π️Lonny's War Update- October 263, 2023 - June 24, 2024 π️
π️Day 263 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
*1:30am north - The pro-Iranian militias in Iraq claim to have attacked a target in Haifa port using UAVs- there is no IDF confirmation*1:50pm - South - rockets Kerem Shalom*2:10 pm - North - hostile aircraft Malkia, Dishon*2:20pm - North - hostile aircraft Malkia, Dishon, Yiftach, Mevo'ot Hermon, Ramot Naftali*3:00pm - south - rockets Kerem Shalom*7:40pm- south - rockets Kibbutz Sufa
Hostage Updates
Two
Russian-Israeli hostages would be first release if deal is made – Mousa Abu Marzouk, deputy
head of Hamas's political bureau, said that the two Russian-Israeli hostages
would be the first to be released if a hostage-ceasefire agreement is made, he
told Russian state media agency RIA Novosti on Tuesday. The two Russian-Israeli hostages still in Hamas’s hands are Alexander Lobanov, 32, and Alexander Trufanov, 28, who is detained by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). PIJ published two videos of Trufanov in May.
Another hostage with Russian citizenship, Andrey Kozlov, was rescued in a daring daylight operation in central Gaza earlier this month together with Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, and Shlomi Ziv.
Hamas has previously released another hostage with Russian citizenship, Roni Krivoi, as a favor to Russian President Vladimir Putin in November, in a separate agreement from the temporary ceasefire and hostage release deal reached between Hamas and Israel around the same time.
In a separate interview with the Sputnik news agency during his Moscow visit, Abu Marzouk insists on having Russia as one of the guarantors of a possible ceasefire with Israel, as a counterbalance to the US which is perceived to be on Israel’s side.
The deputy politburo head also says that during Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s upcoming visit to Moscow, for which a date has not yet been set, the issue of reconciliation between Palestinian factions will be discussed. A unity meeting between Hamas and Fatah was scheduled to take place in China this month, but was postponed indefinitely due to deep divisions between the two sides.
After abduction
clip airs, hostages’ families urge leaders to take notice, reach a deal
Parents, siblings
of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Or Levy and Eliya Cohen call on government to seek an
agreement for release all those held in Gaza: ‘Feel our cries are not heard’ The
families of three Israeli hostages whose abduction by Gazan terrorists was
shown in a clip released Monday said the harrowing footage should serve as a
reminder to the country’s leaders that they need to bring all the captives
home.
In the clip,
hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Or Levy, and Eliya Cohen were seen being shoved
into a pickup truck and driven to the Gaza Strip on October 7 amid the massive
Hamas-led attack on Israel that saw terrorists abduct 251 people and kill
1,200, mostly civilians.
All
three of them were abducted from the same field bomb shelter where, along with
many others, they had sought refuge during the Hamas attack. The hostages’ families, together with
the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, said they were releasing the video as evidence of the government’s
abandonment of the hostages.
Parents and siblings of the
three hostages gave a round of media interviews urging the government to agree
to a hostage deal with Hamas.
Rachel Goldberg and Jon
Polin, parents of Goldberg-Polin, spoke to Channel 12 after the airing of the
new clip of his capture.“It’s a clip no parent in the
world wants to see,” Polin said. “We, the parents of the hostage, don’t need a
reminder. But maybe decision-makers in Israel and the world need every reminder
— that we’re not just talking about the word ‘hostage,’ but about human beings,
real people, with dreams, with families, with people who love them, who are
waiting for them.”
“The world needs to see what happened,” Polin said. “This is
what happened, this is what they experienced. It is very hard to watch but
important.” Goldberg-Polin
is seen in the video clutching his tourniquet-bound arm, which had just been
blown off below the elbow.
Polin said that they are in
“good, constant contact” with senior officials in the US and that every time US
Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Israel on his diplomacy missions they
are in touch with him.
As for Israeli authorities,
there is “much less, and we need to demand.” Goldberg said, “It is hard to
believe that after 262 days there are still 120 people there.”
Polin rejected
controversial remarks made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the previous
day in which he said he was willing to agree to a hostage deal that would free
only some of the captives. Polin stressed that as far as they are concerned,
all the hostages held in Gaza must be brought home. Amid outcry, Netanyahu on
Monday said he wants a deal for all the hostages.
Michael Levy
told Channel 13 that his brother Or can be seen in the video apparently covered
in the blood of his wife Eynav.
“The first thing that stood out for me in the clip was the
terror in his eyes, the fear on his face. I noticed that he was covered in the
blood of his wife Eynav, who was murdered on October 7. He was forced to see
her murdered in front of his eyes in the field shelter.” Their toddler son, Almog, will mark his
third birthday on Tuesday without either of his parents.
“It is heartbreaking,”
Michael Levy told Channel 13. “He keeps asking about [Or] and Eynav and wants
to meet them, and we don’t have anything to say to him.”
“There is no way to tell
something like that to such a young child. He just wants mom and dad to
celebrate the birthday with him, but regretfully, that won’t happen,” he said. The toddler is being raised by his grandparents.
“It is sad to say, but
sometimes I feel that people need a reminder, that the government needs a
reminder that they are still there, that they are still alive, and their time
is running out,” Levy said. “I feel that our cries are not heard, that the
discussion has moved to ‘a price’ [of a hostage deal]. What price is there on
the life of a person? To a 3-year-old boy who celebrates his birthday without
his parents, who begs to meet his father.”
Levy said that when members
of the government see the video clip “I want them to look at the terror in the
faces of Or, Hirsch, and Elia, that are a reminder that these people were
abandoned on October 7, and that their duty is to bring them back home to their
families as soon as possible.”
Sigi Cohen, mother of Eliya
Cohen, 26, speaking to the Kan public broadcaster said of the terrorists in the
clip: “You can see how wicked they are.” She too rejected Netanyahu’s remarks on a partial hostage
release deal. “That would be like roulette.
Who knows who would come back and who would decide,” she said. Cohen said that a deal is likely the only way to free the
hostages still in Gaza, though a handful have been rescued during Israel’s
military offensive in Gaza to destroy Hamas.
“If only it were possible,
but it isn’t,” she said. “Netanyahu needs to show leadership. My greatest fear
is that the Israeli government will continue with its attitude because at the
moment this isn’t a deal and it isn’t fighting. They need to decide. They can’t
sit on the fence and leave us waiting.” “Every day it gets harder,” she
said. “And if that is how it is for us, who knows what it is like for our loved
ones.”
Criticizing Netanyahu for his
remarks on a partial deal, Cohen said, “Everyone who speaks, whether the prime
ministers or anyone else, needs to understand that there are 120 families that
every comment like that rocks them all over again.”
Cohen and his girlfriend Ziv
Abud, along with Abud’s niece and her nephew’s girlfriend, were hiding in the
field shelter. Abud’s niece and nephew’s girlfriend were killed, and Abud and
Cohen were hidden under the dead bodies.
President Isaac Herzog shared the clip on his X account writing
that “alongside the unbelievable courage” shown by the hostages, “we also see
the face of evil in the form of Hamas terrorists who kidnapped, raped, and
murdered innocent civilians.”
“The world needs to see this
cruelty, raise the cry of the abductees held in barbaric Hamas captivity, take
firm measures, and stand by Israel’s side with a demand to act in any way for
their release,” the president wrote.
Netanyahu said in a
statement: “The shocking video of the abduction of Hersh, Or and Eliya tears
all our hearts and emphasizes once again the cruelty of the enemy we swore to
eliminate. We will not stop the war until we return all 120 of our loved ones home.”
One hundred and sixteen of
the 251 hostages abducted by terrorists on October 7 are still held in Gaza,
some of them believed to be dead. In addition, Hamas has been holding for a
decade two Israelis who entered Gaza of their own accord and the bodies of two
Israeli soldiers.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main body
representing many of the relatives, said in a statement: “The harsh video is a
serious indictment of the neglect that has been going on for 262 days. Hersh,
Eliya, and Or were kidnapped alive and so they have to return, today. Every day
that passes puts the abductees at risk and may torpedo their ability to return
them home.”
After the release of the
clip, some 200 people gathered in Jerusalem to demonstrate on behalf of Goldberg-Polin,
a dual Israel-US citizen. Among those who participated was Polin’s younger
sister, the Ynet news outlet reported.
The demonstrators marched
from the US Consulate in Jerusalem to Paris Square, near the prime minister’s
official residence.
