🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 343, 2023 - September 13, 2024 🎗️

  

🎗️Day 343 that 101 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 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

*6:15pm yesterday - north - rockets - Zra'it

*1:10am - north - rockets - Biria, Safed, Ramat Dalton, Dalton, Kerem Ben Zimra, Kadita, Jish, Acabra  rocket attack over Safed
*7:45am- north - rockets - Malkia
*7:55am - north - rockets - Malkia
*12:30pm - north - Misgav Am, Snir
*1:05pm- north - hostile aircraft - Rosh Pina, Safed, Nof Kinneret, Elippelet, Amiad, Vered Hagalil, Korazim
*2:20pm - North - Hostile aircraft - Arab al Aramsha, Shomera, Zra'it, Yiftach, Ramot Naftali, Mevo'ot Hermon, Lev hahula
*2:40pm - north- hostile aircraft - Lev Hahula, Mevo'ot Hermon
*2:50pm - north - rockets - Arab al Aramsha
*2:50pm - north - hostile aircraft - Arab al Aramsha

Hostage Updates 

• The parents of slain-Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin call on the public to keep protesting for a deal that will enable the release of the 101 hostages held captive by Hamas in Gaza.

  In a video published online, Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin wear masking tape on their shirts with the number “342” written on them, to signify the number of days that have passed since 251 hostages were abducted on October 7, 97 of whom are still in captivity.

  Hersh, along with Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat and Almog Sarusi, was executed in a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah late last month, and his body recovered by the IDF overnight on August 31.
  

  “We are still in mourning, but we are also in an emergency situation,” Jon starts. “We are speaking on our behalf, but also in the sweet memories of the precious souls of Hersh, Alex, Almog, Ori, Eden and Carmel.”

  “Their deaths could have and should have been avoided,” he says. “People in positions of power failed them and failed us as their families. No other family should experience what we are experiencing. We must continue to act to save the remaining 101.”

  Rachel takes over, reiterating her husband’s statement about an “emergency situation.”

  “We have people whose lives are hanging in the balance and we don’t want any other family to experience what we are currently experiencing, along with the precious other five that Jon mentioned,” she says.

  Addressing the many people she says have offered help in recent days, she asks them to: “Keep writing to the White House house, keep writing to the prime minister, keep wearing the tape, keep going out and advocating.”

  “We have to figure out a way to get these people home before it’s too late,” she says. “So please keep doing what you have been doing for all of these days. It’s day 342. Let’s get this to an end in the memory of those beautiful six.”  see their message here

• Anti-government protesters demanding a hostages and ceasefire deal begin blocking Tel Aviv’s Begin Street for a few minutes at a time, imploring drivers to get out of their cars and join the demonstration.

  “This is not just hostage families’ struggle, it’s the struggle of every citizen in a country that wants life,” says one megaphone-wielding protester to the drivers, some of whom honk sympathetically. She promises the drivers they’ll be able to pass soon, “with the hope that you’ll come back tomorrow and join us.”

  This is the 11th day of daily demonstrations on Begin Street. The protests were stepped up after the army last Sunday announced it recovered six executed hostages from Gaza.

  “We don’t want more funerals, [both] nations want to live,” chant the roughly 75 protesters currently gathered.

• Joining up with angry protesters, Hostages Forum says it seeks unity, but risks divide
  

  After murders of six hostages by Hamas captors in Gaza tunnel, Hostages Families Forum and smaller Begin protest group merge their Tel Aviv protests; a minority of families fume

  

  For the second week in a row, members of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum plan to merge the more sedate Saturday night protest it has held weekly at Hostages Square with the vociferously anti-government protests located a few blocks away at Tel Aviv’s Begin Road.

  The decision to merge the rallies a week ago was something of a watershed moment for the Forum, which says it has taken pains to stay apolitical throughout the last eleven months.

  The crowd that massed last Saturday night to protest for a hostage deal and a new government was the largest yet in nearly a year of weekly demonstrations demanding freedom for those kidnapped on October 7.

  With a current of anger and despair surging through Israeli society following the discovery of six hostages shot dead by their Hamas captors in a Gaza tunnel days earlier, many Israelis who may have previously avoided any of the rallies and protests of the previous months joined the throngs at Begin Road.

  Alongside them were members of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, who stood shoulder to shoulder with the more vehement Begin Road demonstrators yelling, blowing whistles, drumming, waving flags and signs, setting bonfires and roadblocks, and even clashing with the police.

  “We’re angrier,” said Gil Dickmann, the cousin of Carmel Gat, one of the six slain hostages whose bodies were found by the IDF on August 31 and brought back for burial. He pointed to what he described as the government’s decision to prioritize leaving the IDF in Gaza’s Philadelphi Corridor over a hostage deal last month as the point where his family turned against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

  Dickmann’s sister, Shay Dickmann, was one of the speakers at the merged Saturday rally, telling the crowd that “military pressure brought about [Carmel’s] death,” in direct pushback against the government’s claim that ongoing IDF pressure is an essential component in getting the hostages out.

  “My sister was sort of a symbol for hope, and she was trying to hold this hope for a very long time, but that’s when she broke, and people got that,” Dickmann told The Times of Israel earlier this week. “Half a million people felt the same way.”

  Dickmann and the other speakers stood on a podium erected at Begin Road as the Hostages Families Forum brought its familiar, more formal demonstration trappings from Hostages Square to the new location.

  But some families of hostages, particularly from the hawkish Tikva Forum group, are deeply unhappy about the merged protests, accusing the Hostage Families Forum of unifying with the Begin protesters who openly blame the government for October 7. They claim these protesters are harming the war effort and the chances of freeing the hostages by pressing Netanyahu rather than Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

  “The rallies play to the hands of Hamas,” said Nadav Miran, an active Tikva member whose brother Omri Miran was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz.

  “It’s like Sinwar is standing [approvingly] right there,” he told The Times of Israel, accusing all the protesters — the Begin protesters and the hostage-deal demonstrators — of serving Hamas by creating chaotic rifts in Israeli society. “The blood of my brother will be on your hands.”
  
  Evolution of the protests
  
  

  According to Ruby Chen, one of six hostage family representatives on the Forum’s steering committee, the decision to merge the Forum’s weekly Saturday night rally with the so-called Begin protesters, who have held parallel demonstrations outside Defense Ministry headquarters for many months, was aimed at widening their reach as far as possible.

  “We at the Forum headquarters and the Begin folks had a very long conversation about how it could all play out,” said Chen, whose son Itay Chen was killed on October 7, with his remains held hostage in Gaza since. “As much as possible, we wanted to have as many people as possible to support us; that’s why we moved it there.”

  Chen, a dual US citizen, has been an active voice in the Hostages Forum since October 7 when he first heard about the abduction of Itay, a soldier. He only learned in March that his son had been killed during the initial onslaught.

  
  Ruby Chen, left, father of Itay Chen, a soldier killed on October 7, 2023, and his body taken captive to Gaza (Courtesy: Hostages Forum)

  The Forum came together quickly in the days following the attack and is today a massive non-profit, run by the families and professional management, that has effectively become the official voice meant to represent the array of families of the 251 people taken hostage on October 7. (Ninety-seven of them remain captive, as well as four others held by Hamas for around a decade.)

  The Forum fundraises to send hostage families on foreign delegations, for housing and financial support for the families who stopped working in order to rally for their loved ones, and to pay the professional staff.

  Each hostage family is a member of the Forum and can vote on decisions made by the organization. Members of the forum declined to say if there was any dissent on the decision to join up with the Begin protests.

  “There’s a need to unite,” said Chen, who added that the range of families whose loved ones were taken hostage means the group has to make room for a wide spectrum of political views while being careful not to endorse any specific ideology.

  “The only way to keep us afloat and unified at the headquarters is that we do not do politics; that isn’t the intention,” he said.

