beside her and other hostages. They were even present when she went to the bathroom. 

Her guards told her her family had forgotten about her and that there was no country for her to return to. They told her the neighbors would kill her if she made too much noise and that the Israel Air Force wanted her dead. 

On her second day in captivity, a rocket shattered a window in the room she was held in. 

Moran said she tried to prepare herself for death or sexual violence, for which she became more anxious about every time she moved to a new hideout. 

The guards would inspect hostages’ bodies for “IDF radio chips.” When they demanded she remove her pants, Moran said no, telling them it is forbidden in Islam. 

After they insisted, she doubled down, and the men would back down. 

In the first house she was kept in, visitors, including women and children, came to star at her and listen to stories created by the gunmen about her. They would later recount the stories to her in broken English. They told them she was an Arab who had betrayed her country and been recruited to the IDF. 

Throughout her captivity, she was forbidden to beg, speak audibly, cry, or express any emotion unless asked to do so. 

In one location where she was held, guards forced her to rest her face between her hands, pout like “a lost little girl,” and use a soft, high-pitched voice when asking for food or water in a choreographed performance. She recalled that the guards laughed. “They used us as a game,” she added.

In her fourth place that she was kept in Gaza, Moran was held with Noa Argamani. In an interview with Tablet Moran had in May, she said that at first, when Noa spoke to her, she didn't even recognize her, until she saw her stretch. 

Moran and Noa had trained at the same studio in Beersheba, so Moran recognized the way she moved her body. When Moran was moved from that location, she gave Noa a hug, although it was forbidden. 

In her last week of captivity, she was moved to a location where another hostage, Itay Svirsky, was located. They slept on mattresses next to each other, Moran revealed to Tablet. 

One night, Hamas terrorists woke them up, and told Itay to come with them. The terrorists pointed at Moran and told her, "You stay." She told Tablet that upon his departure, Moran told Itay to write to her, and he asked her to do the same. They then smiled at each other, and she told him, “Itay, just remember that you are one of kind, one of the most special men I’ve ever known,” according to her testimony in Tablet. 

In January, Hamas announced Itay to be dead along with Yossi Sharabi, through a video featuring Argamani, where the 26-year-old reported the death of her fellow hostages. Argamani remains alive and in Hamas captivity.

Moran's release

When Moran was released from captivity in November, she discovered she was allergic to the lice that had infested her scalp. She had lost over 7.7 kilograms and is now half deaf from the explosions. 

She also began physical therapy for her ankle and was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome, she said. The Israeli hospital that treated her told her that the quick treatment on her ankle in Gaza had complicated her recovery. 

In mid-January, Moran met with 150 senior CEOs from the world economy in Davos, Switzerland. She told the audience, "We cannot accept the possibility of being kidnapped from a music festival and not returning from it as a normal possibility. Because if not all the hostages return, every citizen should now be afraid to dance at festivals!"

Moran told the Washington Post that she is speaking out because it feels like a duty to speak for those who are still held hostage. 

“They cannot defend themselves in there,” Moran said. “I want my sisters and brothers out of this hell.”  link

Gaza 

• Integrated action in the center of the Gaza Strip: Air strikes in Al-Bureij concurrent with a ground incursion: Air Force fighter jets destroyed terrorist targets in the area in broad daylight, concurrent with the maneuvering forces on the ground • The IDF emphasizes that the fighters are operating in a targeted manner and with intelligence guidance • During the night, an IAF drone eliminated terrorists who were hiding in an UNRWA school

  
  

  The IDF Spokesman confirmed today (Tuesday) that Air Force fighter jets attacked Hamas terrorist targets in the afternoon hours, concurrent with the activity of the ground forces. The IDF emphasizes that the fighters are operating in a targeted manner and with intelligence guidance in the Al-Bureij area in the center of the Strip.

  
  

  Even during the night, the IDF attacked targets in the Al-Bureij area from the air. A remotely piloted aircraft of the Air Force advanced with the intelligence guidance of the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Shin Bet to the UNRWA "Abu al-Khalu" school, which served as a hiding place for Hamas terrorists. Instead of classrooms and study areas, the fighters found combat rooms and weapon storage throughout the school. The IDF emphasizes that "the attack was planned and carried out with precision, using accurate weaponry and avoiding harm to uninvolved parties as much as possible." The attacked school served as a hiding place for Hamas terrorists, where they planned and carried out terrorist schemes against IDF forces and the Israeli home front.

