🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 324, 2023

🎗️Day 324 that 109 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!!!”

We’re waiting for you, all of you.
A deal is the only way to bring
all the hostages home- the murdered for burial and the living for rehabilitation.

#BringThemHomeNow #TurnTheHorrorIntoHope

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

between 4:45am and 7:30am - north - over 200 rockets and 20 explosive drones launched to the Golan Heights and Galilee regions. Some of the projectiles were intercepted, while others impacted, causing damage and injuries. Many rockets also struck open areas. Many homes were damaged partially or totally destroyed. There were some very close near misses on people and families but fortunately no casualties reported. Following these barrages, after 9:00am, Hizbollah said it finished the attack for today and denied the success of the Israeli preemptive strikes
9:10am - south - rockets - Kerem Shalom
*

**3 reservists killed in central Gaza fighting, bringing IDF’s weekend toll to 4

Sgt. 1st Class (res.) Danil Pechenyuk and Sgt. 1st Class (res.) Nitai Metodi killed in Gaza City bomb attack, while Sgt. Maj. (res.) Yaniv Itzhak Oren slain in clash with gunmen.

Two of the soldiers whose deaths were announced on Saturday night were killed in an explosion in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, which claimed the life of another reservist whose death was announced on Friday. The third soldier was killed in a separate clash with Palestinian gunmen in a nearby area.

The troops slain in the blast in Gaza City were named as Sgt. First Class (res.) Danil Pechenyuk, 27, from Bat Yam, and Sgt. First Class (res.) Nitai Metodi, 23, from Ashkelon. They both served in the Jerusalem Brigade’s 6310th Battalion. The soldier killed during the separate clash was named as Sgt. Maj. (res.) Yaniv Itzhak Oren, 35, of the Jerusalem Brigade’s 8119th Battalion, from Ein Gedi.

In the incident on Friday morning, several soldiers were hit by an explosive device planted on the outside of a building they were searching, in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood. In all, three soldiers were killed, four were seriously wounded, and another three were moderately hurt in the incident.

The army announced the death of First Sergeant David Moshe Ben Shitreet, 21 from Adam. He was killed by shrapnel of shooting down an explosive UAV from Lebanon this morning that fell onto the ship he served on.

L to R: Sgt. First Class (res.) Nitai Metodi, Sgt. Maj. (res.) Yaniv Itzhak Oren and Sgt. First Class (res.) Danil Pechenyuk. (IDF)

The army announced the death of First Sergeant David Moshe Ben Shitreet, 21 from Adam. He was killed by shrapnel of shooting down an explosive UAV from Lebanon this morning that fell onto the ship he served on.

May their memories forever be a blessing
The army announced the death of First Sergeant David Moshe Ben Shitreet, 21 from Adam.

Hostage Updates
Hostage’s relative asks Netanyahu if Israelis understand Gaza captives are being raped

In fresh comments leaked from heated Friday meeting, premier tells relatives and former abductees he spent time as a simulated hostage in army exercise

Protesters in Beersheba highlight the sexual abuse suffered by hostages on the 9-month anniversary of October 7 with signs reading 'We are on the brink of giving birth' on July 7, 2024 (Tanya Zion Waldoks/Pro-democracy protest groups)

The relative of a hostage held in Gaza asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he or other Israelis understand that women are being raped while in terrorist captivity in the Palestinian enclave, attempting to push him toward a nascent truce and hostage release deal, according to leaked comments broadcast Saturday.

The comments were the latest to emerge from Netanyahu’s heated Friday meeting with ex-hostages and relatives of captives, after an earlier report detailed the premier’s insistence that no deal was currently on the table and his attempts to ward off accusations that he has shirked responsibility for the events of October 7.

In a recording of the meeting leaked to Channel 12, a relative of one of the hostages can be heard telling the prime minister that the president of the United States cares more about the sexual violence carried out against hostages than he or other Israelis.