  The Forum first began putting on rallies in the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attack, situating them at the plaza in front of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, now renamed Hostages Square.

  Meanwhile, large anti-government protests against plans to overhaul the judiciary that had become a regular feature for months on Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street — at an intersection near the front gate of the Defense Ministry compound — were halted, with activists instead pouring their energy into helping those affected by the attack and ensuing war.

  Almost immediately, some families of hostages began protesting and holding a vigil on Kaplan Street in front of the Defense Ministry’s gates nearest Hostages Square, seeing it as a more immediate location to voice their anguish and campaign for action to free their loved ones.

  Around the same time, the Hostages Forum set up its headquarters in an office building in the same neighborhood, between Kaplan Street, the Defense Ministry compound and Hostages Square.

  Avichai Brodutch, whose wife and three children were taken hostage from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, sat vigil with his dog in front of the Defense Ministry, as did Hadas Calderon, who begged for the release of two of her children, Sahar, 17, and Erez, 12.

  
  Shay Dickman (right) and her brother Gil Dickman, cousins of murdered hostage Carmel Gat, at the September 7 protest in Tel Aviv. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

  The Brodutchs and younger Calderon siblings were released during a November truce — Ofer Calderon, Hadas’s ex-husband, is still held hostage in Gaza — and other families of hostages took their places.

  Those families were replaced by other hostage families, who moved their station around the corner to Begin Road and the official entrance to the Defense Ministry. In the months since, there have been daily protests, with both anti-government activists and like-minded relatives of hostages demanding a deal and angrily calling for the ouster of Netanyahu and his hawkish government for, they say, “abandoning” their loved ones on October 7 and ever since.

  It’s a confusing, raucous mix of demonstrations and messaging.

  As hostage families have moved in and out of view of the media according to their circumstances, certain family members have taken center stage at Begin, including Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan Zangauker was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7.
  

  Zangauker, a single mother from Ofakim and a former Netanyahu voter, was mostly silent for the first months of her son’s captivity. By the winter, however, she had joined the then-small group at Begin, standing in the cold and rain, stopping traffic, making it clear that as a former Netanyahu voter, she no longer had any trust in the prime minister and considered that he had failed as the country’s leader.

  As the months passed, the numbers at Begin grew, and anger and frustration mounted.
  
  A watershed
  
  When the six hostages were killed, many of the remaining hostage families grew still more fearful that their loved ones could suffer the same fate, said Yotam Cohen, who is active at Begin in support of his brother, Nimrod Cohen, a soldier who was taken hostage.

  
  This combination of six undated photos shows hostages, from top left, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi; from bottom left, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Carmel Gat. (The Hostages Families Forum via AP)

  The rest of the Israeli public realized the same, said Cohen, who is often at Begin with his father, Yehuda Cohen.

  “So now there’s more shouting and it’s less polite than Hostages Square, and it’s what the Begin families have felt from the start,” he said. “It’s the same battle; it’s a kind of unity.”

  Cohen said some of the initial protesters at Begin were part of the anti-judicial overhaul crowd, and were using the location to continue their anti-government movement. As the war and hostage situation wore on, the number of protesters, supporting the call for a ceasefire and hostage deal, has grown, said Cohen.

  
  Two hostage parents, Einav Zangauker (second from right) and Yehuda Cohen (far right), at the protest on Tel Aviv’s Begin Road, September 7, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

  However, some see the new decision to merge the Hostage Families Forum rallies with Begin Street protests as proof that the group has joined hands with the activists who led massive demonstrations against the judicial overhaul centered around the corner on Kaplan Street.
  
  The Forum ‘became Kaplan’
  

  The Hostages Forum “became Kaplan,” said Tzivka Mor, who co-founded the Tikva Forum, made up of families who prefer Israel not strike a deal with Hamas, believing that the only way to save the hostages is via continued IDF pressure on the terror group.

  “Those running the Forum are those who ran Kaplan,” said Mor, naming political strategist Lior Chorev, and Dr. Haggai Levine, head of the Forum’s medical team. “It’s the politicization of the issue of the hostages.” He accused the forum of hiding its political agenda to avoid losing support.

  Professionals from the Forum have repeatedly stated that it includes people from all backgrounds and walks of life, with the singular goal of bringing the hostages home, and will never have a political agenda.

  
  Tzvika Mor in an undated photo with his son Eitan, who is being held captive by Hamas in Gaza. (Courtesy)

  Father-of-eight Mor, an ADHD therapist, lives with his family in Kiryat Arba, a Jewish settlement on the outskirts of Hebron in the West Bank. He contends that the anti-government rallies endanger the lives of the hostages, including his eldest son Eitan, a security guard taken hostage from the Nova festival after helping save partygoers on the afternoon of October 7.

  Like other relatives of hostages, Mor isn’t happy with Netanyahu, commenting that the prime minister isn’t doing enough to solve the ongoing war and hostage situation, but advocating a more bellicose position than many others.

  “I don’t know why,” said Mor of Netanyahu. “It could be he’s scared. He’s acting like Hamas is a Western country. Israel has to be Western when it comes to our economy and education and industry and infrastructure, but when it comes to terror, we have to be as barbaric and cruel as they are, to save [Israeli] lives.”

  And he still belongs to the larger Hostages Forum, because he wants to stay in touch with the rest of the families.

  “It’s for my son, too,” he said.

  There are about 30 families in the Tikva group, said Nadav Miran, though his father Dani Miran, who supports a deal and spoke at a merged Hostages Forum protest in Jerusalem on Saturday night, is not among them.

  
  The Miran family; Omri, second from right, is held hostage in Gaza. His brother, Nadav, second from left, disagrees with their father (far left), as to the best way to get the hostages home. (Courtesy)

  “It’s not difficult for us because we honor one another’s opinion,” said Nadav Miran of himself and his father. “It’s completely different from what’s happening here in Israel. We accept that we can each believe something else and we have the same goal, to bring Omri and the others home. Honestly, if the government decided to go my father’s way, I’d accept it.”

  Some of the hostage families have remained quiet throughout the last 11 months, unable to find the words to speak with the media, preferring to pray and keep their anguished thoughts to themselves.

  One of those families is the Daninos. Ori Danino, an off-duty paratrooper, was taken hostage at the Nova festival and killed by his captors with the five other hostages in late July.

  
  Rabbi Elhanan Danino, father of slain hostage Ori Danino, speaks at an event in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, September 10, 2024. (Paulina Patimer/Hostage Families Forum)

  Danino’s father, Rabbi Elhanan Danino, became the center of media attention this week after a tape was broadcast of him castigating Netanyahu when the prime minister paid a shiva call at their Jerusalem home.

  On Tuesday, Danino appeared at an apolitical rally in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square. Appealing for unity, he said that the fringes of society must not be allowed to divide the “mostly connected, loving, and united” public.

  “All of Israel are brothers. We may wear different clothes, but we all came from the same father and the same mother,” he said. “Let us not allow anyone to divide us.” link

• The video that shocked the nation: IDF footage of hostage tunnel divides Israel 
  IDF releases chilling footage of Hamas hostage tunnel, reigniting debate over Israel's response and dividing the nation on how to proceed.

  
  IDF Spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari in tunnels in Gaza where six hostages were found, in video released by the IDF. September 10, 2024
  
  

  A nation emotionally drained after 11 months of war and the constant drumbeat of tragic news was confronted with another heart-wrenching revelation on Tuesday when IDF Spokesman R-Adm. Daniel Hagari showed chilling images of the Gaza tunnel where Hamas executed six hostages last month.

  The three-minute video clip showed Hagari descending from a children’s room with brightly colored walls and paintings of Snow White and Mickey Mouse in the Tel Al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah, 20 meters into the hell where Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alex Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Ori Danino were held and murdered.

