π️Lonny's War Update- October 265, 2023 - June 27, 2024 π️
π️Day 265 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
*1:30pm- south - rockets Kibbutz Nahal Oz, Gaza Border communities*3:10pm- north - hostile aircraft - Rosh Hanikra, Leeman, Batzet , Achziv, Shlomi - Hezbollah claims responsibility for launching explosive-laden drones at the Western Galilee a short while ago. In a statement, the terror group says it targeted an Israeli Navy base near Rosh Hanikra. According to the IDF, at least one suspected drone impacted the Rosh Hanikra area. Drone infiltration sirens had sounded in Rosh Hanikra and several nearby towns amid the incident.
*The army announced the death of a soldier in battle in the West Bank-Captain Alon Sacgiu, 22 from Hadera was killed by a roadside bomb attack in Jenin and 16 other soldiers were wounded, 1 seriously, 5 moderately and the rest lightly. An IED exploded on the first Panther APC and soldiers from the second APC ran to assist the wounded when a second IED exploded Alon was the first to run to help the wounded and was killed.
May his memory forever be a blessing
Hostage Updates
- Once again, there is no news about the hostages. The big news of the day is the Supreme Court decision calling for the induction of Yeshiva students into the army and their protests against the decision. It is unbelievable that the media and the government don't have the hostages as the first issue everyday.
Hostage Updates
- Once again, there is no news about the hostages. The big news of the day is the Supreme Court decision calling for the induction of Yeshiva students into the army and their protests against the decision. It is unbelievable that the media and the government don't have the hostages as the first issue everyday.
Gaza
- Egypt, UAE
prepared to participate in postwar Gaza security force
Blinken informs
counterparts that Cairo and Abu Dhabi are conditionally on board, as US seeks
to recruit other allies before rolling out plans for ‘day-after’ management of
Strip
Egypt and the United Arab Emirates are prepared to participate
in a postwar Gaza security force, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed
counterparts during his recent visit to the region, three officials familiar
with the matter told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.
The US has been looking to
recruit Arab allies for the initiative, as it readies to roll out its vision
for the postwar management of Gaza, even though a ceasefire between Israel and
the Hamas terror group remains elusive.
During visits to Qatar,
Egypt, Israel and Jordan two weeks ago, Blinken informed interlocutors that the
US has made progress on the issue, receiving support from Cairo and Abu Dhabi
for the creation of a force that would work alongside local Palestinian
officers, according to an Arab official, a US official and a third source
familiar with the matter.
However, the officials said that Egypt and the UAE both
stipulated conditions for their involvement, including a demand that the
initiative be linked to the establishment of a pathway to a future Palestinian
state — an outcome Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to block.
The third source familiar
with the matter said that Egypt is also demanding the complete withdrawal of
Israeli forces from Gaza — a condition likely to clash with Netanyahu’s pledge
to maintain overall security control of the Strip after the war, with the
ability to re-enter as necessary in order to prevent the revival of Hamas.
Meanwhile, the UAE has
demanded US involvement in the postwar Gaza security force, an Arab official
said.
Blinken told counterparts that the US
would help establish and train the security force and ensure that it would have
a temporary mandate, so that it could eventually be replaced by a fully
Palestinian body, the third source said, adding that the goal is for the
Palestinian Authority to eventually take over Gaza. Reuniting the Strip and the
West Bank under a single governing entity is seen as an integral step toward an
eventual two-state solution.
The secretary clarified,
though, that the US would not be contributing troops of its own, the source
said.
During a June 12 press conference in Doha, Blinken said the US
and its partners would soon release its plans for the postwar management of
Gaza. “In the coming weeks, we will put forward proposals for key elements of
the day-after — planning that includes concrete ideas for how to manage
governance, security, reconstruction.”
The officials speaking to The
Times of Israel said the US is working on three concept notes on each of those
issues, adding that Washington is hoping that Saudi Arabia will lead reconstruction
efforts.
As for governance, Blinken
privately told counterparts that the goal would be to establish a transitional
government in Gaza, which would work closely with countries in the region, the
officials said.
Blinken has held talks for
months with a contact group of counterparts from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar,
Jordan, Egypt and the PA. He has also looped in Morocco, Bahrain, Turkey,
Indonesia and others in an effort to galvanize broad international support for
the postwar stabilization of Gaza.
The secretary acknowledged at
the Doha press conference that Hamas will determine whether or not the war will
continue, but later insisted that the terror group “cannot and will not be
allowed to decide the future for this region.”
The US has also implored Israel to advance “day
after” planning of its own, warning that failure to do so will either result in
Israel permanently occupying the Strip or ushering in a period of chaos in
which Hamas will be able to regain control. Netanyahu for months resisted holding
high-level talks on the postwar management of Gaza, not wanting to confront his
far-right coalition partners who want Israel to occupy Gaza and re-establish
settlements there.
National Unity party chairman
Benny Gantz cited Netanyahu’s ducking of the issue in explaining his decision
to pull out of the wartime government.
While Defense Minister Yoav
Gallant has not followed Gantz, he has similarly criticized the premier’s
conduct on the matter.
Gallant told reporters on Tuesday that he discussed his own “day
after” plans during his meetings this week with top US officials in Washington,
saying Gaza should be managed by a combination of “local Palestinians,”
regional partners and the US, while acknowledging that it would be “a long and
complex process.”
Responding to this report, a
State Department spokesperson told The Times of Israel, “We are continuing
discussions with the PA, key partners, and the Israelis on day after planning
for Gaza, to include governance, security and reconstruction.”
“A day after plan for Gaza
will be key to building an enduring end to the conflict, but also turning an
end of the war into a just and durable peace, and using that peace as a
foundation for building a more integrated, a more stable, a more prosperous
region,” the spokesperson added.
The Egyptian embassy did not
respond to a request for comment. link
A group of Hamas operatives at a school in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis were targeted in an airstrike, the military says.
According to the IDF, the al-Hasna school was being used by Hamas as a command center where operatives “planned, directed and carried out many attacks” against Israeli forces in the Strip.
The operatives were hit by fighter jets and drones. The IDF says that the strike was “carefully planned and carried out,” and it used precision munitions to mitigate harm to civilians.
Blinken informs
counterparts that Cairo and Abu Dhabi are conditionally on board, as US seeks
to recruit other allies before rolling out plans for ‘day-after’ management of
Strip
Egypt and the United Arab Emirates are prepared to participate
in a postwar Gaza security force, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed
counterparts during his recent visit to the region, three officials familiar
with the matter told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.