“Do they understand in Israel that girls there are being raped now? Do you understand that? Because [US President Joe] Biden understands that,” she said during the meeting, which included both former hostages and family members of captives still held in Gaza.

A former hostage at the meeting told the premier she had been beaten and tortured while in the hands of Hamas, according to the recording.

“There’s nothing more brutal than what we went through,” she said. “I can’t stand that the girls there are suffering.”

Netanyahu replied by describing his time in simulated captivity during a training exercise in the military, in an apparent attempt to relate to the families, while admitting that the instances were not the same.
Released hostages Yocheved Lifshitz, Yelena Trufanova, and her mother Irena Tati, who were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, speak to the media after meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, outside the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, August 23, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

“Hearing your stories is shocking,” he can be heard saying. “I was in a hostage simulation, they beat me, it didn’t affect me too much and really hurt. I knew I was in a exercise, so I’m going to be hit. I knew I wasn’t really in life-threatening danger, and that’s a huge difference, which adds to the suffering and everything else.”

In comments from the meeting previously reported by Channel 12, Netanyahu parried demands that Israel agree to a deal freeing the hostages by insinuating that no such agreement was on the table.

The remarks tossed more cold water on the ongoing hostage negotiations, which the US has sought to frame in an optimistic matter, even as the sides remain far apart on key issues.

“What are you proposing that I do?” Netanyahu could be heard responding after a relative of hostages said his job was to reach a deal returning the hostages.

“I’m proposing that you sign a deal that will bring the hostages home,” she said. “There’s a deal on the table!”

“What deal? Which deal?” the premier shot back. “Whoever told you that there was a [hostage-ceasefire] deal on the table and that we didn’t take it for this reason or that reason, for personal reasons, it’s just a lie.”

Early last month, Hamas submitted a hostage deal proposal that for the first time saw the terror group cave on its main demand that Israel commit upfront to a permanent ceasefire. In exchange, it made a series of amendments to the previous Israeli proposal.

Netanyahu rejected many of the changes and went on to issue his own new demands, including that the IDF maintain its presence in the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border in order to prevent weapons smuggling. He also has insisted that a mechanism be established to prevent armed Gazans from returning to northern Gaza across the Netzarim Corridor carved out by the IDF across the Strip. Both demands have become sticking points that the American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have worked to overcome.

Israel’s security chiefs have privately been arguing that they could manage a full IDF withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor and from Netzarim, at least for the duration of the deal, and believe that the concession is worth making in order to save the remaining living hostages before it is too late.

In between outbursts of dissatisfaction from the group of hostages and relatives, Netanyahu interjected, “I’m trying to come to a deal that will maximize the number of [living] hostages released. I won’t [agree to a deal] for 12 hostages… because I’d just be leaving people there who are sick, who are elderly, the devil only knows. Would you do a thing like that? I won’t.”
Protesters call for the release of hostages Hamas is holding in Gaza, outside the US Embassy Branch Office in Tel Aviv, during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the US Congress, July 24, 2024. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Ella Ben Ami, whose mother Raz Ben Ami was freed from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in November and whose father Ohad is still held in Gaza, said she was not convinced that the government will be able to reach a hostage deal.

“We asked the prime minister to look us in the eyes and promise to do everything, and if it depends on him, not to give up until they return here alive. We received a nod and confirmation from him. We ask the prime minister to keep his commitment and bring them home. We understand that this is probably the last opportunity before we enter a large-scale war, and we want to see our loved ones at home,” she told reporters.

