π️Lonny's War Update- October 248, 2023 - June 10, 2024 π️
π️Day 248 that 120 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 - over 19,000 rockets and missiles launched against Israel since October 7
*10:50pm last night - north - hostile aircraft Margaliot, Misgav Am, Metulla, Western Galilee, Upper Galilee, Golan - one lightly injured person from the rocket barrage*12:55am- north - Rockets/missiles - Acre, Ein Hamifratz, Kraf Marsyk, Kiryat Bialik (Haifa suburbs)*12:40pm- north - hostile aircraft - Nahariya, Sheikh Danon, Yehiam, Kabri, Ein Yacov - video of Iron Dome interception*1:20pm- North - hostile aircraft -Upper Galilee, Metulla, Beit Hillel, Kfar Giladi, Kfar Yuval, Manara, Maayan Baruch*2:20pm- south - rockets Dekel, Holit, Yated, Sde Avraham*2:25pm- north - hostile aircraft - Margaliot, Misfav Am, Kiryat Shemona, Tel Hai, Golan, Upper Galilee*3:10pm- north - hostile aircraft - Golan, Upper Galilee, Metulla*3:25pm - north - hostile aircraft - Golan, Upper Galilee*3:30pm - north - hostile aircraft - Golan, Upper Galilee*5:20pm - north- rockets Kfar Yuval, Maayan Baruch, Beit Hillel, Hagoshrim*5:45pm - north - rockets Kiryat Shemona* 6:00pm - north - rockets Metulla, Kfar Yuval*7:15pm - north - rockets Nahariya, Evron, Shavei Zion, Regba*7:40pm - north - hostile aircraft - Golan, Galilee
Hostage Updates
United Torah Judaism MK Yitzhak Pindrus accuses the mother of a Gaza hostage of trying to politicize the situation to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“There are bereaved families here. You want to make it political, you want to kick Bibi out and send him wherever you want,” Pindrus says at a Knesset meeting, using the premier’s nickname. “There are people who are in a bad situation and we are trying to help them.”
He makes the comment as Esther Buchshtav, whose son Yagev Buchshtav was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nirim on October 7, tries to speak.
Buchshtav then asks that the Haredi lawmaker apologize for his comment.
“I didn’t come to talk politics, I came here as the mother of Yagev Buchshtav who is hostage in Gaza,” she says. “My heart is with the families of those who were murdered. I am not here to speak against them.” link Another case of a Knesset member berating the mother of a hostage. It seems to be that there is a test given to members of Netanyahu's coalition and only those who have no sympathy, empathy, moral compass or soul get to be members of the coalition.
The Biden administration is considering entering into a deal with Hamas that does not include Israel, according to a report by NBC News. Citing two current senior and two former US officials, NBC said the deal to free the five American hostages would be hammered out through Qatari mediation if the current effort to reach a comprehensive agreement fails. Israel would not be part of the negotiations.
The officials did not know what the US could offer Hamas in return, but argued there was an incentive for Hamas to drive a deeper wedge between US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. There is also a sense that a potential deal between the US and Hamas could pressure Netanyahu to agree to a broader deal. The US citizens held in Gaza are Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Omer Neutra, and Keith Siegel. link This is an interesting and weird idea. It's hard to imagine what the US could offer Hamas as an incentive. They have no direct ability to end the war, although they could do it with withholding weapons deliveries, and they have no power to release the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. The only thing that comes to mind is potentially offering guarantees for when Netanyahu does agree to halt the war and also offering terrorist leaders in Gaza an escape from Gaza to a diaspora country. This, I don't believe would have any impact on Sinwar and Deif as they strongly believe that they will remain in power at the end of the war.
Hamas terrorist leaders have given “standing orders” to operatives who are holding hostages “that if they think Israeli forces are coming, the first thing they should do is shoot the captives,” Israeli officials tell the New York Times.
In a report two days after the IDF’s rescue of four hostages from Nuseirat in central Gaza, the newspaper writes that if other hostages were killed on Saturday, as Hamas has claimed, “it might have been at the hand of the militants, not because of an Israeli airstrike.” It also notes that the IDF has directly denied a Hamas claim that three hostages were killed by Israeli airstrikes.
The Times report also says that the US military has flown surveillance drones over Gaza to help in hostage-rescue efforts since almost immediately after the October 7 Hamas invasion and slaughter in southern Israel. “At least six MQ-9 Reapers controlled by Special Operations forces have been involved in flying missions to monitor for signs of life,” it reports, citing US officials.
British and US drones have provided information that Israeli drones do not collect, the Times reports, with the “sheer numbers of American aircraft” involved enabling more territory to be surveilled “more frequently and for longer periods of time.”
While Israel is using ground-based sensors to map out the vast Hamas tunnel network, something the drones cannot do, the drones’ infrared radar “can detect the heat signatures of fighters or other people going into or out of tunnel entrances on the surface,” the report says, citing officials.
Intelligence sharing between the US and Israel has expanded beyond hostage-recovery efforts, it cites current and former US officials saying. Overall, the US and the UK “are part of the largest intelligence effort ever conducted in Israel, and probably ever,” Avi Kalo, a lieutenant colonel in the IDF reserves tells the paper.
A “small group of hostages” are believed to be held near Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, serving as human shields and making it harder for Israel to target him, the Times reports.
Sinwar, it says, hid in tunnels below Rafah for a while, but is now “likely back under Khan Younis,” where there is a vast subterranean network, it says, citing US officials. “Neither the United States nor Israel has been able to fix his precise location,” it cites a US official saying.
“Early in the war, some intelligence officials believed most hostages were being held in tunnels,” the paper says. That may not have been the case, since “living underground has proved tough for Hamas commanders, and… keeping hostages in the apartments of supporters of the organization has turned out to be easier.”
