🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 274, 2023 - July 6, 2024 🎗️

  

🎗️Day 274 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!

‎אין נצחון עד שכל החטופים בבית

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

*6:40pm yesterday- north - rockets Batzet, Shlomi

*7:00pm yesterday - north - rockets Kiryat Shemona, Beit Hillel, Tel Hai

*8:35pm yesterday - north - rockets Alma

*9:20pm yesterday - north - rockets Margaliot

*12:55am- south -rockets Nahal Oz

*5:40am - north - rockets Maayan Baruch, Kfar Yuval

*5:40am - north - hostile aircraft Galilee and Golan areas

*8:15am - north - hostile aircraft - Galilee and Golan areas

*8:25am -  north - hostile aircraft - Galilee and Golan areas
*8:35am -  north - hostile aircraft - Galilee and Golan areas
*9:50am - north - rockets Kiryat Shemona
*3:30pm - south - rockets Nahal Oz

Hostage Updates 

• Optimism in truce-hostage talks: Mossad chief goes to and from Doha, Hamas briefs Hezbollah: Gantz tells Netanyahu his opposition party will back any responsible agreement, as Ben Gvir threatens to bolt government if deal goes ahead
  

  Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza were gathering momentum on Friday as Mossad chief David Barnea traveled to and from Qatar for negotiations and Hamas briefed Hezbollah on its latest proposal.

  Barnea arrived in Doha on Friday at the head of a slimmed-down delegation to discuss the future of the talks and arrived back in Israel later in the day. Following Friday’s talks in Doha, Netanyahu agreed to dispatch an Israeli negotiating team for follow-up discussions next week in Qatar, the premier’s office said. The statement stressed that “gaps between the parties” remain.

  Meanwhile, Hamas informed its ally Hezbollah it had agreed to a proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza and the leader of the powerful Lebanese terror group welcomed the step, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Barnea’s trip came a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Joe Biden that Israel would send a team to resume negotiations.

  The Wall Street Journal cited an official familiar with the hostage talks who said Mossad officials had told mediators that they were optimistic the Israeli cabinet would accept the proposal currently under discussion.

  Netanyahu’s decision to resume talks reportedly outraged the coalition’s far-right flank, which threatened to topple the government if the war ends. On Friday, opposition figure Benny Gantz was said to offer Netanyahu a safety net for any “responsible proposal.”

  Hamas on Friday announced that it rejects the presence of foreign forces in Gaza, potentially derailing Netanyahu’s plans for the Strip’s postwar governance. According to Walla news, Barnea informed Qatari mediators that Israel rejects Hamas’s demand for a written commitment from mediators that the negotiations regarding the second phase of the ceasefire can extend indefinitely if needed.

  Negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the US have so far failed to secure a truce in Gaza and release of captives there, since a weeklong ceasefire in November saw Hamas free 105 hostages in return for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
  

  Hebrew media reported that Netanyahu decided to send the delegation in a closed-door session with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant before the Thursday night cabinet meeting.

  At the meeting, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir reportedly expressed anger at the decision, saying it relegated the cabinet to nothing more than “a decoration.”

  “I’m telling you, Mr. Prime Minister — if you make a decision alone, it is your responsibility, and you will also remain alone. I was not elected by half a million people to sit in the government while the heads of the security establishment make the decisions,” Ben Gvir said, according to the reports.

  Asked by Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel if he was making a threat, Ben Gvir reportedly responded: “[I am] not making a threat. This is the reality. If you make decisions on your own, don’t expect me to prop up the government afterward.”

  Ben Gvir was reported by Channel 12 news on Friday night to be demanding to see the proposed deal as it currently stands. 
  

  Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Hezbollah said in a statement on Friday that its leader had met in Beirut with Hamas’s deputy chief in Gaza, Khalil Al-Hayya, to discuss “the latest security and political developments” in Gaza and the latest ceasefire talks.

  Reuters later cited two sources as saying that Hayya briefed Nasrallah on Hamas’s latest ceasefire proposal, and that Nasrallah had okayed the draft for his part. A Palestinian official close to the internationally mediated peace efforts said Hamas’s latest proposal could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel.