“Personally, I left with a heavy and difficult feeling that this isn’t going to happen soon, and I fear for my father’s life, for the girls who are there, and for everyone,” Ben Ami added. “With all the disinformation we hear, we no longer know what’s true and what’s not.” link

My brother's interview on Al Jazeera about the hostage negotiations interview with Gershon Baskin

Senior Israeli negotiators were heading to Cairo Sunday to resume talks aimed wrapping up a hostage release and truce deal in Gaza, despite a large-scale attack by the Hezbollah terror group bolstering concerns of all-out war in the region.
The delegation was set to be led by Mossad chief David Barnea and Shin Bet director Ronen Bar, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel, with the US pressing Israel to smother any bombastic rhetoric and make a public show of support for the talks.
The Israeli team will be in Cairo a day after a delegation from the Hamas terror group traveled there to be updated by Egyptian and Qatari officials, following two weeks of talks between Israeli negotiators and mediators from the US, Egypt and Qatar aimed at bridging remaining gaps in a ceasefire-for-hostages deal. full article There is very little to be optimistic about as Netanyahu is preventing the conclusion of an agreement with his demands that are unnecessary and known to be unacceptable to Hamas. The IDF, Mossad, Shin Bet and intelligence chiefs all have told Netanyahu that he can remove these demands without risk and that making a deal to get our hostages home is the most important thing.

Sacrificed for a ‘victory image’
Israeli hostage families and independent negotiators blame political point scoring for deaths of loved ones and the failure to get a ceasefire
AVOIDABLE SORROW: Family members mourn over the coffin of Yoram Metzger during his funeral at a cemetery of the kibbutz Nir Oz, southern Israel on Thursday. Metzger’s body was one the six bodies of hostages recovered by Israel’s military during an operation in the Gaza Strip
THE US negotiators attempting to secure a temporary ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, alongside mediators from Egypt and Qatar, appear to have one goal in mind: to secure the credit for this still elusive but eventual alleged triumph exclusively for the Washington government.
The emphasis on scoring political points over humanitarian priorities has resulted in the mediators presenting what longtime Israeli hostage negotiator and peace activist Gershon Baskin describes as “a very bad deal” that is destined to fail.
“The mediators want the deal more than Israel and Hamas do,” Baskin said in an interview with a US radio programme, Here and Now.
“I don’t know why we don’t have a deal on the table that’s talking about all the hostages, ending the war in four to six weeks and with Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.”
Instead, as discussions falter and Israel keeps moving the boundaries, only a temporary ceasefire remains on the table.
It is hard to understand the point of a ceasefire that isn’t permanent. Do we allow medical teams into Gaza to administer desperately needed polio vaccines, other urgent medical treatments and essential food and water supplies and then, once people recover, let Israel bomb them anyway? The whole thing makes no sense. An agreement to stop fighting should be precisely that.
Many of us have read about or seen dramatised the moving scenes of the Christmas Truce of 1914 during World War I, a moment of spontaneity — and the singing of Silent Night — when some German and British troops put down their weapons, walked across no-man’s land and shook hands. It brought home instantly the futility of the slaughter. But the fighting resumed the next day and lasted well over three more years.
Peace should not be a 12-hour glimmer of hope. It has to be lasting, and ideally permanent. But over Gaza, the US — as often reflected in the remarks of US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken — continues to bias the situation to present Hamas as the perpetual obstacle. Baskin says the very opposite is true.
“Hamas was ready to come to the table early on in the war,” he said. “I know that for a fact because I was negotiating with them.”
In fact, many Israeli hostage family members as well as some of the hostages themselves who were freed during a brief ceasefire last November, point the finger of blame for a failure to secure a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rather than at Hamas.
One such is 54-year-old Keren Munder, who was released during the November truce along with her mother and nine-year-old son. Her brother was killed on October 7. On August 21, she buried her father whose body was one of the six hostages recovered and returned on August 20.
At the burial, Munder remarked: “How naive we were, just like on October 7. We did not know that the Israeli prime minister would be sacrificing you for his ‘victory image,’ would choose over and over to leave you to die.”
During Netanyahu’s address to the US Congress last month, cheered ecstatically by Republicans and even occasionally applauded by some Democrats, six family members of Israeli hostages, watching from an upper gallery in the US house chamber, were arrested and removed for wearing bright yellow T-shirts emblazoned with the words “SEAL THE DEAL NOW.”
Earlier, the families had joined several members of Congress at a press conference to decry the Israeli government’s refusal to come to terms with Hamas to secure the safe release of all those hostages still alive.
“Dozens of hostages could have been saved last November,” Baskin agreed. Instead, Netanyahu chose to “renew the war.”
Baskin was equally disgusted at the Israeli government’s positioning of the recent return of the six slaughtered hostages as some sort of military triumph. In an angry social media post he described the operation as “shameful.”
Clarifying his perspective on Here and Now he said: “It’s shameful because all six of these men were taken alive into Gaza. They should have come home alive. It should not have been considered a massive military victory and a brilliant military operation that special forces went in and recovered bodies. If we are recovering, we should be recovering live hostages.” link