In the wake of Saturday’s rescue operation, however, Hamas is expected to move more hostages into tunnels and potentially out of reach of commando forces, the paper says. link This 'standing order' is not a surprise to anyone. In fact, I would assume that it went into effect much earlier in the war and if not then, at least following the rescue of Fernando Marmon and Louis Har in February from Rafah. Hamas did indeed claim that the IDF killed 3 hostages during the raid on Saturday that rescued 4 hostages in Nuseirat Refugee Camp and they published a video of the claim. I have seen the video. They show 3 blurred objects that are supposedly the bodies of 3 hostages but there is absolutely no confirmation and Hamas has not released any video showing their faces, which they have done before with dead hostages. We cannot rule out that some hostages were killed, either by IDF blasts in the operation, or by IDF or Hamas shooting while the operation was going on, or they were deliberately killed by Hamas either because their immediate captors thought the IDF was coming for them, or for revenge and punishment. These are questions that we may not get any answers to until the end of a hostage deal.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich walks out of a meeting of the Knesset Finance Committee after being confronted by relatives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
Some of the families tell Smotrich that they have waited eight months to meet with him and say their relatives have been abandoned. For his part, Smotrich says that they are engaged in “cynicism and demagoguery.” Asked what price a hostage’s life is worth, Smotrich accuses the hostages’ families of yelling, prompting loud arguments.
“Let’s say that Sinwar will ask for 20 of the inhabitants of the Gaza border area to be killed. Is that what Sinwar demands now? Releasing hundreds of murderers with blood on their hands, God forbid, could lead to the murder of many Jews,” Smotrich says.
“When Hamas demands an end to the war while it survives in Gaza, that means it will go back to arming itself, digging tunnels, purchasing missiles, and many Jews can be murdered and kidnapped in another October 7,” he adds. “This is the dilemma, and it is painful, and our responsibility as leadership is to think about things not only here and now, but also what the long-term consequences are.”
In response, the families chant a Talmudic saying: “Whoever saves one soul, it is as if he saved the whole world.” link Smotrich is a snivelling coward who refuses to meet with Hostage families and has refused to see any video of the hostage taking of the girl observers or any video of the events of October 7 because he wants to 'be able to sleep at night' (his words). From the start, he was willing to sacrifice all of the hostages in able to keep the war going and he stated that many times publicly. If, on the other hand, there was a hard decision that needed to be made so that there would be settlements in the West Bank or Gaza, he wouldn't hesitate for a second. That is more important to him than any of the lives of the hostages. He is one of the worst examples of having no sympathy, empathy, moral compass or soul. His very existence as a minister is due to Netanyahu normalizing both him and Ben Gvir when they were both clearly not part of the Israeli norm.
- An excellent interview with Samer Sinijlawi , a Palestinian Peace Activist and dear friend of my brother and following Samer, the interview continues with my brother, Gershon Baskin interviews on DW, 7 June 2024 on what it would take to end the war and get the hostages home link
- Rescued hostages suffering from malnutrition, possibly Stockholm syndrome:
Doctors at Sheba hospital say Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan, and Andrey Kolzov are constantly seeking each other for support
The four hostages who were rescued on Saturday from Gaza are in a worse physical and psychological state than initially believed, according to Hebrew media reports on Sunday.
Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan, and Andrey Kozlov were found to be malnourished during initial medical tests at Sheba Medical Center on Saturday, but the mental influence of their captivity had yet to be established.
The Kan public broadcaster reported Sunday evening that after initial conversations with the four, medical professionals believed they were exhibiting signs of Stockholm syndrome, as the rescued hostages spoke about awful experiences they had been subjected to in captivity while also saying that their captors cared about their wellbeing. Jan said that as a “cynical” gesture, his captors made him a cake for his birthday.
Staff at the hospital told the media that the four rescued hostages did not sleep on Saturday night, their first night back in Israel after their resuce, and instead stayed up talking to their families and among themselves.
The doctors also told Kan that the four were constantly seeking each other out, indicating their continued need to lean on each other for support. The rescued hostages have begun to talk about their experiences, according to various reports.
Channel 13 reported on Sunday that Ziv said he had learned Arabic from Al-Jazeera broadcasts he watched in captivity and that their captors made them read the Quran and pray every day. Argamani has also begun to share some of what she went through, telling her family that she narrowly avoided death four times in captivity, according to Channel 12 news.
According to a Monday Ynet report, Argamani learned Arabic while she was in captivity and used it to become a spokesperson for other female hostages she was held with before they were released in November during a weeklong truce. Before they were separated, Argamani would use the Arabic she learned to get things the hostages needed for them.
She said she had been held in four different apartments during her eight months in captivity and that in the last location, the family made her wash their dishes. Ynet reported that she also cooked at times with basic ingredients she was provided with.
Describing the rescue on Saturday, Argamani said she was washing the dishes when she heard a shout from the living room and saw people with their faces covered who told her they were from the IDF. “At first, I thought they were making fun of me, and I didn’t move, but then he asked me, ‘Can I throw you over my shoulder?’ and I realized what was happening,” Channel 12 quoted her as saying.
She added that on the way to the extraction spot, their truck broke down. “It was scary. The soldiers were brave. In a matter of one second, I may not have been here today,” she said.
Argamani was taken to see her mother, Liora, who is suffering from terminal cancer, but her father, Yaakov, said that Liora’s advanced illness made communication between the two difficult.
“I believe she understood what was happening. There was a foggy response, but Liora is in a bad way, and she barely looked at Noa,” Yaakov said.