  He said Hamas was no longer demanding as a pre-condition an Israeli commitment to a permanent ceasefire before the signing of an agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout a first six-week phase. link to full article  This brings very guarded optimism. The fact that Hamas dropped the demand for a full ceasefire before the first stage begins is a good sign and opens up the possibility for further negotiations with Israel. There are other Hamas demands that can prove more difficult but as long as the sides are talking and Netanyahu is allowing the Israeli negotiating team to meet with the partners, there is guarded hope.

• Mothers of hostages mark nine months since Oct. 7, urge Netanyahu to take deal

  Palpable frustration and chants of ‘shame’ as mothers appeal directly to the prime minister; ‘Partial deal is total failure’ reads slogan on stage
  Mothers of hostages held by Hamas took part in a protest march alongside at least a thousand other demonstrators on Friday afternoon in Tel Aviv to mark nearly nine months since their children were taken captive.

  
  
  

  Nine months will have passed since October 7 this coming Sunday, and the maternal significance of the timespan was not lost on the dozens of mothers leading the march from Habima Square to the nearby Hostages Square a few blocks away.

  “Every mother knows what it’s like to go through pregnancy,” said Shira Albag, mother of 19-year-old Liri Albag, in Friday’s blistering heat before the march took place. “I carried Liri for nine months… for nine months now my Liri is there, dealing with darkness in the tunnels, lack of air, and homesickness.”

  “There is right now a deal on the table,” she continued, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “show leadership and courage and sign off the deal.”

  The strictly apolitical stance of the march organizer, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, was not able to contain chants of “shame!” directed at the prime minister once the demonstrators had reached Hostages Square.

  The chant echoed throughout the crowd during the speech of Nitza Korngold, the mother of 38-year-old Tal Shoham, who accused Netanyahu’s government of intentionally jeopardizing hostage negotiations.

  “Our government, that has the obligation to do everything, everything, to come to an agreement to free the hostages, [instead] torpedoes negotiations and the possibility of coming to a deal again and again,” she said.

  The chant was accompanied by two slogans displayed on one of the smaller stages in Hostages Square, which protesters congregated around after completing the march — “Yes to the ‘Netanyahu deal'” and “A partial deal is total failure.”

  The latter slogan was a sharp criticism of the prime minister for statements he made last month to the right-wing Channel 14, where he said he is only prepared to agree to a “partial deal,” appearing to contradict the terms of Israel’s latest ceasefire and hostage deal proposal presented by US President Joe Biden last month.

  A few days later, the Forum held a press conference in which hostage families came out against the notion of a “partial deal.”

  “In nine months, a baby develops in its mother’s womb and a new child is born into the world. In our reality, for nine months now, women, men, and children have been losing their lives. We mothers are waiting and hoping for our loved ones to return home,” continued Korngold, echoing Elbag and the other mothers present at the rally.

  Ofri Bibas-Levy, whose brother Yarden was kidnapped with the rest of his family from his home in Nir Oz, recently gave birth after discovering only two weeks after the massacre that she was pregnant. She lamented that she has never been able to tell her brother.

  “Nine months is a number that for every mother symbolizes creation, renewal, genesis. I’m here to talk about the future, about the reality in which we want our children to grow up. Will it be a reality of fear or a reality of hope?” she questioned. “I want to educate my children for hope, for mutual responsibility, and to tell them that their country did everything to save their aunt and uncle and their beloved cousins.” 

• The Wall Street Journal cites an official familiar with the hostage talks who says that Mossad officials have told mediators that they are optimistic the Israeli cabinet will accept the ceasefire proposal currently under discussion.

  While far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir have spoken out against the terms currently being discussed, they could well be outnumbered by Haredi and Likud ministers. However, it is unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will want to ignore his far-right flank, as both Ben Gvir and Smotrich have threatened to topple the government if it advances the proposal Israel submitted in May. link Although, there is probably a majority of the cabinet that may support a hostage deal, the fact that Ben Gvir and Smotrich continue to state that they will bolt the government if there is a deal would most likely mean that Netanyahu will veto a deal. He will sacrifice the lives of all the hostages to keep his government together so he can stay prime minister.

• Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider tweets that his Capitol Hill office was vandalized yesterday “in a vile act of hate.”

  “The posters of the more than 100 people still held hostage in Gaza (including 8 Americans) were ripped from the wall, shredded and tossed across the hallway,” he says.  

  
  
  

• Hamas has given initial approval for a US-backed proposal for a phased truce and hostage exchange deal in Gaza, dropping a key demand that Israel give an up-front commitment for a complete end to the war, a Hamas and an Egyptian official says.

  The apparent compromise by the terror group could help deliver the first pause in fighting since last November and set the stage for further talks on ending a devastating nine-month war. But all sides cautioned that a deal is still not guaranteed.

  The two officials, who spoke on conditions of anonymity to discuss the ongoing negotiations, say Washington’s phased deal will first include a “full and complete” six-week ceasefire that would see the release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. During these 42 days, Israeli forces would also withdraw from densely populated areas of Gaza and allow the return of displaced people to their homes in northern Gaza, the pair said.

  Over that period, Hamas, Israel, and the mediators would also negotiate the terms of the second phase that could see the release of the remaining male hostages, both civilians and soldiers, the officials say. In return, Israel would free additional Palestinian prisoners and detainees. The third phase would see the return of any remaining hostages, including bodies of dead captives, and the start of a years-long reconstruction project.

  Hamas still wants “written guarantees” from mediators that Israel will continue to negotiate a permanent ceasefire deal once the first phase goes into effect, the two officials say.

  The Hamas representative tells The Associated Press the group’s approval came after it received “verbal commitments and guarantees” from the mediators that the war won’t be resumed and that negotiations will continue until a permanent ceasefire is reached.

  “Now we want these guarantees on paper,” he says.

Gaza 

• My brother's facebook post - this should be sent to anyone who supports Hamas or waves the Palestinian flag for Gaza without any understanding of what is actually going on there:
  

  From my friend (a Palestinian) Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib:

  Hamas, which has stolen billions of dollars worth of the Palestinian people’s resources, robbed them of a meaningful future, and siphoned off tons of humanitarian aid during the war, is going full Taliban mode and beating/humiliating Gazans it suspects of stealing. The desperation that has befallen the territory after the terror group launched the war is unprecedented, and hundreds of thousands are out of cash, resources, options, or access to aid and basic supplies. The group’s members, fighters, officials, and their families have access to everything they need to sustain themselves while everyone else suffers. This is a reminder to the imbeciles in the West who parade Hamas’s flags and slogans on the streets of the US, Canada, and Europe to remember who they’re supporting; never forget that an Islamist terror cult, affiliated with the worst ideologies and political players, has hijacked the Palestinian national project and put Gaza on a path leading to the disaster we’re currently in. If you support Hamas, you are the enemy of the Palestinian people and deserve to experience life under your favorite “resistance” group.

  Being pro-Palestine necessitates being anti-Hamas because the group’s actions are inherently anti-Palestinian. If you are pro-justice, equality, inclusivity, tolerance, stability, peace, healing, development, prosperity, reconciliation, self-determination, independence, and sovereignty for the Palestinian people, you can never ever be pro-Hamas or its armed resistance narrative. link to facebook post

•  Hamas says that it rejects any statements and positions that support plans for foreign forces to enter the Gaza Strip under any name or justification.

  The terror group says the administration of the Gaza Strip is a purely Palestinian matter. “The Palestinian people… will not allow any guardianship or the imposition of any external solutions or equations,” it adds in a statement.

  Separately, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a group allied with Hamas, says it considers any attempt to deploy international or other forces in Gaza as “an aggression” and will deal with it as occupying forces.

  The US has been talking to Arab allies about establishing a postwar peacekeeping force in Gaza.

• Troops with the IDF’s 7th Armored Brigade located long-range rockets during recent operations in Gaza City’s Shejaiya.


