🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 354, 2023 - September 24, 2024 🎗️

  

🎗️Day 354 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 think of them every second. 

I’ve never met them,

but they are my family. 

BRING THEM HOME NOW!!!”

Passover passed without you, Independence Day passed without you, Shavuot passed without you. And now Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are almost here. Will you be with us or will our prime minister continue to abandon you?

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

There is a new section at the end -Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages - A collection of short essays by influential people in Israel today - by the Forum for Life - Saving Israeli Hostages

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

*6:55pm yesterday - north - rockets - Yodfat, Sakhnin, Gebet, Zarzir, Nahalal, Ramat David, Tamra, Beit Shaarim, Menshit Zabra, Yifat, Sarid, Kfar Blum Train Station, Um el Fahem, Mi Ami, Maaleh Iron, Hosenieh, Machmanim, Maaleh Zvia, Carmiel, Yuvalim, Arab el Naim, Ashbel, Ashhar, Alonei Aba, Alonim, Beit lehem Haglilit, Givat Ela, Ginegar, Hajajara, Kfar Baruch, Yafia, Kfar Yehoshua, Megdal Haemek, Elut, Ramat Yishai, Sde Yaacov, Shamshit, Alon Hagalil, Bir Almacasur, Hasolelim, Tzipori, Kfar Tabaash, Cabia, Bacia Tabaash, Harduf, Basmat Tivon, Nofit, Adi, Kiryat Tivon, Ras Ali, Hwald, Suaad Hamira, Shaar Neaman, Kiryat Bialik, Kiryat Bialik, Kiryat Yam and the list goes on to more areas in all of the north of Israel

*7:20pm yesterday - north - rockets - Masaada
*7:45pm yesterday - north - rockets - Haifa and all areas around Haifa

The rocket and missile barrages are non stop and to some many different places in the northern regions of the country. I am now listing the times -the regions that are getting pummeled are the Golan, all the Galilee areas, Jezreel Valley, Haifa and all areas around Haifa, Acre - most of these areas have not been regular targets since the war began

*2:40am- north -rockets - Galilee regions, Jezreel Valley, Nazereth, Afula, Golan
*2:55am - north - rockets and missiles - Jezreel Valley, Galilee regions, Nazereth
*3:10am - north - rockets/missiles - Afula, Jezreel Valley, Nazereth, Galilee regions
*6:00am - north -rockets/missiles - Golan and Galilee regions

*7:40am - north - rockets and missiles - Galilee regions, Golan, Jezreel Valley
*9:35am - north - rockets and missiles 
*10:30am - north - rockets and missiles
*10:50am - north - rockets and missiles
*12:40pm - north - rockets and missiles
*1:05pm - north - rockets and missiles
*1:30pm - north - rockets and missiles
*1:55pm - north - rockets and missiles
*2:50pm - north - rockets and missiles
*3:00pm - north - rockets and missiles
*3:10pm - north - rockets and missiles
*3:20pm - north - missiles and rockets
*3:30pm - north - rockets and missiles

*3:45pm - north - rockets and missiles
*5:15pm - north - rockets and missiles
*5:35pm - north - rockets and missiles
*6:05pm - north - rockets and missiles
*6:35pm - north - hostile aircraft - western Galilee

Hostage Updates 

• The attacks on Lebanon are serving Netanyahu on multiple fronts. The hostages have left the front pages and therefore he feels less pressure from the negotiation partners, in particular the US. He, obviously doesn't care about the internal pressure from the street. And now he can feel and promote his 'successes' in the north after a year of abandonment of the north and the 80,000 residents who are refugees in their own country. Nothing that he does will excuse his behavior of abandoning the hostages, let alone his full responsibility for October 7. 
  Again today, nothing in the press about the hostages. There are still 101 hostages languishing in Gaza and our government is doing nothing but waiting for them all to die! This is the worst shame our government has had in our existence and the worst part of it is that they just don't care!
  
  
• **Arrested at a Protest for Hostage Deal and Suspended from Reserve Duty: "Political Persecution"**

  
  

  Thirteen protesters were arrested earlier this month during a demonstration in Tel Aviv, including active reservists, who later received notice from the IDF that their reserve duty was suspended. "This really broke me, and it’s hard to break me," said Niv, who was just days away from his third round of reserve duty.

  
  

  Last week, the IDF suspended the reserve service of several activists from the "Pink Front" movement after they were arrested at a protest for the release of hostages at Kaplan Street earlier this month. Ynet learned this on Tuesday. Some of the activists, who are actively serving in the current war, received a text message from the head of the reserve personnel planning branch last Wednesday, informing them that their service was suspended due to the arrest.