Doctors at Ichilov Hospital, where Liora is a patient, told Ynet that Noa has become actively involved in her mother’s treatment since her return, seeking extensive information from the medical team and asking questions.
Shortly after Noa was taken captive, Liora appealed to Hamas to let her daughter go so that she could see her before she died.
Kozlov also reunited with his family on Sunday after his parents landed from St. Petersburg. In a video of the reunion, he could be seen falling to his knees and bursting into tears as soon as he saw his mother. Argamani, Jan, Kozlov and Ziv were abducted from the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im on the morning of October 7, when 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages in a murderous rampage across southern Israel.
Officers of the police’s elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit, along with Shin Bet agents, on Saturday morning simultaneously raided two multi-story buildings in the heart of Nuseirat, where the four hostages were being held by Hamas-affiliated families and guards of the terror group, according to the military. Hamas’s government media office claimed at least 274 people were killed amid the operation, an unverified figure that also does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
The IDF acknowledged that it killed Palestinian civilians amid the fighting, but it placed the blame on Hamas for holding hostages and fighting in a dense civilian environment. “We know about under 100 [Palestinian] casualties. I don’t know how many of them are terrorists,” IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Saturday. link
Hostage Updates
United Torah Judaism MK Yitzhak Pindrus accuses the mother of a Gaza hostage of trying to politicize the situation to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“There are bereaved families here. You want to make it political, you want to kick Bibi out and send him wherever you want,” Pindrus says at a Knesset meeting, using the premier’s nickname. “There are people who are in a bad situation and we are trying to help them.”
He makes the comment as Esther Buchshtav, whose son Yagev Buchshtav was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nirim on October 7, tries to speak.
Buchshtav then asks that the Haredi lawmaker apologize for his comment.
“I didn’t come to talk politics, I came here as the mother of Yagev Buchshtav who is hostage in Gaza,” she says. “My heart is with the families of those who were murdered. I am not here to speak against them.” link Another case of a Knesset member berating the mother of a hostage. It seems to be that there is a test given to members of Netanyahu's coalition and only those who have no sympathy, empathy, moral compass or soul get to be members of the coalition.
The Biden administration is considering entering into a deal with Hamas that does not include Israel, according to a report by NBC News. Citing two current senior and two former US officials, NBC said the deal to free the five American hostages would be hammered out through Qatari mediation if the current effort to reach a comprehensive agreement fails. Israel would not be part of the negotiations.
The officials did not know what the US could offer Hamas in return, but argued there was an incentive for Hamas to drive a deeper wedge between US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. There is also a sense that a potential deal between the US and Hamas could pressure Netanyahu to agree to a broader deal. The US citizens held in Gaza are Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Omer Neutra, and Keith Siegel. link This is an interesting and weird idea. It's hard to imagine what the US could offer Hamas as an incentive. They have no direct ability to end the war, although they could do it with withholding weapons deliveries, and they have no power to release the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. The only thing that comes to mind is potentially offering guarantees for when Netanyahu does agree to halt the war and also offering terrorist leaders in Gaza an escape from Gaza to a diaspora country. This, I don't believe would have any impact on Sinwar and Deif as they strongly believe that they will remain in power at the end of the war.
Hamas terrorist leaders have given “standing orders” to operatives who are holding hostages “that if they think Israeli forces are coming, the first thing they should do is shoot the captives,” Israeli officials tell the New York Times.
In a report two days after the IDF’s rescue of four hostages from Nuseirat in central Gaza, the newspaper writes that if other hostages were killed on Saturday, as Hamas has claimed, “it might have been at the hand of the militants, not because of an Israeli airstrike.” It also notes that the IDF has directly denied a Hamas claim that three hostages were killed by Israeli airstrikes.
The Times report also says that the US military has flown surveillance drones over Gaza to help in hostage-rescue efforts since almost immediately after the October 7 Hamas invasion and slaughter in southern Israel. “At least six MQ-9 Reapers controlled by Special Operations forces have been involved in flying missions to monitor for signs of life,” it reports, citing US officials.
British and US drones have provided information that Israeli drones do not collect, the Times reports, with the “sheer numbers of American aircraft” involved enabling more territory to be surveilled “more frequently and for longer periods of time.”
While Israel is using ground-based sensors to map out the vast Hamas tunnel network, something the drones cannot do, the drones’ infrared radar “can detect the heat signatures of fighters or other people going into or out of tunnel entrances on the surface,” the report says, citing officials.
Intelligence sharing between the US and Israel has expanded beyond hostage-recovery efforts, it cites current and former US officials saying. Overall, the US and the UK “are part of the largest intelligence effort ever conducted in Israel, and probably ever,” Avi Kalo, a lieutenant colonel in the IDF reserves tells the paper.
A “small group of hostages” are believed to be held near Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, serving as human shields and making it harder for Israel to target him, the Times reports.
Sinwar, it says, hid in tunnels below Rafah for a while, but is now “likely back under Khan Younis,” where there is a vast subterranean network, it says, citing US officials. “Neither the United States nor Israel has been able to fix his precise location,” it cites a US official saying.
“Early in the war, some intelligence officials believed most hostages were being held in tunnels,” the paper says. That may not have been the case, since “living underground has proved tough for Hamas commanders, and… keeping hostages in the apartments of supporters of the organization has turned out to be easier.”
