🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 299, 2023 - July 31, 2024 🎗️

  

🎗️Day 299 that 115 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!!!”

Almog was brutally ripped away from his parents. His mother was murdered on October 7th, and his father, Or Levi, was taken hostage. Almog is unable to understand what has happened and why they have disappeared. Michael, Or's brother, who is fighting to bring him back, can't understand the situation, and frankly, no one can. It's an unimaginable life they are living - one no one can fully grasp or explain. But there is one thing that we all know for a fact: Or needs to come home to Almog.
This is a call to everyone everywhere: fight to bring Or back, to bring them all back. 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

*7:30am - north - rockets - Sha'ar Yeshuv

*12:20pm - north - rockets Yiron*

**Nir Popko, 28 from Kibbutz Goshrim in the Upper Galilee is the man killed by the Hizbollah rocket attack yesterday. 

Popko was working outdoors on the kibbutz when the rocket struck 30 meters from where he had been standing

May his memory forever be a blessing.

Hostage Updates 

• Qatar’s prime minister casts doubt on Israel’s seriousness about reaching a hostage release deal after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

  “Political assassinations & continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on other side?” writes Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani on X. “Peace needs serious partners & a global stance against the disregard for human life.”

  Qatar, along with Egypt and the US, has been mediating talks between Israel and Hamas throughout the war in Gaza. It also hosts Hamas leaders, including Haniyeh.

• The Hostages Families Forum issues a statement lauding the military accomplishments of the Israel Defense Forces but says that “any true achievement can only be realized with the release of all 115 hostages still in captivity.”

  The statement comes after the IDF killed a top Hezbollah leader in Beirut last night and after the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a Tehran strike attributed to Israel.

  “The deal proposed by the Israeli government and supported by President Biden represents the only viable path to secure their freedom, allowing the living to begin rehabilitation and the murdered to receive proper burial,” the statement says.

  “Time is of the essence, and we implore the Israeli government and global leaders to decisively advance negotiations. This is the time for a deal. Securing the hostages’ release is not just a moral imperative; it is the key for ending the current conflict and initiating a process of healing and reconstruction in the region,” they say.

Gaza 

• War-weary Palestinians in Gaza mourn the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Some say it will complicate efforts to reach a ceasefire deal with Israel.

  “This man could have signed the prisoner exchange deal with the Israelis,” says Saleh al-Shannar, who was displaced from his home in northern Gaza. “Why did they kill him? They killed peace, not Ismail Haniyeh.”

  Nour Abu Salam, a displaced woman, says the killing shows that Israel doesn’t want to end the war and establish peace in the region. “By assassinating Haniyeh, they are destroying everything,” she says.

  And hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators have marched through Ramallah and other cities in the  West Bank in protest against the killing. They carried dozens of green Hamas flags and chanted, “The people want al-Qassam Brigades,” a reference to the group’s military wing.

  Open support in Ramallah for Hamas is rare. Ramallah is the administrative capital of the West Bank and is governed by the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, long at odds with Hamas over the governance of the two Palestinian territories.  link The killing of Haniyeh may have far reaching implications in multiple areas. The first and most important area of concern is for the hostages and the ability to reach an agreement. Haniyeh has been far more forthcoming in his desire to reach an agreement than Sinwar, which has been a source of internal conflict in Hamas (Diaspora and in Gaza). We already have been facing the difficulties of reaching an agreement due to Netnayahu's always making new demands in order to prevent an agreement. We have yet to see what Hamas' reaction will be vis a vis the negotiations and willingness to reach an agreement. 
  In Gaza, the civilians are desperate for an agreement, ceasefire and a beginning to rebuild Gaza. They see assassinations like this also and a deterrent to reaching an agreement and ending the war. They recognize that Hamas and Islamic Jihad will want to exact revenge and not look weaker by reaching an agreement.
  In the West Bank, which traditionally does not have a wide base of support for Hamas, assassination of a Palestinian leader, even from the other side of the political spectrum brings support and unity against the occupier, the enemy, us. The only way to reverse this kind of support is to show and offer better alternatives and the best alternative is a Palestinian governing body based on a reformed Palestinian Authority that can take over and govern Gaza as well as the West Bank, be the body responsible for rebuilding Gaza and for ending the conflict by reaching peace. That last part can only be truly viable with the change of leadership both in the PA and in Israel.