  

  Demonstration in Tel Aviv for the hostages

  
  

  One of the suspended activists is Niv, 38, from Tel Aviv. Niv received the notice just days before his third round of reserve duty since the outbreak of the war. "At first, I was in shock," he told Ynet. "I'm a person who teaches about Zionism and values, so even sitting in detention didn't bother me, but freezing my reserve duty 68 hours before I was supposed to start my third round is strange. I was supposed to join a new unit this week, go out for training, and this really broke me — and it’s hard to break me." 

  
  

  Niv explained that he tried to contact his previous commanders in the military but has yet to receive approval for re-enlistment. "I spoke with the company commander of my previous unit, and he’s making efforts to help me. I also sent an email to the president's office and contacted the public inquiries department of the IDF, but they haven't responded yet. I’m quite frustrated with the situation," he said.

  
  

  According to Ynet’s investigation, two of the individuals who were suspended from reserve duty were arrested at the same protest on September 2. Although they were released just hours after the arrest by a judge at the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court, they later received the same upsetting notice. One of them is Nadav Gat, 26, from Tel Aviv, who hasn’t been called for reserve duty in four years, but felt hurt by the treatment. "It feels like an arbitrary decision, and it’s political persecution even though we’re in the right. Now, it's something else I have to deal with."

  
  

  He believes this is part of a larger state campaign against protesters and warns of what might happen to him and others in the future: "Today it's about reserve duty, but tomorrow it could affect my chances of getting a job in public service," he said.

  

  "Justice is with us" - Demonstrations for the return of the hostages in Tel Aviv

  
  

  The message, which was sent by the head of the reserve personnel planning branch, stated that based on information received, the reservist’s call-up was suspended due to the arrest. "According to a report received from the Israel Police, my authority to suspend your call-up to reserve duty stems from the authority granted to me as a ‘competent officer’ as defined by the Reserve Service Law, 2008," the message read. It also mentioned that the reservist could appeal the decision in writing, and it would be reviewed by a reserve service suitability committee, which would convene within 60 days of receiving the documents. A specific date would be provided later.

  
  

  Kalanit Sharon, leader of the "Pink Front," told Ynet: "In a country where they’re promoting a draft exemption law for Haredim, they choose to dismiss a reservist. The reason: Nadav Gat is an activist with the Pink Front. Who do they think will defend the country? Or maybe that’s no longer the goal of Israel’s government."

  
  

  She added, "We will continue to protest and fight for the character and future of Israel. This is the public against the government."

  
  

  Earlier this month, thousands took to the streets across the country, blocking intersections and roads in protest of the murder of six hostages whose bodies were returned to Israel. This was in conjunction with the general strike announced by Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David. Protesters briefly blocked the Ayalon Highway southbound near the Shalom Interchange, and after leaving, they went to block the northbound lanes and lit flares. Thirteen were arrested at the Tel Aviv protest.

  
  

  The IDF spokesperson has not yet responded. link

Gaza  and Hamas

•  Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, says that its field commander in southern Lebanon, Mahmoud al Nader, was killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon on Monday.

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria

• Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says the IDF is “crushing” Hezbollah infrastructure that had been built up for decades in today’s strikes in Lebanon, and that the leader of the terror group, Hassan Nasrallah, now remains alone.

  “In the past day, we are crushing what was built by Hezbollah for 20 years. Nasrallah remains alone at the top, entire units of the Radwan Force were taken out of service, and tens of thousands of rockets were destroyed,” he is quoted by his office as saying.

  The remarks are made during a visit by Gallant to the IDF Operations Directorate’s command room. link Galant has a habit of presenting a much better situation than what it really is on the ground. His statements of great successes are generally exaggerated and premature. I would have to say the same now. The Air Force attacks today are massive as are the rocket attacks on the North of Israel. We are destroying rockets, launchers, missiles and missile launchers but we know that Hizbollah has more weapons, rockets and missiles than any terrorist organization in the world and more than many armies of complete countries. We should not be overly optimistic. Hizbollah has (it is believed) between 150,000 to 200,000 missiles of various strengths, distances and capabilities. We have probably destroyed a few thousands which is a figurative drop in the ocean. Hizbollah has been launching missiles as far as Haifa and the northern West Bank as well as the Jezreel Valley. These are all areas much further from the border that have not been under regular attacks during this war. It is strongly believed that Hizbollah is deliberately not targeting areas of large populations and trying to hit IDF bases especially of the air force and air defenses. They know if there is a major incident of civilian casualties, that will be the trigger to a full scale war which would include ground, air and sea incursions and not just of South Lebanon but also Beirut and beyond. Even with all this escalation on both sides, Hizbollah is trying to avoid a full scale war.