  
  

  Concurrently, forces from Division 162 continue fighting in the Rafah area. In the last 24 hours, during searches in shafts, the fighters located numerous weapons, including RPG missiles, magazines, various types of weapons, and additional explosives. Fighters from Division 99, who are also operating on additional axes in the center of the Strip, destroyed Hamas terrorist infrastructure and located a large amount of military equipment used by Hamas terrorists.

  
  

  Fighting in the air and at sea

  The IDF emphasizes that during the last 24 hours, Air Force aircraft and fighter jets attacked and destroyed about 65 Hamas terrorist targets throughout the Strip. Among the targets attacked were: military structures, weapons storage sites, launch sites, observation posts, and additional military infrastructure. Naval forces also attacked various military targets along the Gaza coastline.  link

  

  
  
  
  
  
  

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah

• Fires rage overnight across north after Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks: Most of the blazes that started Monday were brought under control, firefighting service says Tuesday morning; 11 treated for smoke inhalation, at least one home damaged by flames. In Kiryat Shmona, firefighters spread throughout the mostly evacuated city to control the flames and protect them from reaching homes. The fire service earlier said that several yards, pergolas and the roof of at least one home were in flames.

  In Kibbutz Kfar Giladi, north of the city, video footage shared on social media showed a local security team battling flames encroaching on the community.

  Fires also broke out in the areas of Mount Adir and Amiad, where firefighters reported their main focus on preventing the blaze from jumping to the moshav of Kahal. link
  I heard on the news this morning that there are areas that the fires are burning that they can't send fire fighting airplanes for fear of being shot at by Hizbollah rockets.

  

• Lebanese media reports 2 injured in Israeli airstrike on vehicle: Lebanese media report an alleged Israeli airstrike on a vehicle in the Western Beqaa District. According to reports, two people are wounded in the strike. The strike reportedly took place between the villages of Libbaya and Yohmor, some 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the Israeli border.

• Hezbollah’s deputy head Naim Qassem says the powerful armed group has decided not to widen its months-long war with Israel, but that it would fight if a full-scale war is imposed on it.

  “Any Israeli expansion of the war in Lebanon will be met with devastation, destruction and displacement,” he threatens, adding that Hezbollah has only used a small portion of its arsenal thus far. Qassem’s comments are carried by Al-Jazeera ahead of the airing of an interview with him.  link This statement is the epitome of irony. Hizbollah has been sharply escalating its attacks and retaliatory attacks on Israel's north every day for the past month to unprecedented levels. I believe that the reasons that we have not begun a full scale war in the north has to do with Netanyahu's weakness as well as the real costs of lives and livelihoods that the last 8 months have cost us.  The country and everyone in it basically abandoned the southern Gaza border communities for 20 years, allowing the intermittent rocket attacks to continue without anyone other than the local residents getting overly upset. If a fraction of those attacks happened in the Tel Aviv area, a full scale war with Hamas would have happened a long time ago. Since the end of the 2nd Lebanon War the north has seen its share of rocket attacks but nothing like the south suffered for so long.  However, October 7 changed the entire situation of both actual security and feelings of security, both of which were lacking in the north. In the 8 months of the war and the evacuation of 80,000 northern residents within 4 kilometers of the Lebanese border has seen such a degradation if the actual security of the northern communities and a zero feeling of security. It is hard to imagine a diplomatic solution that will restore both the actual and the feeling of security for the residents to be able to return home and not have the fear of a northern October 7 every day. In order for that to happen, there have to be major changes comprising of all of the following plus others that I fail to mention: a security zone on the Lebanese side of the border; the movement of all Hizbollah forces north and beyond of the Litani River (must be beyond due to the advanced capabilities of their anti tank shells, their UAVs and the rest of their arsenal, but no distance is enough for their advanced missiles); the only armed forces in southern Lebanon to be the official Lebanese Army and International Peace keeping forces and not the current UNIFIL contingent who hide for cover whenever there are hostilities); the destruction of the Hizbollah tunnel complex that runs in Southern Lebanon with much of it running up to our border; hopefully a disarmament of Hizbollah but I don't expect that to be part of any discussion at this time.  If these parameters cannot be met, the majority of the northern residents will not come back and the north will become abandoned territory that is constantly on the verge of war and barring these aspects in a diplomatic solution, I believe that war in the north is, unfortunately inevitable.

  
  Hizbollah Rocket and UAV attacks from January (left column)334 to May (right column) 1000 attacks

• One person was killed in an alleged Israeli strike on a motorcycle in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency.

  “The strike targeting a motorcycle in Naqoura killed one person and wounded another,” it says after earlier reporting an “enemy drone strike” in the area.

  It does not say whether the casualty is a civilian or a terror operative.