Protesters clashed with
police who declared the rally illegal. Police set up barriers preventing access
to the prime minister’s residence and the demonstration eventually dispersed. link Netanyahu's statement about 'the shocking video' rings terribly hollow. He speaks out of both sides of his mouth and displays with his false sympathy that he is totally willing to sacrifice the lives of the hostages to achieve his political goals. As for the purpose of the families in releasing the video, to show the world what happened and to shock the politicians
Hostage Updates
Two Russian-Israeli hostages would be first release if deal is made – Mousa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas's political bureau, said that the two Russian-Israeli hostages would be the first to be released if a hostage-ceasefire agreement is made, he told Russian state media agency RIA Novosti on Tuesday. The two Russian-Israeli hostages still in Hamas’s hands are Alexander Lobanov, 32, and Alexander Trufanov, 28, who is detained by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). PIJ published two videos of Trufanov in May.
Another hostage with Russian citizenship, Andrey Kozlov, was rescued in a daring daylight operation in central Gaza earlier this month together with Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, and Shlomi Ziv.
Hamas has previously released another hostage with Russian citizenship, Roni Krivoi, as a favor to Russian President Vladimir Putin in November, in a separate agreement from the temporary ceasefire and hostage release deal reached between Hamas and Israel around the same time.
In a separate interview with the Sputnik news agency during his Moscow visit, Abu Marzouk insists on having Russia as one of the guarantors of a possible ceasefire with Israel, as a counterbalance to the US which is perceived to be on Israel’s side.
The deputy politburo head also says that during Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s upcoming visit to Moscow, for which a date has not yet been set, the issue of reconciliation between Palestinian factions will be discussed. A unity meeting between Hamas and Fatah was scheduled to take place in China this month, but was postponed indefinitely due to deep divisions between the two sides.
After abduction clip airs, hostages’ families urge leaders to take notice, reach a deal
Parents, siblings of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Or Levy and Eliya Cohen call on government to seek an agreement for release all those held in Gaza: ‘Feel our cries are not heard’ The families of three Israeli hostages whose abduction by Gazan terrorists was shown in a clip released Monday said the harrowing footage should serve as a reminder to the country’s leaders that they need to bring all the captives home.
In the clip, hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Or Levy, and Eliya Cohen were seen being shoved into a pickup truck and driven to the Gaza Strip on October 7 amid the massive Hamas-led attack on Israel that saw terrorists abduct 251 people and kill 1,200, mostly civilians.
All three of them were abducted from the same field bomb shelter where, along with many others, they had sought refuge during the Hamas attack. The hostages’ families, together with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, said they were releasing the video as evidence of the government’s abandonment of the hostages.
Parents and siblings of the three hostages gave a round of media interviews urging the government to agree to a hostage deal with Hamas.
Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, parents of Goldberg-Polin, spoke to Channel 12 after the airing of the new clip of his capture.“It’s a clip no parent in the world wants to see,” Polin said. “We, the parents of the hostage, don’t need a reminder. But maybe decision-makers in Israel and the world need every reminder — that we’re not just talking about the word ‘hostage,’ but about human beings, real people, with dreams, with families, with people who love them, who are waiting for them.”
“The world needs to see what happened,” Polin said. “This is what happened, this is what they experienced. It is very hard to watch but important.” Goldberg-Polin is seen in the video clutching his tourniquet-bound arm, which had just been blown off below the elbow.
Polin said that they are in “good, constant contact” with senior officials in the US and that every time US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Israel on his diplomacy missions they are in touch with him.
As for Israeli authorities, there is “much less, and we need to demand.” Goldberg said, “It is hard to believe that after 262 days there are still 120 people there.”
Polin rejected controversial remarks made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the previous day in which he said he was willing to agree to a hostage deal that would free only some of the captives. Polin stressed that as far as they are concerned, all the hostages held in Gaza must be brought home. Amid outcry, Netanyahu on Monday said he wants a deal for all the hostages.
Michael Levy told Channel 13 that his brother Or can be seen in the video apparently covered in the blood of his wife Eynav.
“The first thing that stood out for me in the clip was the terror in his eyes, the fear on his face. I noticed that he was covered in the blood of his wife Eynav, who was murdered on October 7. He was forced to see her murdered in front of his eyes in the field shelter.” Their toddler son, Almog, will mark his third birthday on Tuesday without either of his parents.
“It is heartbreaking,” Michael Levy told Channel 13. “He keeps asking about [Or] and Eynav and wants to meet them, and we don’t have anything to say to him.”
“There is no way to tell something like that to such a young child. He just wants mom and dad to celebrate the birthday with him, but regretfully, that won’t happen,” he said. The toddler is being raised by his grandparents.
“It is sad to say, but sometimes I feel that people need a reminder, that the government needs a reminder that they are still there, that they are still alive, and their time is running out,” Levy said. “I feel that our cries are not heard, that the discussion has moved to ‘a price’ [of a hostage deal]. What price is there on the life of a person? To a 3-year-old boy who celebrates his birthday without his parents, who begs to meet his father.”
Levy said that when members of the government see the video clip “I want them to look at the terror in the faces of Or, Hirsch, and Elia, that are a reminder that these people were abandoned on October 7, and that their duty is to bring them back home to their families as soon as possible.”
Sigi Cohen, mother of Eliya Cohen, 26, speaking to the Kan public broadcaster said of the terrorists in the clip: “You can see how wicked they are.” She too rejected Netanyahu’s remarks on a partial hostage release deal. “That would be like roulette. Who knows who would come back and who would decide,” she said. Cohen said that a deal is likely the only way to free the hostages still in Gaza, though a handful have been rescued during Israel’s military offensive in Gaza to destroy Hamas.
“If only it were possible, but it isn’t,” she said. “Netanyahu needs to show leadership. My greatest fear is that the Israeli government will continue with its attitude because at the moment this isn’t a deal and it isn’t fighting. They need to decide. They can’t sit on the fence and leave us waiting.” “Every day it gets harder,” she said. “And if that is how it is for us, who knows what it is like for our loved ones.”
Criticizing Netanyahu for his remarks on a partial deal, Cohen said, “Everyone who speaks, whether the prime ministers or anyone else, needs to understand that there are 120 families that every comment like that rocks them all over again.”
Cohen and his girlfriend Ziv Abud, along with Abud’s niece and her nephew’s girlfriend, were hiding in the field shelter. Abud’s niece and nephew’s girlfriend were killed, and Abud and Cohen were hidden under the dead bodies.
President Isaac Herzog shared the clip on his X account writing that “alongside the unbelievable courage” shown by the hostages, “we also see the face of evil in the form of Hamas terrorists who kidnapped, raped, and murdered innocent civilians.”
“The world needs to see this cruelty, raise the cry of the abductees held in barbaric Hamas captivity, take firm measures, and stand by Israel’s side with a demand to act in any way for their release,” the president wrote.
Netanyahu said in a statement: “The shocking video of the abduction of Hersh, Or and Eliya tears all our hearts and emphasizes once again the cruelty of the enemy we swore to eliminate. We will not stop the war until we return all 120 of our loved ones home.”
One hundred and sixteen of the 251 hostages abducted by terrorists on October 7 are still held in Gaza, some of them believed to be dead. In addition, Hamas has been holding for a decade two Israelis who entered Gaza of their own accord and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main body representing many of the relatives, said in a statement: “The harsh video is a serious indictment of the neglect that has been going on for 262 days. Hersh, Eliya, and Or were kidnapped alive and so they have to return, today. Every day that passes puts the abductees at risk and may torpedo their ability to return them home.”
After the release of the clip, some 200 people gathered in Jerusalem to demonstrate on behalf of Goldberg-Polin, a dual Israel-US citizen. Among those who participated was Polin’s younger sister, the Ynet news outlet reported.
The demonstrators marched from the US Consulate in Jerusalem to Paris Square, near the prime minister’s official residence.
Protesters clashed with police who declared the rally illegal. Police set up barriers preventing access to the prime minister’s residence and the demonstration eventually dispersed. link Netanyahu's statement about 'the shocking video' rings terribly hollow. He speaks out of both sides of his mouth and displays with his false sympathy that he is totally willing to sacrifice the lives of the hostages to achieve his political goals. As for the purpose of the families in releasing the video, to show the world what happened and to shock the politicians
Gaza
- Palestinian reports: The sister of the head of the political bureau of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh and several members of her family were killed in an attack in the Shatti refugee camp. This follows the deaths of 3 of his sons 2 months ago from IDF bombings.
- IDF: Overnight strikes in Gaza City targeted Hamas terrorists who participated in Oct. 7 massacre, held hostages: Hamas terrorists who participated in the October 7 onslaught and were involved in holding hostages were targeted in airstrikes overnight in Gaza City, the military says.
The IDF says fighter jets struck two buildings, in Gaza City’s Shati camp and Daraj neighborhood, that it says were used by Hamas. It says the Hamas operatives were based out of school compounds.