The US has been looking to
recruit Arab allies for the initiative, as it readies to roll out its vision
for the postwar management of Gaza, even though a ceasefire between Israel and
the Hamas terror group remains elusive.
During visits to Qatar,
Egypt, Israel and Jordan two weeks ago, Blinken informed interlocutors that the
US has made progress on the issue, receiving support from Cairo and Abu Dhabi
for the creation of a force that would work alongside local Palestinian
officers, according to an Arab official, a US official and a third source
familiar with the matter.
However, the officials said that Egypt and the UAE both
stipulated conditions for their involvement, including a demand that the
initiative be linked to the establishment of a pathway to a future Palestinian
state — an outcome Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to block.
The third source familiar
with the matter said that Egypt is also demanding the complete withdrawal of
Israeli forces from Gaza — a condition likely to clash with Netanyahu’s pledge
to maintain overall security control of the Strip after the war, with the
ability to re-enter as necessary in order to prevent the revival of Hamas.
Meanwhile, the UAE has
demanded US involvement in the postwar Gaza security force, an Arab official
said.
Blinken told counterparts that the US
would help establish and train the security force and ensure that it would have
a temporary mandate, so that it could eventually be replaced by a fully
Palestinian body, the third source said, adding that the goal is for the
Palestinian Authority to eventually take over Gaza. Reuniting the Strip and the
West Bank under a single governing entity is seen as an integral step toward an
eventual two-state solution.
The secretary clarified,
though, that the US would not be contributing troops of its own, the source
said.
During a June 12 press conference in Doha, Blinken said the US
and its partners would soon release its plans for the postwar management of
Gaza. “In the coming weeks, we will put forward proposals for key elements of
the day-after — planning that includes concrete ideas for how to manage
governance, security, reconstruction.”
The officials speaking to The
Times of Israel said the US is working on three concept notes on each of those
issues, adding that Washington is hoping that Saudi Arabia will lead reconstruction
efforts.
As for governance, Blinken
privately told counterparts that the goal would be to establish a transitional
government in Gaza, which would work closely with countries in the region, the
officials said.
Blinken has held talks for
months with a contact group of counterparts from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar,
Jordan, Egypt and the PA. He has also looped in Morocco, Bahrain, Turkey,
Indonesia and others in an effort to galvanize broad international support for
the postwar stabilization of Gaza.
The secretary acknowledged at
the Doha press conference that Hamas will determine whether or not the war will
continue, but later insisted that the terror group “cannot and will not be
allowed to decide the future for this region.”
The US has also implored Israel to advance “day
after” planning of its own, warning that failure to do so will either result in
Israel permanently occupying the Strip or ushering in a period of chaos in
which Hamas will be able to regain control. Netanyahu for months resisted holding
high-level talks on the postwar management of Gaza, not wanting to confront his
far-right coalition partners who want Israel to occupy Gaza and re-establish
settlements there.
National Unity party chairman
Benny Gantz cited Netanyahu’s ducking of the issue in explaining his decision
to pull out of the wartime government.
While Defense Minister Yoav
Gallant has not followed Gantz, he has similarly criticized the premier’s
conduct on the matter.
Gallant told reporters on Tuesday that he discussed his own “day
after” plans during his meetings this week with top US officials in Washington,
saying Gaza should be managed by a combination of “local Palestinians,”
regional partners and the US, while acknowledging that it would be “a long and
complex process.”
Responding to this report, a
State Department spokesperson told The Times of Israel, “We are continuing
discussions with the PA, key partners, and the Israelis on day after planning
for Gaza, to include governance, security and reconstruction.”
“A day after plan for Gaza
will be key to building an enduring end to the conflict, but also turning an
end of the war into a just and durable peace, and using that peace as a
foundation for building a more integrated, a more stable, a more prosperous
region,” the spokesperson added.
The Egyptian embassy did not respond to a request for comment. link
A group of Hamas operatives at a school in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis were targeted in an airstrike, the military says.
According to the IDF, the al-Hasna school was being used by Hamas as a command center where operatives “planned, directed and carried out many attacks” against Israeli forces in the Strip.
The operatives were hit by fighter jets and drones. The IDF says that the strike was “carefully planned and carried out,” and it used precision munitions to mitigate harm to civilians.
- How Much Has Israel Spent On Its War On Gaza?
Since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israeli civilians, killing 1,139 people and kidnapping at least 251 hostages, Israel's retaliatory actions have pushed the country towards an economic crisis.
Israel's eight-month bombardment of the Gaza Strip has resulted in the deaths of at least 37,300 people, displaced nearly 1.7 million civilians, left more than 10,000 Palestinians missing, intensified food shortages, and caused a public health catastrophe. Over 85,372 Palestinians have been injured, many of whom have lost limbs.
Gaza has been completely devastated, with much of its infrastructure destroyed and entire neighbourhoods flattened. According to the UN Mine Action Service, Gaza has been reduced to 37 million tonnes of rubble, equivalent to 300 kg per square metre of land area .
Since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israeli civilians, killing 1,139 people and kidnapping at least 251 hostages, Israel's retaliatory actions have pushed the country towards an economic crisis.
Israel's eight-month bombardment of the Gaza Strip has resulted in the deaths of at least 37,300 people, displaced nearly 1.7 million civilians, left more than 10,000 Palestinians missing, intensified food shortages, and caused a public health catastrophe. Over 85,372 Palestinians have been injured, many of whom have lost limbs.
Gaza has been completely devastated, with much of its infrastructure destroyed and entire neighbourhoods flattened. According to the UN Mine Action Service, Gaza has been reduced to 37 million tonnes of rubble, equivalent to 300 kg per square metre of land area .
Environmental and Health Hazards
The conflict has also caused significant environmental issues. The destruction includes an estimated 800,000 tonnes of disturbed asbestos—fibres known to cause lung disease and cancer. Another pressing concern is the large amount of unexploded ammunition scattered throughout Gaza . According to UN estimates, if reconstruction follows the same pattern as after the 2014 and 2021 conflicts between Hamas and Israel, it could take approximately 80 years to restore all the fully destroyed housing units in Gaza .
Israel's Financial Burden
While Gaza bears the brunt of the physical destruction, Israel is also facing substantial financial costs due to investor uncertainty, an ongoing call-up of army reservists, and mounting military expenditures. According to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, the cost of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has reached 217 billion shekels, equivalent to $59.3 billion .
The newspaper reported, "After tabulating every aspect of the war thus far, the price tag stands at around $60 billion. This includes the war budget itself as well as the various forms of financial aid for every civilian whose income dwindled because of the conflict." It further noted that Israel's daily bombing of the Strip costs the nation roughly $272 million every day. Despite these expenditures, Israel's goals have not been met .