  NNA also reports that two soldiers needed to be treated for phosphorus inhalation following an Israeli strike near a military position in the border town of Markaba.  link  If this is true regarding the phosphorus, it could set off another of a long list of international claims of war crimes against Israel, unless Israel can prove, especially to the US that its use was in keeping with international war limitations.

• IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi says Israel is close to making a decision regarding Hezbollah’s daily attacks on northern Israel amid the Gaza war.

  “We are approaching the point where a decision will have to be made, and the IDF is prepared and very ready for this decision,” Halevi says during an assessment with military officials and Fire Commissioner Eyal Caspi, at an army base in Kiryat Shmona.

  “We have been attacking for eight months, and Hezbollah is paying a very, very high price. It has increased its strengths in recent days and we are prepared after a very good process of training… to move to an attack in the north,” he says. “[We have] strong defense, readiness to attack, [and] we are approaching a decision point,” he adds.

  Halevi and Caspi later met with firefighters who worked to extinguish large blazes in northern Israel over the past two days, some of which were sparked by Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks.   link

West Bank

• The IDF says troops killed two terror suspects overnight near the West Bank city of Tulkarem as they headed to open fire at Israeli towns across the security barrier, following several recent shooting attacks. According to an IDF statement, commandos ambushed the armed suspects as they approached the barrier, killing them and confiscating the assault rifle they allegedly planned to use.    

  
  A handout photo from the IDF shows an assault rifle that terror suspects allegedly were set to use to fire on Israeli towns across the security barrier from the West Bank city of Tulkarem, June 4, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

• The UN rights chief demands an end to surging violence in the West Bank, saying it is “unfathomable” that more than 500 Palestinians had been killed there since October 7.

  “As if the tragic events in Israel and then Gaza over the past eight months were not enough, the people of the occupied West Bank are also being subjected to day-after-day of unprecedented bloodshed,” Volker Turk says in a statement.

  “It is unfathomable that so many lives have been taken in such a wanton fashion.”

  Since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught that started the Gaza war, troops have arrested some 4,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,700 affiliated with Hamas. According to the PA health ministry, more than 510 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time.

  Based on military estimates, the vast majority of those killed since October 7 were shot during violent clashes amid arrest raids.  link

Politics 

• Ex-PM Bennett rips government over response to Hezbollah attacks: North ‘is going up in flames’:
  Amid the major fires in the north sparked by Hezbollah attacks, former prime minister Naftali Bennett tears into the government, charging that “the country is not being managed” and is devoid of leadership.
  “These are tough days, but the sense that there’s someone in charge, even in difficult times, is not a luxury. It’s an existential need,” Bennett says in a statement.
  “We must save the north. The Galilee is going up in flames. The fire is spreading,” he continues, referring to Hezbollah’s intensified rocket and drone attacks.
  “Beautiful and flourishing places have turned into heaps of rubble. Some residents who were evacuated are already planning their lives elsewhere. This is a grave strategic event and can in no way be normalized.” B
  nnett goes on warns “the north’s abandonment is dangerous for our future” and calls on the government and security chiefs “to chart a new course.”  “The prime minister must begin to manage, and now,” he adds.
  Opposition Leader Yair Lapid meanwhile hits out at far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose ministry oversees the fire service, for attending an event in Jerusalem as blazes raged across the north. “There has never been a more reckless government in the country’s history. They just don’t care. Not about the north, the south or the hostages,” Lapid charges.
  
  

• US President Joe Biden says people have “every reason” to believe that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is dragging out the war in Gaza for political reasons.  “There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion,” Biden tells Time magazine.

  Netanyahu has long faced this criticism, but it has intensified in recent days as far-right coalition partners have threatened to collapse his government if the premier sticks with the hostage deal proposal he authorized last week, which would potentially bring about an end to the war in Gaza.

  Netanyahu for months held off on holding strategic meetings regarding the postwar management of Gaza, avoiding conflict with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who have called for permanently occupying Gaza and re-establishing Israeli settlements there. The Israeli security establishment has argued that failure to advance a viable alternative to Hamas has allowed the terror group to quickly fill vacuums left by the IDF on the battlefields, further extending the war.

  Netanyahu has argued that talk of day-after planning is overblown before Israel defeats Hamas, as no one will be willing to replace the terror group as long as it is still in power. This approach has caused significant frustration in Washington, which has pushed Israel to plan for postwar Gaza since the early days of the campaign.

  Also in the Time interview, Biden says an Israel-Saudi normalization deal would be “overwhelmingly in our interest.”