Gaza

Israel and the United States have invested a massive amount of resources into searching for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, but cooperation has been “very lopsided,” with Israel not giving much in return for American assistance, The New York Times reports, citing dozens of American and US officials.
According to the report, a special unit inside the Shin Bet security agency headquarters has been set up to intercept Sinwar’s communications. The October 7 mastermind has long given up sending messages electronically, instead relying on couriers, complicating the search.
To aid in the search, the US has reportedly provided Israel with “ground-penetrating radar.”
While a senior Israeli official tells the Times that the assistance has been “priceless,” the report cites a person familiar with the arrangement describing it as “very lopsided.” The US expects Israel to direct its intelligence efforts to finding American hostages in exchange for assistance, according to the source.
The report also notes how close Israel came to catching Sinwar when troops raided his bunker on January 31. The terror leader left in a hurry, leaving Israeli cash behind.
The discovery allowed intelligence services to “catch a glimpse” of Sinwar’s habits in hiding, including his regular consumption of Israeli media and the 8 p.m. news.
Egypt insists that Israel must relinquish control of the Rafah Border Crossing during the first days of a potential ceasefire, the Saudi-owned Al Hadath outlet reports, quoting unnamed sources.
As the heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet intelligence agencies head to Cairo for talks, Egyptian mediators have been attempting to narrow the gaps between Israel and Hamas and to pressure Israel to phase out the IDF presence along the Philadelphi route. To persuade the terror group to come to an agreement, Egypt has told Hamas that it agrees with its position rejecting any permanent Israeli presence along the border corridor, Al Hadath adds.
On Friday, Axios reported that in a phone call with US President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to change the location of one IDF position and move it a few hundred meters, in a way that would not affect Israel’s operational control of the border. In response, Biden is said to have backed Netanyahu’s demand that IDF troops continue to hold the rest of the border in the first stage of a deal.

Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Thursday that the prime minister insists on Israel controlling the Philadelphi Corridor to prevent Hamas rearming with weapons smuggled into Gaza from Egypt.

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria

At least seven Hezbollah members were killed Friday in separate Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon, as the Iran-backed terrorist organization launched over 100 projectiles at the north throughout the day.
The strikes included the targeting of a Hezbollah cell preparing to shoot rockets from the village of Tayr Harfa. The other Hezbollah members were killed in separate attacks in Ayta al-Jabal, Mays al-Jabal, Aitaroun and Maarakeh.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, the airstrike in Ayta al-Jabal targeted Muhammad Najam, a prominent member of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile unit in southern Lebanon. Lebanese media reported that alongside Najam, his nephew Zulfiqar Radwan was also killed in the strike on Ayta al-Jabal.
The military also identified Saeed Mahmoud Diab, who was killed in Maarakeh by an IDF drone, as a member of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile unit.
The IDF said the operative in Mays al-Jabal had launched rockets at the Yiftah area earlier in the day and was killed upon being spotted at a building used by Hezbollah, while the operative in Aitaroun was struck shooting projectiles toward Malkia.
Hezbollah later released statements announcing seven members were killed “on the road to Jerusalem,” its term for operatives slain in Israeli strikes, naming Najam among them.
Their deaths brought Hezbollah’s declared toll to at least 427 since it began attacking northern Israel a day after the October 7 terror onslaught from Gaza by its Palestinian ally Hamas. The Israeli strikes followed several Hezbollah attacks in the morning, including the firing of missiles at the Mount Meron base. Hezbollah has attacked Mount Meron, located some eight kilometers (5 miles) from the Lebanon border, several times amid the ongoing war, launching large barrages of rockets toward the site, as well as guided missiles at the sensitive air traffic control base that sits atop it.
The IDF reported no injuries in the latest attack, during which three projectiles were fired at the base, one of which was intercepted.
Hezbollah also launched several rocket volleys at northern Israel on Friday, including a fusillade of some 40 projectiles fired at the Kiryat Shmona area and a salvo of around 20 rockets targeting Safed and its surroundings.
No injuries were reported in any of the attacks. The IDF said some of the rockets fired toward Safed and Kiryat Shmona were shot down by air defenses, while the rest struck open areas.
However, there were several impacts in Kiryat Shmona following another Hezbollah rocket barrage Friday night, with one home set ablaze after being struck by a projectile.i
Some of the rockets also sparked forest fires near Safed, which were extinguished hours later. The IDF later said it destroyed a Hezbollah rocket launcher in at-Tiri that was used in the barrage on Safed. Full article