An airstrike was carried out yesterday against a Hamas rocket launcher positioned within the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone, the military says.
According to the IDF, the rocket launcher was located in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, adjacent to a shelter for displaced Palestinian civilians.
Before carrying out the drone strike, the military says it carried out “many efforts” to mitigate harm to civilians, including warning civilians in the area ahead of time.
Meanwhile, fighting continued in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood, where the IDF says troops with the 98th Division battled several cells of gunmen over the past day, as well as located and destroyed weapons and infrastructure.
In one incident in Shejaiya, the military says soldiers of the Paratroopers Brigade spotted a Hamas cell attempting to ambush them. By the end of an exchange of fire, all of the Hamas operatives were killed and no troops were wounded, according to the IDF.
In another incident in Gaza City, an airstrike was carried out against a three-man cell armed with RPGs that had been identified by the paratroopers, the military says.
In southern Gaza’s Rafah, troops with the 162nd DIvision continued to battle gunmen, destroy Hamas targets — including tunnels — and locate weapons over the past day, the IDF adds.

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria

• Two IDF soldiers were lightly wounded by a rocket impact in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona earlier this evening, the military says.

  Hezbollah launched a barrage of five rockets from Lebanon at Kiryat Shmona, some of which impacted the city and caused damage.

  Meanwhile, the IDF says fighter jets struck a Hezbollah rocket launcher in Marwahin and an observation post in Houla.

• Five rockets were launched from Lebanon at the northern city of Kiryat Shmona a short while ago, the military says. Local authorities say damage was caused to a home in the city by one of the rockets. There are no reports of injuries in the attack. video of the damaged home

• Israeli fighter jets struck a Hezbollah anti-aircraft system in southern Lebanon’s Rihan earlier today, the IDF says.

  According to the military, the surface-to-air launcher was used to attack Israeli aircraft.

  A separate strike was carried out against a building in Markaba, where a Hezbollah operative was spotted entering, the IDF says. It publishes footage of the two strikes. video

West Bank and Jerusalem

•  Seven Palestinian gunmen, including members of a cell behind a deadly roadside bombing attack last week, were killed in a drone strike and in clashes with troops in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Friday morning, the Israeli military said.

  The Israel Defense Forces said troops of the Duvedevan commando unit and Kfir Brigade’s Haruv reconnaissance unit raided Jenin following intelligence provided by the Shin Bet on the location of the cell that killed Cpt. Alon Sacgiu and wounded 16 other soldiers on June 27.

  The special forces encircled a building in Jenin where Hammam Hashash, 23, and his brother Harith Hashash, 19, — who according to the IDF were behind the roadside bomb attack — were holed up, and carried out a tactic known as “pressure cooker” that involves escalating the volume of fire directed at a building to force suspects to come out.  The soldiers fired several shoulder-launched missiles at the building and exchanged fire with the two gunmen, a military source said.

  The pair were eventually killed in the clashes, the IDF said.

  A third member of the roadside bomb cell, Nidal Amer, was killed by Border Police troops in Jenin on Wednesday, according to the military.

  Separately, amid the operation, the IDF said the troops clashed with other terror operatives, and a drone strike was carried out against a cell of four gunmen that was identified in the area.

• Israel recognizes 3 illegal West Bank outposts, advances construction of 5,295 homes

  Move comes one day after government announced largest appropriation of land since Oslo Accords; five illegal outposts were recognized last week
  Israel has recognized three illegal outposts in the West Bank in a move to further cement control over the disputed territory, an anti-settlement monitoring group reported Thursday.

  In a report, Peace Now said the Higher Planning Council recognized outposts in Mahane Gadi, Givat Han and Kedem Arava on the edge of existing settlements, the report said. It followed a cabinet vote last week to legalize five other West Bank outposts.

  While the international community considers all settlements illegal, Israel differentiates between settlement homes built and permitted by the Defense Ministry on land owned by the state, and illegal outposts built without the necessary permits, often on private Palestinian land. In recent years, though, the government has increasingly sought to regulate the wildcat outposts, rather than demolish them.

  Peace Now said the government’s Higher Planning Council also approved or advanced plans for 5,295 homes in dozens of settlements across the West Bank.