“The terrorists were involved in planning many terror attacks against Israel, and some of them were involved in holding hostages and participating in the massacre on October 7,” the IDF says in statement. - Every single person who was involved in October 7 and had any involvement in taking, holding, moving hostages is on an Israeli blacklist and will be targeted. This doesn't mean that they will be killed in the immediate future but they are basically dead people walking. We have a history of eliminating terrorists who have been involved in our history's worst attacks and who think they got away with it. Every one of the terrorist and planners responsible for the Munich Massacre at the 1972 Olympics are dead as are every one who had anything to do with the kidnapping and holding of Gilad Schalit who was held in Hamas captivity for 5 years and 4 months. At the beginning of the war, Netanyahu stated publicly that he had already given orders for the elimination of everyone involved.
A British newspaper reports that Israel is targeting journalists who work for Hamas media outlets, citing senior IDF spokespeople. Citing the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists, the The Guardian reports that some 30 percent of the 103 Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since October 7 are “affiliated with or closely tied to Hamas.”
IDF spokesman Col. Olivier Rafowicz tells Radio France there is “no difference between the political and the military wing of Hamas.” “Al-Aqsa belongs to the Hamas war organization and the people who work for it are active members of the war organization of Hamas,” he says.
Legal experts cited in the report disagree vehemently with that reasoning, calling it “a complete misunderstanding or just a willful disregard for international law.” link As is par for the course, the UN is very short-sighted when it comes to Israel. The typical situation in a war zone is that locals are very often reporters or aids to the media. In Gaza, as we have seen very clearly, many of the media personnel are not only not objective reporters (which is alright), but many are active members of Hamas. We have seen some take part in the atrocities of October 7, very much on the scene with foreknowledge of the attack and going so far as taking bodies of those massacred in Israel back to Gaza to be hostages. Others have played roles in holding hostages and one was known to be very close to Yihya Sinwar having a picture of then hugging and Sinwar awarding him accolades. There is no doubt that many of those killed have absolutely no affiliation with Hamas, but it cannot be seen as acceptable by any organization, in particular, the UN for 'journalist' to be active members of Hamas and expecting to be treated only as journalist.
There is currently no famine in Gaza, a new report by the key Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) organization has found, despite predicting in March that a full-blown famine would break out in the territory between March and July 2024.
The new study says that assumptions about the amount of food that would enter the territory turned out to be wrong, and that the supply of food to Gaza increased instead of decreasing during recent months. “In this context, the available evidence does not indicate that famine is currently occurring,” the report finds.
The IPC — which is connected to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — is seen as a neutral and highly credible organization for evaluating where famines might be occurring around the globe.
Its new study says that the food insecurity situation in Gaza remains catastrophic, however, with “a high and sustained risk of Famine across the whole Gaza Strip,” and said that the “probable improvement in nutrition status,” which took place in April and May, “should not allow room for complacency about the risk of Famine in the coming weeks and months.” The study adds that “extreme human suffering is without a doubt currently ongoing in the Gaza Strip.”
Accusations of severe food insecurity, malnutrition and famine have formed an integral part of the allegations against Israel of genocide against the Palestinians in the International Court of Justice and of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the International Criminal Court.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in May of using starvation as a weapon of war against the Palestinians, seeking to “exterminate” the Palestinian population through starvation. The IPC’s March study reporting imminent famine was cited by the ICJ in its March orders instructing Israel to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Israeli fighter jets struck yesterday a building at Gaza City’s Islamic University, where Hamas operatives were gathered, the military says.
According to the IDF, the university building in the Gaza City neighborhood of Sabra was used by Hamas operatives to launch anti-tank missiles, observe Israeli troops, and plan other attacks.
Before the airstrike, the IDF says it took “many steps,” including aerial surveillance, to mitigate the potential harm to civilians.
Other strikes were carried out in Gaza over the past day.
In southern Gaza’s Rafah, the military says troops killed several gunmen, and a drone struck several sites used by terror groups, including tunnels.
The IDF says fighter jets also struck buildings in northern Gaza near a rocket launching site used in an attack yesterday on southern Israel by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Several more targets, including weapon depots and cells of operatives, were struck in central Gaza, the IDF adds.
Israel’s plan for the “day after” Hamas will start to be implemented in northern Gaza in the coming days, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi says.
Speaking at the Reichman University Herzliya Conference, Hanegbi says that the Israel Defense Forces plan has “been sharpened” in recent weeks, and that “we will see a practical expression of this plan” shortly.
“We don’t have to wait for Hamas to disappear, because it is a long process,” says Hanegbi.
The Netanyahu government has been under fire for months for its unwillingness to implement a plan to replace Hamas.
Hanegbi argues that installing a process to replace Hamas is key to long-term victory in Gaza: “We can’t get rid of Hamas as an idea, there we need an alternative idea.”
The alternative, he says, is a government based on locals who are willing to live alongside Israel. They must be backed up by moderate Arab states, he says.
“The minute Hamas’s ability to operate its military and civil systems like it could on October 7 is taken away, there will be more ability for countries that want to see a governing alternative to Hamas in Gaza, with local leadership in Gaza, to join this process.” he explains. “It’s starting to take form now.”
Family members of hostages including Ayala Metzger, whose father-in-law, the elderly Yoram Metzger, is currently kidnapped in Gaza and Dani Elgarat, whose brother Itzik Elgarat is also held in the Strip, shout at the senior Netanyahu aide about the remaining captives. Hanegbi says that he agrees that time is not working in the hostages’ favor but expresses some optimism that current efforts to reach a deal will succeed. link This is actually something that should have happened 6 months ago. Had something effective been implemented then, the IDF would not have had to go back and fight in some many places that it fought before and soldiers' lives would have been saved. There are very few details about who these local leaders in Gaza are. If they are part of Netanyahu's plan of using tribal leaders, it is already doomed to failure. The tribal leaders in Gaza, for the most part are little more then crime families and sort of war lords. In any hot spot around the world in history, where there were attempts to use war lords as the local governing bodies following the routing of the enemy, failure quickly followed. Best case in point was Afghanistan. The only real body that has any chance of success and support from the Arab countries is a reformed Palestinian Authority but Netanyahu has specifically vetoed that along the entire war. I hope that this plan will be successful but I am highly skeptical.
The IDF says fighter jets struck two buildings, in Gaza City’s Shati camp and Daraj neighborhood, that it says were used by Hamas. It says the Hamas operatives were based out of school compounds.
“The terrorists were involved in planning many terror attacks against Israel, and some of them were involved in holding hostages and participating in the massacre on October 7,” the IDF says in statement. - Every single person who was involved in October 7 and had any involvement in taking, holding, moving hostages is on an Israeli blacklist and will be targeted. This doesn't mean that they will be killed in the immediate future but they are basically dead people walking. We have a history of eliminating terrorists who have been involved in our history's worst attacks and who think they got away with it. Every one of the terrorist and planners responsible for the Munich Massacre at the 1972 Olympics are dead as are every one who had anything to do with the kidnapping and holding of Gilad Schalit who was held in Hamas captivity for 5 years and 4 months. At the beginning of the war, Netanyahu stated publicly that he had already given orders for the elimination of everyone involved.
A British newspaper reports that Israel is targeting journalists who work for Hamas media outlets, citing senior IDF spokespeople. Citing the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists, the The Guardian reports that some 30 percent of the 103 Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since October 7 are “affiliated with or closely tied to Hamas.”
IDF spokesman Col. Olivier Rafowicz tells Radio France there is “no difference between the political and the military wing of Hamas.” “Al-Aqsa belongs to the Hamas war organization and the people who work for it are active members of the war organization of Hamas,” he says.
Legal experts cited in the report disagree vehemently with that reasoning, calling it “a complete misunderstanding or just a willful disregard for international law.” link As is par for the course, the UN is very short-sighted when it comes to Israel. The typical situation in a war zone is that locals are very often reporters or aids to the media. In Gaza, as we have seen very clearly, many of the media personnel are not only not objective reporters (which is alright), but many are active members of Hamas. We have seen some take part in the atrocities of October 7, very much on the scene with foreknowledge of the attack and going so far as taking bodies of those massacred in Israel back to Gaza to be hostages. Others have played roles in holding hostages and one was known to be very close to Yihya Sinwar having a picture of then hugging and Sinwar awarding him accolades. There is no doubt that many of those killed have absolutely no affiliation with Hamas, but it cannot be seen as acceptable by any organization, in particular, the UN for 'journalist' to be active members of Hamas and expecting to be treated only as journalist.
There is currently no famine in Gaza, a new report by the key Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) organization has found, despite predicting in March that a full-blown famine would break out in the territory between March and July 2024.