   

• Former senior Fatah official Mohammad Dahlan condemns the “cowardly” assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, calling him a “great national leader,” and blames the US for allowing Israel to continue its war against Hamas.

  He urges strengthening Palestinian national unity and calls on the international community to stop the war in Gaza.

  Dahlan, a native of the Gaza Strip who was expelled by Hamas after its bloody 2007 coup, is considered a unifying figure in Palestinian politics, and according to recent reports, is seen as a possible leader in the Gaza Strip after the war. He lives in Abu Dhabi and has forged close relations with the UAE leadership.

  The Wall Street Journal wrote last week that “some US, Israeli and Arab officials” are putting Dahlan forward as a “temporary solution to a dilemma facing postwar Gaza.”

  However, Dahlan has rejected the idea, posting last week on X that he would not accept “any security, governmental or executive role” unless an agreement was reached “based on Palestinian national understandings.” link It is highly unlikely that Dahlan is shedding any tears for Haniyeh's death but he much show unified Palestinian outrage when something like this happens. He also recognizes that this can have major implications for reaching a hostage/ceasefire deal which is something that he wants to see happen as soon as possible.

• Over the past day, the IDF says fighter jets and drones struck dozens of targets across the Gaza Strip, including cells of operatives, tunnel shafts, buildings used by Hamas, and other infrastructure.
  The strikes come as the 162nd Division continues to operate in southern Gaza’s Rafah.
  The IDF says the division raided Hamas sites and killed gunmen during operations in Rafah’s northwestern Tel Sultan neighborhood in the past 24 hours.
  Reservists with the 252nd Division, meanwhile, are operating in the Netzarim Corridor area in central Gaza.
  The IDF says the reservists spotted a cell of gunmen attempting to plant an explosive device nearby, and called in a drone strike, killing the operatives.

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria

• The Hezbollah commander targeted in the Israeli airstrike in Beirut a short while ago is reported by multiple media outlets to be Fuad Shukr, also known as Hajj Mohsin, a senior adviser to the terror group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah.

  

  Shukr was named by the IDF several years ago as a commander of Hezbollah’s precision missile project. He is also wanted by the United States for his role in the 1983 bombing of a US Marines barracks in Beirut. The US State Department lists Shurk as Most Wanted with a $5million reward for information leading to his capture or death.

West Bank and Jerusalem

•     Overnight, the IDF demolished the home of Murad Dahadhah, a Palestinian terrorist who carried out a deadly shooting attack in the West Bank in January, killing two people.

  In the attack on January 7 on Route 465, near the West Bank settlement of Ateret, Dahadhah shot dead Amar Mansour, 33, a resident of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, and Lara Tannous, 42, a Palestinian woman from Ramallah who worked as a pharmacist at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center.

  Dahadhah was arrested alongside two other alleged accomplices a day after the attack. The IDF says it has sent demolition orders to the families of the other suspects accused of participating in the attack as well.

  The IDF says troops operated in the West Bank village of Atara overnight to demolish Dahadhah’s home.

  Despite the victims being Palestinians, Israeli security authorities say the shooting was carried out with nationalist motives, meaning it is considered a terror attack. As a matter of policy, Israel demolishes the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out deadly terror attacks. link This issue of demolishing the homes of terrorist has been researched and studied for many years. And the overwhelming data has shown that, not only does this not serve as s deterrent, it actually creates much more animosity and encourages others into terrorism and seeking revenge. For every one terrorist punished (and this is directly to punish), it punishes an entire family and more and the hatred from one becomes the hatred from many. It is an ineffective deterrent and is collective punishment of all those who are related to the terrorist and collective punishment always boomerangs.