Has Israel Achieved Its Objectives?
Former Israeli hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin expressed his doubts about the effectiveness of the ongoing conflict. In an interview with ABC News, he stated, "I don't believe that there are any winners here. There's only been losers, and we need to cut our losses and end this war sooner rather than later. Bring home the hostages as soon as possible" .
After eight months of targeted assaults, Israel has not eradicated Hamas, a goal that many Israelis now believe is impossible. Israel has also failed to rescue all its hostages taken by Hamas. While many Israelis have been killed in captivity since October, and some have been released, 120 civilians are still believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza. Security has not been reinstated, and Israelis are now considered less safe .
However, according to the Israeli government, Hamas's military capabilities have been significantly reduced. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) claim to have "eliminated" around 14,000 Hamas combatants, less than half of the group's estimated 30,000 militants as of October 7 .
Current Israeli Operations
Recently, Israeli authorities issued an order for tens of thousands of inhabitants to start leaving Rafah city's eastern neighbourhoods in preparation for what they described as a "limited" assault to destroy Hamas. Israel has also taken "operational control" of the Gaza Strip's main entrance point for humanitarian aid, the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt .
According to Israel's administration, capturing Rafah will enable it to eliminate four Hamas battalions, which are thought to contain 4,000 combatants. However, some Hamas combatants have reportedly relocated from Rafah to Khan Younis, a nearby city. Experts predict that even if Israel leaves Gaza, Hamas will remain a potent force in other areas of Gaza where the Israeli military already maintains authority .
Humanitarian and Reconstruction Challenges
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is dire. Displaced children are waiting for food distribution in places like Khan Younis, and the need for urgent international intervention is clear. The UN estimates that the reconstruction of Gaza could cost between $30 billion and $40 billion, a level of damage unprecedented since World War II . The process is likely to be long and arduous, requiring significant international aid and cooperation to restore even a semblance of normalcy.
As a potential ceasefire looms, reports indicate that Israeli forces killed at least 41 Palestinians in the past 48 hours . The destruction and loss of life highlight the urgent need for a resolution that prioritises human lives and long-term peace over continued violence and destruction.
The Broader Implications
The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas has resulted in immense human and economic costs on both sides. Israel's financial burden continues to grow as the conflict drags on. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens daily, with significant damage to infrastructure, public health, and the environment.
The broader implications of this conflict are severe, affecting regional stability and international relations. The international community is calling for an urgent resolution to prevent further loss of life and destruction. The need for a lasting peace agreement that addresses the underlying issues is more critical than ever. link
Twenty-one cancer patients cross from the war-ravaged Gaza Strip into Egypt through the Kerem Shalom crossing, a medical source in Egypt’s El-Arish city says.
“They will be transported to the United Arab Emirates for treatment,” the source, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media, tells AFP.
It is the first evacuation from Gaza since the Rafah border crossing was closed in early May when Israeli forces took over the Palestinian side of the terminal.
The Israeli military called on Palestinians in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood to evacuate the area and head toward the designated “humanitarian zone” in the Strip’s south on Thursday as Palestinian media reported a series of Israeli strikes and tanks advancing into the neighborhood.
Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, the Israel Defense Forces’s Arabic-language spokesman, published a list of the zones that needed to be evacuated alongside the announcement.
Residents in a messaging group shared video showing large numbers of people fleeing the neighborhood on foot with their belongings in their arms. The IDF last operated in Shejaiya in April.
“It sounded as if the war is restarting, a series of bombings that destroyed several houses in our area and shook the buildings,” Mohammad Jamal, 25, a resident of Gaza City, told Reuters via a chat app.
Twenty-one cancer patients cross from the war-ravaged Gaza Strip into Egypt through the Kerem Shalom crossing, a medical source in Egypt’s El-Arish city says.
“They will be transported to the United Arab Emirates for treatment,” the source, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media, tells AFP.
It is the first evacuation from Gaza since the Rafah border crossing was closed in early May when Israeli forces took over the Palestinian side of the terminal.The Israeli military called on Palestinians in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood to evacuate the area and head toward the designated “humanitarian zone” in the Strip’s south on Thursday as Palestinian media reported a series of Israeli strikes and tanks advancing into the neighborhood.
Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, the Israel Defense Forces’s Arabic-language spokesman, published a list of the zones that needed to be evacuated alongside the announcement.
Residents in a messaging group shared video showing large numbers of people fleeing the neighborhood on foot with their belongings in their arms. The IDF last operated in Shejaiya in April.
“It sounded as if the war is restarting, a series of bombings that destroyed several houses in our area and shook the buildings,” Mohammad Jamal, 25, a resident of Gaza City, told Reuters via a chat app.
Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria
Two people were killed in an Israeli strike on southern Syria on Wednesday, the official SANA news agency reports, citing a military source.
According to the NGO Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the strike targeted the service center of a foundation affiliated with pro-Iranian militia including Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group
The strike was near Sayyida Zeinab, which is home to an important Shiite sanctuary and is defended by pro-Iranian militias and the army.
“At around 11:40 pm, the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial assault from the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting a number of positions in the southern region, killing two people and injuring a soldier,” the SANA report says.
It says Syrian air defense had also shot down some missiles, without giving further details.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warns during a visit to Washington that Israel’s military is capable of taking Lebanon “back to the Stone Age” in any war with Hezbollah militants but insists his government prefers a diplomatic solution on the Israel-Lebanon border.
“We do not want war, but we are preparing for every scenario,” Gallant tells reporters during the four-day visit that ended today. “Hezbollah understands very well that we can inflict massive damage in Lebanon if a war is launched.”
Gallant also says he discussed with senior US officials his “day after” proposals for governance of post-war Gaza that would include local Palestinians, regional partners and the US, but that it would be “a long and complex process.” link This is the not the first time that Galant has made this statement/warning to Lebanon and Hizbollah. So much of the initial destruction by aerial bombing in the beginning of the war before the land incursion was a show to Hizbollah what we would do to Beirut if they opened a full scale war with us in the north. It did help at the time as Hizbollah's attacks were a fraction of what they have become in these last months. It is the warnings now and the movement of troops and armaments to the north that is making waves in Lebanon against Hizbollah and their dragging the country into a war that none of them want.
- IDF confirms Lebanon strike that killed Hezbollah member behind drone attacks
The IDF confirms carrying out a drone strike earlier today in southern Lebanon’s Sohmor, killing a member of Hezbollah’s aerial forces.