  On efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages, who include Americans, Biden says, “We believe there are those that are still alive.”  “I met with all the families. But we don’t have final proof on exactly who’s alive.”  Asked if Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, Biden responds, “It’s uncertain.”  link  As everyone who has read anything that I have posted or listened to me talking knows that I have been saying that Netanyahu's actions have been political first and good for the country and the hostages a distant second. Joe Biden has a lot more information and back channels into what's going on than me, plus he knows Netanyahu for a very long time. It could be said that his remarks are undiplomatic but they are honest and come about from his deep frustrations with Netanyahu and how he has mismanaged this war and allowed for the hostages to be in captivity for 242 days with too many dying in captivity. The blood of every single captive who has died in captivity is on Netanyahu's hands in a very direct way. The hostage deal must be made no matter the price and Netanyahu needs to go home.

  
  

• Hardline MKs jeered for haranguing lawmakers discussing two-state solution

  Heated arguments break out between right-wing and Arab lawmakers during a Knesset conference discussing the fallout of last week’s recognition of a Palestinian state by Spain, Norway and Ireland.

  During the conference, sponsored by Hadash-Ta’al MK Aida Touma-Suleiman, participants call for a two-state solution and present third-party recognition of a Palestinian state as a positive outcome.

  “More and more people in the world are realizing that recognition of the State of Palestine is also a step of historical justice that must be carried out precisely in these days,” Touma-Suleiman states.

  Likud MK Tally Gotliv is booed by participants after she enters the conference hall in the Knesset and begins loudly arguing against Palestinian statehood. Those present bang on tables and scream “shame,” “fascist” and “crazy” as she eventually storms out of the room.

  Religious Zionism MK Tzvi Sukkot also stops by to argue with Arab MKs and other conference participants. “You are the enemy, you support the Nova terrorists,” he yells, referring to the Nova rave massacre on October 7.

  In response, Touma-Suleiman quips to Sukkot, a settlement activist, that the conference is not for him to “settle.”  link  
  Both Gotliev and Sukkot are two deplorable people who go out of their way to be provocateurs. They have both attacked families of the hostages in Knesset Committee meetings. They are among a too large group who are embarrassments to the country.

The Region

• At least 12 detained in Baghdad over latest attack on KFC amid Israel-Hamas war

BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces cracked down on rioters in Baghdad who attacked a KFC on Monday, wounding three with live fire and detaining at least 12, security and medical sources tell Reuters.
The attack on a KFC on the city’s Palestine Street is at least the third in just over a week and was reported just as a senior official in the Iran-backed Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah releases a statement calling on Iraqis to “boycott and expel” US brands.
The attack caused significant damage but no injuries to staff or customers, the sources say.
The store was opened by Americana Group, the Middle East and North Africa franchisee of fast-food restaurants KFC and Pizza Hut. Americana doesn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Iraqi security forces don’t immediately comment on Monday night’s attacks.
The KFC brand, previously known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is owned by US-based Yum! Brands YUM.N.
Iraq has been trying to encourage foreign businesses to set up shop in the country amid a period of relative stability that has at times been shaken by security incidents, including months of tit-for-tat attacks between Iran-backed armed groups and US forces.
Western brands in many parts of the world have been facing boycotts and other protests during the war in Gaza, reflecting public anger over the military offensive Israel launched in response to Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught. link  It is still not understood by so many in the west that the war in Gaza and the north is not a war of Hamas and Hizbollah against Israel. Israel is just the closest symbol of the west in the neighborhood. The Radical Islamic movements view the entire west as their enemies and their actions: first their rhetoric and then their terrorism hits everywhere that the radicals see as enemy territory. In this case, it is Western symbols in Iraq. All of the 'supporters' of Hamas, the demonstrations and protests in the campuses and the cities are the most self destructive manifestations of the success of the radical Islam propaganda machine and they are a danger to western and democratic lifestyles around the world.

• Iran’s acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani discusses “proposed solutions” for ending the Gaza war with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah during a meeting in Lebanon, the Iran-backed terror group says. The two men “reviewed the latest regional political and security developments, especially on the Gaza and Lebanon fronts, and the proposed solutions,” a Hezbollah statement says. Bagheri arrived in Lebanon Monday on his first foreign trip since being named caretaker minister following the death of his predecessor Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a helicopter crash last month that also killed president Ebrahim Raisi. At a press conference on Monday, Bagheri said the United States should halt all aid to Israel rather than propose a ceasefire. He said he had chosen Lebanon for his first official visit “because Lebanon is the cradle of resistance” against Israel.

 

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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