• An Israeli man in his 50s was stabbed and seriously wounded by a Palestinian terrorist at a junction near the West Bank village of Beit Einun this morning, medics and the IDF say.

  According to the IDF, the terrorist arrived in the area by vehicle and opened fire at the Israeli man’s car, before getting out and stabbing him.

  Soldiers at the scene opened fire at the assailant, and possibly hit him, but he fled. He left behind the gun, knife and his car.

  The IDF says it has launched a manhunt for the attacker.

  Magen David Adom says the man is being taken to Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem with serious stab wounds.

Politics and the War (general news)

• How could Israel-Hezbollah tensions impact Gaza ceasefire talks?  A sequence of attacks between Israel and Hezbollah this week marks the most significant escalation of tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border since Oct. 7. It comes as officials from Israel, Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. met in Rome over the weekend to discuss a ceasefire in Gaza. Former hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin joins Power & Politics to discuss how the Israel-Hezbollah conflict could play into negotiations. Interview with Gershon Baskin
  
  
• IDF Commander who oversaw Oct 7 battle in Be'eri apologizes to bereaved residents: In ‘complex’ meeting at home where 13 hostages were killed, Barak Hiram confronted by calls to resign from victims’ family members
  

  The families of victims killed on Kibbutz Be’eri during the October 7 Hamas terror assault met with the commander of the Israel Defense Forces’ 99th Division, Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram, on Tuesday for the first time since the military published the results of its probe into the events that unfolded inside the tight-knit community on the day of the massacre.

  The meeting, described by those who attended as tense and difficult, took place inside the partially destroyed home of slain resident Pessi Cohen. Cohen’s home was shelled by IDF tanks on October 7, under Hiram’s orders, as the IDF battled Hamas terrorists who had taken 15 hostages and barricaded themselves inside.

  One hostage had been able to leave the house prior to the shelling and the ensuing gun battle, but once the smoke cleared, 13 of the 14 hostages were dead. The IDF probe stated that many of the hostages were apparently killed by gunfire, and found that Hiram’s decision to order the tank shelling was a “professional and reasonable” one.  Nevertheless, the relatives of civilians killed inside Cohen’s home, as well as other members of the kibbutz, have expressed anger over decisions taken by the chief of the 99th Division and accused him of failing the roughly 100 civilians killed inside the community’s gates on October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel.

  “It was a complex meeting for several reasons,” Sharon Cohen, daughter-in-law of Pessi, said in a statement released to the press after the meeting. “We heard his side, he took responsibility and said that the army had failed.”

  She added that the families had confronted Hiram about what they believed to have been his improper conduct, and said the officer had “listened with an open heart.”

  “He apologized for the very great loss that we all experienced inside the house,” she said, adding that she believed his apology to be sincere, and that he understood the complicated feelings of the families.

  “As far as I’m concerned, he understands that the IDF failed,” she said. “He promised that he would do everything to rebuild trust.” Speaking to Channel 12 after the meeting ended, Cohen said it had been difficult, and “brought up all the difficult feelings that take a person back to October 7, to the time we were in the shelter and all the lack of certainty about what was happening in Pessi’s house.”

  Regarding Hiram’s order for the tanks to shell the home, Cohen said he had explained that the “whole point of shooting was to put pressure on the terrorists,” and that he believed it would save the lives of those inside the home.

  “Barak said that all the IDF wanted to do was save lives…everything they did was to try and allow the hostages to leave the house alive, which, to our sorrow, did not end up happening,” she said. 

  
  The remains of the home of Pessi Cohen, where Hamas held 14 Israelis hostage on October 7, 2023, in Kibbutz Be’eri, seen on November 19, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

  Speaking to Channel 12 after the meeting ended, Cohen said it had been difficult, and “brought up all the difficult feelings that take a person back to October 7, to the time we were in the shelter and all the lack of certainty about what was happening in Pessi’s house.”