  Furthermore, the report noted that the legal adviser to the planning council was a civilian, a first since the founding of the Settlements Administration, an authority established by the current government and put under the control of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in his capacity as a minister in the Defense Ministry.

  Members of the Settlements Administration were present at the meeting when the new homes were approved, the report added.

  “[Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] and Smotrich’s agenda became evident through the decisions of the Planning Council: approval for thousands of housing units, the establishment of three new settlements, and strategic appointments of Smotrich’s allies in key roles instead of military personnel underscore the annexation occurring in the West Bank,” Peace Now said in a statement. “Our government continues to change the rules of the game in the occupied West Bank, leading to irreversible harm.”

  The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the military body that oversees the planning council, referred questions to Netanyahu’s office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

  Israel announced on Wednesday its largest appropriation of land in the West Bank since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, designating 2,965 acres of land as state land.

  Declaring tracts of the West Bank as state land means they can be slated for future residential development, among other possible uses, but cannot be used to expropriate private Palestinian land that is formally registered in the land registry.

  The turbocharged settlement drive could further stoke tensions in the West Bank, which has seen a surge in violence since the Gaza war began on October 7, when Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251.

  Since October 7, troops have arrested some 4,200 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,750 affiliated with Hamas.

  According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 540 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed during raids or terrorists carrying out attacks.

  During the same period, 22 Israelis, including security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another five members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank. link This totally dysfunctional government makes it abundantly clear on a daily basis what its priorities are: settlements in the West Bank, then Gaza and money for ultra religious institutions. These distorted priorities take precedence over all else: the hostages, the war, care for the almost 100,000 evacuees from the north and south, care for the traumatized of October 7 and the war, the failed economy and financial programs of a failed Finance Minister, the growing violence in the Arab sector that has gotten exponentially worse under the criminal Internal 'Insecurity' Minister Ben Gvir. This government must go.

   

Politics and the War (general news)

• Ongoing tensions between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have risen further in recent days amid potential progress toward a hostage release deal, according to a Friday report, with the Israeli leader allegedly barring Gallant from leading his own meeting with defense chiefs on the matter, and at one point telling him he was “not the prime minister.”

  Mossad Director David Barnea flew to Doha and back on Friday to discuss the deal with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Thani. After Barnea’s return, Netanyahu’s office released a statement saying that “gaps between the parties” remain, and that the Israeli delegation would attend follow-up negotiations in the coming week.

  According to Channel 12, which did not cite sources, Gallant had in recent days planned to hold a meeting with Barnea and Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar to discuss the state of negotiations. Netanyahu, apparently feeling he was being sidelined, told Gallant he would be the one to lead such a meeting. The network said Netanyahu complained that otherwise, “you come to me with everything already settled.”

  Gallant reacted angrily to the premier’s move and said it made it difficult for the security establishment to prepare for the talks, Channel 12 reported, adding that he eventually did not attend the meeting led by Netanyahu.  Sources close to the Netanyahu claimed Gallant “finds it difficult to accept authority.”

  A senior Israeli official told the Walla news site Friday that Netanyahu had dispatched his foreign policy aide Ophir Falk to join Barnea in Doha. Falk was sent to “supervise” Barnea in light of Netanyahu’s growing distrust of the hostage negotiating team, the official said.

  Members of the negotiating team have periodically been speaking with the Israeli media on condition of anonymity, accusing Netanyahu of hampering the talks in order to ensure he stays in power. Channel 12 said Netanyahu and Gallant have differing views on the new proposal submitted by Hamas in recent days, with Gallant believing Israel should move forward on an agreement, while Netanyahu feels Hamas’s latest offer includes demands Israel cannot accept and that further military pressure on the terror group is needed.

  Israeli and US officials on Friday expressed cautious optimism about the talks, which have stalled since June. The current round of talks, based on an Israeli proposal outlined by US President Joe Biden in a May 31 speech, were reinvigorated over the past day after Israeli officials indicated that Hamas’s latest draft was workable.