  “Here is the place in the tunnel where the hostages were murdered,” Hagari said in his unemotional monotone. “Here you see their blood on the floor. Here were the last moments of Hersh, Eden, Carmel, Ori, Almog, and Alex. Here they were brutally murdered. We will learn what happened here. We need to learn very well what happened here.
  

  “It is very hard to survive here,” Hagari continued. “They were heroes, heroes who were killed in cold blood by murderous terrorists who build tunnels under the rooms of children and hide in them with hostages.”

  Hagari showed the horrific conditions in which the hostages were held – the low ceiling that made it impossible to stand upright, the cesspool, the bottles of urine, and the lack of ventilation. He spoke of the extreme humidity. He picked up a broken hairbrush, a chess set, a flashlight, AK-47 magazines, and a bullet casing. Amid it all, was also a copy of the Koran.

  
  The tunnel in Rafah, Gaza Strip, where six hostages were murdered by Hamas. September 10, 2024. (credit: Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

  An empathetic nation watched that video and felt the suffocating heat, smelled the stench, sensed the fear, and heard the cries. As the nation watched the horrific images being broadcast during the 8 p.m. news slot, the October 7 anger welled up again, and the rage again boiled over.

  BUT THE anger and rage were directed in different directions. As the harrowing images gripped the nation, a divide over how to respond quickly resurfaced.
  
  Anger directed at the PM 
  

  Some directed their anger toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, arguing that if Israel had not stubbornly demanded that it remain in the Philadelphi Corridor, just a short distance from this tunnel, then the hostages would not have been murdered.

  They directed their anger at Netanyahu and the government for not jumping at what they believed was a deal at hand. Their conclusion: to prevent the same horrific fate from befalling the remaining hostages, make a deal now.

  Those making this argument are going on the assumption – one by no means clear – that such a deal is to be had and that Hamas, which has just upped its demands by adding more names to the list of terrorist murderers it wants to be released, is interested in a negotiated arrangement.
  

  Others, however, directed their anger at Hamas. They highlighted the terrorist organization’s brutality, so evident in the clip, and saw the video as justification for not striking a deal with Hamas, but, rather, using harsher measures against the terrorist organization, including ending the supply of humanitarian aid.

  If this is how Hamas behaves, Yediot Aharonot journalist Amichai Attali wrote, articulating this school of thought, then Israel should halt all but essential humanitarian aid – water and flour – to Gaza.

  A nation deeply divided over how to free the hostages – by an agreement that would include giving in to some of Hamas’s demands or by continued military pressure – viewed the same grisly video and came to opposite conclusions.
  

  Those in favor of a hostage deal under almost any circumstances saw the video and used it to support their argument about why such an agreement is needed immediately.

  The video, they said, just shows how horribly the hostages are suffering, and that everything needs to be done to reach a negotiated agreement, free them, and relieve them of that torture.

  Those opposed to letting Hamas dictate the terms of a deal and believing that only more military pressure would ultimately free the hostages saw the video as support for their position: how could a deal be made with terrorists who executed six starving hostages in cold blood after holding them in inhuman conditions for nearly a year?

  Each side in this devil’s dilemma found support for its positions in this video, which – before it was made public – was shown to the hostages’ families and the security cabinet.

  THE IDF has endless footage from Gaza and reams of documents and seas worth of information that it has accumulated over the last 11 months. It decides what to make public and when. 
  
  Behind the IDF's decision
  

  This raises the question: why did the IDF decide to release this video – such a demoralizing video – at this particular time?

  Here, too – in lieu of any definitive answer from the IDF – the answer is very much in the eye of the beholder.

  Some believe that the IDF merely wanted to reflect reality, to illustrate in a straightforward way to the public the difficult conditions the hostages were held in and the cruelty of their captors.

  
  Dan Goldfus, a rising star in the IDF, is seen inspecting a Hamas terrorist tunnel in east Jabalya, northern Gaza. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

  Others feel that the IDF wanted to show these savage conditions to the security cabinet and then to the public so that it would push the government and Netanyahu harder to consent to an agreement with Hamas.

  If a few hundred thousand people on the streets can’t move the government, this argument runs, then perhaps seeing up close the inhuman conditions will convince it and Netanyahu to compromise on their redlines and make a deal.

  The idea that the IDF released this video now to press the government to agree to a deal is strengthened by the fact that senior security and IDF officials, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, have come out – contrary to Netanyahu and the government’s position – in favor of a deal even if it means withdrawing from the Philadelphi Corridor.

  HAGARI, AT the press conference where the video was first aired, said that the video was distributed in English and that he briefed the international media. The reasoning he gave for doing this was “so that the whole world will see Hamas’s evil and know how they are cruelly treating the hostages.”

  In other words, the video is a weapon in the ongoing war over world public opinion. The international media extensively covered the footage. But the question is: will it make a difference in what the world thinks?

  For instance, the international community’s response to the publication of the video has largely been muted, with only limited official statements from global leaders and organizations.

  Moreover, human rights organizations, typically and predictably, were also silent, with neither Amnesty International nor Human Rights Watch weighing in on the revelation.

  Ironically, the last communiqué that Amnesty International put out about the war was on September 5, when it said that the Israeli military must be investigated for the war crime of “wanton destruction in Gaza,” saying that the IDF has used “bulldozers and laid explosives to unlawfully destroy agricultural land and civilian buildings, razing entire neighborhoods, including homes, schools, and mosques.”

  What the communiqué does not mention, of course, is that, often, homes, schools, and mosques in Gaza are built over hidden tunnels 20 meters underneath, where hostages are hidden and executed.

  Despite the ample evidence of Hamas’s cruelty from October 7 that the world has seen and been exposed to, US campuses still ring with calls of “Israel is committing genocide,” and the UK has recently banned the sale of certain weapon parts to Israel.

  Additional evidence of Hamas’s murderous brutality cannot be expected to tip the scales. The world knows who and what Hamas is, but for a variety of reasons part of the world chooses to simply not care. It’s not that these people don’t see; they see but draw false conclusions. This is what Israel’s public diplomacy apparatus is up against.

  “If only Israel had better hasbara,” runs a very familiar argument, if it only had a better public diplomacy directorate, better spokespeople, and sharper talking points, then the current wave of anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism would not be washing up on everyone’s shores.

  And while the country certainly needs better hasbara, while it desperately needs bigger budgets for public diplomacy, to blame all the anti-Israel feelings on the premise that Israel’s message is just not getting across is simplistic.

  This video is powerful. It is being distributed, at least, in English (it should also be distributed in Arabic, French, Spanish, Russian, and Farsi). Some people will see it, see the enemy Israel is facing, and understand what the country is doing, why it is doing it, and who the enemy is.

  Others will see it and still blame Israel.

  It is wise that Hagari briefed the foreign press and distributed this video. It is good that this footage is making the rounds around the world. Yet it is not a game changer; it will not change many minds. No one should build up false expectations of its impact, at least overseas.

  At home, on the other hand, the video shocked the nation. However, reflecting the deep divide within the country over the issue, people took the shock and used it to justify their preexisting positions.

  Those who say Israel must show more flexibility with Hamas used it to show why the government must reach an agreement with the hostages, and those waving the flag of “absolute victory” used it to reveal the face of the enemy and why the country cannot agree to any arrangement that would allow this type of organization to remain in place or give it any chance of regrouping. link
  
  

• Family of kidnapped soldier Matan Engel to release video of him from captivity

  The Hostages' Families Headquarters announced that tomorrow, at a demonstration in support of a deal, Anat Engel, mother of kidnapped soldier Matan, will reveal an audio clip in which her son is heard appealing to Prime Minister Netanyahu from captivity, asking to be saved. The audio clip is part of a video that was located in the Gaza Strip several months ago and has not yet been publicly disclosed by the family. The video is the first sign of life from Matan since he was kidnapped, and tomorrow will be the first time it is publicly heard.