• The target of the Israeli airstrike in Beirut this evening is senior Hezbollah commander Ali Karaki, security sources tell Israeli media. Karaki is the head of Hezbollah’s so-called “Southern Front,” responsible for the terror group’s military activity in south Lebanon. He is a member of the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s top military body.

  The IDF said it would provide further details on the “targeted strike” soon. It is just the fourth IDF strike in Beirut since the start of the war.
  It has not been confirmed by the army that Karaki was killed in the attack. Almost all of Nasrallah's closest terrorist military command have been killed. They have all been by his side for almost 4 decades.
  

  

  
  

• Widespread Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon killed at least 492 people Monday and injured over 1,645 more, Beirut said, as Israel cautioned that strikes against the group would expand and Lebanese civilians were warned to flee areas where the Iran-backed terror group was thought to be hiding weapons.

  The IDF said the air force was targeting homes where “rockets, drones and missiles” were emplaced by Hezbollah, and repeatedly urged civilians in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley to flee from homes where such weapons were stored. It said many of the dead were Hezbollah members.

  Israelis also took shelter as Hezbollah bombarded Israel with over 200 rockets on Monday alone, setting off sirens in northern Israel, near the bay metropolis of Haifa and as far south as some West Bank settlements near Tel Aviv, causing some damage but no major casualties. The barrages, which marked some of the heaviest since fighting broke out on October 8 last year, served to up the ante after the terror group bombarded northern communities with at least 150 rockets a day earlier.

  The Israel Defense Forces said it struck some 1,300 targets across Lebanon on Monday, including many homes it said housed weapons directly threatening the country, in one of the most intense barrages of airstrikes since a 2006 war against Hezbollah, ratcheting up fears of a fresh outbreak of all-out conflict on the restive border. Full article

  
  

• The military says Israeli aircraft have attacked several hundred more Hezbollah targets in the past few hours, raising the number of strikes in Lebanon against the terror group over the past day to 1,600.

  According to an Israel Defense Forces statement, the latest airstrikes across Lebanon struck launch sites, command posts and military facilities used by Hezbollah.

• The target of the Israeli airstrike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut is the head of Hezbollah’s missile unit, defense sources tell Israeli media. His fate is not immediately known.

  

  The strike in the Dahiyeh suburb, a known Hezbollah stronghold, marks the fifth Israeli attack on Beirut amid the war. The IDF said it would provide further details on the “targeted strike” soon.

• Israeli Air Force fighter jets dropped some 2,000 munitions on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon over the past day, the IDF says, releasing new footage.

  The video shows a fighter jet refueling amid the strikes, and another clip shows a jet dropping several munitions.

  IAF fighter jets struck some 1,500 Hezbollah targets, according to the military. Drones hit hundreds more.

• Four Shiite clerics believed to be Hezbollah commanders were killed in yesterday’s strikes in Lebanon, the Saudi media channel Al Arabiya reports.

  The four are named as sheikhs Abdul Minam Mahna, Amin Saad, Muhammad Salah and Ali Abu Raya. Al Arabiya describes all of them collectively as “Hezbollah commanders.”

  Canadian Arabic-language news website Sada Online eulogizes both Saad and Abu Raya and reports that they had served as imams in Canada. The former was reportedly the head of the Islamic Center of Hamilton, Ontario, between 2000 and 2006, while no details are provided on the latter, other than that he served the Canadian Shiite community for “many years.”

  Israel’s Alma Research Center, which focuses on Lebanon and the northern front, reported in 2022 that a Hezbollah member named Ali Abu Raya was an officer in the Latin American department of Hezbollah’s foreign service. It is not clear if it is the same Hezbollah cleric who was killed yesterday.

  Various unverified reports refer to Abdul Minam Mahna with the honorific title of “ayatollah,” indicating a high-ranking Shiite cleric.

  At least 558 people were killed in extensive IDF airstrikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon since yesterday, and 1,833 were wounded, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

  The figures do not differentiate between members of the terror group and civilians.

• The Lebanese health ministry raises the death toll of the IDF’s extensive airstrikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon since yesterday to 558.

  Another 1,835 are wounded, the ministry says.

  The figures do not differentiate between members of the terror group and civilians.

  The IDF says it has been striking Hezbollah sites in south Lebanon and in the Beqaa Valley, including homes where the terror group has been storing weapons.

  
  Rescuers stand on the rubble of a building hit in an Israeli airstrike in the southern village of Akbieh, Lebanon, Sept. 24, 2024. Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah in the strikes (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

• While some Hebrew-language media outlets reported last night that Israeli defense officials assessed that 50% of Hezbollah’s rocket capabilities were destroyed in yesterday’s strikes in Lebanon, military sources tell The Times of Israel that those figures are likely exaggerated.