  Relations between Netanyahu and Gallant have long been uneasy, ever since Netanyahu briefly fired the minister in March 2023 after he publicly called to freeze the government’s contentious judicial overhaul, warning it was causing damage to national security. The dismissal exacerbated a wave of fierce protests and strikes and Netanyahu swiftly put much of the overhaul on ice and reinstated Gallant.

  On Friday, four lawmakers from Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party — of which Gallant is also a member — penned a letter to the premier demanding he fire the top brass of Israel’s security establishment, including the defense minister, ahead of a potential offensive in Lebanon.

  “Before we enter into such a significant campaign in Lebanon, we must conduct a system overhaul,” wrote backbencher MKs Tally Gotlieb, Keti Shitrit, Ariel Kallner and Osher Shekalim. They asserted that replacing the top brass of Israel’s security establishment was essential for victory against the country’s enemies.

  The hardline Likud lawmakers said IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi had failed to warn Netanyahu and Gallant about the impending Hamas attack on October 7, when the terror group led thousands in a cross-border assault on southern Israel that left nearly 1,200 people dead and saw 251 taken hostage, sparking the war in Gaza. The lawmakers also criticized Halevi for ostensibly failing to inform the government of a decision to approve daily, localized pauses in the fighting to facilitate the delivery of aid throughout the southern Gaza Strip. The military said it was operating based on policy set by the government.

  The lawmakers attacked IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari for declaring during a media interview in June that it was impossible to utterly destroy Hamas, when the government has made Hamas’s destruction one of its primary war aims. The letter also claimed — without any clear basis — that IDF Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi has been “tying the hands of soldiers and granting immunity to terrorists.” Skepticism of the need for Israel to comply with international law has become a refrain among Israel’s right-wing in recent years.

  The lawmakers also urged Netanyahu to replace Gallant — a former major general in the army — with someone from outside the security establishment.

  The far right has grown increasingly leery of the leadership of the IDF, the Shin Bet and Mossad. MK Gotlieb, one of the letter’s signatories, has repeatedly pushed a baseless conspiracy theory whereby the Shin Bet and Mossad were in cahoots with anti-government protest leaders to weaken Israel’s defenses before October 7 and derail the government’s planned judicial overhaul.  link The demands by these vile Knesset members are ironic, demanding replacing the military top brass. While much of that will have to happen due to their failures leading up to October 7 and on October 7, it is the government that enabled October 7 to occur and they are the first who must go. As far as Netanyahu sending his aide Falk to the talks with Barnea, he has done that on multiple occasions to make sure that the negotiators would not 'overstep' Netanyahu's severe limitations that have always been placed on them. Falk is there to protect Netanyahu, not to enable the success of the talks. 

• Asked how they’d grade Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war, 68% of respondents to a Channel 12 survey gave the premier a bad grade, compared to 28% who gave him a good grade and 4% who weren’t sure.
  Forty-nine percent gave Defense Minister Yoav Gallant a bad grade, compared to 42% who gave him a good grade and 8% who were unsure.
  Forty-six percent gave IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi a good grade, compared to 44% who gave him a bad grade and 10% who were unsure.
  Asked why the war hasn’t ended yet, 54% said it is because of Netanyahu’s political considerations, 34% said it is due to substantive and operational considerations and 12% weren’t sure.
  Sixty-eight percent of respondents said Israel is far from the “total victory” pledged by Netanyahu, compared to 23% who said Israel is close and 9% who were unsure.
  Asked when elections should be held, 43% of respondents said as soon as possible, 29% said when the war is over, 23% said when the current coalition’s term expires in October 2026 and 5% said they were unsure.
  
  

The Region and the World

•    US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant discussed “regional security challenges and the continued threats to the region from Iranian-backed groups” during a phone call earlier today, the Pentagon says.

  Austin “reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security and Israel’s right to self-defense, while also urging deescalation and support for ongoing diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict in Gaza,” according to the US readout.

  The defense secretary “also expressed strong support for ongoing efforts to finalize a ceasefire and hostage deal as the most promising opportunity to bring all of the hostages home safely,” the readout adds.

• A top US intelligence official says the Israel-Hamas war and anger over US support for Israel is encouraging recruitment to terror groups, in an interview with The Washington Post.