The new study says that assumptions about the amount of food that would enter the territory turned out to be wrong, and that the supply of food to Gaza increased instead of decreasing during recent months. “In this context, the available evidence does not indicate that famine is currently occurring,” the report finds.
The IPC — which is connected to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — is seen as a neutral and highly credible organization for evaluating where famines might be occurring around the globe.
Its new study says that the food insecurity situation in Gaza remains catastrophic, however, with “a high and sustained risk of Famine across the whole Gaza Strip,” and said that the “probable improvement in nutrition status,” which took place in April and May, “should not allow room for complacency about the risk of Famine in the coming weeks and months.” The study adds that “extreme human suffering is without a doubt currently ongoing in the Gaza Strip.”
Accusations of severe food insecurity, malnutrition and famine have formed an integral part of the allegations against Israel of genocide against the Palestinians in the International Court of Justice and of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the International Criminal Court.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in May of using starvation as a weapon of war against the Palestinians, seeking to “exterminate” the Palestinian population through starvation. The IPC’s March study reporting imminent famine was cited by the ICJ in its March orders instructing Israel to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Israeli fighter jets struck yesterday a building at Gaza City’s Islamic University, where Hamas operatives were gathered, the military says.
According to the IDF, the university building in the Gaza City neighborhood of Sabra was used by Hamas operatives to launch anti-tank missiles, observe Israeli troops, and plan other attacks.
Before the airstrike, the IDF says it took “many steps,” including aerial surveillance, to mitigate the potential harm to civilians.
Other strikes were carried out in Gaza over the past day.
In southern Gaza’s Rafah, the military says troops killed several gunmen, and a drone struck several sites used by terror groups, including tunnels.
The IDF says fighter jets also struck buildings in northern Gaza near a rocket launching site used in an attack yesterday on southern Israel by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Several more targets, including weapon depots and cells of operatives, were struck in central Gaza, the IDF adds.
Israel’s plan for the “day after” Hamas will start to be implemented in northern Gaza in the coming days, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi says.
Speaking at the Reichman University Herzliya Conference, Hanegbi says that the Israel Defense Forces plan has “been sharpened” in recent weeks, and that “we will see a practical expression of this plan” shortly.
“We don’t have to wait for Hamas to disappear, because it is a long process,” says Hanegbi.
The Netanyahu government has been under fire for months for its unwillingness to implement a plan to replace Hamas.
Hanegbi argues that installing a process to replace Hamas is key to long-term victory in Gaza: “We can’t get rid of Hamas as an idea, there we need an alternative idea.”
The alternative, he says, is a government based on locals who are willing to live alongside Israel. They must be backed up by moderate Arab states, he says.
“The minute Hamas’s ability to operate its military and civil systems like it could on October 7 is taken away, there will be more ability for countries that want to see a governing alternative to Hamas in Gaza, with local leadership in Gaza, to join this process.” he explains. “It’s starting to take form now.”
Family members of hostages including Ayala Metzger, whose father-in-law, the elderly Yoram Metzger, is currently kidnapped in Gaza and Dani Elgarat, whose brother Itzik Elgarat is also held in the Strip, shout at the senior Netanyahu aide about the remaining captives. Hanegbi says that he agrees that time is not working in the hostages’ favor but expresses some optimism that current efforts to reach a deal will succeed. link This is actually something that should have happened 6 months ago. Had something effective been implemented then, the IDF would not have had to go back and fight in some many places that it fought before and soldiers' lives would have been saved. There are very few details about who these local leaders in Gaza are. If they are part of Netanyahu's plan of using tribal leaders, it is already doomed to failure. The tribal leaders in Gaza, for the most part are little more then crime families and sort of war lords. In any hot spot around the world in history, where there were attempts to use war lords as the local governing bodies following the routing of the enemy, failure quickly followed. Best case in point was Afghanistan. The only real body that has any chance of success and support from the Arab countries is a reformed Palestinian Authority but Netanyahu has specifically vetoed that along the entire war. I hope that this plan will be successful but I am highly skeptical.
Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah
Fighter jets attacked terrorist infrastructure used by Hezbollah's air array deep in Lebanon; a suspicious aerial target that crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon was intercepted.
During the last few hours, Israeli Air Force fighter jets attacked several terrorist infrastructures of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in the areas of Aitaroun, Blida, and Maroun al-Ras.
Earlier today, Israeli Air Force fighter jets also attacked terrorist infrastructure used by Hezbollah's air defense array in the Baalbek area.
Following an alert about a hostile aircraft intrusion in northern Israel earlier today, air defense fighters successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon. There were no casualties.
Additionally, following recent alerts about rocket and missile fire in northern Israel, it turned out to be a false identification.
US President Joe Biden’s Mideast envoy, Amos Hochstein, warned Lebanese officials last week that his country would not be able to stop Israel from invading should Hezbollah continue its attacks, the Axios news site reports, citing a US official, an Israeli official and a Western diplomat close to the matter.
Hochstein was in Lebanon last week calling for the “urgent” de-escalation of cross-border exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel, raging since the start of the Gaza war. He also visited Israel and held talks in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as opposition leaders.
During his meeting with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, Hochstein reportedly asked for a message to be sent to the terror group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, that the US does not control Israel. link to full article
Fighter jets attacked terrorist infrastructure used by Hezbollah's air array deep in Lebanon; a suspicious aerial target that crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon was intercepted.
During the last few hours, Israeli Air Force fighter jets attacked several terrorist infrastructures of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in the areas of Aitaroun, Blida, and Maroun al-Ras.
Earlier today, Israeli Air Force fighter jets also attacked terrorist infrastructure used by Hezbollah's air defense array in the Baalbek area.
Following an alert about a hostile aircraft intrusion in northern Israel earlier today, air defense fighters successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon. There were no casualties.
Additionally, following recent alerts about rocket and missile fire in northern Israel, it turned out to be a false identification.
US President Joe Biden’s Mideast envoy, Amos Hochstein, warned Lebanese officials last week that his country would not be able to stop Israel from invading should Hezbollah continue its attacks, the Axios news site reports, citing a US official, an Israeli official and a Western diplomat close to the matter.
Hochstein was in Lebanon last week calling for the “urgent” de-escalation of cross-border exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel, raging since the start of the Gaza war. He also visited Israel and held talks in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as opposition leaders.
During his meeting with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, Hochstein reportedly asked for a message to be sent to the terror group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, that the US does not control Israel. link to full article
West Bank
Politics
‘Submarine
affair’ inquiry finds Netanyahu’s decisions compromised national security
Commission warns
premier and 4 former defense officials that findings of probe may harm their
interests; gives notice so they can submit additional testimony, view evidence
A state commission of
inquiry investigating the so-called submarine affair on Monday sent warning notices to five
individuals it believes may be negatively impacted by the probe, including
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Navy chief Ram Rothberg, in
order to allow them to submit additional testimony and view evidence relating
to their conduct.
Netanyahu, the commission
charged, took decisions that endangered national security and harmed Israel’s
foreign relations.
The commission,
formed under former premier Naftali Bennett in 2022, has spent more than two
years probing submarine and naval vessel purchases that
occurred under a previous Netanyahu government.
A state commission of
inquiry investigating the so-called submarine affair on Monday sent warning notices to five
individuals it believes may be negatively impacted by the probe, including
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Navy chief Ram Rothberg, in
order to allow them to submit additional testimony and view evidence relating
to their conduct.
Netanyahu, the commission
charged, took decisions that endangered national security and harmed Israel’s
foreign relations.
The commission, formed
under former premier Naftali Bennett in 2022, has spent more than two
years probing submarine and naval vessel purchases that
occurred under a previous Netanyahu government.807:10
Israel purchased the vessels from German shipbuilder
Thyssenkrupp in a series of murky deals worth some $2 billion that have been
under scrutiny for possible corruption and bribery.
According to an 11-page statement released by the commission on
Monday, during his term as prime minister between 2009 and 2016, Netanyahu made
decisions with “significant implications for security” without an orderly
decision-making process, bypassed his own government in order to come to
agreements with Germany on a series of political, security and economic issues,
and made defense purchases “without orderly staff work [while] deviating from
the operational needs established by the government.”
Netanyahu additionally excluded relevant security bodies from
the decision-making process when dealing with “sensitive political-security
questions,” avoided documenting meetings, and “created parallel and conflicting
channels of action, thereby endangering national security and harming Israel’s
foreign relations,” the commission stated in its decision.
Netanyahu gave testimony to the police in connection with the
deals, as well as later testifying to the commission of inquiry, and several of
his close associates were indicted for their involvement in the negotiations.
Protests calling for an investigation into the prime minister’s role in the
scandal erupted in 2016 when the affair surfaced and continued on and off in the
years before the probe was established.