In the wake of Saturday’s rescue operation, however, Hamas is expected to move more hostages into tunnels and potentially out of reach of commando forces, the paper says. link This 'standing order' is not a surprise to anyone. In fact, I would assume that it went into effect much earlier in the war and if not then, at least following the rescue of Fernando Marmon and Louis Har in February from Rafah. Hamas did indeed claim that the IDF killed 3 hostages during the raid on Saturday that rescued 4 hostages in Nuseirat Refugee Camp and they published a video of the claim. I have seen the video. They show 3 blurred objects that are supposedly the bodies of 3 hostages but there is absolutely no confirmation and Hamas has not released any video showing their faces, which they have done before with dead hostages. We cannot rule out that some hostages were killed, either by IDF blasts in the operation, or by IDF or Hamas shooting while the operation was going on, or they were deliberately killed by Hamas either because their immediate captors thought the IDF was coming for them, or for revenge and punishment. These are questions that we may not get any answers to until the end of a hostage deal.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich walks out of a meeting of the Knesset Finance Committee after being confronted by relatives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
Some of the families tell Smotrich that they have waited eight months to meet with him and say their relatives have been abandoned. For his part, Smotrich says that they are engaged in “cynicism and demagoguery.” Asked what price a hostage’s life is worth, Smotrich accuses the hostages’ families of yelling, prompting loud arguments.
“Let’s say that Sinwar will ask for 20 of the inhabitants of the Gaza border area to be killed. Is that what Sinwar demands now? Releasing hundreds of murderers with blood on their hands, God forbid, could lead to the murder of many Jews,” Smotrich says.
“When Hamas demands an end to the war while it survives in Gaza, that means it will go back to arming itself, digging tunnels, purchasing missiles, and many Jews can be murdered and kidnapped in another October 7,” he adds. “This is the dilemma, and it is painful, and our responsibility as leadership is to think about things not only here and now, but also what the long-term consequences are.”
In response, the families chant a Talmudic saying: “Whoever saves one soul, it is as if he saved the whole world.” link Smotrich is a snivelling coward who refuses to meet with Hostage families and has refused to see any video of the hostage taking of the girl observers or any video of the events of October 7 because he wants to 'be able to sleep at night' (his words). From the start, he was willing to sacrifice all of the hostages in able to keep the war going and he stated that many times publicly. If, on the other hand, there was a hard decision that needed to be made so that there would be settlements in the West Bank or Gaza, he wouldn't hesitate for a second. That is more important to him than any of the lives of the hostages. He is one of the worst examples of having no sympathy, empathy, moral compass or soul. His very existence as a minister is due to Netanyahu normalizing both him and Ben Gvir when they were both clearly not part of the Israeli norm.
- An excellent interview with Samer Sinijlawi , a Palestinian Peace Activist and dear friend of my brother and following Samer, the interview continues with my brother, Gershon Baskin interviews on DW, 7 June 2024 on what it would take to end the war and get the hostages home link
- Rescued hostages suffering from malnutrition, possibly Stockholm syndrome:
Doctors at Sheba hospital say Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan, and Andrey Kolzov are constantly seeking each other for supportThe four hostages who were rescued on Saturday from Gaza are in a worse physical and psychological state than initially believed, according to Hebrew media reports on Sunday.
Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan, and Andrey Kozlov were found to be malnourished during initial medical tests at Sheba Medical Center on Saturday, but the mental influence of their captivity had yet to be established.
The Kan public broadcaster reported Sunday evening that after initial conversations with the four, medical professionals believed they were exhibiting signs of Stockholm syndrome, as the rescued hostages spoke about awful experiences they had been subjected to in captivity while also saying that their captors cared about their wellbeing. Jan said that as a “cynical” gesture, his captors made him a cake for his birthday.
Staff at the hospital told the media that the four rescued hostages did not sleep on Saturday night, their first night back in Israel after their resuce, and instead stayed up talking to their families and among themselves.
The doctors also told Kan that the four were constantly seeking each other out, indicating their continued need to lean on each other for support. The rescued hostages have begun to talk about their experiences, according to various reports.
Channel 13 reported on Sunday that Ziv said he had learned Arabic from Al-Jazeera broadcasts he watched in captivity and that their captors made them read the Quran and pray every day. Argamani has also begun to share some of what she went through, telling her family that she narrowly avoided death four times in captivity, according to Channel 12 news.
According to a Monday Ynet report, Argamani learned Arabic while she was in captivity and used it to become a spokesperson for other female hostages she was held with before they were released in November during a weeklong truce. Before they were separated, Argamani would use the Arabic she learned to get things the hostages needed for them.
She said she had been held in four different apartments during her eight months in captivity and that in the last location, the family made her wash their dishes. Ynet reported that she also cooked at times with basic ingredients she was provided with.
Describing the rescue on Saturday, Argamani said she was washing the dishes when she heard a shout from the living room and saw people with their faces covered who told her they were from the IDF. “At first, I thought they were making fun of me, and I didn’t move, but then he asked me, ‘Can I throw you over my shoulder?’ and I realized what was happening,” Channel 12 quoted her as saying.
She added that on the way to the extraction spot, their truck broke down. “It was scary. The soldiers were brave. In a matter of one second, I may not have been here today,” she said.
Argamani was taken to see her mother, Liora, who is suffering from terminal cancer, but her father, Yaakov, said that Liora’s advanced illness made communication between the two difficult.
“I believe she understood what was happening. There was a foggy response, but Liora is in a bad way, and she barely looked at Noa,” Yaakov said.
Doctors at Ichilov Hospital, where Liora is a patient, told Ynet that Noa has become actively involved in her mother’s treatment since her return, seeking extensive information from the medical team and asking questions.
Shortly after Noa was taken captive, Liora appealed to Hamas to let her daughter go so that she could see her before she died.
Kozlov also reunited with his family on Sunday after his parents landed from St. Petersburg. In a video of the reunion, he could be seen falling to his knees and bursting into tears as soon as he saw his mother. Argamani, Jan, Kozlov and Ziv were abducted from the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im on the morning of October 7, when 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages in a murderous rampage across southern Israel.