  This news item discusses a sensitive situation involving a kidnapped soldier and his family's efforts to secure his release. If you need any clarification or have questions about the translation, please let me know.

  
  
  
  

• 'Never have I seen a person so terrified': Family releases video of Evyatar David being kidnapped

  Family members of hostage Evyatar David released videos showing his terror after his abduction on October 7, highlighting his distress.

  
  Hostage Evyatar David looking at his captors while handcuffed on the floor in a dark room somewhere in Gaza.

  Family members of the hostage Evyatar David released a video of David received from Hamas shortly after he was taken hostage on October 7, N12 reported on Friday.

  "Never have I seen a person so terrified," N12 quoted David's family saying. The family noted they had expected an execution video rather than a video confirming he was taken hostage.

  The video begins by showing David, wearing a torn shirt, being hit by a gun's stock while his arms are handcuffed and behind his back on a pick-up truck, presumably inside the Gaza Strip.

  While David's face is only half visible, "the terror is felt in every second," his family captioned the video.  Video of David taken and beaten by Hamas

  Shortly after October 7, when David was still considered missing, Yaella, David's sister, received a message with an image where David's terror is seen, and confirming he was taken hostage.

  The video mentions that Yaella received two additional videos after the image. In the first video, David is seen with hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal and other young Israeli captives, all on the floor of a dark room with their hands cuffed behind their backs."

  
  
  

  'Expected to see an execution'

  In the second video filmed by Hamas that Yaella received, David, still wearing the same torn shirt, is seen being dragged in a headlock through one of Gaza's streets "with the same look of terror," his family stated.

  Yaella further emphasized she had "expected to see an execution, never have I imagined he would be taken hostage."

  David's brother, Ilay, added to Yaella's description of David's fear, emphasizing he has never seen someone as terrified as David is seen in the video. Both siblings expressed their hopes for his safe return, saying they "always imagine the moment Evyatar returns and hugs our parents. We will wait however long we must wait."

  They further stated they were certain their brother was still alive and that he would return, stating, "This is the only solution." link

Gaza 

• Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar recently sent a letter to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah expressing appreciation for the Iran-backed terror group’s support throughout the war, Lebanese media reports.

  In the letter, published by the pro-Hezbollah al-Mayadeen daily, Sinwar thanks Nasrallah for his condolences after Ismail Haniyeh, the previous leader of Hamas was killed in Tehran in July, in an attack blamed on Israel.

  Sinwar vows that the “blessed convoys of martyrs will increase in strength and power in confronting the Nazi Zionist occupation.”

  He vows to continue fighting “the Zionist project” alongside the Iranian-led axis of resistance, “until the occupation is defeated and swept away from our land, and our independent state with full sovereignty is established with Jerusalem as its capital.”

• **Hamas in Distress? Gaza's Reconstruction, Recruitment of New Operatives, and Execution of Thieves**
  
  
  The document presented by the Defense Minister indicates that Hamas is in distress, yet in reality, it still adheres to its demands for a deal and holds 101 hostages. Despite the difficulties, the terrorist organization is deepening its roots in Khan Yunis and the northern Gaza Strip, and continues to pay salaries to its operatives. The images reveal how the terror group’s informant network operates against "collaborators." 

  

  
  Despite the heavy military pressure, the terror organization continues to control the Strip, with no visible alternative for the day after. Amidst the intense fighting, Hamas is rebuilding its capabilities, paying its operatives, and taking action against thieves and "collaborators." The document published by Defense Minister Gallant, which claims Hamas is in distress, largely reflects the organization’s state, but the reality is far more complex.
  
  
  **Hamas Demonstrates Governance in the Gaza Strip**
  
  
  The terrorist organization continues its guerrilla warfare, operating from command and control complexes disguised as civilian institutions, such as schools and hospitals, which are located within the heart of the population. Hamas is recruiting new operatives, primarily young people, members of crime families, and clans who collect taxes, work to stabilize "public order," and receive salaries in return. Hamas is rebuilding mainly in areas where the IDF is not currently operating, including Khan Yunis, the Mawasi region, and northern Gaza. Additionally, it has returned to Shifa Hospital, the prominent symbol of Gaza, where terror tunnels were exposed and hostages were held.
  
  
  Despite the document indicating distress, in Gaza City, it is still echoed that the organization allegedly provides basic services to residents, such as garbage collection and infrastructure repairs. This is likely an attempt by Hamas to signal that it is "here to stay," without any apparent alternative governance in sight.
  
  
  To ensure its survival, Hamas continues to cynically exploit Gaza's residents, skimming at least 18% of the profits from humanitarian aid brought into Gaza. According to estimates in Israel, this has accumulated to revenues estimated at half a billion dollars.
  
  
  **Hamas' Informant Network and the Execution of Collaborators**
  
  
  Hamas operates brutally to instill fear among the Gazan population. It executes thieves or those suspected of collaborating with Israel in the streets, as well as anyone attempting to display power. Recent footage shared on Palestinian social media shows a Hamas militant shooting a resident who looted food from warehouses "to feed his children." How does it work? Hamas has established a platform called "Catch the Collaborator," which has turned into a kind of informant network. With the click of a button on social media, residents can report any thief or anyone suspected of being a collaborator. The terror organization publishes their details publicly and calls on anyone who recognizes them to report them.
  
  
  For example, the details of Mohammed Kiki were published, describing him as someone who robbed stores and homes, including a clothing store and an electronics store. In another post, Mansour Abadin was presented as a "veteran thief who uses hashish and drugs." He was accused of stealing weapons from the terror organization, motorcycles, and more.
  
  
  "In the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Strip, Hamas has established an interrogation center," said a source in Gaza in a conversation with N12. "The organization's leaders fled there and are hiding; they have police, internal security, and operatives of the military wing."
  
  
  **The Gazan Public Focused on Survival**
  
  
  Nearly a year has passed since the war began—the Gazan public understands that there is no governmental alternative to Hamas, feels deterred, and is focused on daily survival. It is evident that the public in the Strip feels frustration with the situation and understands that the chance for a deal that would bring an end to the war has significantly diminished, yet in reality, no public demonstrations have taken place since February. The hope that the Palestinian Authority would take action has faded, and the prevailing sentiment in Gaza is that no one is expected to step into Hamas' shoes anytime soon.
  
  
  
  
• IDF declares Hamas’s Rafah Brigade defeated; no active cross-border tunnels found
  

  The Hamas terror group’s Rafah Brigade has been decimated, at least 2,308 of its operatives have been killed by the Israel Defense Forces, and over 13 kilometers worth of tunnels have been destroyed, military officials tell reporters in the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city.

  “The Rafah Brigade has been defeated,” Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen, the general in charge of the offensive in the city, tells reporters from the Philadelphi Corridor. “Their four battalions have been destroyed, and we have completed operational control over the entire urban area.”

  Cohen, who commands the IDF’s 162nd Division, says that his combat engineering forces located 203 separate, but interconnected, tunnels in the Philadelphi Corridor, stretching from the Egypt border to about 300 meters away on the outskirts of the city of Rafah.

  “Most of them we have destroyed,” the general said. “We are operating at the other sites to investigate them, and when we will finish investigating, they will be destroyed.”

  Out of the 203 tunnels, Cohen confirms that the IDF had so far located a total of nine that had crossed into Egypt, but every single one had been blocked up previously, either by Egyptian authorities or Hamas themselves.

  “There are a total of nine underground sites [tunnels] that cross into Egyptian territory, but they have collapsed, they are not usable, they are not active,” he says.  Link

• Two Hamas terrorists who participated in the October 7 onslaught, one of whom was involved in guarding a former slain hostage, were killed in recent airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, the IDF says.
  

  Last Wednesday, Abdullah Abu Riala, a member of Hamas’s Shati Battalion in Gaza City was killed in a drone strike.