  Regarding Hiram’s order for the tanks to shell the home, Cohen said he had explained that the “whole point of shooting was to put pressure on the terrorists,” and that he believed it would save the lives of those inside the home.

  “Barak said that all the IDF wanted to do was save lives…everything they did was to try and allow the hostages to leave the house alive, which, to our sorrow, did not end up happening,” she said. 
  

  Shafroni’s relatives Ayala Hetzroni and her great niece and -nephew, 12-year-old twins Liel and Yannai Hetzroni, were all killed on October 7, along with the twins’ grandfather Aviya Hetzroni.

  “It’s clear that Hiram wanted to listen, but he also shut down in the face of some of the harsh criticism that came up over the orders he gave,” Shafroni explained. “He backed off from things he had explicitly said in the media in the past and tried to quiet the anger toward him, as part of his desire to be appointed the next division commander despite the severe failures he admitted to during the meeting.” “No dialogue, no matter how sincere it may be, will bring our loved ones back to us,” Shafroni said, noting the heavy losses suffered by the kibbutz, which saw the heaviest blow of any single border community during the Hamas onslaught.

  
  Israeli soldiers walk past houses destroyed by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, in Kibbutz Be’eri, Oct. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

  The meeting with Hiram lasted two hours, during which the bereaved families were given the opportunity to ask whatever questions they had for him, and say whatever was on their mind, according to a statement from the kibbutz at the end of the session.

  “I felt that Barak reached Be’eri and did everything he could do while in an impossible situation,” Shafroni  said. “I think all the soldiers who came here strove to engage [the enemy] and did everything they could.

  “I feel that the whole story of Pessi’s house is falling into place in my head. This story has a beginning, a middle — and for me, I feel that we are nearing the end of the story.”

  Even though Hiram had answered some of her many questions, Cohen told Channel 12, plenty more were left unanswered.

  “What he couldn’t answer was how we got here in the first place…how we reached a moment in which Kibbutz Be’eri was conquered, and how we have hostages in Gaza for almost 300 days,” she said, using the opportunity to call for those in power to do everything in their power to reach a hostage deal. 
  

  The meeting with Hiram allowed most of the kibbutz to walk away with a “better understanding of the complex situation that unfolded in Pessi’s home,” the kibbutz said in an additional statement on Tuesday evening, “despite the pain that will not go away.”

  “Brig. Gen. Hiram was sincere and attentive, and received the embrace of most of the families, who wished him success, and made it clear that he is part of Be’eri’s rescuers and that he has the maximum ability to succeed in restoring security to the kibbutz,” it stated. “The opinions of the kibbutz members are diverse and different from each other in day-to-day matters, and even more so in matters related to the events of October 7, which affected each and every member of the kibbutz in a very complex way.”

• ‘We are in the abyss’: Coalition turns on itself following mob attacks on IDF bases: PM compares rampages to anti-government protests; MKs urge leaders ‘to stop tearing us apart from the inside’ after far-right politicians join mob break-ins at Sde Teiman, Beit Lid

  Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition turned on each other during a cabinet meeting Tuesday, hurling insults and recriminations over the previous day’s break-ins at two IDF bases by far-right activists and MKs outraged over the arrest of soldiers suspected of severely abusing a Palestinian detainee.

  According to leaks to Hebrew media, Netanyahu warned ministers that “we do not break into bases” while also railing against “selective enforcement” and comparing the break-ins to highway blockages by anti-government protesters.

  In response, Social Equality Minister May Golan (Likud) declared that the protesters “came to support the soldiers because the people can’t accept that heroic fighters who have been risking their lives for nine months are being arrested,” national broadcaster Kan reported. This prompted Interior Minister Moshe Arbel (Shas) to condemn Netanyahu’s comparison and insist that the far-right demonstrators cannot be allowed to “endanger the IDF like that.”