Officers of the police’s elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit, along with Shin Bet agents, on Saturday morning simultaneously raided two multi-story buildings in the heart of Nuseirat, where the four hostages were being held by Hamas-affiliated families and guards of the terror group, according to the military. Hamas’s government media office claimed at least 274 people were killed amid the operation, an unverified figure that also does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
The IDF acknowledged that it killed Palestinian civilians amid the fighting, but it placed the blame on Hamas for holding hostages and fighting in a dense civilian environment. “We know about under 100 [Palestinian] casualties. I don’t know how many of them are terrorists,” IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Saturday. link
Gaza
Several Hamas operatives, including members of the terror group’s elite Nukhba force were killed in airstrikes in the central Gaza Strip in the last few hours, the military says. The IDF says that simultaneously, strikes were also carried out against Hamas tunnel infrastructure in the Deir al-Balah area. The strikes come as the 98th Division continues an offensive in central Gaza.
Amid the operation in central Gaza, the IDF says troops of the 7th Armored Brigade and elite Yahalom combat engineering unit raided several buildings used by terror groups and demolished tunnels. Operations also continue in southern Gaza’s Rafah. In one incident in Rafah, the IDF says a drone strike was carried out against two gunmen who were spotted by troops of the 414th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit heading toward a tunnel shaft.
- WASHINGTON — An American cargo plane dropped more than 10 metric tons of rations into northern Gaza on Sunday, the US military says, after a suspension of such deliveries due to Israeli operations in the area.
The air drop provided “life-saving humanitarian assistance in northern Gaza,” the US Central Command (CENTCOM) says in a statement.
“To date the US has airdropped more than 1,050 metric tons of humanitarian assistance” in addition to aid delivered via a temporary pier attached to the Gaza coast, it says.
“These airdrops are part of a sustained effort, and we continue to plan follow-on aerial deliveries,” CENTCOM adds.
The Pentagon said in late May that factors including Israeli operations and weather conditions were affecting the drops, while deputy CENTCOM commander Vice Admiral Brad Cooper said Friday that they had been “suspended due to the kinetic operations happening in the north” but were expected to resume soon.
The latest airdrop came a day after aid deliveries were restarted via the pier, which was damaged by bad weather last month and had to be repaired in a nearby port before being reattached to the coast. The commander of the IDF’s Gaza Division, Brig. Gen. Avi Rosenfeld, announces that he is resigning from the military over his involvement in the failures that led to Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught.
In a letter to the head of the Southern Command and IDF chief of staff, Rosenfeld writes that “on October 7, I failed in my life’s mission to protect the [Gaza border communities].” “I have decided to end my position as commander of the 143rd Division (the Gaza Division) and my service in the IDF, as part of my responsibility as a commander. Everyone has to take responsibility for their part and I am the one in charge of the 143rd Division,” he writes. “As I promised, I will stay until my replacement takes over the role, and I will transfer command over the division in an orderly and responsible manner,” Rosenfeld continues.
“I intend to continue to take part in the investigations and the learning of lessons, to do everything so that what happened on October 7 does not happen in the future,” he says.
Rosenfeld is only the second senior officer in the IDF to resign over the October 7 attack, after the chief of the Military Intelligence Directorate announced he was quitting in April. - There will be many resignations among the highest levels of the security agencies. It is known that the Chief of Staff Herzi Halevey, the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar and the head of the Mossad Dedi Barnea will be resigning after each one took responsibility for the failures of October 7 and events which lead to Black Saturday. They have been pressed by many not to resign until there is a new government in place so that the top person responsible for October 7, Netanyahu will not be in a position to name their successors. Unfortunately, Netanyahu still refuses to take any responsibility whatsoever for October 7 and all that led up to it.
Several Hamas operatives, including members of the terror group’s elite Nukhba force were killed in airstrikes in the central Gaza Strip in the last few hours, the military says. The IDF says that simultaneously, strikes were also carried out against Hamas tunnel infrastructure in the Deir al-Balah area. The strikes come as the 98th Division continues an offensive in central Gaza.
Amid the operation in central Gaza, the IDF says troops of the 7th Armored Brigade and elite Yahalom combat engineering unit raided several buildings used by terror groups and demolished tunnels. Operations also continue in southern Gaza’s Rafah. In one incident in Rafah, the IDF says a drone strike was carried out against two gunmen who were spotted by troops of the 414th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit heading toward a tunnel shaft.
The air drop provided “life-saving humanitarian assistance in northern Gaza,” the US Central Command (CENTCOM) says in a statement.
“To date the US has airdropped more than 1,050 metric tons of humanitarian assistance” in addition to aid delivered via a temporary pier attached to the Gaza coast, it says.
“These airdrops are part of a sustained effort, and we continue to plan follow-on aerial deliveries,” CENTCOM adds.
The Pentagon said in late May that factors including Israeli operations and weather conditions were affecting the drops, while deputy CENTCOM commander Vice Admiral Brad Cooper said Friday that they had been “suspended due to the kinetic operations happening in the north” but were expected to resume soon.
The latest airdrop came a day after aid deliveries were restarted via the pier, which was damaged by bad weather last month and had to be repaired in a nearby port before being reattached to the coast.
The commander of the IDF’s Gaza Division, Brig. Gen. Avi Rosenfeld, announces that he is resigning from the military over his involvement in the failures that led to Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught.
In a letter to the head of the Southern Command and IDF chief of staff, Rosenfeld writes that “on October 7, I failed in my life’s mission to protect the [Gaza border communities].” “I have decided to end my position as commander of the 143rd Division (the Gaza Division) and my service in the IDF, as part of my responsibility as a commander. Everyone has to take responsibility for their part and I am the one in charge of the 143rd Division,” he writes. “As I promised, I will stay until my replacement takes over the role, and I will transfer command over the division in an orderly and responsible manner,” Rosenfeld continues.