To date, the panel has reviewed tens of thousands of
documents and heard testimony from “individuals including prime ministers,
defense ministers, senior military officials, Defense Ministry staffers and
other relevant government employees.”
According to the commission, Netanyahu pushed for the purchase
of an advanced Dolphin-class submarine for the Israeli Navy, its sixth, based
on “unfounded assumptions” and in deviation from the needs of the country. He
also avoided discussing the economic consequences that were presented to him
and unilaterally tried to increase the fleet by replacing older submarines with
new ones while excluding the security establishment from the decision-making
process.
The document added that the
prime minister promoted the purchase of two Sa’ar 6 warships from Germany
without the involvement of the defense establishment and without following
proper procedures.
In addition to Netanyahu and
Rothberg, former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, former Mossad chief Yossi
Cohen and former National Security Council employee Avner Simchoni received
warning letters from the commission.
In a statement on behalf of Netanyahu after the warnings were
announced on Monday, the Prime Minister’s Office said that “the submarines are
a central pillar of Israel’s national security and in ensuring its existence
against Iran, which is trying to destroy us.”
“Not only does the
acquisition of the submarines not harm the security of the country – it ensures
its existence,” the statement said, adding that “history will prove that Prime
Minister Netanyahu was right on this issue as well and made the right decisions
for the security of Israel.”
In response, Opposition
Leader Yair Lapid charged that Netanyahu is “a danger to Israel’s security.”
“So it was with the case of the submarines, so it was with the
Mount Meron disaster, so it was regarding all of the conduct that led to and
caused the October 7 massacre,” he said.
Earlier this
year, a state commission of inquiry named Netanyahu as one of a number of officials
responsible for the 2021 Meron disaster, in which 45 people were killed in a
crush at the hilltop gravesite of a second-century sage in northern Israel. The
inquest did not propose sanctions for Netanyahu due to his position, but said
it was reasonable to assume that the prime minister had been warned that the
site was dangerous.
The state commission of inquiry into the submarine deals, the
most serious type of Knesset commission, is charged with evaluating the procedures
and decision-making employed by the political leadership related to the
sensitive procurement. Granted broad powers to call witnesses and compel
testimony, it runs a quasi-judicial process that can result in recommendations
for further action against both individuals and public sector bodies.
Noting that the individuals
mentioned in the document were listed according to seniority rather than
severity, the commission’s letter to Ya’alon said that the former IDF chief of
staff may be negatively impacted by the inquiry, but he was the only one of the
five officials that did not receive a critical statement about his conduct.
On Cohen, the commission said that the former Mossad chief’s
conduct in the purchase of the submarines “resulted in the serious disruption
of work processes and force building, and harmed the decision-making process in
a series of sensitive issues, thereby jeopardizing national security and
harming the foreign relations and economic interests of the State of Israel.”
Similarly, the commission
wrote that Rothberg’s conduct reflected “a deviation from the norms of conduct
required by an IDF commander,” also charging that the former navy chief had
jeopardized national security.
Simchoni, according to the
inquiry, “contravened proper administrative arrangements and accepted work
arrangements in the civil service,” harming “decision-making processes in key
issues of national security, foreign relations and economic interests of the
State of Israel.”
The commission, headed by
former Supreme Court president Asher Grunis, emphasized that the warnings were
sent “based on the situational analysis as it appears before the commission at
this time, based on the material before it,” and that the conclusions may
change once the inquiry is complete.
The panel also comprises former Supreme Court justice Zvi
Zylbertal, former Bank of Israel governor Karnit Flug, former Israel Navy
commander Avraham Ben-Shoshan and former Israeli Air Force procurement division
head Jacob Burtman.
The probe concerns four deals involving Israel and Thyssenkrupp.
The first was the purchase of the sixth Dolphin-class submarine, which arrived
in Israel in 2019. The second deal, to purchase three more submarines, was
delayed when it faced pushback from then-defense minister Ya’alon, who said
Israel did not need more submarines.
The third deal being
investigated was the purchase of four Sa’ar 6-class corvettes to protect
Israel’s offshore gas assets, also from Thyssenkrupp. A tender for supplying
four 1,200-ton ships yielded bids from South Korean, Italian and other German
shipbuilders, but was abruptly canceled in 2016 and the government handed the
project exclusively to Thyssenkrupp.
The final deal connected to
the affair is Egypt’s purchase of two Dolphin-class submarines, similar to the
ones the Israeli Navy has, and two anti-submarine warships. Cairo ordered the
naval vessels in 2014. Though Germany does not require Israeli permission to
sell the advanced submarines to other countries, it has shown Jerusalem that
courtesy in order to maintain Israel’s qualitative edge in the region.
In 2015, Ya’alon asked president Reuven Rivlin, who was meeting
German chancellor Angela Merkel, to inquire why the sale was going ahead
despite the fact that he had not approved it, given that he was defense
minister at the time. Merkel reported that Israel had indeed greenlit it, and
years later during criminal proceedings, Amos Gilad, who was the director of
policy and political-military affairs in the Defense Ministry at the time, told
police that Netanyahu had approved the deal without consulting or notifying the
ministry.
Netanyahu has denied
approving the German-Egyptian deal and has contended that his push for the
submarine and warship purchases was for the sole reason of protecting Israel
against the Iranian nuclear threat and ensuring it will have the option of a
counterattack available at all times. link The State Commission determined that Netanyahu endangered the security of the country!
- 9 months after the massacre: Prime Minister prepares to visit Nir Oz for the first time
The Prime Minister's Office received the request from the kibbutz and began discussions to coordinate the visit • Kibbutz members, a quarter of whom were kidnapped or murdered, appealed to Netanyahu: "We lost about a quarter of our members on October 7. More than eight months after the abandonment, our kidnapped friends are still waiting to be rescued" • The residents also wrote: "You will be able to truly understand the extent of neglect we experienced in the complete absence of external protection"
For the first time since the October 7 massacre, Prime Minister Netanyahu is expected to visit Kibbutz Nir Oz soon and meet with the survivors. Members of the kibbutz, a quarter of whose residents were kidnapped or murdered, sent Netanyahu a letter urging him to meet with them: "You will be able to truly understand the extent of neglect we experienced in the complete absence of external protection."
The letter from Nir Oz members to Netanyahu:
"We, the community of Kibbutz Nir Oz, lost a quarter of our members on October 7 - Zionists, people of the land and labor, who lived on the border, for the sake of the people and homeland," wrote the members of Nir Oz. "On the Shabbat morning of Simchat Torah, the country we love was not there to protect us and our loved ones who were murdered, fell defending the kibbutz, or were kidnapped. More than eight months after the abandonment, our kidnapped friends are still waiting to be rescued."
"Kibbutz Nir Oz suffered the hardest blow on October 7, and yet, you still haven't come to visit us," they added. "Not in the kibbutz that was destroyed to the ground, and not in Kiryat Gat, a city that embraced the massacre survivors and the kibbutz community with warmth and humanity. Prime Minister, we invite you to meet with us - come to Kibbutz Nir Oz and hear firsthand the endless pain. In the evacuated kibbutz, you can meet the affected families, look into the eyes of the survivors and the families of the kidnapped, listen to the mourning community, which includes many whose relatives are still kidnapped and who are clinging to hope with all their might. During the visit, you will also meet those whose lives are not lives - because the fate of their loved ones has been sealed but not completed, in the absence of graves."
"If you find the courage to come to Kibbutz Nir Oz, you will hear directly from our community about the terrible massacre, and you will be able to truly understand the extent of neglect we experienced in the complete absence of external protection. The abandonment can only be addressed after the return of our loved ones from captivity, both the living and the murdered, but this is a crucial step for us to begin the process of rehabilitating our kibbutz and community, and the revival of the people of Israel in their land. Your presence in Kibbutz Nir Oz will not only be a basic honor to the memory of all those we lost, but will also give hope and confidence that our cries for help now are heard and not falling on deaf ears. We demand your commitment and support for our community, for the communities of the western Negev, for our brothers in the north of the country, and for all the people of Israel." link This would be the equivalent to George Bush not going to Ground Zero after 9/11. It is unforgivable that Netanyahu hasn't had the decency to visit with the kibbutz that was the hardest hit on October 7, nor meet with the survivors until now. And if the kibbutz members didn't send this letter and publicize it, it is doubtful that Netanyahu would have given it a moment's thought. After all, it does not fit in with his political plan to survive and rehabilitate his destroyed image. If the visit does occur, I have no doubt that his people will curate the plan to minimize hurting his image. It will most likely be limited to a few of the kibbutz members, quite possibly those who don't have family members as hostages in Gaza and possibly those who don't have family members who were killed. I would imagine that there will be very limited press coverage of his meeting with them, although there will most likely be lots of pictures of him visiting the destruction and making comments about the atrocities committed by Hamas and putting blame on the security establishment without any acknowledgment of his own responsibility.