In a tweet against the terror group Hezbollah, Lebanese opposition leader Samy Gemayel says that in order to avoid an escalation, Hezbollah must be disarmed and the Lebanese state must regain control of the country.
Gemayel calls for the application of Resolution 1559, a UN decision from 2004 urging the Lebanese government to establish its sovereignty over the entirety of its territory, and disarm militias like Hezbollah.
“Resolution 1559 stipulates that weapons are exclusively in the hands of the State,” Gemayel writes on X. The party he leads, Kataeb, also known as the Phalanges, is a Christian political formation that was founded by his grandfather Pierre Gemayel. It holds only four seats in the 128-seat Lebanese parliament.
“After the response and the response to the response and the response to the response to the response, it has become clear that neither side intends to expand the war, so it is necessary to immediately stop military operations on both sides and move towards a ceasefire… in order to avoid further senseless destruction and death” Gemayel writes, describing sarcastically the tit-for-that border skirmishes that Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in over the past 10 months of war.
“No Lebanese person will believe deceitful speeches and claims of imaginary victories,” he adds, in a probable reference to an address by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah scheduled for later today.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati says Beirut is holding contacts with its partners to stop an escalation with Israel, the country’s official news agency NNA reports.
In an emergency meeting of the cabinet held at his residence, Mikati says that “what is required is first to stop the Israeli aggression, and then to implement Resolution 1701,” referencing the UN decision that ended the Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 and stipulated the creation of a demilitarized zone between Israel’s northern border and the Litani River in Lebanon.
The cabinet also discusses the readiness of Lebanon’s emergency services. The country is running out of fuel and has experienced widespread power cuts in recent days, which have affected the regular functioning of hospitals. Lebanese media outlets L’Orient Today and Al AKhbar report that an Algerian oil tanker is expected to arrive in Beirut tomorrow and deliver 30,000 tons of oil donated by the north African country, worth $18 million.
IDF hits Hezbollah launch sites in Lebanon to thwart major attack on central, north Israel
Thousands of rocket launchers struck simultaneously by 100 jets; targeted launchers were primed to fire at Tel Aviv at 5 a.m.; terror group fires hundreds of rockets at Israel
Israeli fighter jets simultaneously struck thousands of Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon early Sunday morning in what the military said was a preemptive operation against weaponry that would have been used in a major attack on central and northern Israel.

Thousands of Hezbollah rocket launchers were struck simultaneously by some 100 IAF fighter jets in the preemptive attacks, the military said.