“I intend to continue to take part in the investigations and the learning of lessons, to do everything so that what happened on October 7 does not happen in the future,” he says.
Rosenfeld is only the second senior officer in the IDF to resign over the October 7 attack, after the chief of the Military Intelligence Directorate announced he was quitting in April. - There will be many resignations among the highest levels of the security agencies. It is known that the Chief of Staff Herzi Halevey, the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar and the head of the Mossad Dedi Barnea will be resigning after each one took responsibility for the failures of October 7 and events which lead to Black Saturday. They have been pressed by many not to resign until there is a new government in place so that the top person responsible for October 7, Netanyahu will not be in a position to name their successors. Unfortunately, Netanyahu still refuses to take any responsibility whatsoever for October 7 and all that led up to it.
Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah
Anti-tank guided missiles launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon at the northern border community of Yir’on caused damage to a home, authorities say. The Israel Fire and Rescue Service says its firefighters and members of the community’s local security team extinguished a fire at a home that was hit by the anti-tank missiles. Hezbollah took responsibility for the attack, claiming to target a military position.
The damage to a home in Yir'on from a Hezbollah anti-tank guided missile, June 10, 2024 (Fire and Rescue Service)
Anti-tank guided missiles launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon at the northern border community of Yir’on caused damage to a home, authorities say. The Israel Fire and Rescue Service says its firefighters and members of the community’s local security team extinguished a fire at a home that was hit by the anti-tank missiles. Hezbollah took responsibility for the attack, claiming to target a military position.
The damage to a home in Yir'on from a Hezbollah anti-tank guided missile, June 10, 2024 (Fire and Rescue Service)
West Bank
- A Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli forces during a raid in the West Bank’s Far’a camp, near Tubas this morning, Palestinian media report.
The IDF says it launched a “wide counter-terrorism operation” in Far’a, northeast of Nablus, during which troops shot several suspects and neutralized explosive devices. The operation is still ongoing. The official Palestinian Wafa news agency says another four people were wounded by IDF fire.
A Palestinian gunman was shot dead by a Border Police sniper during an overnight arrest raid in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, police say. According to police, undercover officers raided the Tulkarem neighbourhood of Danaba to detain a Palestinian wanted over his alleged involvement in terror activities. The suspect was detained by the Border Police officers, and clashes erupted in the area. Police say that an armed Palestinian wearing a military vest was shot dead by a sniper amid the clashes. No Israeli officers were hurt.
Overnight, Palestinians set fire to a trailer used by settlers as a living space in the West Bank Sde Ephraim farm outpost, the military and the fire service say. According to the IDF, two Palestinians, one of whom was armed, infiltrated into Sde Ephraim.
In a surveillance camera video, the armed suspect is seen pouring flammable liquid on a vehicle with a caravan, and then setting fire to it, before leaving the scene. The Israel Fire and Rescue Service says the fire was extinguished. There were no injuries in the attack, as the couple living there were not home at the time. The IDF says it has launched a manhunt for the assailants.
Sde Ephraim was established illegally on a hilltop that had been part of the Palestinian village next door, Ras Karkar, also known as Risan. Settlers from the outpost have clashed with local Palestinians in the area in the past.
The IDF says it launched a “wide counter-terrorism operation” in Far’a, northeast of Nablus, during which troops shot several suspects and neutralized explosive devices. The operation is still ongoing. The official Palestinian Wafa news agency says another four people were wounded by IDF fire.
A Palestinian gunman was shot dead by a Border Police sniper during an overnight arrest raid in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, police say. According to police, undercover officers raided the Tulkarem neighbourhood of Danaba to detain a Palestinian wanted over his alleged involvement in terror activities. The suspect was detained by the Border Police officers, and clashes erupted in the area. Police say that an armed Palestinian wearing a military vest was shot dead by a sniper amid the clashes. No Israeli officers were hurt.
Overnight, Palestinians set fire to a trailer used by settlers as a living space in the West Bank Sde Ephraim farm outpost, the military and the fire service say. According to the IDF, two Palestinians, one of whom was armed, infiltrated into Sde Ephraim.
In a surveillance camera video, the armed suspect is seen pouring flammable liquid on a vehicle with a caravan, and then setting fire to it, before leaving the scene. The Israel Fire and Rescue Service says the fire was extinguished. There were no injuries in the attack, as the couple living there were not home at the time. The IDF says it has launched a manhunt for the assailants.
Sde Ephraim was established illegally on a hilltop that had been part of the Palestinian village next door, Ras Karkar, also known as Risan. Settlers from the outpost have clashed with local Palestinians in the area in the past.
Politics
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading back to the Middle East to push a ceasefire and hostage deal plan, but Israeli political upheaval and silence from Hamas raise questions on whether he can succeed. Blinken is scheduled to hold closed-door talks first in Cairo with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a key US partner in peace efforts, and later in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ahead of an expected first Knesset vote on a contentious bill for the enlistment of Haredi men, activists place funeral wreaths outside the homes of a number of coalition lawmakers, signaling that supporting the law will endanger the lives of citizens.
The Recruiting for Unity forum, made up of bereaved families and reservists, says the wreaths are for the lawmakers to use at the funeral of the “next in line” to die.
“The IDF lacks 7,000 soldiers, and supporting the law endangers the lives of the citizens of the State of Israel,” says the forum.