  Brett Holmgren, the assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research, highlights arrests of individuals throughout Europe accused of planning terror attacks on Jewish and Israeli sites.

  According to Holmgren, the October 7 massacre by Hamas terrorists served as “a generational event that terrorist organizations in the Middle East and around the world use as a recruiting opportunity.”

Personal Stories

  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is joined by his family at a memorial for his brother Yoni, who was killed in an operation to free Israelis taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists in Entebbe, Uganda, in 1976.

Netanyahu and his brother Iddo, say the memorial Kadish prayer and lay a wreath at his grave at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, according to a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office. Netanyahu, his brother, his wife Sara, and son Avner, are joined by Knesset speaker Amir Ohana and other ministers, lawmakers, and friends of Yoni.

Yoni Netanyahu's partner and friends visited his grave: "To be with him today - and not tomorrow with his brother"

Bruria Shaked-Okon visited the grave alongside Yoni's friends and subordinates from the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit, a day before the official memorial with his brother - the Prime Minister. One of his team members addressed him: "You chose to sacrifice your life for Israel and the hostages - and the government is sacrificing Israel and the hostages for itself"

Several friends and subordinates of Lieutenant Colonel Yoni Netanyahu z"l visited his grave today (Thursday), a day before the original memorial date, as did his former partner - Bruria Shaked-Okon. The friends said this was the first time they had done this, with one goal: "To be with Yoni today, and not to be here tomorrow with his brother." Bruria, for her part, told ynet that "I came because politics is unfortunately mixed in, and it was important to me that friends hear who Yoni was."

In the eulogies, it should be noted, the participants mainly referred to Yoni and less to the current situation, although some mentioned the context in which the ceremony is taking place. Lt. Col. Netanyahu, we'll recall, was the commander of the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit that led Operation Entebbe to rescue 105 Jews, Israelis and crew members who were hijacked on an Air France flight and taken to Uganda. The operation took place on the night between July 3-4, 1976, during which Netanyahu was killed.

Among the participants in today's "early memorial" was former minister Omer Bar-Lev, who was a team commander in the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit during the operation.

"Our act of participating in this memorial is not free of politics," Bruria said at the beginning of her eulogy, and recounted that over the years she actually stood against "slanderers who sought real and invented reasons to clash with Bibi, and there were countless such instances."

She said that contrary to claims about Yoni, and although the period before the operation was a difficult time for him, it does not represent his personality, path and life. She said that the things Michal - the wife of Arnon Zamora who fell in "Operation Arnon" - said, describing that besides being a warrior he was also a wonderful father and partner, resonated deeply with her. "I identified with her from the depths of my soul," she said. "For what was most important was Arnon z"l's deep connection to her and the children."

"I'm here to tell you about Yoni from my perspective, which has hardly been heard in the years that have passed, from the day we talk 'about Yoni' and not 'with Yoni'," she said, and recounted that "emotion, vulnerability and existential depth were the basis of his conduct in every area - in the supermarket, in the army, in the bank and in emotional relationships." "I miss the connection and the words that were between us," Bruria said. "I miss being wrapped in his arms and being the axis around which he revolved. That's what he told me in various ways and that's how I felt. I miss myself with him, only with him. His opinions, his thoughts, his hands, looking at him over and over as he sits on the armchair he bought for himself with a pipe, a book and a glass of whiskey - and all of them freedom, warmth and home." 

"He was an amazing combination of soldier and poet," she added. "He found time to quote Alterman's poems to me and write me notes on different types of paper - napkins, toilet paper, envelopes, pages. Daily matters wrapped in tons of emotion and love, all the time."

Lt. Col. (res.) Shlomi Risman, who was Yoni's soldier in Operation Entebbe, addressed him and said that "I chose to visit your grave separately from the Prime Minister's ceremony. I cannot lie to myself. He and his partners are acting opposite to how you educated us. You chose to sacrifice your life for Israel and the hostages - and they are sacrificing Israel and the hostages for themselves."

Acronyms and Glossary

COGAT - Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories

ICC - International Criminal Court in the Hague

IJC - International Court of Justice in the Hague

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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