While central Israel was in the terror group’s crosshairs, the majority of the Hezbollah rocket launchers struck by the Israeli Air Force this morning were aimed at the north, according to the IDF. The strikes did not prevent the Iran-backed terror organization from beginning what it said was its response to the killing of its military commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut last month, with Hezbollah claiming it fired over 320 rockets and drones at northern Israel.
According to the IDF, some 210 rockets and some 20 drones were launched from Lebanon at northern Israel in Hezbollah’s attack. Some of the projectiles were intercepted, while others impacted, causing damage and injuries. Many rockets also struck open areas.
The Israel Defense Forces said it had identified overnight preparations in Hezbollah’s rocket array for a major and immediate attack on Israel. Fighter jets began to “remove the threat” shortly before 5 a.m. The preemptive strikes specifically targeted the sites in southern Lebanon that would have been used in the attack, according to the IDF.

The New York Times first reported the strikes targeted launchers primed to fire in the direction of Tel Aviv at 5 a.m. The IDF believed the attack would have been part of Hezbollah’s response to the killing of Shukr. Hezbollah itself later confirmed to have begun its response to the killing of its top commander, but did not mention the IDF’s preemptive strikes. Hezbollah said it fired more than 320 rockets at northern Israel early Sunday morning along with several explosive-laden drones. The launches came after the IDF’s strikes.
In a statement, Hezbollah claimed to have targeted 11 military bases in northern Israel.
A video circulating online showed a Hezbollah drone impacting a highway in the north. Sirens sounded across northern Israel early Sunday morning, including in the coastal city of Acre, Katzrin in the Golan Heights, as well as numerous communities in the Galilee, including the city of Ma’alot-Tarshiha.

A woman was lightly wounded by shrapnel in Acre amid the Hezbollah attack, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said. She was taken to Bnai Zion Hospital in Haifa for treatment.
MDA also said it had raised its preparedness to the highest level across the country. Full article. There has been much speculation that Hizbollah was planning on launching upwards of 6000 rockets and missiles today but that is highly unlikely and very speculative. Launching a quantity anywhere close to that would amount to a clear declaration of war and that is not what Hizbollah wants. That is very clear. The number 6000 is still not clear what it is but it’s possible that we hit 6000 launchers. Perhaps more information will come out about this later.

Hezbollah is believed to have planned to launch missiles this morning at the Glilot base near Herzliya, where several IDF intelligence units and the Mossad headquarters are based, according to Israeli assessments.
The IDF said that it destroyed thousands of Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon this morning, most of which were aimed at northern Israel but also some at central Israel.
The airstrikes were carried out shortly before Hezbollah intended to launch its attack at around 5 a.m.

Leaders of northern regional councils announce they are ceasing contact with the government until it delivers a full plan to return their residents safely to their communities and rehabilitate the region.
“We haven’t interested you for 10 and a half months, and from now on, you don’t interest us. Don’t call, don’t come, don’t send messages. We have managed alone until now, we will manage,” a joint statement by Mateh Asher Regional Council head Moshe Davidovich, Metula Mayor David Azoulay, and Upper Galilee Reginal Council Giora Zaltz reads.
The message comes after leaders expressed their outrage at the government that Israel’s preemptive strike on Hezbollah this morning was aimed at preventing attacks on central Israel, while the military has not shown such initiative while their communities have been under fire since October 8.
Social media users mock Hezbollah’s failed attack on Israel
Various social media accounts in English and Arabic mock Hezbollah for its failed attack on Israel this morning.
Most appear to focus on the fact that, aside from some chicken farms in northern Israel, no significant damage has resulted from the operation.
An image shared by the “Hamas Atrocities” X account, which has over 80,000 followers, shows Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah dressed as a cowboy riding a rooster, with a modified KFC logo in the background reading HFC (Hezbollah Fried Chicken).

The same account posts a video showing small firecrackers being set on fire. The caption reads: “The Lebanese mocked Hezbollah for their incredible firepower.”

Arab channels posted these images with the text:

The casualties of Hezbollah's revenge

link

West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel

In two Palestinian villages: Settlers attempted to enter homes, set vehicles on fire, and threw stones | Documentation of the destruction
According to security sources, about 10 settlers arrived at the village of Masafer Yatta in the southern Hebron Hills, tried to enter homes, and physical confrontations developed at the site, which are being handled by the police. In the village of Rujib-Qusra in Samaria, about 80 settlers came to Palestinian lands and set fire to trees and Palestinian property, threw stones, and violent friction occurred between the sides.