“We spared the lawmakers who support the law from making an effort, and already prepared the wreaths for them so that they could use them in the next event where the security of the citizens of the State of Israel is violated because of their decision to support the law,” the activists say. Ultra-orthodox women and male yeshiva students are generally exempt from military service due to controversial longstanding arrangements that have generated significant criticism and anger among the general population.
The government is trying to move ahead with legislation that will cement in law the exemption, despite opposition to the move within the coalition and pressure in the High Court, where petitions have been filed demanding that eligible men be conscripted. Previous legislation and government orders that shielded the Haredim from the draft expired earlier this year, leaving some 63,000 young ultra-Orthodox men with no legal framework exempting them from service.
The issue has gained added urgency after eight months of war against the Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and fighting against Lebanon-based Hezbollah in the north, which has placed considerable strain on the army’s resources, requiring that hundreds of thousands of reservists be called up for duty. link We are now seeing many of the Knesset members who were in favor of broad draft and minimal exemptions now changing their minds and are planning to vote in favor os this neutered bill that will permanently exempt the majority of the Haredim from service. These are the hypocrites who make all their decisions based on their own petty politics and not for the good of the nation. Smotrich, who was in favor of broad draft of the Haredim has now stated that he will vote in favor of this bill.
According to Hebrew-language media reports, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is expected to vote against contentious legislation that would lower the age of exemption from mandatory service for male Haredi Torah students from the current 26 to 21 while “very slowly” increasing the rate of ultra-Orthodox enlistment.
The majority of lawmakers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party are expected to vote in favor of the legislation. According to Haaretz, the vote is expected to reach the plenum after midnight tonight.
The legislation was initially proposed two years ago by National Unity leader Benny Gantz, who slammed Netanyahu’s revival of the bill as a political maneuver.
“The State of Israel needs soldiers and not political exercises that tear the people apart during a war,” Gantz declared last month, insisting that his proposal had been advanced as an interim measure only. Ultra-Orthodox men of military age have been able to avoid being conscripted to the Israel Defense Forces for decades by enrolling in yeshivas for Torah study and obtaining repeated one-year service deferrals until they reach the age of military exemption. link
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel of the Haredi Shas party says that ultra-Orthodox men should not receive automatic exemptions from IDF service.
“A black kippa is not a reason to be exempt from conscription,” Arbel says in an onstage interview at the Muni Expo 2024 conference in Tel Aviv.
Large black kippot, usually velvet, are typically worn by ultra-Orthodox men. link Hooray for Moshe Arbel. He is one of the few ministers of the government who has actually managed his ministry and made decisions based on the good of the country over politics. His statement is an affirmation that he is doing the same here. I just hope that we will see his talk become action in the vote tonight.
If this law passes, it will mean that draftees will have to serve 4 years instead of 3 and reservists will have to serve at least 2 months a year, not during a war. In the coming day, call up notices will be sent to tens of thousands of reservists who have already been called up twice during the war, with many of them already having served 180 days or more. This law also counts Haredim who do shortened service of a couple of weeks within the total count of Haredim to be drafted, which means that the law will then reduce the real amount of Haredim to be drafted. And any Haredi who gets a draft notice and doesn't show up, there is no penalty, nothing. Any non haredi who doesn't show up to his/her draft or reserve service gets arrested and can be sent to Military prison.
- Eisenkot also resigns, says war cabinet was paralyzed by outside considerations
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading back to the Middle East to push a ceasefire and hostage deal plan, but Israeli political upheaval and silence from Hamas raise questions on whether he can succeed. Blinken is scheduled to hold closed-door talks first in Cairo with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a key US partner in peace efforts, and later in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ahead of an expected first Knesset vote on a contentious bill for the enlistment of Haredi men, activists place funeral wreaths outside the homes of a number of coalition lawmakers, signaling that supporting the law will endanger the lives of citizens.
The Recruiting for Unity forum, made up of bereaved families and reservists, says the wreaths are for the lawmakers to use at the funeral of the “next in line” to die.
“The IDF lacks 7,000 soldiers, and supporting the law endangers the lives of the citizens of the State of Israel,” says the forum.
“We spared the lawmakers who support the law from making an effort, and already prepared the wreaths for them so that they could use them in the next event where the security of the citizens of the State of Israel is violated because of their decision to support the law,” the activists say. Ultra-orthodox women and male yeshiva students are generally exempt from military service due to controversial longstanding arrangements that have generated significant criticism and anger among the general population.
The government is trying to move ahead with legislation that will cement in law the exemption, despite opposition to the move within the coalition and pressure in the High Court, where petitions have been filed demanding that eligible men be conscripted. Previous legislation and government orders that shielded the Haredim from the draft expired earlier this year, leaving some 63,000 young ultra-Orthodox men with no legal framework exempting them from service.
The issue has gained added urgency after eight months of war against the Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and fighting against Lebanon-based Hezbollah in the north, which has placed considerable strain on the army’s resources, requiring that hundreds of thousands of reservists be called up for duty. link We are now seeing many of the Knesset members who were in favor of broad draft and minimal exemptions now changing their minds and are planning to vote in favor os this neutered bill that will permanently exempt the majority of the Haredim from service. These are the hypocrites who make all their decisions based on their own petty politics and not for the good of the nation. Smotrich, who was in favor of broad draft of the Haredim has now stated that he will vote in favor of this bill.
According to Hebrew-language media reports, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is expected to vote against contentious legislation that would lower the age of exemption from mandatory service for male Haredi Torah students from the current 26 to 21 while “very slowly” increasing the rate of ultra-Orthodox enlistment.
The majority of lawmakers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party are expected to vote in favor of the legislation. According to Haaretz, the vote is expected to reach the plenum after midnight tonight.
The legislation was initially proposed two years ago by National Unity leader Benny Gantz, who slammed Netanyahu’s revival of the bill as a political maneuver.