  The IDF says Abu Riala participated in the October 7 massacre and was later among those responsible for guarding Cpl. Noa Marciano in Gaza. Marciano, who was abducted on October 7, was later killed by Hamas at Shifa Hospital.

  Her body was recovered by the IDF in November.

  A separate drone strike killed Ayman Khaled Ahmed Abu al-Yahni, who the IDF says was a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force and was involved in attacking the Erez Crossing during the October 7 onslaught.

• The British Jewish newspaper the Jewish Chronicle says it is investigating one of its freelance writers amid allegations that he fabricated claims regarding the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

  Earlier this month, the outlet published an article by writer Elon Perry in which he alleged that a document had been uncovered in Gaza proving that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning to smuggle himself and some of the remaining Israeli hostages kidnapped on October 7, out of Gaza via the Philadelphi Corridor and from there to Iran.

  However, the IDF said it was unaware of any such document actually existing, and as the claim was similar to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent talking points, some have speculated that false information was being distributed as part of a disinformation campaign.

  In a statement, the Jewish Chronicle says it is “aware of allegations concerning a freelance journalist, which we take very seriously.”

  ‘The Jewish Chronicle is the oldest Jewish newspaper in the world and has always maintained the highest standards of reporting and integrity. An investigation is underway and there will be an update in due course,” it adds.

  Left-wing online news outlet +972 Magazine reports that there are also doubts surrounding the veracity of Perry’s claims regarding his career.

  Perry states on his own website that he served as a commando soldier during Operation Entebbe, and that he was a professor at Tel Aviv University for 15 years — yet according to the +972, there are no records of him having done either of these things.  link Some might consider this a conspiracy theory that this false information was distributed by the Prime Minister's office, but it has all the signs of things that they have done before to justify claims by Netanyahu or his wife that have no basis in fact. This sounds to be another of those situations. Netanyahu has been stressing the the Philadelphi route is critical for the welfare of Israel to be held onto by the army but the army and the rest of the security operations and their heads have said that it is totally unnecessary and should not be the hold up to a hostage deal, which Netanyahu has been doing. The distribution of the false information about Sinwar and smuggling the hostages is most like the fruit of that poisonous tree.

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria

• 40 more rockets fired at north from Lebanon, total for day tops, total for day tops 100
  Another 40 more rockets were launched from Lebanon at northern Israel this evening, bringing the total today to over 100.

  The IDF says that some 30 rockets were launched at the Arab al-Aramshe area, and another 10 were fired at Matat.

  Many of the rockets struck open areas, although some impacted Matat. There were no injuries in the attacks.

  Meanwhile, fighter jets struck Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon’s Khraibeh, as well as a rocket launcher in Ayta ash-Shab, and buildings used by the terror group in Houla, Ayta ash-Shab and Marwahin, the IDF says.

  
  

• Hamas’s Lebanon branch claims responsibility for the barrage of some 30 rockets on the Western Galilee earlier this afternoon. Over 100 rockets today  

  The terror group claims to have targeted a military base in the area. There were no injuries in the attack.

  Hezbollah, meanwhile, takes responsibility for other rocket barrages and an anti-tank missile attack today, the latter of which seriously wounded an IDF reservist.

• Israeli fighter jets struck several buildings used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Aitaroun, Marimin, and Chihne, the IDF says.

  A Hezbollah rocket launcher in Zibqin, used in a previous attack on northern Israel, was destroyed in a drone strike, the military adds.

• Hezbollah takes responsibility for an early morning barrage of rockets fired toward the northern city of Safed.

  The Iran-backed terror group says it targeted an air defense base 12 kilometers from the border with Katyusha rockets in revenge for an Israeli attack in Kafr Joz, according to a statement.

  The Israel Defense Forces said earlier a barrage of some 20 projectiles was fired toward Safed, adding that most were intercepted or fell in open areas.  Rocket attack over Safed

West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel

•     Three senior terror operatives were killed in an Israeli drone strike in the West Bank city of Tulkarem last night, the IDF and Shin Bet say.

  The military says the strike targeted a group of gunmen who were driving in a car.

  The Shin Bet identifies the dead as Mohammed Abu Attia, Imad Shahdeh, and Saleh al-Badu, all top members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad behind recent shooting and explosive attacks.

  Abu Attia is also suspected of killing Border Police officer Master Sgt. Maxim Razinkov during a raid in the Nur Shams refugee camp in October, the joint IDF and Shin Bet statement adds.  video of the attack

• **IDF Update: 3 terrorists eliminated from the air - including the Islamic Jihad commander in Nur al-Shams and an individual involved in the explosion that killed undercover officer Maxim Rizhkov**

  The IDF spokesman announced that in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet yesterday, as part of the operation in northern Samaria, an aircraft struck a cell of terrorists from the terror infrastructure in Nur al-Shams who were traveling in a vehicle while armed.

  The eliminated individuals, Muhammad Abu Atiya, Imad Shahadeh, and Salah al-Badu - senior terrorists affiliated with Islamic Jihad, were involved in shooting attacks, planting explosives, dispatching terrorists, and preparing plans for terrorist activities against Israeli settlements and security forces. Additionally, the terrorist Muhammad Abu Atiya is suspected of killing the Yamam fighter, Staff Sergeant Maxim Rizhkov, on October 19th.

  This news item discusses military operations and counter-terrorism activities. The content involves sensitive topics related to ongoing conflict. If you need any clarification or have questions about the translation, please let me know.

Politics and the War (general news)

•  Israel’s 12th prime minister and a former Palestinian foreign minister have agreed to work together for peace, for whatever that’s worth.
  And yet, Israel’s 12th prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and a former Palestinian foreign minister, Dr Nasser Alkidwa, have gone public with a joint initiative for peace. The pair “agreed to work together”, says a document dated 17th July that both co-signed, “to promote the achievement of peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples and peace in the Middle East in general through an agreement… on the basis of 1967 borders”.
  The intervention had been months in the making. Baskin originally approached Olmert before 7th October. He asked him whether it would be possible to close the gap between him and Abbas from all those years ago.
  Baskin approached him, he told me, because Olmert is the Israeli leader who has come closest to peace with the Palestinians. If they could find a Palestinian partner, an agreement between them wouldn’t change reality, necessarily, but it could give Israelis and Palestinians something they desperately need: “a belief that this conflict can be resolved.”
  With Olmert on board, Sinjilawi and Baskin brainstormed ideas for a Palestinian counterpart. Alkidwa, nephew of Yasser Arafat, a former foreign minister and permanent observer at the UN, seemed right. He was legitimate, respected, not corrupt, and probably brave enough to do it. The pair “hit it off”, says Baskin. The article in Prospect --This article is very important to read and can help both sides find the path to the very elusive peace

• The Police Investigation on the Nova Massacre – and the Correspondences Days Before the Attack

  The Chief of Staff of the Southern Command, who still holds his position today, wrote to a senior police officer two and a half days before the massacre: "There's nothing, everything is quiet." However, on October 7, the military did not grasp the magnitude of the event for hours. Southern District police officers responsible for securing the Nova party quickly called for military reinforcements—but they simply did not arrive. Even the Air Force Commander learned about the party only at 16:30. A series of conversations reveals the chaos that prevailed in the military.

  It’s hard to believe this screenshot is real: On October 4, 2023, Wednesday—two and a half days before the massacre—none other than the Chief of Staff of the Southern Command sent the following messages to the Deputy Commander regarding the two weeks leading up to the massacre.

  "There's nothing, brother" "Everything is quiet" "Absolutely nothing"

  
  The intelligence officer of the Southern District in the police wrote in his testimony: "I was in constant contact with Shin Bet agents when I did not receive any terrorist alerts regarding Gaza." Even on October 7, for long hours, the military simply did not understand the scale of the event. The Southern District police officers responsible for securing the Nova party hurried to call for military reinforcements that simply did not arrive—even when they realized that only combat helicopters could save the situation.