  The soldiers were arrested by masked military policemen during a raid on the Sde Teiman detention center in southern Israel. After the arrests, a mob of far-right activists and lawmakers broke into the base and demonstrated, and later stormed the Beit Lid base where the suspects were being held.

  Among the lawmakers who participated in the protests were Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu and MKs Yitzhak Kroizer and Limor Son Har-Melech from the Otzma Yehudit party, Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot, and MKs Nissim Vaturi and Tally Gotliv of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party.

  Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli also weighed in at the cabinet meeting, insisting there was no comparison between anti-government demonstrators and those who broke into the bases, drawing Golan’s ire and allegations of demagoguery. Hitting back, Chikli asked if Golan was representing the far-right Otzma Yehudit party rather than Likud.

  Chikli then condemned Ben Gvir, saying that “there are those who support the mob and there are those who do not.”

  “Those who understand the army know that this is prohibited, unlike [people like] Ben Gvir who did not serve in the army who say it is fine,” he charged.

  Ben Gvir was not accepted for compulsory service in the IDF because of his far-right activism, and has previously been convicted for incitement to violence and supporting a domestic Jewish terror group.

  As members of his party took part in Monday’s demonstrations, Ben Gvir released a video appeal to IDF Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi “to take her hands off” the soldiers.

  Recent reports have alleged widespread abuse of prisoners at the Sde Teiman facility, including extreme use of physical restraints, beatings, neglect of medical problems, arbitrary punishments and more.

  Earlier this month, Netanyahu told the High Court that Sde Teiman should only be used for short-term detention and questioning of Palestinian security detainees caught in Gaza.

  Public ministerial censure

  Immigration and Absorption Minister Ofir Sofer of Religious Zionism asserted that the riots had no legitimacy and that arrests should be made.

  Speaking with Army Radio, he said the scenes that played out at the bases “looked like a third-world country” and that “there are things we cannot afford to happen.”

  Interior Minister Arbel sounded a similar note, releasing a public appeal to pull back from “the abyss” before it is too late.

  “We will not remain silent in the face of the danger of internal breakdown at the hands of extremist elements,” Arbel wrote in a letter co-signed by MKs Eli Dallal (Likud), Hili Tropper (National Unity), Moshe Solomon (Religious Zionism), Meirav Ben-Ari (Yesh Atid), Efrat Reiten (Labor) and Oded Forer (Yisrael Beytenu).

  “We will not stand by in the face of silence and certainly in the face of the [expressions] of irresponsible leaders, who are pushing us to the brink of the abyss,” they wrote, calling on “all public leaders to stop tearing us apart from the inside.”

  Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was also critical of the far-right attacks on the military, demanding on Tuesday that Netanyahu launch an investigation to determine whether Ben Gvir had intervened to prevent or delay police from acting to stop the riots.

  In response, Ben Gvir dismissed the allegations and called on the prime minister to probe, and then fire, Gallant over unfounded allegations that he, among other things, may have had advanced warning of Hamas’s October 7 attack and intentionally refrained from bolstering the IDF’s presence on the Gaza border.
  

Convening the Knesset

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid called on Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana to convene a special plenum debate during the legislative recess to discuss the attacks, stating that “we are not on the brink of an abyss, we are in the abyss.”

According to Lapid, “the participation of members of the Knesset and ministers in the invasion of violent militias into IDF bases constitutes a crossing of a red line that Israeli democracy has never known” and Monday’s events were “not another demonstration of one political camp or another” but rather “a sharp threat to Israel’s image as a Jewish and democratic state.”

Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday morning, Brig. Gen. Yoram Knafo, the chief of staff at the IDF Personnel Directorate, told lawmakers that mistakes were made during the arrests at Sde Teiman and would not recur, according to committee chair Yuli Edelstein.

“This morning we held an urgent discussion on the subject of the arrest of the fighters and the conduct of the Military Advocate General and the military police,” Edelstein said in a statement on the closed-door meeting.