Two people were killed in an Israeli strike on southern Syria on Wednesday, the official SANA news agency reports, citing a military source.
According to the NGO Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the strike targeted the service center of a foundation affiliated with pro-Iranian militia including Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group
The strike was near Sayyida Zeinab, which is home to an important Shiite sanctuary and is defended by pro-Iranian militias and the army.
“At around 11:40 pm, the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial assault from the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting a number of positions in the southern region, killing two people and injuring a soldier,” the SANA report says.
It says Syrian air defense had also shot down some missiles, without giving further details.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warns during a visit to Washington that Israel’s military is capable of taking Lebanon “back to the Stone Age” in any war with Hezbollah militants but insists his government prefers a diplomatic solution on the Israel-Lebanon border.
“We do not want war, but we are preparing for every scenario,” Gallant tells reporters during the four-day visit that ended today. “Hezbollah understands very well that we can inflict massive damage in Lebanon if a war is launched.”
Gallant also says he discussed with senior US officials his “day after” proposals for governance of post-war Gaza that would include local Palestinians, regional partners and the US, but that it would be “a long and complex process.” link This is the not the first time that Galant has made this statement/warning to Lebanon and Hizbollah. So much of the initial destruction by aerial bombing in the beginning of the war before the land incursion was a show to Hizbollah what we would do to Beirut if they opened a full scale war with us in the north. It did help at the time as Hizbollah's attacks were a fraction of what they have become in these last months. It is the warnings now and the movement of troops and armaments to the north that is making waves in Lebanon against Hizbollah and their dragging the country into a war that none of them want.
- IDF confirms Lebanon strike that killed Hezbollah member behind drone attacks
The IDF confirms carrying out a drone strike earlier today in southern Lebanon’s Sohmor, killing a member of Hezbollah’s aerial forces.
According to the military, the Hezbollah operative, identified by the terror group as Ali al-Din, was behind drone attacks on northern Israel.
Separately, the IDF says fighter jets struck buildings used by the terror group in Houla and Aitaroun. It adds that troops also shelled areas in southern Lebanon with artillery.
Meanwhile, two explosive-laden drones launched by Hezbollah at the Western Galilee struck areas near Rosh Hanikra earlier, the military confirms.
The IDF says there are no injuries in the attack. Hezbollah took responsibility, claiming to have targeted a Navy base.
- State comptroller warns there’s no plan to evacuate northern residents in case of war due to disagreements between ministers
State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman warns that Israel is not ready to evacuate civilians in case of a war in the north due to disagreements between Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Interior Minister Moshe Arbel.
In a post on X, Englman’s office says it has written to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “put things in order.”
“There is no place for a situation in which there is a lack of consensus that has lasted for such a long time. A unified and orderly action by the government is needed,” the post reads. link continuing evidence of the dysfunctional government Israel Defense Forces strikes in southern Lebanon, responding to near-daily attacks by the Hezbollah terror group, have created a “dead zone” of around 5 kilometers (3 miles) along the border with Israel, the Financial Times reports, citing data gleaned from aerial photographs.
“Near-daily aerial bombardment, artillery shelling and the incendiary chemical white phosphorus have made much of the 5km north of the Blue Line uninhabitable,” the report claims.
The Financial Times analyzes data from commercial satellites with research from the CUNY Graduate Center and Oregon State University to detect changes to buildings. According to the report, only “handfuls” of Lebanese civilians remain in the area, with most buildings empty and many destroyed. The report quotes Mohammad Srour, the mayor of Ayta ash-Shab, as saying that the strikes amount to “systematic destruction.”
Under UN Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006 to bring an end to the war between Israel and Hezbollah terrorists, UN peacekeepers were deployed to monitor a ceasefire along the 120-kilometer (75-mile) demarcation line, or Blue Line, between Israel and Lebanon. It also calls for Hezbollah to withdraw its forces behind the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of the border with Israel– a demand the terror group has ignored. The report quotes an unnamed Hezbollah terrorist as saying, “Asking us to withdraw from the south is like asking a fish not to swim in the sea.”
West Bank and Jerusalem
- An Israeli soldier was killed and several others were wounded by roadside bombs while operating in the northern West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp early on Thursday, the military announces.
The slain soldier is named as Cpt. Alon Sacgiu, 22, a sniper squad commander in the Kfir Brigade’s Haruv reconnaissance unit, from Hadera.
The IDF had been carrying out an overnight raid in Jenin aimed at capturing members of a Hamas terror network in the city and adjacent refugee camp.
According to an initial IDF probe, a Panther armored personnel carrier (APC) was hit by a bomb planted under a road in Jenin during the operation, at around midnight between Wednesday and Thursday. The soldiers inside the APC were slightly hurt by the blast. As additional forces reached the scene and worked to evacuate the wounded soldiers, another bomb exploded, leading to the death of Cpt. Sacgiu and the injury of additional troops.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
In all, 16 soldiers were wounded by the bombs — one seriously, five moderately and the rest lightly.
Before the APC drove along the road where the attack took place, a military D9 bulldozer and backhoe had scraped the road to uncover any potential improvised explosive devices. Armed groups in Jenin frequently plant IEDs under roads to attack Israeli forces carrying out arrest raids, and as such, the military rips up the roads with armored bulldozers before entering with lighter-armed vehicles.
Still, the two large IEDs were not discovered by the bulldozer and backhoe, and the military believes that they were planted much deeper in the ground than usual. The IDF was also probing how the bombs were activated, either by wire or wirelessly.
The slain soldier and the more seriously wounded were all outside of their armored vehicle when the second bomb went off, according to the IDF’s initial probe. The APC was largely able to protect the soldiers from the initial attack, with only minor injuries from the blast and smoke inhalation.
The military is now investigating how to better detect such IEDs and how to extract wounded soldiers from such incidents in a safer manner.
Canada announces it is imposing sanctions against seven Israelis and five organizations for “their violent and destabilizing actions against Palestinian civilians and their property in the West Bank.”
The organizations are the Amana association, which lobbies for, develops and builds West Bank settlements and outposts; Lehava, which opposes intermarriage and the assimilation of Jews with Arabs and tries to stifle public activities by non-Jews in Israel; The Hilltop Youth, an assortment of usually young Israelis who build illegal outposts throughout the West Bank; Moshe’s Farm, also known as Tirza Valley outpost, which was established in January 2021; and Zvi’s Farm, near the Halamish settlement.