  The IDF said it targeted some 1,600 Hezbollah sites in Lebanon yesterday, largely striking homes where the terror group stored munitions.

  The military has said the munitions included cruise missiles, short-range heavy rockets, medium-range rockets, and explosive drones. Notably, the IDF has not yet said it has destroyed Hezbollah’s long-range rockets and precision-guided missiles.

  Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said last night that “tens of thousands of rockets were destroyed” in the strikes. Military sources say the strikes have prevented Hezbollah from carrying out even larger attacks on Israel.

  According to official IDF assessments from before the war which began last October, Hezbollah had over 200,000 rockets, mortars, and missiles.

  The numbers include 400 long-range rockets, hundreds of precision-guided missiles, 4,800 medium-range rockets, 65,000 short-range rockets, and 140,000 mortars.

  Also according to the assessments, Hezbollah has hundreds of explosive-laden drones, around 100 anti-ship missiles, and at least 17 anti-aircraft systems.

  Hezbollah has already launched over 8,000 rockets and hundreds of drones at northern Israel amid the fighting in the past 11 months.  link Reports like this are totally absurd and a total distraction from the facts on the ground. This article attests to all I have been saying since the beginning of the war. Hizbollah has between 150,000-200,00 rockets, mortars and missiles. As good as our air force is and the fact that we have much better intelligence of what is happening in South Lebanon than what we had in Gaza, neither are as good as that to believe that within a few days, we could wipe our half of their huge stocks of munitions especially since we also know that much of their capabilities are underground in far more developed tunnel systems than Hamas' in Gaza. And here, in the tunnels, our intelligence is probably just as lacking as it was about the Hamas tunnels.

• The IDF issues new warnings to Lebanese civilians in villages where Hezbollah has stored munitions in homes, saying that airstrikes against the terror group will continue today.

  “If you are near or in Hezbollah buildings or those used by it to store weapons, you must move away from those buildings at least one kilometer away or outside the village, immediately,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, says on X.

  “Anyone who is around Hezbollah elements is putting themselves in danger,” he adds.

• Dashboard footage shows the moment a rocket fired from Lebanon hit a road between Tamra and Kabul in northern Israel this morning.

  There were no injuries in the Hezbollah attack. dashcam video of rocket hitting the road

• The Israel Defense Forces says it carried out an airstrike on the Hezbollah cell that fired toward toward the Afula area overnight, destroying the launchers.

  Additionally, the military says jets hit dozens of Hezbollah targets in several areas in southern Lebanon, with secondary explosions indicating that weapons were stored in the buildings. video of the attacks and secondary explosions

• Images released by the IDF purport to show how Hezbollah stores munitions inside civilian homes.

  According to the military, the long-range missile seen in the pictures was on a hydraulic system in the attic of a home in the southern Lebanon village of Houmine al-Tahta.

  
  This undated image released by the IDF on September 23, 2024, purportedly show a Hezbollah missile system in the attic of a home in the southern Lebanon village of Houmine al-Tahta. (Israel Defense Forces)
  

  

  
  
  

  “It is ready to launch from an opening in the roof. A Lebanese family lives on the first floor, under the attic, serving as a human shield,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says in a press conference.

  “This is an immediate and real threat to Israeli civilians, and we have an obligation to remove it,” he adds. link

• Intense cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah continued on Tuesday, including an Israeli airstrike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, as the terror group fired more than 100 rockets at northern Israel, setting off sirens in cities including Haifa, Safed, Nazareth, and Yokne’am as well as across the Galilee.

  The target of the strike in the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut was the head of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile division Ibrahim Qubaisi. The Israel Defense Forces said he had been killed in the attack, alongside other top commanders in the terror group.

  Qubaisi commanded Hezbollah’s various rocket and missile units, including its precision-guided missile unit, according to the military.

  “Over the years and during the war, he was responsible for the launches at the Israeli home front. Qubaisi was a central source of of knowledge in the field of missiles, and was close to the senior military leadership of Hezbollah,” the IDF said.

  He had joined Hezbollah in the 1980s, and had served in several other significant roles, including a senior position in the terror group’s operations division and the head of the Badr regional division, the IDF added.

  The IDF added that Qubaisi also planned Hezbollah’s kidnapping attack in Mount Dov in 2000, in which IDF soldiers Staff Sgt. Benyamin Avraham, Staff Sgt. Adi Avitan, and Staff Sgt. Omar Sawaid were killed and abducted. Their bodies were returned in a prisoner exchange in 2004.