  Here’s how it unfolded:

  • 09:30 – Officers in the fortress (the police command center) contact Southern Command and say: "We need combat helicopters."

  • 09:36 – Fortress officers reach out to the Northern Brigade command center; the response: "669 is on the way, the combat helicopter is attacking elsewhere."

  • 09:42 – Fortress officers update Southern Command that the police checkpoint has been breached by terrorists. "We need combat helicopters," they write.

  • 09:48 – The fortress commander speaks directly with the combat helicopter control room and learns that the helicopter is in Ofakim.

  • 09:52 – The fortress commander calls the Air Force control bunker via the red phone—demanding the arrival of combat helicopters.

  • 10:28 – Fortress officers call Southern Command again, asking about the combat helicopters.

  • 10:31 – Southern Command updates: "Combat helicopter is en route to the Re'im parking lot."

  • 10:47 – Southern Command requests a contact person for the combat helicopter, and the fortress directs them to an officer from the Yoav unit on the ground—but for long hours, the combat helicopter did not arrive.

  The Negev District Police: "There's nothing, brother, everything is quiet, absolutely nothing." If you were wondering, he still holds this position today. This evening (Thursday), we are publishing the police investigation on the Nova party massacre. These conversations highlight the significant chaos that prevailed in the Air Force on October 7. Yesterday, it was revealed on the "Real Time" program that the Air Force Commander, Major General Tomer Bar, only learned about the Nova party at 16:30. According to the police investigation, his subordinates were aware of the event hours before him, did not accurately assess its significance, and failed to escalate it upwards. The findings of the Southern District's investigation explicitly state: "There was no prior intelligence information about the event, neither criminal nor in terms of terrorism." Furthermore, they claim—without IDF approval, the event would not have taken place. link

• Netanyahu is Still Working to Expand the Government – One Minister Stands in His Way

  The Prime Minister has decided to stick with Ben Gvir and Smotrich at all costs, but the defense establishment warns that some of the steps being taken could ignite tensions on the ground. Why does Netanyahu still want to expand the government, and what is standing in his way? Daphna Liel delves into the political headache amidst the ongoing war.

  Nearly a year has passed since October 7, and there is still no clear strategy for the release of hostages, ending the fighting in Gaza, returning northern residents to their homes, or preventing escalation in the West Bank. However, there is a political strategy aimed at prolonging Netanyahu’s tenure—but it could plunge Israel into a dangerous spiral.

  Let’s start with the basics: A Channel 12 News poll from last week shows that Netanyahu currently has no chance of winning an election. If Naftali Bennett decides to run, the coalition he attempts to form could reach 64 seats without Ra'am, and even if Bennett does not join, the existing parties win 61 seats, also without Ra'am. Of course, these are just polls, and there are no elections in sight, but still, Netanyahu’s bloc has been hovering between 46 to 49 seats since the beginning of the war, far from securing an election victory. If it strengthens, it might be able to form a blocking bloc and trigger another round of elections. Therefore, Netanyahu is doing everything possible to avoid elections.

  How does one survive? Let's break it down:

  The ultra-Orthodox parties are not likely to dismantle Netanyahu’s government so quickly. While they are threatening to do so over the draft law if an agreed-upon version is not reached before the holidays, Netanyahu is not rushing to be impressed. The ultra-Orthodox voters support Netanyahu and believe that no other government can deliver what they need. The tougher nuts to crack are ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir. Even though there are no good alternatives outside the coalition, they are risking their presence in the government, as their reputations are on the line. Humanitarian aid in Gaza, the lack of security in the north, and the sense of personal insecurity have long been associated with their names.

  In the past, when Benny Gantz was part of the government, Smotrich and Ben Gvir could easily distinguish themselves from Netanyahu. They could criticize him from the sidelines, while Netanyahu was portrayed as a leftist aligned with the military, Defense Minister Yoav Galant, and the national camp. But since Benny Gantz's departure, Netanyahu has adopted a new strategy: a bear hug for Ben Gvir and Smotrich. He clings to them so closely that they are almost a single entity. He doesn’t wait to hear what they have to say and tries to preempt their thoughts and actions. Just this week, for example, the Prime Minister justified Minister Orit Strook’s demand to restrict Palestinian movement in the West Bank and supported Minister Smotrich, who was angry at the IDF Chief of Staff for not implementing government decisions to impose sanctions on senior Palestinian Authority officials. The IDF, as we know, warns that such actions could ignite tensions on the ground, especially during the most sensitive time—before the holidays.

  On the terrible day when social networks were abuzz with rumors of the execution of hostages, Netanyahu chose to issue an official statement denying reports of a vaccination campaign in Gaza that would harm the fighting efforts. Of course, all of this is before even discussing the adoption of Ben Gvir and Smotrich's red lines on the hostage deal, as revealed in a publication by Ronen Bergman, and the entrenchment in Gaza. Why is all this happening? There are two main reasons. First, to prevent Smotrich and Ben Gvir from leaving. Netanyahu knows they are currently veto players, and every decision he makes is tied to their names. If he pushes too hard, he may force them to leave, and they have already shown their seriousness by sending him to the opposition and rejecting the idea of relying on Ra'am to form a minority government. Second, to prevent them from outflanking him on the right and strengthening at his expense. As long as they do not gain traction in the polls, they have no interest in going to elections.

  Politically, Netanyahu's strategy is proving effective:

  His coalition is relatively stable. Smotrich has been polling below the electoral threshold for months, and even Ben Gvir is struggling to rise as Netanyahu takes on the role of "Ben Gvir." The problem is, of course, that the two ministers will not easily relinquish their positions: if Netanyahu begins to encroach on their territory, they will move even further to the right. A prominent example is Ben Gvir's declaration that he has changed (already changed, not will change in the future) the status quo on the Temple Mount. Just like that, without any coordination, with all the implications for Israel’s delicate relations with its regional allies. The competition over who is more extreme has so far been between Ben Gvir and Smotrich, and now Netanyahu is joining them. This competition could drag Israel into very problematic areas: as it becomes more entrenched in the Strip, it also assumes responsibility for its situation, and without a clear strategy, a multi-front war could be upon us at a very inconvenient time.

  This is why Netanyahu still wants to expand the government. Bringing Gideon Sa'ar on board could provide stability almost until the end of the term and weaken the relative power of Ben Gvir and Smotrich. However, Sa'ar wants to see a political horizon, and for that, Netanyahu needs to resolve the draft and budget entanglements. This is not easy: the one standing in his way is Galant, who does not support the unilateral solutions that the ultra-Orthodox have developed among themselves. This gives Netanyahu yet another incentive to remove Galant—beyond the perception that Galant is "not loyal," his removal would solve a significant political headache. The only problem is reality: removing the Defense Minister when the security situation is boiling is a risky and irresponsible gamble, so Netanyahu will try to offer Sa'ar a different position. This will require a lot of political creativity, but if there’s anyone for whom this is a specialty—it's Netanyahu. link

The Region and the World

•    The US has approved $165 million in weapons sales to Israel to fund heavy-duty tank trailers, the State Department announced Thursday.

  The systems include spare and repair parts, tool kits and technical and logistics support. They are not expected to be delivered until 2027.