Lehava founder Bentzi Gopstein and settler activist Daniella Weiss were also listed, as were Shalom Zicherman, Meir Mordechai Ettinger, Ely Federman, Elisha Yered, and Einan Ben-Nir Amram Tanjil.
Canada announced in May for the first time sanctions against Israeli settlers accused of committing acts of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The United Kingdom, France, the European Union, and the United States have taken similar measures in recent months. link Until Israel will finally take legal action against the illegal activities of these extremist, more and more countries will impose sanctions on more extremist organizations and settlers.
The slain soldier is named as Cpt. Alon Sacgiu, 22, a sniper squad commander in the Kfir Brigade’s Haruv reconnaissance unit, from Hadera.
The IDF had been carrying out an overnight raid in Jenin aimed at capturing members of a Hamas terror network in the city and adjacent refugee camp.
According to an initial IDF probe, a Panther armored personnel carrier (APC) was hit by a bomb planted under a road in Jenin during the operation, at around midnight between Wednesday and Thursday. The soldiers inside the APC were slightly hurt by the blast. As additional forces reached the scene and worked to evacuate the wounded soldiers, another bomb exploded, leading to the death of Cpt. Sacgiu and the injury of additional troops.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
In all, 16 soldiers were wounded by the bombs — one seriously, five moderately and the rest lightly.
Before the APC drove along the road where the attack took place, a military D9 bulldozer and backhoe had scraped the road to uncover any potential improvised explosive devices. Armed groups in Jenin frequently plant IEDs under roads to attack Israeli forces carrying out arrest raids, and as such, the military rips up the roads with armored bulldozers before entering with lighter-armed vehicles.
Still, the two large IEDs were not discovered by the bulldozer and backhoe, and the military believes that they were planted much deeper in the ground than usual. The IDF was also probing how the bombs were activated, either by wire or wirelessly.
The slain soldier and the more seriously wounded were all outside of their armored vehicle when the second bomb went off, according to the IDF’s initial probe. The APC was largely able to protect the soldiers from the initial attack, with only minor injuries from the blast and smoke inhalation.
The military is now investigating how to better detect such IEDs and how to extract wounded soldiers from such incidents in a safer manner.
Canada announces it is imposing sanctions against seven Israelis and five organizations for “their violent and destabilizing actions against Palestinian civilians and their property in the West Bank.”
The organizations are the Amana association, which lobbies for, develops and builds West Bank settlements and outposts; Lehava, which opposes intermarriage and the assimilation of Jews with Arabs and tries to stifle public activities by non-Jews in Israel; The Hilltop Youth, an assortment of usually young Israelis who build illegal outposts throughout the West Bank; Moshe’s Farm, also known as Tirza Valley outpost, which was established in January 2021; and Zvi’s Farm, near the Halamish settlement.
Lehava founder Bentzi Gopstein and settler activist Daniella Weiss were also listed, as were Shalom Zicherman, Meir Mordechai Ettinger, Ely Federman, Elisha Yered, and Einan Ben-Nir Amram Tanjil.
Canada announced in May for the first time sanctions against Israeli settlers accused of committing acts of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The United Kingdom, France, the European Union, and the United States have taken similar measures in recent months. link Until Israel will finally take legal action against the illegal activities of these extremist, more and more countries will impose sanctions on more extremist organizations and settlers.
Politics
- https://www.timesofisrael.com/evading-national-service-in-the-jewish-state-is-the-opposite-of-authentic-judaism/
The defense team of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the Jerusalem District Court that due to the ongoing war, the premier will only be able to testify in his corruption trial in March of next year.
In a written submission to the court, Netanyahu’s lawyers write that even in quiet times, “preparations to hear a defendant’s testimony on such a scale requires a significant period of time.
“In the current reality, in which the defense is required to prepare the prime minister for testimony in the midst of war, the necessary period of time to do so in a way that doesn’t compromise his rights and defense is significantly longer.” link another nugget of proof of Netanyahu's deliberate continuing the war. It not only helps him to keep his coalition together but also helps him put off his felony trials.
National Unity party leader Benny Gantz throws his support behind Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s critique of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, arguing that the latter is “harming the strategic relationship with the United States.”
In remarks that appeared to be aimed at Netanyahu’s open accusation that Washington has been holding up arms shipments, Gallant said earlier today that “in every family — and we consider the American people our family — disagreements may arise. Yet like all families, we discuss our disagreements in-house, and remain united.”
Gantz issues a statement saying “Minister Gallant is right — over the past few months, we have solved many of the problems with our friends behind closed doors, including on the matter of the munitions.
“This is what I did in my trip to Washington in March, and this is what the defense minister is doing now,” he continues.
“The unnecessary friction the prime minister is creating for political reasons may give him a few points in his [political] base, but harms the strategic relationship with the US, which is an integral part of our ability to win the war.”
- The US has transferred security related aid totaling some $6.5 billion to Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, The Washington Post reports, citing an American official.
The unnamed official says almost half of that was provided last month.
The report indicates the official was seeking to counter charges of insufficient US backing for Israel amid the conflict.
“This is a massive, massive undertaking,” they say, noting that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and his teams sat down with American officials and went over the “hundreds of separate items” sent to Israel during their visit to Washington this week. link This amount is unheard of especially for Israel and shows concretely the extent of the massive and unprecedented support we have received from the US Administration. And this makes Netanyahu's acts, statements and video against the US Administration exponentially egregious, unwarranted, embarrassing and despicable. Throughout this war, he has taken so many swings and done so many things to damage Israel's relationship with the US that no prime minister has ever done before. Israel rejects UN
war crimes claim: Hamas turned ‘large parts of Gaza into combat sites’
Document
responding to UN Human Rights office allegations says report suffers from
‘hindsight and methodological biases,’ lacks crucial information
Israel has rejected a UN report accusing it of having
“systematically violated” key principles of the laws of armed conflict during
the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.
The report was issued last
week by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). It
detailed in particular the IDF’s use of air-dropped bombs in densely populated
areas, and focused on six specific incidents with high casualty counts as
examples of how Israel has allegedly violated the principles of distinction,
proportionality, and precaution in its campaign.
A response compiled by the
Israeli government to the document has rejected the OHCHR’s claims, noting in
particular that the agency made its claims based on the outcomes of attacks
instead of assessing the decision making process behind them, as is required
when assessing the legality of an attack.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s
October 7 invasion and mass atrocities has prompted numerous allegations that
the IDF has violated the laws of armed conflict laid out by international law,
in light of what appears to be the high number of civilian casualties and the
massive destruction of civilian infrastructure.