  The strike in the Dahiyeh suburb, a known Hezbollah stronghold, was the fifth Israeli attack on Beirut amid the war. At least six people were killed in the strike and 15 were wounded, according to Lebanese health officials. “An Israeli strike targeted two floors in a residential building in the Ghobeiri area,” a Lebanese security source told AFP.

  Hezbollah did not immediately comment on the attack.
  

  Israel Defense Forces chief Herzi Halevi said Tuesday morning following a military assessment that Israel will be further escalating its actions against Hezbollah.

  “Hezbollah must not be given a break. [We must] keep working with all our might,” he said in remarks provided by the IDF. “We will accelerate the offensive operations today and bolster all the arrays. The situation requires continued intensive action on all fronts.”
  

  Meanwhile, Hezbollah continued to fire barrages of rockets deep into northern Israel, while the IDF responded with strikes on hundreds of the Iran-backed group’s sites, including residential buildings where the military said Hezbollah was hiding rockets and missiles ready for launch at Israel.

  As explosions rocked both Israel and Lebanon, a dismayed international community responded with calls for de-escalation in what the European Union’s top diplomat said was close to all-out war, after almost a year of fighting that began with Hezbollah attacks in solidarity with Hamas after the latter terror group’s devastating October 7 attack on Israel.

  The Lebanese health ministry raised the death toll in the IDF’s extensive airstrikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon since Monday to some 660. Another 1,835 were wounded, the ministry said. The figures do not differentiate between members of the terror group and civilians.

  In Israel, an IDF reservist was moderately wounded by shrapnel during a rocket barrage at the Mount Carmel area, south of Haifa. The Magen David Adom ambulance service said it treated the 25-year-old at the scene near the Elyakim Junction and took him to a hospital. full article

• A senior Israeli Air Force officer says the airstrikes carried out over the past day against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon are the most extensive the IAF has carried out in its history.

  More than 1,600 Hezbollah sites, mostly homes where weapons were stored, were struck in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley within a day, according to the IDF.

  The senior IAF officer says the widespread airstrikes are “changing the operational situation in the north, changing the reality.”

  He says Hezbollah had two main capabilities that it built up over decades: the elite Radwan Force and its arsenal of rockets, missiles, and drones. The top leadership of the Radwan Force, tasked with invading Israel, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday. Hezbollah’s rocket and drone capabilities have been targeted across Lebanon in the past day.

  The official says the IAF is working to strike “all of their rocket capabilities, all of them” and that it is “very determined” to do so.

  Hezbollah still has rocket capabilities, but they have been harmed significantly in the recent strikes, the official says.

  The official says the IAF has worked to prevent civilian harm in the widespread strikes, and that mitigating harm to civilians is a significant part of its offensive plans. The IDF issued warnings to civilians to leave homes where Hezbollah had stored weapons, hours before launching the strikes.

  The official says Hezbollah has endangered Lebanese civilians twofold: first by placing the weapons in their homes, and second by telling civilians to ignore the IDF’s evacuation calls, he says.
  Some 600 people have been killed in the strikes since yesterday, according to Lebanese health officials. The IDF has assessed that many Hezbollah operatives are among the dead.

• Since launching its widespread airstrikes in Lebanon yesterday morning, the IDF says it has targeted some 400 medium-range rocket launchers, 70 weapon depots, and some 80 drones and cruise missiles.

  They are among more than 1,500 Hezbollah targets hit in some 200 different areas of Lebanon, the military says. Most of the strikes have targeted homes where Hezbollah had stored munitions, according to the IDF.

  Over 250 fighter jets have participated in the strikes, dropping some 2,000 munitions, the military adds.

  The IDF says it will continue to strike Hezbollah to destroy its capabilities and “change the security reality in the north.”

West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel

•     

Politics and the War (general news)

• US President Joe Biden calls on Israel and Hamas to agree to the ceasefire and hostage release deal that the US has brokered with Egypt and Qatar during his speech at the UN General Assembly.

  Beginning this section of his speech, Biden stresses that “the world must not flinch from the horrors of October 7. Any country would have the right, responsibility to ensure that such an attack could never happen again.”

  “Thousands of Iran-backed Hamas terrorists invaded a sovereign state, slaughtering and massacring more than 1,200 people, including 46 Americans in their homes and at a music festival. Despicable acts of sexual violence. Two hundred and fifty innocents taken hostage. I’ve met with the families of those hostages. I’ve grieved with them. They’re going through hell,” Biden says.

  Turning to the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, Biden says, “Innocent civilians in Gaza are also going through hell. Thousands and thousands of civilians, including aid workers, too many families displaced, crowding in the tents, facing a dire humanitarian situation. They didn’t ask for this war that Hamas started.”