“Unfortunately, the Military Advocate General chose or was instructed not to come to the committee. I am announcing right now that we will hold another hearing in which she will be required to appear before the committee and provide adequate answers regarding investigative policy.”

However, “I am happy that the head of the Personnel Directorate concluded quickly that the army’s conduct on this issue was not correct and similar cases will not happen again,” he added.

Herzog weighs in

Addressing the Galilee conference in Acre on Tuesday afternoon, President Isaac Herzog denounced the mob’s attack on the two army bases as “a serious, dangerous, illegal and irresponsible act.”

But while he came out against the protesters he also raised questions about the manner in which the arrests of the soldiers which sparked the demonstrations were carried out.

“I believe that an immediate, in-depth, sensitive and responsible investigation is required of the manner in which the soldiers were detained for questioning yesterday,” he said.

“This investigation has nothing to do with and must not have anything to do with the very necessity and authority to carefully investigate suspicions of serious acts.” link This is the absymal, disfunctioning, racist, extreme government that is 'leading' the country and the one that Netanyahu is doing everything, including allowing the hostages to die in Gaza, to keep together so he can stay prime minister. Hi built this horrible coalition to be Prime MInister again, appointing the worst group of incompetents and unqualified extreme politician to be ministers in his government. There are commentators who are saying that this incident, series of incidents, are the beginning of a civil war. I have no doubt that there are many of the extremist in the government and their supporters would take to arms against other Israelis who don't share their extremist ideologies and on the other hand, the anti extremists population don't take up their arms (literally) to attack the extremist. 

 

• Speaking at a food security conference, Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter predicts the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the “neglect and failure” surrounding October 7.

  “It is impossible to define what happened on October 7 as anything other than neglect and failure. I am sure that when the time is ripe for this, a state commission of inquiry will be established, which will not be different from the one established after the Yom Kippur War,” Calcalist quotes the former Shin Bet director as saying.

  Despite growing demands to do so, including from his own defense minister, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far resisted forming a state commission of inquiry into the policy failings leading up to October 7 or the government’s handling of the war. link Dichter speaks a good game, but has been supportive of Netanyahu and the government decisions and votes since the beginning of the war even when he knew that the decisions were not for the benefit of the war or even for the country and served the political interests of Netanyahu and his government over those of the state.

• My brother's post: Following his major failures, Netanyahu has fallen to a low point in his support among our people. He remains with his base which was getting smaller and smaller and despite this, the opposition has not able to topple him and bring us to new elections. Yes, our political system distorts democracy - this may explain how we got to this point with the most extreme government the State of Israel has ever known, but it does not explain why Gantz, Lapid, Eisenkot, or any other Israeli "leader" does not rise up with massive public support. In my opinion, the reason lies in this: these so-called leaders are still running the "Bibi yes or Bibi no" campaign. Too many rounds of the elections were conducted around this empty question. No prominent Israeli political leader presents to our people any kind of vision, any horizon, any reason for us to mobilize and support their candidacy. As Bibi once said: they are boring. There is no reason to support them. We are tired of the old empty slogans that are void of any real content. Although our people seems to be moving to the right following October 7th, at the same time many more Israelis know today that without a political solution, there is continued danger of October 7th happening on other fronts. Only a political solution can bring us to start moving towards the safe haven of true security that we thought was here in the era of to so-called "conflict management". If a new type of leadership will arise that will show the way to a political solution, and will be believable and have integrity and tone down the bombastic militaristic threats and speak "vision" - maybe it will finally be possible to remove Bibism from our lives. (Gershon Baskin, July 29, 2024) link

The Region and the World

•    The assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran “will be met with a harsh and painful response,” Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards military force says in a statement.

  “Iran and the resistance front will respond to this crime,” it says, employing a term Tehran uses to refer to its proxies across the Middle East.

• Lebanon expects Hezbollah to retaliate for an Israeli strike that targeted the group’s most senior military commander, and the government will engage in diplomatic efforts to calm tensions, Information Minister Ziad Makary says.