Security forces are operating in the area to prevent the escalation of the incident. So far, there have been no reports of arrests or injuries. The Palestinian news agency "Wafa" reported from local sources that the settlers uprooted olive trees, set fire to large areas of village land, and burned several vehicles. link

The Unusual Joint Message from Palestinian and Israeli Security Officials

The unusual message stating "we are operating in full coordination" was released after the failed attack in Tel Aviv. In the past week, Palestinian security mechanisms located and destroyed dozens of explosive devices in laboratories set up by terrorists in the West Bank.

After the attack in Tel Aviv at the beginning of the week, Palestinian and Israeli security officials unusually conveyed a message emphasizing the security coordination between the sides. This was reported tonight (Saturday) on the Saturday News on Kan 11. "We are operating in full coordination on this matter," was stated against the background of the explosive device threat. Security coordination between Israel and the Palestinians is usually kept under a veil of secrecy.

In the past week, Palestinian security mechanisms located and destroyed dozens of explosive devices in laboratories set up by terrorists in Judea and Samaria: 15 devices in Jenin and 20 devices in villages in northern Samaria - devices weighing ten kilograms of explosives - very similar to the device that exploded in Tel Aviv. The intensified activity of the mechanisms is happening for several reasons: a threat to the governance of the Palestinian Authority and a new unequivocal Israeli demand. The message conveyed to the Palestinians by Israeli security officials: "There will be no compromises in this area." Meanwhile, the IDF has confiscated hundreds of tons of fertilizer throughout Judea and Samaria in recent days, which could be used to build explosive devices, and arrested dozens of suspects in the field of explosive devices in the territories.

Despite the security reality, the head of the Civil Administration, Brigadier General Hisham Ibrahim, regularly meets with senior Palestinians and monitors the issue of explosive devices. The security establishment's approach is to prevent escalation from Judea and Samaria to allow the IDF to focus on Gaza and Lebanon.

The military wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the failed attack. According to assessments, the terrorist, who carried the bag with the explosive device on his back, resided in the Nablus area. link Ever since Oslo, Israeli and Palestinian security forces have worked together. Obviously, in the years of Oslo, the cooperation and working conditions were much closer, but the cooperation and coordination never stopped. This is something that very few Israelis are aware of. The PA security forces have thwarted hundreds, if not thousands of terror attacks, have arrested, imprisoned and in some cases, even killed terrorists before attacks. Abu Mazen has on multiple occasions has threatened to cut off the cooperation, especially when the extreme right government has done things to 'punish' the PA or withhold tax funds, but the threat never materialized.

Politics and the War (general news)

The Region and the World
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels praise attacks by Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Israel and renew threats to launch their own assault in response to Israeli strikes on a port in Yemen.
“We congratulate Hezbollah and its secretary-general on the great and courageous attack carried out by the resistance this morning against the Israeli enemy,” the Houthis say in a statement after Hezbollah’s rocket and drone attack.
The Yemeni rebels say the “strong and effective response… confirms that the resistance is capable, strong and honest in its promise and threats.”
The Houthis pledged to launch their own attacks against Israel in response to July 20 strikes that targeted a rebel-run port in the coastal city of Hodeida.
“We reaffirm once again that the Yemeni response is definitely coming,” the statement says.
The strike on Hodeida came a day after the Houthis launched their first deadly strike on Israel — a drone attack in Tel Aviv that killed an Israeli civilian.
Israel’s response destroyed much of the port’s fuel storage capacity and killed at least nine people, according to the rebels.