  “I put forward with Qatar and Egypt a ceasefire and hostage deal. It’s been endorsed by the UN Security Council. Now is the time for the parties to finalize its terms, bring the hostages home and secure security for Israel and a Gaza free of Hamas’s grip, ease the suffering in Gaza and end this war,” Biden says to applause.

  
  US President Joe Biden tells the UN General Assembly that he remains determined to preventing a regional war and stresses that it is still possible to achieve a diplomatic resolution between Israel and Hezbollah that would prevent such an outcome.

  “Since October 7, we’ve also been determined to prevent a wider war than engulfs the entire region,” Biden says.

  “Hezbollah, unprovoked, following the [Hamas] October 7 attack, began launching rockets in Israel,” he says. “Almost a year later, too many on each side of the Israeli-Lebanon border remain displaced.”

  “Full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest. Even as the situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible. In fact, it remains the only path to lasting security to allow the residents from both countries to return to their homes and the border safely. That’s… what we’re working tirelessly to achieve,” Biden adds.

  
  US President Joe Biden uses one of the world’s largest international stages to call out Israeli settler violence against Palestinians, which has gone largely unchecked in the West Bank.

  “As we look ahead, must also address the rise of violence against innocent Palestinians on the West Bank,” Biden says in his speech at the UN General Assembly

  His administration began levying sanctions against extremist Israeli individuals and organizations at the beginning of the year and has pledged to continue doing so.

  In the same breath, Biden urges “set[ing] the conditions for a better future, including a two-state solution, where Israel enjoys security and peace. full recognition and normalized relations with all its neighbors and where Palestinians live in security, dignity and self-determination in a state of their own.”
  Wrapping up his speech at the UN General Assembly, US President Joe Biden offers a parting message to leaders, reminding them that there are more important things than staying in power.

  He reflects on his decision over the summer not to seek reelection.

  “Being president has been the honor of my life. There’s so much more I wanted to get done. But as much as I love the job, I love my country more. I decided, after 50 years of public service, it’s time for new generation to pull my nation forward.”

  “My fellow leaders, let us never forget, some things are more important than staying in power,” Biden says. “It’s your people who matter the most. Never forget we are here to serve the people, not the other way around.”

  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the UN General Assembly on Friday morning.

  
  
•  In a meeting earlier today with Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron in New York, US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo stressed the importance of preventing terrorists and violent extremists from raising, using, and moving funds,” a US readout says, apparently referring to the sanctions that the Biden administration has been implementing to combat settler violence in the West Bank.

  “Adeyemo stressed that an economically stable West Bank strengthens Israel’s own security,” the readout says.

  Apparently referring to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the deputy treasury secretary also raised concerns “about threats by some within the Israeli government to sever correspondent banking relationships between Israeli and Palestinian banks and insisted that these should be extended for at least a year.”

  “Extending these relations is critical to preventing an economic crisis in the West Bank and to strengthening Israel’s security by countering financial flows funding terror groups,” the US readout says.

• During their meeting earlier today at the White House, US President Joe Biden and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan stressed that the two-state solution is the only framework for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

  “The leaders expressed their commitment to the two-state solution, wherein a sovereign and contiguous Palestinian state lives side-by-side in peace and security with Israel, as the only way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in accordance with the internationally-recognized parameters and the Arab Peace Initiative,” says a joint statement issued by the parties.

  Such support by the US for the Arab Peace Initiative, which conditions Arab recognition of Israel on a two-state solution, has been rare in recent years following the signing of the Abraham Accords, which flipped that script.

  At the same time, the statement says the two leaders “discussed the enduring importance of the Abraham Accords and continuing on the path of peace, integration and prosperity in the region.”

  “They stressed the need to refrain from all unilateral measures that undermine the two-state solution and to preserve the historic status quo of Jerusalem’s holy sites, recognizing the special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in this regard,” the statement says.

  Biden and bin Zayed also discussed the ongoing Gaza war, agreeing on the need for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, with the Emirati leader hailing the efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt to broker such a deal.

  Bin Zayed stressed the importance of building on Biden’s May 31 speech, which laid out the framework for the hostage deal being discussed, “in order to create a serious political horizon for negotiation,” the statement says.

  This statement is released even as the US has reportedly been moving away from the phased ceasefire unveiled by Biden on May 31 in favor of a framework that sees the hostages released and the war brought to an end in a shorter time frame.

  “To that end, the leaders discussed a path to stabilization and recovery that responds to the humanitarian crisis, establishes law and order, and lays the groundwork for responsible governance,” the statement says, referring to what has become known as planning for the “day-after” in Gaza.