Gallant to Blinken: "We must quickly resolve our disagreements and thus achieve our goals"
Defense Minister Gallant to Secretary of State Blinken: "The eyes of our enemies and friends are on the relationship between Israel and the U.S. - we must quickly resolve our disagreements - this way we will achieve our goals and weaken our enemy."
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department offices in Washington. The two held a lengthy personal meeting, and an extended meeting with professional teams from the Ministry of Defense and the State Department.
In their meeting, the two discussed the need to apply additional pressure on Hamas to advance the return of the hostages, with emphasis on promoting an alternative government in the Gaza Strip.
The Defense Minister emphasized to the Secretary of State that the eyes of both our enemies and friends are on the relationship between Israel and the U.S., and therefore the countries must quickly resolve their disagreements. -- Galant is speaking pragmatically and logically but the crux of the problem is Netanyahu who has been using the US Administration as a deflector to his local issues, which is what he typically does. When there are issues that don't bode well on Netanyahu's image in Israel, he pushes other non-related issues to the press to take the spotlight off of the more important problems that he doesn't want blamed on him. Galant is doing his best at crisis control of a crisis that Netanyahu deliberately created.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said before his meeting with CIA Director Bill Burns that "Israel has a supreme commitment to release all hostages, without exception." Gallant added that "the alliance between Israel and the U.S. is of great importance. We agree on most things. On what we don't agree - we discuss the details, reach understandings, and resolve the disagreements. I'm sure this will be the case this time as well."
Gallant was asked about the video released by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming a delay in arms supply from the U.S. and clarified: "I don't think I need to give grades. I work for only one purpose: to ensure Israel's security resilience and its ability to achieve the war's objectives and prepare for future threats."
Regarding the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff's statement that the U.S. would struggle to help Israel defend itself in case of a wide-scale war against Hezbollah as it did during the Iranian attack in April, the Defense Minister said: "The clear statements I hear from the U.S. administration here are that the U.S. and Israel are together in the campaign against Iran, against Hezbollah, and against Hamas, and are committed to achieving the goals. There is no difference between Israel and the U.S. in this approach, and I'm working on this here. I believe things will work out and operate exactly according to this logic."
Unanimous
decision: Court rules no exemption for haredim in IDF
The High Court of Justice on Tuesday ordered a full draft of
the ultra-othrodox into the IDF and the freezing of all funds for institutions
which do not comply starting as of April 1.
At a hearing earlier in June, the justices had come out
swinging. Part of what had been so surprising about the hearing was that three
of the most conservative voices - Justices Noam Sohlberg, Alex Stein, and Yael
Wilner – were among the roughest and most aggressive critics of the government.
Inside the court hearing
Sohlberg was furious that the IDF has offered as a minimum
initial measure to take in 3,000 Haredim out of over 60,000 eligible draftees
over the course of the 2024 recruitment class, and that the government even
refused this.
Stein and Wilner laid waste to the government’s legal claims
that mid-level IDF officers could have wide discretion to give broad exemptions
to haredim from military service, even beyond specific individual extreme
extenuating circumstances. In rare moments, one could tell that the justices
were emotionally disturbed by the idea that during an ongoing war which has
taken the lives of around 1,500 Israelis, haredim still feel that asking them
to do the same service is oppression.
When a haredi man at the hearing vowed that the haredim he
knew would rather die than be drafted, it seemed to ring hollower with the
justices mid-war than in the past. If in the past, such statements had a shock
value which made most Israelis who do serve in the IDF hold their heads in
shock, and decide to move on because the difficulty of negotiating with such a
stubborn sector of the country was too great, the war seemed to have changed
the atmosphere in the court building.
In comical moments, Acting Chief Justice Uzi Vogelman
(“acting” because Justice Minister Yariv Levin has blocked Yitzhak Amit from
taking office since October 2023) told the government’s lawyer that in trying
to sound coherent and reasonable, he had essentially adopted the arguments of
both Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara and the NGOs who brought the petition
to draft Haredim.
There seemed to be no question where the court was going
with this – only how far.
In late March, the court froze one third of some of the
government-sponsored funds for the around 1,750 Haredi Yeshivot. But this did
not impact the vast majority of the over 60,000 haredim in play for IDF or
national service, only a portion of the recent draft class. It also did not impact significant non-government funds
which the haredi institutions raise.
While Haredi advocates have talked about the reduction in
funds as being a life and death issue, there has not seemed to be any evident
push by their Knesset officials to reach a new compromise either in the
government or in Knesset hearings on the issue, which started last week, but
with no noticeable progress.
The haredi political parties seemed to have judged that most
of their government funding would not be touched any earlier than August or
Tuesday's ruling.
The haredim also knew that they could somewhat freeze the
current situation by going to new elections. In early June, it seemed like the
High Court was leaning toward ordering the government and the IDF to
immediately draft a minimum of 3,000 new Haredi IDF recruits. This would not be insignificant, but it would still be less
than 25% of the current Haredi recruitment class, and would not touch any of
the older classes. link It is yet to be seen how the draft will actually be done and how many the army will draft. According to the Supreme Court Decision today, it appears that there are up to 60,000 yeshiva students who fit into the age class for the draft, although the number of 30,000 is what has been more in the news. This decision will obviously set off an immediate coalition crisis with the Haredi parties demanding that the government immediately pass a law that will exempt the majority of those affected by this decision. For years, there have been demands by the Haredi parties that only through agreement will they be able to agree with a draft law. The agreement that they have been pressing for was a continuation of the overall exemption from the draft with very small numbers having to be drafted. And the other parts of the agreements that they were demanding were that if those numbers were not reached, nothing would happen and if those drafted didn't show up to be drafted, there would be no penalties and no forcible enlistment, meaning that there was no legal requirement for any of the 'yeshiva students' to go into the IDF. This ludicrous situation was supported for too many political hacks for too long. They all stated that this could only be done through agreements, whereas the rest of the public was questioning why. Every other 18 year old is legally bound to go through the full recruiting process and if they don't, they are arrested and either forcibly enlisted, sentenced to military prison or in the lesser cases, exempted from the army for a variety of reasons, mostly medical or criminal background. Why in the world should the entire Haredi population have a different set of laws with no penalties? We will already see the crisis begin with the coalition and Netanyahu will now be devoting all of his time to keep his coalition together and will leave behind everything having to do with the hostages as their lives are less important to him than keeping his government together and him as prime minister.
- Gantz’s party says Likud pushing Haredi exemption law despite High Court ruling ‘a historical stain’
‘Submarine
affair’ inquiry finds Netanyahu’s decisions compromised national security
Commission warns
premier and 4 former defense officials that findings of probe may harm their
interests; gives notice so they can submit additional testimony, view evidence
A state commission of
inquiry investigating the so-called submarine affair on Monday sent warning notices to five
individuals it believes may be negatively impacted by the probe, including
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Navy chief Ram Rothberg, in
order to allow them to submit additional testimony and view evidence relating
to their conduct.
Netanyahu, the commission
charged, took decisions that endangered national security and harmed Israel’s
foreign relations.
The commission,
formed under former premier Naftali Bennett in 2022, has spent more than two
years probing submarine and naval vessel purchases that
occurred under a previous Netanyahu government.
A state commission of
inquiry investigating the so-called submarine affair on Monday sent warning notices to five
individuals it believes may be negatively impacted by the probe, including
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Navy chief Ram Rothberg, in
order to allow them to submit additional testimony and view evidence relating
to their conduct.
Netanyahu, the commission
charged, took decisions that endangered national security and harmed Israel’s
foreign relations.
The commission, formed under former premier Naftali Bennett in 2022, has spent more than two years probing submarine and naval vessel purchases that occurred under a previous Netanyahu government.807:10
Israel purchased the vessels from German shipbuilder
Thyssenkrupp in a series of murky deals worth some $2 billion that have been
under scrutiny for possible corruption and bribery.
According to an 11-page statement released by the commission on
Monday, during his term as prime minister between 2009 and 2016, Netanyahu made
decisions with “significant implications for security” without an orderly
decision-making process, bypassed his own government in order to come to
agreements with Germany on a series of political, security and economic issues,
and made defense purchases “without orderly staff work [while] deviating from
the operational needs established by the government.”
Netanyahu additionally excluded relevant security bodies from
the decision-making process when dealing with “sensitive political-security
questions,” avoided documenting meetings, and “created parallel and conflicting
channels of action, thereby endangering national security and harming Israel’s
foreign relations,” the commission stated in its decision.