These claims have even been
taken up by the International Criminal Court, with its prosecutor Karim Khan
now seeking arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for, among other alleged crimes, “willful
killing” and “intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population.”
OHCHR’s report could likely
be used by the ICC and other UN agencies to bolster the legal accusations
against Israel.
The OHCHR report issued on June 19 was scant on the details of
its methodology, saying only that information was gathered from “multiple
independent sources” including “through interviews carried out by OHCHR with
witnesses, military and weapons experts,” but did not detail who those people
were, or name the report’s authors. And
the Israeli response, authored by Israel’s delegation to the UN in Geneva under
the auspices of the Foreign Ministry, took the OHCHR to task for what it said
were serious methodological failings.
It insisted the organization did not have the relevant
information to determine what the expected harm to civilians had been at the
time of the attacks, and pointed out that Hamas’s comprehensive use of civilian
infrastructure in Gaza had turned a multitude of previously civilian sites into
military ones.
Critically, the response
pointed out that Hamas’s “extensive and unprecedented” use of the civilian
environment for military purposes meant that broad swaths of urban Gaza had
become legitimate military targets.
“Large parts of neighborhoods
in the Gaza Strip were converted, sometimes containing substantial portions of
the buildings in them, into combat complexes that include ambushes, command and
control apartments, weapons caches, observation posts, firing positions, trap
houses and explosives in the streets and rocket launchers,” the response said.
This was in addition to “the
extensive use of terror tunnels, going beneath neighborhoods, schools, UN
facilities, and other civilian objects, with thousands of tunnels shafts inside
and around such infrastructure, and containing the presence of many military
operatives inside these tunnels.”
In many circumstances, using
aerial munitions, including those with “wide area effects” were “the only type
of weapon that can accomplish the military objective.”
Addressing what it described
as methodological flaws in the OHCHR report, the Israeli rebuttal pointed in
particular to its reliance on publicly available information which did not
include information and intelligence held by IDF commanders who carried out the
strikes.
“The chosen methodology by which OHCHR analyzes these strikes,
which includes mainly relying on alleged results and media coverage, leads to
an inaccurate understanding of which targets were struck, the military
importance given to each target, and the operational constraints,” said the
Israeli response, and this flaw led to “unjust accusations of violations.”
It also noted that the OHCHR
report relies on fatality figures provided by the Hamas-run Gaza health
ministry which have been shown to be unreliable and potentially distorted,
leading the UN itself to reduce its fatality estimates.
In particular, the Israeli
response observed that Hamas’s list of fatalities includes male combatants who
are listed as women, minors who have been identified as combatants, and men who
have been identified as combatants, which would potentially change the
calculations of proportionality when assessing a strike.
Hamas’s fatality list also
includes deaths caused by Hamas and other terror groups, including misfired
munitions and explosives placed in areas populated by civilians, the Israeli
rebuttal said.
One example of Hamas combatants listed as women in Hamas’s fatality list in the 2023 – 2024 war against Hamas in Gaza, provided in the Israeli Foreign Ministry response to allegations by the OHCHR of war crimes in Gaza (Courtesy Israel Foreign Ministry)The response also asserted that in general, estimating expected
civilian harm in Gaza “can be very challenging” due to the fact that the IDF is
operating in “a complex and dense urban environment where civilian presence is
dynamic and often hard to ascertain.”
And it observed that attacks
cannot be legally evaluated based on the outcome, but rather “only the harm
that could reasonably be anticipated at the time of the decision.”
If the outcome of the attack
is higher than expected “this does not necessarily indicate a violation,” the
response noted, adding “compliance is conduct-oriented, not result-oriented.”
The OHCHR study itself
focused on six incidents during the war which resulted in heavy Palestinian
casualties, to illustrate what it said was a broader pattern of Israeli
violations of the laws of armed conflict.
The first attack it highlighted was a strike in the Jabaliya
camp on October 9 which resulted in the deaths of at least 42 people, including
14 children and one woman, according to OHCHR.
Another airstrike on the Taj3
Tower in Gaza City on October 25 killed 105 people, including 32 women and 47
children, and leveled an area of 5,700 square meters, according to OHCHR.
The organization said that
another strike on Jabaliya on October 31 killed 56 people including 12 women
and 23 children and flattened 2,500 square meters, noting that Israel said it
killed the Hamas commander of the terror group’s Central Jabaliya Battalion in
the attack.
A strike on the Al Bureij
camp in central Gaza on November 2 resulted in the deaths of at least 15 people
including five women and nine children, OHCHR said, while an attack on the Al
Buraq school on November 10 resulted in the deaths of 34 people, including a
Hamas company commander named Ahmed Siam, along with other Hamas combatants.
The final strike analyzed by
OHCHR was an attack on the Shejaiya neighborhood in Gaza City on December 2,
which it said resulted in the deaths of 60 people, including the commander of
Hamas’s Shejaiya Battalion.
In these various attacks, the
report said Israel used guided bombs of different sizes, including the GBU-31
2000lb munition, the GBU-32 1000lb bomb, and the GBU-39 250lb bomb.
Based on its analysis of the
six airstrikes, the OHCHR report accused Israel of violating the principle of
distinction, by which the laws of armed conflict require armed forces to target
combatants alone, alleging that Israel has targeted “members of de facto
civilian administration and Hamas political structures not directly
participating in hostilities.” full article
- https://www.timesofisrael.com/evading-national-service-in-the-jewish-state-is-the-opposite-of-authentic-judaism/
The defense team of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the Jerusalem District Court that due to the ongoing war, the premier will only be able to testify in his corruption trial in March of next year.
In a written submission to the court, Netanyahu’s lawyers write that even in quiet times, “preparations to hear a defendant’s testimony on such a scale requires a significant period of time.
“In the current reality, in which the defense is required to prepare the prime minister for testimony in the midst of war, the necessary period of time to do so in a way that doesn’t compromise his rights and defense is significantly longer.” link another nugget of proof of Netanyahu's deliberate continuing the war. It not only helps him to keep his coalition together but also helps him put off his felony trials.
National Unity party leader Benny Gantz throws his support behind Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s critique of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, arguing that the latter is “harming the strategic relationship with the United States.”
In remarks that appeared to be aimed at Netanyahu’s open accusation that Washington has been holding up arms shipments, Gallant said earlier today that “in every family — and we consider the American people our family — disagreements may arise. Yet like all families, we discuss our disagreements in-house, and remain united.”
Gantz issues a statement saying “Minister Gallant is right — over the past few months, we have solved many of the problems with our friends behind closed doors, including on the matter of the munitions.