  The US president “commended the UAE’s extraordinary humanitarian efforts in Gaza, which have been critical in addressing the humanitarian crisis, including through the launch of a maritime corridor for movement of aid, opening a field hospital in Gaza and supporting evacuations of wounded civilians and cancer patients,” the joint statement continues, adding that the leaders called on all parties to ensure the safety of aid workers and asked ensure more humanitarian assistance enters Gaza.

  Biden also recognized the UAE as a major defense partner of the United States, the statement adds. Link

• As fighting continues to escalate in Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s flight to New York is postponed until Wednesday night at midnight, his office announces.

  He will land in New York on Thursday morning, and will deliver his address to the United Nations on Friday morning.  -- It is utterly unbelievable that Netanyahu is even considering traveling at this time. He is so disconnected with the reality of what is going on in the country and with the citizens and so focused on himself, his appearance and opportunity to be on the world stage that this takes precedent for this disaster of a leader

The Region and the World

•   The US is sending additional troops to the Middle East during a sharp spike in violence between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon that has raised the risk of a greater regional war, the Pentagon says.

  Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder would provide no details on how many additional forces or what they would be tasked to do. The US currently has about 40,000 troops in the region.

  The new deployments come after significant strikes by Israeli forces against Hezbollah targets inside Lebanon that have killed hundreds and as Israel is preparing to conduct further operations and the State Department is warning Americans to leave Lebanon as the risk of a regional war increases. 
  
  

• Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian says that its proxy Hezbollah “cannot stand alone” against Israel, as the terror group fired rockets at northern Israel towns and the IDF renewed airstrikes against targets in Lebanon.

  “Hezbollah cannot stand alone against a country that is being defended and supported and supplied by Western countries, by European countries and the United States,” Pezeshkian says in an interview with CNN translated from Farsi to English.

  “We must not allow Lebanon to become another Gaza at the hands of Israel,” he says.  -- We don't yet know what this means or will mean.

• US officials tell CNN that Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have significantly weakened the Hezbollah terror group, potentially setting the terror group back 20 years.

  “They’ve probably been taken 20 years backwards,” an unnamed official says of the IDF operations against the Iran-backed terror group.

  
  Smoke billows from a site targeted by Israeli shelling in the southern Lebanese village of Zaita on September 23, 2024. (Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)

  While the strikes appear to have significantly weakened the terror group, the US is still working to convince Israel not to further escalate, the outlet says.  link I see this as another 'wishful thinking' type of statement. Yes, we have caused major damage and killed many in the upper echelons, especially those closest to Nasrallah, but no one should be deceived into believing that we have made that serious a dent in Hizbollah's munitions, operations, and military capabilities in just a few days. This isn't 1967 when we made a pre-emptive strike and destroyed the Egyptian air force.

• 
  

Personal Stories 

"When I saw the burned house, I couldn't believe it. Weren't the kidnappings enough for them?"

**Nira Sharabi**, a resident of Kibbutz Be'eri. Her husband, Yossi (of blessed memory), was murdered in Hamas captivity on the 97th day of the war. Ofir Engel (15), her daughter Yuval's partner, was kidnapped with him and released in the first deal. Yossi's brother, Eli, the only survivor from his family, is still in captivity. After the remains of their burned house in the kibbutz were demolished, the family is living in Be'eri's temporary housing in Hatzerim.

"After October 7th, I returned to Be'eri quite quickly, about three weeks later. It was a month where we all wandered around the hotel like zombies, numb. There was a kind of haze over everyone in the face of what we'd been through. Stories of first and second-degree bereavement, and we barely cried. In those days, I arrived at the kibbutz for the first time, and I remember not being emotional or crying, nothing. I looked at something disconnected. Beyond me. I felt as if my life had stopped on October 7th and I had started a different life, in a parallel universe. When I saw the burned house, I couldn't believe my eyes. I didn't understand when they had time to do this, and why. What, wasn't everything they put us through with the kidnappings enough?"

"My eldest daughter Yuval (18 years old) happened to be in Be'eri with friends from the kibbutz. When they reached our house, she had a panic attack even before entering the kibbutz and they took her out. Oren and Ofir (14 and 15 years old) only came to Be'eri for a press conference for Be'eri's hostages. We arrived a bit early to see the house together. I remember they cried, they were in total shock. Most of their childhood was in this house and all the memories were there. They started picking things up from the floor, things that were once our belongings, telling me 'Mom, I can't believe this is what they did'. They thought the house was slightly burned, they couldn't believe that no walls or roof were left and everything was destroyed. Their clothes, their shoes, photo albums, all the things related to Yossi. I managed to save my mother's menorah that they restored for me and Oren's doll collection, which was in a closed box."