Netanyahu gave testimony to the police in connection with the
deals, as well as later testifying to the commission of inquiry, and several of
his close associates were indicted for their involvement in the negotiations.
Protests calling for an investigation into the prime minister’s role in the
scandal erupted in 2016 when the affair surfaced and continued on and off in the
years before the probe was established.
To date, the panel has reviewed tens of thousands of
documents and heard testimony from “individuals including prime ministers,
defense ministers, senior military officials, Defense Ministry staffers and
other relevant government employees.”
According to the commission, Netanyahu pushed for the purchase
of an advanced Dolphin-class submarine for the Israeli Navy, its sixth, based
on “unfounded assumptions” and in deviation from the needs of the country. He
also avoided discussing the economic consequences that were presented to him
and unilaterally tried to increase the fleet by replacing older submarines with
new ones while excluding the security establishment from the decision-making
process.
The document added that the
prime minister promoted the purchase of two Sa’ar 6 warships from Germany
without the involvement of the defense establishment and without following
proper procedures.
In addition to Netanyahu and
Rothberg, former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, former Mossad chief Yossi
Cohen and former National Security Council employee Avner Simchoni received
warning letters from the commission.
In a statement on behalf of Netanyahu after the warnings were
announced on Monday, the Prime Minister’s Office said that “the submarines are
a central pillar of Israel’s national security and in ensuring its existence
against Iran, which is trying to destroy us.”
“Not only does the
acquisition of the submarines not harm the security of the country – it ensures
its existence,” the statement said, adding that “history will prove that Prime
Minister Netanyahu was right on this issue as well and made the right decisions
for the security of Israel.”
In response, Opposition
Leader Yair Lapid charged that Netanyahu is “a danger to Israel’s security.”
“So it was with the case of the submarines, so it was with the
Mount Meron disaster, so it was regarding all of the conduct that led to and
caused the October 7 massacre,” he said.
Earlier this
year, a state commission of inquiry named Netanyahu as one of a number of officials
responsible for the 2021 Meron disaster, in which 45 people were killed in a
crush at the hilltop gravesite of a second-century sage in northern Israel. The
inquest did not propose sanctions for Netanyahu due to his position, but said
it was reasonable to assume that the prime minister had been warned that the
site was dangerous.
The state commission of inquiry into the submarine deals, the
most serious type of Knesset commission, is charged with evaluating the procedures
and decision-making employed by the political leadership related to the
sensitive procurement. Granted broad powers to call witnesses and compel
testimony, it runs a quasi-judicial process that can result in recommendations
for further action against both individuals and public sector bodies.
Noting that the individuals
mentioned in the document were listed according to seniority rather than
severity, the commission’s letter to Ya’alon said that the former IDF chief of
staff may be negatively impacted by the inquiry, but he was the only one of the
five officials that did not receive a critical statement about his conduct.
On Cohen, the commission said that the former Mossad chief’s
conduct in the purchase of the submarines “resulted in the serious disruption
of work processes and force building, and harmed the decision-making process in
a series of sensitive issues, thereby jeopardizing national security and
harming the foreign relations and economic interests of the State of Israel.”
Similarly, the commission
wrote that Rothberg’s conduct reflected “a deviation from the norms of conduct
required by an IDF commander,” also charging that the former navy chief had
jeopardized national security.
Simchoni, according to the
inquiry, “contravened proper administrative arrangements and accepted work
arrangements in the civil service,” harming “decision-making processes in key
issues of national security, foreign relations and economic interests of the
State of Israel.”
The commission, headed by
former Supreme Court president Asher Grunis, emphasized that the warnings were
sent “based on the situational analysis as it appears before the commission at
this time, based on the material before it,” and that the conclusions may
change once the inquiry is complete.
The panel also comprises former Supreme Court justice Zvi
Zylbertal, former Bank of Israel governor Karnit Flug, former Israel Navy
commander Avraham Ben-Shoshan and former Israeli Air Force procurement division
head Jacob Burtman.
The probe concerns four deals involving Israel and Thyssenkrupp.
The first was the purchase of the sixth Dolphin-class submarine, which arrived
in Israel in 2019. The second deal, to purchase three more submarines, was
delayed when it faced pushback from then-defense minister Ya’alon, who said
Israel did not need more submarines.
The third deal being
investigated was the purchase of four Sa’ar 6-class corvettes to protect
Israel’s offshore gas assets, also from Thyssenkrupp. A tender for supplying
four 1,200-ton ships yielded bids from South Korean, Italian and other German
shipbuilders, but was abruptly canceled in 2016 and the government handed the
project exclusively to Thyssenkrupp.
The final deal connected to
the affair is Egypt’s purchase of two Dolphin-class submarines, similar to the
ones the Israeli Navy has, and two anti-submarine warships. Cairo ordered the
naval vessels in 2014. Though Germany does not require Israeli permission to
sell the advanced submarines to other countries, it has shown Jerusalem that
courtesy in order to maintain Israel’s qualitative edge in the region.
In 2015, Ya’alon asked president Reuven Rivlin, who was meeting
German chancellor Angela Merkel, to inquire why the sale was going ahead
despite the fact that he had not approved it, given that he was defense
minister at the time. Merkel reported that Israel had indeed greenlit it, and
years later during criminal proceedings, Amos Gilad, who was the director of
policy and political-military affairs in the Defense Ministry at the time, told
police that Netanyahu had approved the deal without consulting or notifying the
ministry.
Netanyahu has denied approving the German-Egyptian deal and has contended that his push for the submarine and warship purchases was for the sole reason of protecting Israel against the Iranian nuclear threat and ensuring it will have the option of a counterattack available at all times. link The State Commission determined that Netanyahu endangered the security of the country!
The Prime Minister's Office received the request from the kibbutz and began discussions to coordinate the visit • Kibbutz members, a quarter of whom were kidnapped or murdered, appealed to Netanyahu: "We lost about a quarter of our members on October 7. More than eight months after the abandonment, our kidnapped friends are still waiting to be rescued" • The residents also wrote: "You will be able to truly understand the extent of neglect we experienced in the complete absence of external protection"
For the first time since the October 7 massacre, Prime Minister Netanyahu is expected to visit Kibbutz Nir Oz soon and meet with the survivors. Members of the kibbutz, a quarter of whose residents were kidnapped or murdered, sent Netanyahu a letter urging him to meet with them: "You will be able to truly understand the extent of neglect we experienced in the complete absence of external protection."
The letter from Nir Oz members to Netanyahu:
"We, the community of Kibbutz Nir Oz, lost a quarter of our members on October 7 - Zionists, people of the land and labor, who lived on the border, for the sake of the people and homeland," wrote the members of Nir Oz. "On the Shabbat morning of Simchat Torah, the country we love was not there to protect us and our loved ones who were murdered, fell defending the kibbutz, or were kidnapped. More than eight months after the abandonment, our kidnapped friends are still waiting to be rescued."
"Kibbutz Nir Oz suffered the hardest blow on October 7, and yet, you still haven't come to visit us," they added. "Not in the kibbutz that was destroyed to the ground, and not in Kiryat Gat, a city that embraced the massacre survivors and the kibbutz community with warmth and humanity. Prime Minister, we invite you to meet with us - come to Kibbutz Nir Oz and hear firsthand the endless pain. In the evacuated kibbutz, you can meet the affected families, look into the eyes of the survivors and the families of the kidnapped, listen to the mourning community, which includes many whose relatives are still kidnapped and who are clinging to hope with all their might. During the visit, you will also meet those whose lives are not lives - because the fate of their loved ones has been sealed but not completed, in the absence of graves."
"If you find the courage to come to Kibbutz Nir Oz, you will hear directly from our community about the terrible massacre, and you will be able to truly understand the extent of neglect we experienced in the complete absence of external protection. The abandonment can only be addressed after the return of our loved ones from captivity, both the living and the murdered, but this is a crucial step for us to begin the process of rehabilitating our kibbutz and community, and the revival of the people of Israel in their land. Your presence in Kibbutz Nir Oz will not only be a basic honor to the memory of all those we lost, but will also give hope and confidence that our cries for help now are heard and not falling on deaf ears. We demand your commitment and support for our community, for the communities of the western Negev, for our brothers in the north of the country, and for all the people of Israel." link This would be the equivalent to George Bush not going to Ground Zero after 9/11. It is unforgivable that Netanyahu hasn't had the decency to visit with the kibbutz that was the hardest hit on October 7, nor meet with the survivors until now. And if the kibbutz members didn't send this letter and publicize it, it is doubtful that Netanyahu would have given it a moment's thought. After all, it does not fit in with his political plan to survive and rehabilitate his destroyed image. If the visit does occur, I have no doubt that his people will curate the plan to minimize hurting his image. It will most likely be limited to a few of the kibbutz members, quite possibly those who don't have family members as hostages in Gaza and possibly those who don't have family members who were killed. I would imagine that there will be very limited press coverage of his meeting with them, although there will most likely be lots of pictures of him visiting the destruction and making comments about the atrocities committed by Hamas and putting blame on the security establishment without any acknowledgment of his own responsibility.