“This is what I did in my trip to Washington in March, and this is what the defense minister is doing now,” he continues.
“The unnecessary friction the prime minister is creating for political reasons may give him a few points in his [political] base, but harms the strategic relationship with the US, which is an integral part of our ability to win the war.”
- The US has transferred security related aid totaling some $6.5 billion to Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, The Washington Post reports, citing an American official.
The unnamed official says almost half of that was provided last month.
The report indicates the official was seeking to counter charges of insufficient US backing for Israel amid the conflict.
“This is a massive, massive undertaking,” they say, noting that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and his teams sat down with American officials and went over the “hundreds of separate items” sent to Israel during their visit to Washington this week. link This amount is unheard of especially for Israel and shows concretely the extent of the massive and unprecedented support we have received from the US Administration. And this makes Netanyahu's acts, statements and video against the US Administration exponentially egregious, unwarranted, embarrassing and despicable. Throughout this war, he has taken so many swings and done so many things to damage Israel's relationship with the US that no prime minister has ever done before. Israel rejects UN war crimes claim: Hamas turned ‘large parts of Gaza into combat sites’
Document responding to UN Human Rights office allegations says report suffers from ‘hindsight and methodological biases,’ lacks crucial information
Israel has rejected a UN report accusing it of having “systematically violated” key principles of the laws of armed conflict during the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.
The report was issued last week by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). It detailed in particular the IDF’s use of air-dropped bombs in densely populated areas, and focused on six specific incidents with high casualty counts as examples of how Israel has allegedly violated the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution in its campaign.
A response compiled by the Israeli government to the document has rejected the OHCHR’s claims, noting in particular that the agency made its claims based on the outcomes of attacks instead of assessing the decision making process behind them, as is required when assessing the legality of an attack.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s October 7 invasion and mass atrocities has prompted numerous allegations that the IDF has violated the laws of armed conflict laid out by international law, in light of what appears to be the high number of civilian casualties and the massive destruction of civilian infrastructure.
These claims have even been taken up by the International Criminal Court, with its prosecutor Karim Khan now seeking arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for, among other alleged crimes, “willful killing” and “intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population.”
OHCHR’s report could likely be used by the ICC and other UN agencies to bolster the legal accusations against Israel.
The OHCHR report issued on June 19 was scant on the details of its methodology, saying only that information was gathered from “multiple independent sources” including “through interviews carried out by OHCHR with witnesses, military and weapons experts,” but did not detail who those people were, or name the report’s authors. And the Israeli response, authored by Israel’s delegation to the UN in Geneva under the auspices of the Foreign Ministry, took the OHCHR to task for what it said were serious methodological failings.
It insisted the organization did not have the relevant information to determine what the expected harm to civilians had been at the time of the attacks, and pointed out that Hamas’s comprehensive use of civilian infrastructure in Gaza had turned a multitude of previously civilian sites into military ones.
Critically, the response pointed out that Hamas’s “extensive and unprecedented” use of the civilian environment for military purposes meant that broad swaths of urban Gaza had become legitimate military targets.
“Large parts of neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip were converted, sometimes containing substantial portions of the buildings in them, into combat complexes that include ambushes, command and control apartments, weapons caches, observation posts, firing positions, trap houses and explosives in the streets and rocket launchers,” the response said.
This was in addition to “the extensive use of terror tunnels, going beneath neighborhoods, schools, UN facilities, and other civilian objects, with thousands of tunnels shafts inside and around such infrastructure, and containing the presence of many military operatives inside these tunnels.”
In many circumstances, using aerial munitions, including those with “wide area effects” were “the only type of weapon that can accomplish the military objective.”
Addressing what it described as methodological flaws in the OHCHR report, the Israeli rebuttal pointed in particular to its reliance on publicly available information which did not include information and intelligence held by IDF commanders who carried out the strikes.
“The chosen methodology by which OHCHR analyzes these strikes, which includes mainly relying on alleged results and media coverage, leads to an inaccurate understanding of which targets were struck, the military importance given to each target, and the operational constraints,” said the Israeli response, and this flaw led to “unjust accusations of violations.”
It also noted that the OHCHR report relies on fatality figures provided by the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry which have been shown to be unreliable and potentially distorted, leading the UN itself to reduce its fatality estimates.
In particular, the Israeli response observed that Hamas’s list of fatalities includes male combatants who are listed as women, minors who have been identified as combatants, and men who have been identified as combatants, which would potentially change the calculations of proportionality when assessing a strike.
Hamas’s fatality list also includes deaths caused by Hamas and other terror groups, including misfired munitions and explosives placed in areas populated by civilians, the Israeli rebuttal said.
One example of Hamas combatants listed as women in Hamas’s fatality list in the 2023 – 2024 war against Hamas in Gaza, provided in the Israeli Foreign Ministry response to allegations by the OHCHR of war crimes in Gaza (Courtesy Israel Foreign Ministry)The response also asserted that in general, estimating expected civilian harm in Gaza “can be very challenging” due to the fact that the IDF is operating in “a complex and dense urban environment where civilian presence is dynamic and often hard to ascertain.”
And it observed that attacks cannot be legally evaluated based on the outcome, but rather “only the harm that could reasonably be anticipated at the time of the decision.”
If the outcome of the attack is higher than expected “this does not necessarily indicate a violation,” the response noted, adding “compliance is conduct-oriented, not result-oriented.”
The OHCHR study itself focused on six incidents during the war which resulted in heavy Palestinian casualties, to illustrate what it said was a broader pattern of Israeli violations of the laws of armed conflict.
The first attack it highlighted was a strike in the Jabaliya camp on October 9 which resulted in the deaths of at least 42 people, including 14 children and one woman, according to OHCHR.
Another airstrike on the Taj3 Tower in Gaza City on October 25 killed 105 people, including 32 women and 47 children, and leveled an area of 5,700 square meters, according to OHCHR.
The organization said that another strike on Jabaliya on October 31 killed 56 people including 12 women and 23 children and flattened 2,500 square meters, noting that Israel said it killed the Hamas commander of the terror group’s Central Jabaliya Battalion in the attack.
A strike on the Al Bureij camp in central Gaza on November 2 resulted in the deaths of at least 15 people including five women and nine children, OHCHR said, while an attack on the Al Buraq school on November 10 resulted in the deaths of 34 people, including a Hamas company commander named Ahmed Siam, along with other Hamas combatants.
The final strike analyzed by OHCHR was an attack on the Shejaiya neighborhood in Gaza City on December 2, which it said resulted in the deaths of 60 people, including the commander of Hamas’s Shejaiya Battalion.