  Earlier this year, the US announced a mammoth $20 billion weapons support package for Israel to include F-15 fighter jets. Like the tank trailers, those systems will not be delivered for several years and will not affect current Israeli military operations amid the 11-month-old war with Hamas in Gaza, which was sparked by the terror group’s October 7 onslaught in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 hostages were taken. full article

Personal Stories

  "Noa tearfully spoke about her army assignment, and I felt like I got punched in the stomach." How long will September 2024 last? That’s the question being asked in countless homes across Israel, just before enlistment—and just after the extension of mandatory military service. Parents are sending their children, with heavy hearts, toward Gaza (or into the unknown), filled with worry and criticism of the state: "The disappointment is immense, a feeling of shame." Three families provided us a glimpse into the turmoil and disagreements before the IDF induction center. "In the end, we enlist as kids," reminds Omer Ben Elchanan, a 19-year-old from Tel Aviv, of what should be obvious. "I still feel like a kid." In about two weeks, he is due to enlist, although he could have been in uniform as early as March. "I never imagined in any way that this would be the situation I would enlist into," he admits, with the end of the war on its various fronts nowhere in sight.

It seems that in the history of compulsory service, there have never been, and maybe never will be, drafts like those who have marched to the induction center in the past year. The phrase "How long will September 24’ last?" has never been more relevant. But it's not just the duration of the service—which, for the first time in many years, is being extended rather than shortened—that is on the table. Military service, and it is now clear to all, will not look like what we’ve known for years to come. Its structure and nature will change with the continuation of the war and the escalation and sophistication of threats against Israel. How exactly? No one knows for sure. Those who must bear the brunt of all the changes now occurring in the military service structure are, of course, the recruits themselves, 18- and 19-year-olds starting their path in an army fundamentally different from the one that recruits just a year older enlisted into, and, of course, their parents as well. Both groups now step into the unknown. In thousands of Israeli families with fresh recruits, they try as much as possible to clear the fog, figure out how to proceed—and, in the Israeli way, sometimes even argue about what's next. Three families agreed to share with us their living room conversations, their fears, their feelings, and their hopes.

The Ben Elchanan Family: "We were in a storm of emotions." "Only a year ago, I finished high school and was a counselor in Bnei Akiva, and here I am, jumping from a very sweet and gentle event to a necessary and important one that is very hard and forceful. But this year, especially under the shadow of the war, everything became clearer," shares Omer about his feelings. "All perceptions change and shift. Today, I understand better what I have to fight for and why I am expected to dedicate at least seven years of my life. I am fighting for the peace of the people and citizens, and for the safety of the Jewish and democratic state we have built here."

If Omer had enlisted in March, he would have been an armored corps soldier. Due to the manpower shortage caused by the war, the IDF turned to the most readily available personnel they had—the pre-military academy cadets. As a cadet himself, Ben Elchanan was initially included among those recruits, but he was then assigned to the special "Erez" track that the IDF inaugurated just a year ago: a long and prestigious track that trains the next generation of officers and includes an officers' course, which the recruit is obligated to complete, committing to many years of permanent service. Thus, Ben Elchanan’s enlistment was postponed again to its original date, which is rapidly approaching.

"The issue with Gaza was really surprising. But my father has been involved in state security for many years and does a lot of reserve duty. He prepared me for the Lebanese event for a long time," Ben Elchanan recounts, declaring: "The war is both a wake-up call and a slap in the face, and I hope everyone got it. We got confused in our actions from every angle. We felt we could put this place at too great a risk. And I'm talking about the entire nation in the broadest way possible, about all its millions of citizens."

And how do his parents feel? First of all, it turns out that the level of fear isn't that high—at least according to Avia, Omer’s father. "Despite the situation in the country and despite the war, he chose to go to a very significant place. I don't feel fear, mainly pride," says the father, who is also a reserve officer. "I've been mobilized since October 7th, and unfortunately, I've seen and experienced a lot. And I’ve lost soldiers. But their deaths didn't translate into fear for Omer. Two of the three soldiers who died under my command were named Omer, which created a very strange connection for me, but it didn't turn into fear because he hasn't enlisted yet, and also because he still has a long training track ahead."

"We were in a great storm of emotions around this," attests his mother, Anat. "Because this wasn’t the plan. But also because in April, the days were even darker, and there was another cloud hovering over us. I remember there was talk of another Iranian attack, and I was terrified. In some ways, this plan, Erez, somewhat puts the fears aside. Because there's a training process, and you say, 'Okay, maybe some time will pass and things will look different here.' So the fear today is somewhat on hold, but the general feeling is one of dread, despair, or helplessness. I haven't decided yet."

Anat wishes to add: "The thought is that they are truly going to serve under a government that we see as the greatest disaster that has happened to Israel. It's a very, very hard feeling. As a citizen and as a mother, it’s unbearable, simply unbearable. I have no faith in the leadership. Zero." Avia listens to her words and grimaces.

"I am also a commander. Don’t you have faith in me, Anat?" the father cries out.

"Honestly, not so much."

"Not so much?!" Avia exclaims in surprise.

"I think there’s something problematic about the way you look at things," Anat explains. "I’ve told you this. You look at the army as if it's everything, but the army is the tool, not the goal. I am worried. Yes, I am also concerned about the commanders’ judgment. No, I’m not talking to you about battle tactics. I think about the spirit of things, about where you are steering this ship and what your position is as military people. Do you stay within your four walls, or do you understand that the responsibility is much broader than that?"

"You are very focused on the battle tactics, on the strategy, and you don’t look up to see where we are and where we've ended up. If we are now on roads that have already been opened and have already been traversed, and people are dying there now for nothing, and you don’t take your power and do something else with it, then I think we have a problem. Yes. Military people can do a lot if they just step out of their own narrow focus and their very concrete roles."

And what about Omer? He is, of course, quite embarrassed by the smile-laden, though still serious, argument between his parents. "It’s okay, I’m used to it by now. You can look at it as ‘my parents are sending me to the army.’ But I’m 19. I’ve been an adult for a year. My choice was unequivocally to go to the army, despite the complete lack of faith I have in the current government running this country. I do know that the IDF commanders can be trusted."

"In terms of the failure of October 7th, the first lesson you learn at Bahad 1 is responsibility," concludes Avia Ben Elchanan. "And here, I have harsh criticism of those who still remain in their roles. They are great, truly great, but after so long, I expect to see things differently. In the end, these are professional people. I think there are military perceptions that need to change fundamentally, and there are various cultures within the army that need to be uprooted—from the ability of a subordinate to criticize their commander to various operational military concepts."

The Kaner Family: "The immediate fear—Gaza." Like Omer Ben Elchanan, Aili Kaner from the moshav of Burgata is also set to enlist in the Erez program in two weeks. In this family as well, the father is a reserve officer. Although he is currently in Gaza, Karen, Aili’s mother, recalls an old conversation between father and son. "When Aili was 12–13, there was a stage when he told his father, 'I will never be a combat soldier.' His father was then a company commander in the paratroopers and today is already a battalion commander, so he used to laugh at him. But then high school came and changed his mind."

The flip succeeded beyond expectations, and the level of “combat passion” in the Kaner household seems quite high. "Most of them were initially really eager," he says about his friends, most of whom have already enlisted. "But after three or four months of going in and out of Gaza, they are exhausted, worn out. They crave routine; in the end, they haven't experienced any routine at all. It’s tough and it wears you out, but on the other hand, I have friends who are still in training and went into Gaza for a week here and two weeks there, and they are enjoying it. They are pushing "They are pushing the limits of their abilities. They are doing things they never thought they'd be able to do at this stage. It’s strange to say, but for them, it’s an experience."

"The immediate fear is of entering Gaza," says Keren, the mother. "Some of our friends’ kids were there and are still there. They come back different. It’s tough combat, and the goal isn’t very clear. It feels a bit like treading water, and it scares me a little that he might end up there. I assume there will be many changes in procedures and command chains, in all the military matters. On the other hand, as someone who was an officer in the army and whose partner is still a reserve officer, we understand that the military is not a simple thing, even as it is. I’m very, very scared; it really troubles me."