Gallant to Blinken: "We must quickly resolve our disagreements and thus achieve our goals"
Defense Minister Gallant to Secretary of State Blinken: "The eyes of our enemies and friends are on the relationship between Israel and the U.S. - we must quickly resolve our disagreements - this way we will achieve our goals and weaken our enemy."
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department offices in Washington. The two held a lengthy personal meeting, and an extended meeting with professional teams from the Ministry of Defense and the State Department.
In their meeting, the two discussed the need to apply additional pressure on Hamas to advance the return of the hostages, with emphasis on promoting an alternative government in the Gaza Strip.
The Defense Minister emphasized to the Secretary of State that the eyes of both our enemies and friends are on the relationship between Israel and the U.S., and therefore the countries must quickly resolve their disagreements. -- Galant is speaking pragmatically and logically but the crux of the problem is Netanyahu who has been using the US Administration as a deflector to his local issues, which is what he typically does. When there are issues that don't bode well on Netanyahu's image in Israel, he pushes other non-related issues to the press to take the spotlight off of the more important problems that he doesn't want blamed on him. Galant is doing his best at crisis control of a crisis that Netanyahu deliberately created.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said before his meeting with CIA Director Bill Burns that "Israel has a supreme commitment to release all hostages, without exception." Gallant added that "the alliance between Israel and the U.S. is of great importance. We agree on most things. On what we don't agree - we discuss the details, reach understandings, and resolve the disagreements. I'm sure this will be the case this time as well."
Gallant was asked about the video released by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming a delay in arms supply from the U.S. and clarified: "I don't think I need to give grades. I work for only one purpose: to ensure Israel's security resilience and its ability to achieve the war's objectives and prepare for future threats."
Regarding the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff's statement that the U.S. would struggle to help Israel defend itself in case of a wide-scale war against Hezbollah as it did during the Iranian attack in April, the Defense Minister said: "The clear statements I hear from the U.S. administration here are that the U.S. and Israel are together in the campaign against Iran, against Hezbollah, and against Hamas, and are committed to achieving the goals. There is no difference between Israel and the U.S. in this approach, and I'm working on this here. I believe things will work out and operate exactly according to this logic."
Unanimous
decision: Court rules no exemption for haredim in IDF
The High Court of Justice on Tuesday ordered a full draft of
the ultra-othrodox into the IDF and the freezing of all funds for institutions
which do not comply starting as of April 1.
At a hearing earlier in June, the justices had come out
swinging. Part of what had been so surprising about the hearing was that three
of the most conservative voices - Justices Noam Sohlberg, Alex Stein, and Yael
Wilner – were among the roughest and most aggressive critics of the government.
Inside the court hearing
Sohlberg was furious that the IDF has offered as a minimum
initial measure to take in 3,000 Haredim out of over 60,000 eligible draftees
over the course of the 2024 recruitment class, and that the government even
refused this.
Stein and Wilner laid waste to the government’s legal claims
that mid-level IDF officers could have wide discretion to give broad exemptions
to haredim from military service, even beyond specific individual extreme
extenuating circumstances. In rare moments, one could tell that the justices
were emotionally disturbed by the idea that during an ongoing war which has
taken the lives of around 1,500 Israelis, haredim still feel that asking them
to do the same service is oppression.
When a haredi man at the hearing vowed that the haredim he
knew would rather die than be drafted, it seemed to ring hollower with the
justices mid-war than in the past. If in the past, such statements had a shock
value which made most Israelis who do serve in the IDF hold their heads in
shock, and decide to move on because the difficulty of negotiating with such a
stubborn sector of the country was too great, the war seemed to have changed
the atmosphere in the court building.
In comical moments, Acting Chief Justice Uzi Vogelman
(“acting” because Justice Minister Yariv Levin has blocked Yitzhak Amit from
taking office since October 2023) told the government’s lawyer that in trying
to sound coherent and reasonable, he had essentially adopted the arguments of
both Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara and the NGOs who brought the petition
to draft Haredim.
There seemed to be no question where the court was going
with this – only how far.
In late March, the court froze one third of some of the government-sponsored funds for the around 1,750 Haredi Yeshivot. But this did not impact the vast majority of the over 60,000 haredim in play for IDF or national service, only a portion of the recent draft class. It also did not impact significant non-government funds which the haredi institutions raise.
While Haredi advocates have talked about the reduction in
funds as being a life and death issue, there has not seemed to be any evident
push by their Knesset officials to reach a new compromise either in the
government or in Knesset hearings on the issue, which started last week, but
with no noticeable progress.
The haredi political parties seemed to have judged that most
of their government funding would not be touched any earlier than August or
Tuesday's ruling.
The haredim also knew that they could somewhat freeze the current situation by going to new elections. In early June, it seemed like the High Court was leaning toward ordering the government and the IDF to immediately draft a minimum of 3,000 new Haredi IDF recruits. This would not be insignificant, but it would still be less than 25% of the current Haredi recruitment class, and would not touch any of the older classes. link It is yet to be seen how the draft will actually be done and how many the army will draft. According to the Supreme Court Decision today, it appears that there are up to 60,000 yeshiva students who fit into the age class for the draft, although the number of 30,000 is what has been more in the news. This decision will obviously set off an immediate coalition crisis with the Haredi parties demanding that the government immediately pass a law that will exempt the majority of those affected by this decision. For years, there have been demands by the Haredi parties that only through agreement will they be able to agree with a draft law. The agreement that they have been pressing for was a continuation of the overall exemption from the draft with very small numbers having to be drafted. And the other parts of the agreements that they were demanding were that if those numbers were not reached, nothing would happen and if those drafted didn't show up to be drafted, there would be no penalties and no forcible enlistment, meaning that there was no legal requirement for any of the 'yeshiva students' to go into the IDF. This ludicrous situation was supported for too many political hacks for too long. They all stated that this could only be done through agreements, whereas the rest of the public was questioning why. Every other 18 year old is legally bound to go through the full recruiting process and if they don't, they are arrested and either forcibly enlisted, sentenced to military prison or in the lesser cases, exempted from the army for a variety of reasons, mostly medical or criminal background. Why in the world should the entire Haredi population have a different set of laws with no penalties? We will already see the crisis begin with the coalition and Netanyahu will now be devoting all of his time to keep his coalition together and will leave behind everything having to do with the hostages as their lives are less important to him than keeping his government together and him as prime minister.
Benny Gantz’s National Unity party responds harshly to the Likud’s criticism of the High Court of Justice, which today ruled that there is no legal basis for excluding ultra-Orthodox men from the IDF draft and that those who are eligible for service must be drafted.
The opposition party, which until recently was part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wartime coalition, takes issue with Likud’s contention that the “real solution” to the enlistment issue is not a court judgement but rather “the completion of the historic conscription law which is currently being prepared for a second and third reading in the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.”
“A lie that is repeated time and time again does not become the truth,” the National Unity states, asking “if this law is so historic and correct, how come Prime Minister Netanyahu and the ultra-orthodox factions voted against it” when initially brought to the Knesset two years ago?
The coalition is currently working to pass a bill to lower the current age of exemption for yeshiva students from 26 to 21 and “very slowly” increase the rate of ultra-Orthodox conscription initially advanced by Gantz during the previous Naftali Bennett- Yair Lapid government. The legislation was revived by the Knesset earlier this month and members of Netanyahu’s Likud party have stated that the bill needs to be significantly revised before they will support it.
The National Unity party states that it only initially advanced the bill as a “bridging law” until a more comprehensive solution could be implemented and given the differing circumstances between the time of its initial proposal and the current war, its advancement now constitutes “a historical stain.”
When Gantz first presented the legislation in 2022, he insisted that it be accompanied by a plan to extend the requirement of national service to both ultra-Orthodox and Arab Israelis.
“The entire leadership, from the right and the left, and those who care about the State of Israel, the people’s army and Israeli society, must reach agreements based on the Israeli service outline, which will bring about a real solution, and not a temporary solution for the survival of the coalition,” National Unity states.
This February, Gantz presented an outline for the enlistment of Arabs and ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israeli army, which was ignored by Netanyahu.
The Region and the World
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Personal Stories
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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