An additional attack on Israel is expected from another country in the coming days after Hezbollah’s rocket barrage this morning, the BBC reports, citing an unnamed security source with knowledge of the details.
The BBC hints that the attack may come from the Houthis in Yemen, who have yet to respond to Israel’s airstrike on the port of Hodeida last month.
Personal Stories

Prime Minister, what total victory are you talking about?
Anyone who thinks there's a price for returning the hostages has forgotten the value of redeeming captives, or simply being human in the State of Israel • Netanyahu, come down to the people, look them in the eyes - and understand what's truly important • Talia Danzig, granddaughter of Alex Danzig z"l who was murdered in Hamas captivity, in a special opinion piece

I'm very angry. How can one not be angry? Do I know how my grandfather was murdered in captivity? Hamas published that he was killed by IDF shelling. The army is still investigating. I know my grandfather went through horrors on October 7th, on the way to Gaza, and I know he went through terrible horrors during his time in captivity.

People in the Israeli government are now discussing whether to make a deal or not, deliberating on a move to release hostages. My grandfather fought all his life for this country. We recently celebrated his 76th birthday. My grandfather is the age of the country, he gave his all for it. He fought in the Yom Kippur War, worked in agriculture in the fields, a kilometer from Khan Yunis, endured bombings all his life in the Gaza envelope and still gave his all for it. Like him, all the people who are there; among them lookouts my age, 18-year-olds, who were kidnapped from their base, who said "we see them" and no one listened to them.
Alex Danzig

Whoever doesn't think the hostages can return has forgotten the value of life, forgotten why we established this country, forgotten why we've shed so much blood until now. I ask: how long do you want this war to continue? How long will blood be spilled? How long will hearts break? How long will hatred divide? And when will love return to these streets? When will the life's work of these hostages resume? Of my grandfather, who established the mission of journeys to Poland, who worked all his life to hold human encounters.

Anyone who thinks there's a price for returning the hostages has forgotten the value of redeeming captives, has forgotten what it means to be human. We must remember what it is to be human, we must remember what it is to be friends to one another, to be moral. My grandfather taught me all my life what it means to be a human being, to listen to others, to care for justice, for truth. I ask that the truth come to light. There was a crazy failure on October 7th, good people left us, too good, people who could have managed this country and not allowed this disgrace to continue.
The six hostages who were abducted alive and were killed during their captivity and their bodies were brought back to Israel last week

I also personally ask Benjamin Netanyahu: this is not the country my grandfather educated me to love so much, it's not her, and I believe she will return to what she was, I believe. But for that we need to fight and for that we need to bring all our hostages home. It's inconceivable that children who returned from captivity are begging for their father to return also in order to rehabilitate their lives. This failure must stop because otherwise we won't be able to heal this wound, we won't return to what we were and we'll continue to deteriorate and deteriorate and deteriorate. We must bring them back now.

To everyone who shares in my grief and asks what can be done, and I'm very grateful for the support, I say - go out to the streets and help bring the heart back to its place. Not just mine, yours too, because you know very well that our heart hasn't been in place for a long time. Go outside, not just for my grandfather, not just for me, for all of us, this is the future of all of us, we must stop this already. I see the Prime Minister flying to Congress with a hat next to him that says "Total Victory" in English, and I ask - what total victory? The moment all this happened, the moment terrorists took over Kibbutz Nir Oz, the moment my little cousins, a six-year-old girl and an eight-year-old girl, my grandfather's granddaughters, fled from the burnt window of their house, children who will no longer dream normal childhood dreams. At that moment, the possibility of total victory was off the table. What total victory are you talking about? How is spilled blood a total victory? How long will our soldiers die? How long will our hostages die? How long will people be displaced from their homes? As time passes it will be harder to rehabilitate this thing, what total victory? Come down to the people, look them in the eyes, and if you're not capable of doing that, turn to someone who can stop this war, stop the destruction and ruin and bring the hostages home already.

>>> Talia Danzig is the granddaughter of Alex Danzig z"l who was murdered in Hamas captivity. She also wrote these words in the book "Mr. Abandonment - The Legacy of the Abandoner of the Hostages", initiated by the Forum Chaim - Families for the Rescue of the Hostages link

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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