In these various attacks, the report said Israel used guided bombs of different sizes, including the GBU-31 2000lb munition, the GBU-32 1000lb bomb, and the GBU-39 250lb bomb.
Based on its analysis of the six airstrikes, the OHCHR report accused Israel of violating the principle of distinction, by which the laws of armed conflict require armed forces to target combatants alone, alleging that Israel has targeted “members of de facto civilian administration and Hamas political structures not directly participating in hostilities.” full article
The Region and the World
- Yemen’s Houthis say they have targeted a ship in Israel’s Haifa port in a joint military operation with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
The operation allegedly targeted the MSC Manzanillo, the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels’ military spokesman Yahya Saree says in a televised speech. -- there is no confirmation from the IDF and no other reports
Personal Stories The mother of Captain Alon Schagyo, who was killed in action, attacked the government: "Do any of the leaders even care about the soldiers? They're just dying for nothing"
In an interview with N12, Doriya Schagyo spoke about her son who was killed in Jenin: "Alon was the salt of the earth. I wonder if our leaders even know how to appreciate these people and soldiers at all." The principal of the school where he studied eulogized him: "The value of volunteering was supreme for him." His sister wrote on social media: "My beloved, almost my twin, has fallen. It's inconceivable."
After the IDF announcement this morning (Thursday) that Captain Alon Schagyo, 22, from Hadera, who served as a sniper team commander in the Haruv reconnaissance unit, was killed during the operation in Jenin, his family and acquaintances eulogized him. Alon's mother, Doriya, spoke about her son, described the events from the moment they received the news, and criticized the government for its decisions: "I don't think there's anyone who cares about those soldiers who are simply dying for nothing."
"At three in the morning, they knocked on our door, and we thought maybe Alon had come to surprise us. Today's activity was routine, the kind that happened every evening, and that's why we didn't know he had even gone out to it. Our last conversations were normal, like any mother and son. He said he didn't know when he was supposed to arrive but not to worry. Alon was an amazing child and from a young age always helped all his friends. Alon was truly the salt of the earth, there's no other way to define it, and that's why it hurts so much."
Doriya Schagyo talked about the differences in the family's feelings after Alon finished his period in Gaza: "After five months in Gaza, we were happy that he finished and left there. We can't say it was reassuring, but we hoped it would be less intense, despite the fact that it wasn't and there too is an arena that needs to be taken into account. Alon was killed while going out to save people who were injured by the first explosive device. He and another officer sat in the armored vehicle and didn't think for a second, it was obvious to them that there were people they needed to jump out and save."
Alon's mother concluded her words with harsh criticism of the government: "I ask myself whether our leaders sitting up there really know how to appreciate these people and soldiers who are the salt of the earth and willing to jump and save anyone, every soldier and every citizen? Does anyone there even care? Is anyone there even thinking about where they're steering this country and where they're leading us? Unfortunately, I say - I don't think there's anyone there who really cares about those soldiers who are being abandoned and are simply dying for nothing."
Amit, Alon's sister, announced his fall on her social media account: "With great sorrow, my brother, my beloved, almost my twin - fell as a hero tonight. It's inconceivable."
In a conversation with N12, Amit eulogized her younger brother: "Alon was a sniper officer in the Haruv reconnaissance unit and originally was a sniper in Duvdevan. He just recently celebrated his 22nd birthday and was in Gaza for five months - from which he returned unharmed. Alon was a good kid, the first to volunteer to help. He was surrounded by friends and people who loved him, was the smartest, the most handsome, and the most successful. A child with high aspirations who always volunteered, whether in youth leadership, the city council, or the aviation club in Hadera. My brother died a hero's death, when he went to help the wounded and was the first to lend a hand - and also to be hit."
"He was an amazing brother to me, and also to Ariel, our little brother, who is 8 and a half. Alon was a good brother when he was home, always laughing and doing silly things," his sister said and added that Alon and his girlfriend Sharon were supposed to celebrate five years together over the weekend. "He's really the best I know - the salt of the earth who loved the army and loved the country. At three in the morning, they knocked on our door. He's a hero who went to save people."
Gal Saada and Sharon Bar, Alon's instructors at the Hadera Municipal Youth Department, eulogized him: "Alon was a leader, an outstanding instructor, a brilliant, smart, and intelligent young man who grew up with us in the youth leadership organization in Hadera, at the Submarine Club, from 9th grade until the end of 12th grade. He was a representative and significant activist in the city youth council, and from a young age, Alon talked about his desire to serve a meaningful service in the IDF. Alon was always the first to volunteer for any task and acted out of a sense of mission and a desire to contribute to the city and the country. The way he fell, in which he chose to risk his life for his friends, represents who he is - a leader and a commander, a person everyone trusted and followed."
Yael Paz, the principal of "Hadera High School" where Captain Schagyo studied, said that for him, the value of volunteering was supreme: "Alon is a graduate of the 79th class, and studied at Hadera High School from 7th to 12th grade. He was the type of student who loved school, and everyone who knew him at school, and there were many, loved him because of his prominent qualities as a smiling, polite, and respectful person. Alon volunteered for the student council and the city youth council, and performed his community social involvement with excellence. We weren't surprised at all when he wholeheartedly volunteered for a combat unit, out of a desire to protect the country he loved so much."
Paz added that Alon had a special relationship with his high school homeroom teacher, Rotem Levinsky: "The relationship between him and Rotem was based on dedication, respect, love, and appreciation that didn't end with the end of his studies, but continued until today. We all mourn the fall of Alon, who is for us the exemplar and example of a person with Zionist and national values as well as values of human dignity, love of others, and love of family."
The mayor of Hadera, Nir Ben Haim, eulogized Alon: "The city of Hadera is in pain and mourning the fall of the city's son, Alon Schagyo. When Alon was asked in a project of the city's youth department, what's the most Israeli thing in your eyes? His answer was clear: 'To serve the country.' Alon grew up, was educated, instructed, and despite his young age, as an involved, intelligent, friendly, and brilliant young man, influenced students and the values he believed in and adhered to were passed on to them so that they will resonate for many years to come."
**Captain Alon Schagyo is survived by his parents, Doriya and Erwin, and two siblings, Amit and Ariel. His funeral will be held tomorrow at the military cemetery in Hadera. The family will sit shiva at 22 HaKinor Street in Young Hadera.**
The operation allegedly targeted the MSC Manzanillo, the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels’ military spokesman Yahya Saree says in a televised speech. -- there is no confirmation from the IDF and no other reports
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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