"Her fears are legitimate," the son responds. "But on the other hand, I’ll have plenty of time and training to truly understand what’s happening and what I’m going to do. There will be stages in the training where we are supposed to participate in combat, but it won’t be intense combat. However, the course above me, in the squad commanders' course—none of them really know anything either. There isn’t anyone who’s experienced it, someone who’s advanced far in the path and really knows what’s going on."

"When they presented the path to me in 12th grade, it was like, ‘You’ll do a few arrests here, a week of security there, and hold the line here for a couple of weeks.’ Along the way, it changed, because now maybe we’ll be sent into Gaza, or alternatively, somewhere else. The level of activity can vary a lot. The structure of the path itself hasn’t changed, but eventually, the places we might be assigned to could change due to military issues. There’s really a shortage of combat officers in many places. Initially, our assignments were to infantry brigades, and maybe whoever wanted could also go to the armored corps. Now they’re talking about assignments across all maneuvering battalions, spreading it more widely because there’s a need."

One sentence that the IDF always loves to showcase was coined by David Ben-Gurion in his resignation speech as Prime Minister in 1963: "Every Jewish mother should know that she has entrusted the fate of her sons into the hands of worthy commanders." In 2024, does the Israeli mother Keren Halpern-Kanner still feel that way?

"Not at all. Certainly not," she clarifies. "The disappointment is terrible, especially with the political leadership. The word we used before October 7, which now sounds somewhat worn out, ‘shame’—that’s what I feel about everything that’s happening here. Regarding the military leadership, I think some commanders understand what happened, or are trying and changing their ways, or they are just much more humble. But this army needs to change; that’s clear. From what I read and what I experience from people around me who are involved with the army, it’s evident that our army has become very elitist, overly confident, and relies on technology. There’s a gap between the fantasy of digital and technological advancements and reality. And in reality, we are fighting people who drove a bulldozer through a fence."

Are doubts creeping in about Ilai's enlistment? "Of course. If I could, I would break both his legs and smuggle him abroad. I know it’s not realistic," Keren answers candidly. Ilai, sitting beside her, blushes with embarrassment.

Is he afraid that the war will affect his training? "On the contrary," Ilai claims. "We’ve talked about it a lot. Despite all the talk about shortening the training and the need for fighters—eventually, they haven’t shortened anyone's basic training or the advanced training. It’s true that they brought people in after basic training 05 and postponed their advanced training, but they brought them in as rear combatants who are slightly less trained. My friends who went into Gaza after completing only Rifleman 07 went in as part of an infantry battalion, not as a specific elite unit, so I'm not worried about that. On the other hand, all our commanders, all the officers and squad commanders—they’ve all experienced battle and combat, and that has immense value. There are many lessons and experiences we will gain from our commanders. This is much more valuable compared to a soldier who enlisted four or five cycles ago and whose commanders hadn’t seen combat."

Nevertheless, Ilai adds that extending service to at least three years is "a low blow—but it’s also a correction to something that perhaps should never have been done in the first place. For years, the army was turned from a large body into one that was supposed to be ‘small and smart,’ and it was severely impacted by this. The most glaring example now is the armored corps: there are three regular armored brigades—one-third of what existed 30 years ago. This terribly affects the tank crews who are now spending months in Gaza because there’s simply no one to replace them, no forces."

The Gerstein Family: "The Assignment—A Punch in the Gut"

In early June, Noa Gerstein from Kibbutz Nahshonim received her assignment for military service: the Observer course. Her mother, Keren, who will likely never forget that moment, recalls, "I was doing the dishes when she called, crying and telling me about the assignment. She could barely speak and said the word 'observer.' For all of us, that word was a terrible punch in the gut. The first thing I said to her: ‘It’s not going to happen.’" Keren continues, "I started thinking about what to do, how to make sure she wouldn’t be an observer. Noa herself didn’t really want it, that’s not where she aimed; she had other directions in mind. But she told me, ‘Mom, don’t do anything.’ I was outraged. What do you mean don’t do anything? Noa will not be an observer. But at that point, she said something very characteristic of her: ‘Someone has to do it.’ She said it through tears. She doesn’t want to, but someone has to do it."

And what about the fear level in the Gerstein family? "Yes, I am afraid. But I am terrified of so many things," says Noa herself. "Fear is also a driving force in this case. If I weren’t afraid, I’d be a bit worried. If there were no fear, it would mean I have full trust in the system. But fear is a mechanism of skepticism, of scrutiny, and we’ve been through a significant national event here. So fear is my coping mechanism with the trust crisis."

Did doubt arise at any point? Noa's father, Tal, makes it clear: not at all. However, Keren, the mother, sees things differently: "In parentheses, I’ll mention that there was an option to avoid service due to a medical issue, to just give up, and quite easily. And I was tempted to do it, but then I didn’t want her to miss out on the experience either. Being a soldier in this country—it’s truly a very fundamental part, both socially and civically. It carries a lot of significance, on many levels. And this is especially true when there are so many victims, casualties, heaven forbid, and injured. And you say: my daughter, why is she any more important?"

Noa’s upcoming service as an observer will take place in the shadow of the story of the 16 observers murdered at the Nachal Oz post and the five other observers still held captive in Gaza. For her, this encounter with the complex role of the observer is even more complicated as she knew two of the victims up close: Roni Eshel, of blessed memory, from Tzur Yitzhak, who was a year above her, and Liri Albag, still held captive in Gaza, a resident of Moshav Yarchiv, who studied in the same grade at the parallel high school of the South Sharon Regional Council.

"When Liri was still missing, the whole school was focused on it, my entire environment," Noa shares. "The conversation was very focused in my class because she stood out at school. It mainly affects me because these are girls my age. Liri was drafted with my friends. They’re like me, so why are they there and I’m not? Why did I go for a service year while they were drafted and kidnapped? It could just as easily have been me."

"Even before I got the assignment, the whole issue of the captives occupied me constantly. The first thing that crossed my mind after getting the assignment, and the reason I cried, was the question of how I could enlist as an observer while five observers are still held captive in Gaza. It’s constantly on my mind because the trust crisis is so great, but I try to do it for them. I never thought we’d reach this point—three months after my assignment and they’re still not back."

"There’s now talk about various changes, but I don’t know what’s actually happening at the moment," Noa says about what might change in the role’s nature. "For example, they’re talking about issuing weapons to all observers; I understood they’re waiting for the weapons, or moving the observation posts away from the borders. But I don’t think that will happen anytime soon. It’s hard that it’s uncertain, but it comforts me that they’re drawing lessons and trying to make changes." "I didn’t know anything about the role of an observer before," says Keren, looking at her daughter. "If she had told me a year ago that she would be an observer, it probably wouldn't have affected me. But it’s not just about the observer role; it’s the whole issue of drafting her now. I feel like I'm in a deep crisis of trust, primarily with the state, but also with the army. There are so many open questions and so many things we don’t have answers to. We were the most Zionist household you could imagine. But then October 7th happened, and it shook our entire world."

"So what convinced me in the end? First of all, Noa’s argument is valid. In the end, someone has to do it. I feel a bit more at ease when I read and hear in the media about significant changes they want to make on this issue. So I think, 'Okay, it already happened, so I want to believe that they have learned lessons, drawn conclusions, and that things will fundamentally change.' Do I believe it completely? No, because, as I said, I’m in a very, very deep crisis of trust. When I tell people she will be an observer, they say to me, 'It will now be the safest role in the IDF.' But I am terrified."

"I'm so confident in Noa and in this generation that took to the streets, and I am so sure that if there are more warnings like this, neither Noa nor her generation will let it fall between the cracks again," says Tal, Noa’s father. Keren disagrees with her husband: "But they didn’t let it happen either. There’s something unfair toward those who were there. And ultimately, as a soldier, how much can you bang on tables? That’s the problem. It’s a system that is inherently less friendly to women, and here comes a group of very young girls, raising alarms, and they’re dismissed." 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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