  Speaking after a cabinet meeting to discuss the previous evening’s strike on a Beirut suburb, Makary says the cabinet is worried that the situation could spiral.

  He says a plan is in place in case of a large-scale displacement of people in Lebanon.

• The United States carried out a strike in Iraq in self-defense, a US official tells Reuters, after blasts inside a base south of Baghdad used by Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces killed four members of the official state security agency, which contains several Iran-aligned armed groups, and wounded four others.

  The official, who speaks on the condition of anonymity, says the strike was carried out because of a threat to US-led coalition forces.

Personal Stories

 Eli and Sharon Refai, 42 & 27: Brother killed trying to rescue sister:   Eli set out for Supernova music festival in an attempt to save Sharon, but both were ultimately murdered

Eli Refai (Rafael), 42, and his sister Sharon Refai, 27, both from Yavne, were murdered by Hamas terrorists near the Supernova music festival on October 7.

Sharon and Eli Refai (Courtesy)

Sharon was attending the festival with her boyfriend, Shahar Manzor, when the Hamas attack began, and another friend, Oriya Ricardo. When the rocket fire started, the three left for their car and had reached the Mefalsim junction when Shahar was shot by Hamas terrorists, and the car flipped.

Sharon called her brother Eli in a panic. He immediately set out to try and help her, although when Sharon realized how many terrorists were lying in wait, she told him to turn back but he didn’t listen, their family said. When he neared the junction, he was shot by a cell of terrorists, and the family believes Sharon was on the phone with him at the time and heard the gunfire.

Her mother said she later spoke to her on the phone as she was trying desperately to escape alive: “Sharon said she was sorry she called Eli… ‘Sorry I ruined your life, we’re going to try and escape but I don’t know if I’ll make it out,'” she said on the call. That was the last her family heard from her. Shahar and Oriya were also both killed that day.

After several days, the Refai family was informed that Sharon’s body had been identified, and she was buried on October 12 in Yavne. Several days later, Eli’s body was identified, and he was buried on October 16 alongside her.

They are survived by their parents, Metuka and Shlomo, and four other siblings: Livnat, Reut, Liav and Aviel.

Eli worked as a logistics manager for a cosmetics company, while Sharon, who was finishing her studies in information systems, worked for a chain of party goods stores. The siblings were very close, their family said, and after their parents’ divorce, Eli was a father-like figure to Sharon, always worrying about her.

Their sister, Reut, told Channel 12 news that Sharon was volunteering with at-risk youth and looking for a steady job, “planning to get married and to build a family, Shahar was the love of her life. Just when she was arriving at a point to reap the benefits, her life was cut short monstrously. We are left heartbroken.”

Their older sister, Livnat, told Ynet that Sharon and Shahar had been dating for about a year and had only recently moved in together in Ramat Gan, while planning a joint future: “The day she met Shahar she knew he was the one for her. She introduced him to the family as ‘my future husband,’ and we were so happy for her.”

Livnat said Eli was the heart of the house, “we could barely ask for something and he was already ready and waiting for us. We wanted him to take care of himself, to build a life and have a family, but he dedicated his whole life to us.” She said that Eli “worried in particular about Sharon, during her final two years as a student she lived with him and he took care of all of her needs.”

Sharon, she said, was a calm, steady influence, and even when she knew she had lost both Eli and Shahar, she stayed calm and warned her other friends at the festival not to come to the same area, saving their lives: “She spoke calmly and in control even in the most difficult and terrifying moments, when her life was in danger, when she just lost the two men who were her whole world,” said Livnat. “That’s how she was her whole life, brave and heroic and in control and taking care of everyone. Always optimistic and believed that the end will be good. But this time it ended in a great tragedy.”

Their mother, Metuka said, “Eli always supported me and was by my side through good and bad. A child with a huge soul who never thought about himself, only about others. He raised, taught and supported his three younger siblings… Thanks to him I am standing on my own two feet.”

Read more Those We Have Lost stories here.

 

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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