**Did you have a moment alone in the house to think about what happened to the place where you built a family?**

"Of course, at a much later stage. For months I gave tours of the area to close family and friends, speaking without much emotion, as if it didn't belong to me. I would show the house to people I had hosted there for beautiful sunsets in the huge pergola we had there, and it didn't affect me at all, the structure itself. I even thought that maybe there was something good about everything being burned, because if I had all the memories of Yossi and our previous life - it would have been much harder for me. I miss Yossi every moment, but apart from the photos on the phone, I have nothing left to look at, no wedding album to fall apart over."

"On the day they demolished the house, I initially said I wasn't available to come and that they could demolish it. But by chance that day I was at a nearby kibbutz for work and the contractor called and asked if I wanted to see how they were demolishing the house. I believed that everything has its reason, so I went there alone and was there for about four hours. I put a chair under the neighbor's tree and watched every moment of this destruction. When they finished, only the safe room remained, I went up to the neighbor's pergola on the other side, and for an hour I let the sadness overwhelm me. All the memories there, three daughters I raised there with Yossi, our coffee together in the morning, beer in the evening on the balcony. I felt my roots being destroyed, that I was uprooted. Because a home is family, and Yossi and I were home people. This was the first time I was sad about the material things."

**When will you return to Be'eri?**

"We were supposed to move as a family to a new neighborhood in Be'eri, to a house that Yossi and I designed together. When they asked me what I wanted to do, I immediately said in my first instinct 'No way, I can't move into a house I designed with Yossi and thought for hours and days about where to place the walls, a place where I thought we would grow old'. I'm still not sure what I'll do." link

Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages

It is Inconceivable that Israel's Prime Minister Leaves People to Die

Nili Margalit

A nurse who was kidnapped to Gaza from her home in Nir Oz and released from captivity after 55 days. Her father, Eliyahu (Churchill) Margalit was murdered in Nir Oz and his body was taken to Gaza.

It is currently summer in Israel and the temperatures are extremely high.

Think about how, walking down the street in July and August, people say to one another, "It's hot as hell here" or "Oh, how is life even bearable in this heat?" Now imagine the hostages in the tunnels. As hot as it is for you, for them it is a million times hotter.

I know because I've been there. It is steaming hot. Humid. Disgusting.

The air is foul. It is hard to breathe.

Can you bring to mind that feeling when you really want a drink of water but you can’t get any? A thought crosses your mind about what you are going to drink when you get home, or about a café, or a store where you can simply stop by to get something? A bottle of cold water. Iced coffee with plenty of ice. Anything. Just to quench your thirst.

I want to tell you about thirst in the tunnels. There is no cold water there, not even clean water. You only get several sips a day of salty water. I wish I could tell those who are there, "Hold on, friends, I know the water tastes salty, repulsive, and disgusting, but do drink. Drink a little at a time, sip by sip. And not because you feel like it, because you must."

A part of me stayed behind and is still there, compelled to make sure everyone drinks so they don't get dehydrated.

I remember my first days over there. I didn't understand what was going on; what was happening to me. It is, after all, unthinkable. It doesn’t make sense. It is inconceivable. A day went by, and then another, and another.

Altogether, 55 days. I remember refusing to believe a government could abandon its citizens like this. Yes, I didn't vote for the right-wing bloc, but still, how is it possible that I am stranded in Gaza? Forget about me - but the elderly? The sick? The children? How do you leave them behind?

Bibi, counting the days is, by now, difficult. It is already more than nine months that you have allowed them to be kept there. During winter, you left them there in the unbearable cold without blankets in the same light summer clothing they wore when they were kidnapped. Now you are abandoning them in the terrible heat of June, July, and as things seem to develop, August as well.

All of this is not reasonable; It has to be a dream. Not just a bad dream but a nightmare. Yet, it is still a dream because it is inconceivable that the Israeli government would knowingly do nothing, leaving Israeli citizens to rot, letting them perish. It is implausible that Israel's prime minister leaves people to die in the most inhumane way possible.

People consider me strong and resilient but as the days go by, I realize that I got out of there with some help from the government, but mostly by luck. How is it possible that the other hostages are not as lucky as I was? When I returned from captivity, I met with many leaders from all over the world. My story seemed to inspire hope and motivation in them.

They all encouraged me and were empathetic, but it has always been clear to everyone that the responsibility for bringing the hostages back lies, almost exclusively, with the Israeli government and its leadership.

And as for me? Every night I wish I could go back to October 6th. However, if the clock can't be turned back - at least I wish I could wake up from this nightmare. Just let them come back home.

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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