“The State of Israel needs soldiers and not political exercises that tear the people apart during a war,” Gantz declared last month, insisting that his proposal had been advanced as an interim measure only. Ultra-Orthodox men of military age have been able to avoid being conscripted to the Israel Defense Forces for decades by enrolling in yeshivas for Torah study and obtaining repeated one-year service deferrals until they reach the age of military exemption. link
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel of the Haredi Shas party says that ultra-Orthodox men should not receive automatic exemptions from IDF service.
“A black kippa is not a reason to be exempt from conscription,” Arbel says in an onstage interview at the Muni Expo 2024 conference in Tel Aviv.
Large black kippot, usually velvet, are typically worn by ultra-Orthodox men. link Hooray for Moshe Arbel. He is one of the few ministers of the government who has actually managed his ministry and made decisions based on the good of the country over politics. His statement is an affirmation that he is doing the same here. I just hope that we will see his talk become action in the vote tonight.
If this law passes, it will mean that draftees will have to serve 4 years instead of 3 and reservists will have to serve at least 2 months a year, not during a war. In the coming day, call up notices will be sent to tens of thousands of reservists who have already been called up twice during the war, with many of them already having served 180 days or more. This law also counts Haredim who do shortened service of a couple of weeks within the total count of Haredim to be drafted, which means that the law will then reduce the real amount of Haredim to be drafted. And any Haredi who gets a draft notice and doesn't show up, there is no penalty, nothing. Any non haredi who doesn't show up to his/her draft or reserve service gets arrested and can be sent to Military prison.- Eisenkot also resigns, says war cabinet was paralyzed by outside considerations
National Unity MK Gadi Eisenkot is following party leader Benny Gantz out of the coalition and giving up his spot as an observer in the war cabinet now being dismantled by the departure. Like Gantz, Eisenkot has harsh words for the way the panel handled itself during the war in a resignation letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Despite the efforts of many, alongside those of my colleague, the cabinet you headed was prevented for a long while from making determining decisions, which were needed to realize the war’s goals and improve Israel’s strategic position,” the former IDF chief writes. “Outside considerations and politics infiltrated into the discussions,” he charges. “Therefore, it’s time we left the government.” link
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir wastes no time in shooting a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, demanding that he open the war cabinet to new membership — specifically himself — after Benny Gantz and his National Unity party bolt from the coalition.
In a letter to Netanyahu posted on social media Ben Gvir says the cabinet’s makeup until now only included ministers who follow the military’s accepted conceptual wisdom, with the rest ignored and blackballed. It is time to bring in ministers who “warned in real time against the conception and viewpoint that everyone today accepts was wrong,” he writes, demanding that he be added to the three-man cabinet.
Ben Gvir, widely seen as a firebrand reactionary, had indicated earlier that he planned to jockey for greater power for himself and his far-right party Otzma Yehudit in the wake of Gantz’s resignation.
“It’s time to make decisive, courageous decision,” he writes. link No one knows what Netanyahu is going to do with the war cabinet now that Gantz and Eisencott have resigned. Adding Ben Gvir and then Smotrich will be a very dangerous thing regarding management of the war and could mean the end of any hope chance of bringing the hostages home.
The Region
- Yemen’s Houthis damaged two commercial vessels in missile attacks in the Gulf of Aden in the last 24 hours as part of the militia group’s ongoing campaign against international ocean shipping, US Central Command says.
The Iran-backed Houthis hit the Tavvishi, a Liberian-flagged and Swiss-owned container ship with an anti-ship ballistic missile, CENTCOM says. The vessel was damaged, but no crew were injured, according to CENTCOM.
Two missiles fired by the Houthis struck the Norderney, a German-owned cargo ship operating under Antigua and Barbados flags, CENTCOM says. That ship sustained damage, but no crew were injured and the vessel continued on its journey, CENTCOM says.
The Houthis previously said they had hit the Tavvishi and Norderney, and claimed to have set the latter ablaze.
MSC Ship Management is the manager of the Tavvishi, according to LSEG data. Reuters cannot immediately reach the firm for comment. Sunship Schiffahrtskontor, manager of the Norderney according to LSEG, also cannot be reached for comment.
CENTCOM says its forces also destroyed an uncrewed aerial system over the Gulf of Aden as well as two land attack cruise missiles and one missile launcher in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
The Iran-backed Houthis hit the Tavvishi, a Liberian-flagged and Swiss-owned container ship with an anti-ship ballistic missile, CENTCOM says. The vessel was damaged, but no crew were injured, according to CENTCOM.
Two missiles fired by the Houthis struck the Norderney, a German-owned cargo ship operating under Antigua and Barbados flags, CENTCOM says. That ship sustained damage, but no crew were injured and the vessel continued on its journey, CENTCOM says.
The Houthis previously said they had hit the Tavvishi and Norderney, and claimed to have set the latter ablaze.
MSC Ship Management is the manager of the Tavvishi, according to LSEG data. Reuters cannot immediately reach the firm for comment. Sunship Schiffahrtskontor, manager of the Norderney according to LSEG, also cannot be reached for comment.
CENTCOM says its forces also destroyed an uncrewed aerial system over the Gulf of Aden as well as two land attack cruise missiles and one missile launcher in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
Acronyms and Glossary
ICC - International Criminal Court in the Hague
IJC - International Court of Justice in the Hague
MDA - Magen David Adom - Israel Ambulance Corp
PA - Palestinian Authority - President Mahmud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen
PMO- Prime Minister's Office
UAV - Unmanned Aerial vehicle, Drone. Could be used for surveillance and reconnaissance, or be weaponized with missiles or contain explosives for 'suicide' explosion mission
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