🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 356, 2023 - September 26, 2024 🎗️

  

🎗️Day 356 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!!!”

Hostage and Missing Families Forum was formed less than 24 hours after the horrific attack by Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7, in which thousands of innocent civilians were murdered and taken hostage by Hamas. The Forum is volunteer-based and laser-focused on bringing the hostages back home to their families, to us. The forum offers families holistic support and professional assistance and advances the ongoing efforts through all channels, locally, regionally and globally, to bring the hostages and the missing back home to their loved ones

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

*8:20pm yesterday- Eilat - Hostile aircraft - 2 UAVs from Pro Iranian Iraqi Militia. One shot down by a naval ship, the other made a direct hit on a building, 2 people injured, damage being assessed. 

Footage from the scene shows smoke rising from the port area and damage to a hangar, apparently after it was hit by a drone. video of the UAVs

*10:45am - north - Acre, Haifa, Galilee regions
*1:25pm - north - rockets/missiles
*3:40pm - north - rockets/ missiles
*4:05pm north - rockets/missiles
*6:00pm - north - rockets /missiles
*6:25pm - north - rockts/missiles - Hebrew media reports that some 80 rockets were fired at Israel in the latest barrage from Lebanon a short while ago.

According to the reports, one of the rockets hit a building in the northern town of Birya, near Safed. There are no immediate reports of injuries in the attack, which comes amid a sharp escalation in the almost a year of cross-border attacks from the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group.

Hostage Updates 

• **The Conversation with Gallant and the Despair of the Hostages' Families: "We Understood There Is No Negotiation"**

  
  

  Families of kidnapped soldiers met with the Defense Minister and were updated on the stalled negotiations for a deal. One family member burst out: "Every day they could die." The Goldin family expressed frustration: "It's unreasonable that we send aid trucks for humanitarian reasons, but don't return the bodies of fallen soldiers."

  
  

  Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met yesterday (Tuesday) with the families of kidnapped soldiers, and they left the conversation feeling deeply troubled: "We understood there is no progress, nothing close," said a family member who participated in the meeting. According to the participant, it was explained that Israel is now waiting for the American compromise proposal: "Netanyahu's proposal is stuck, and there are no negotiations around it."

  
  

  The feelings in the conversation were intense. Some families were upset that the government has not yet officially declared the return of the hostages as a war objective. The Goldin family said, "It’s unacceptable that Hamas defines what is humanitarian. It’s not logical that we send in trucks for humanitarian reasons but don’t return the bodies of soldiers, according to all international law." One family member cried out: "What about the hostages who are still alive? Time is critical. Every day they could die." Gallant responded that there is no debate about the urgency. He also addressed the war in the north, expressing his belief that strong action there would lead to an agreement that would include the return of the hostages. However, he refrained from giving details on how that would happen.

  
  

  In the end, one family member said in despair: "So, tell us what more we, as families, can do? If everything is stuck, there’s no negotiation, and there’s no leverage, what else can we do?" Gallant replied: "There’s nothing at the moment that you can do that will have an impact. There's nothing you can do that will help. We need to move forward; the responsibility is on us."

  
  

  Some of the meeting's participants shared that Gallant expressed empathy and reiterated his commitment to returning the hostages. However, he made it clear that the negotiations are at a standstill. Gallant noted that he has the authority to make military decisions on his own, but not diplomatic ones. He also mentioned that as early as July, he had stated that conditions were ripe for a deal and that geographical issues could be overcome. link

  
  

  
  

  
  
• Alex lost 26 kg (57 pounds) , Hirsh's body was returned weighing 52 kg (114 pounds): The difficult article by relatives of the hostages, and the accusations

  
  

  An article was published in Time magazine by relatives of six hostages murdered in Rafah - who accused that many in the world met them, promised to act - but in practice did nothing. "Sympathetic words will not save the 101 hostages in captivity from a similar fate," they wrote among other things. **Alex Loubanov's weight dropped from 86 kg (189) to 60 (132 pounds) . Hirsh Goldberg-Polin's body was returned weighing 52 kilos (114 pounds).**

  

  
  

  The families of the six hostages murdered in the tunnel in Rafah published an article today (Wednesday) in Time magazine, accusing that although Hamas was the one who kidnapped them, many others failed to rescue them. "The decision-makers in the Israeli government had opportunities to reach agreements for the release of our loved ones, but due to considerations they saw as strategic, they chose not to," the families wrote.

  
  

  They added that many others are guilty of not saving the hostages. "Celebrities met us in closed rooms and asked us not to publish that they did so. They were afraid of losing followers," the families wrote. "Leaders of humanitarian organizations like the Red Cross and the World Health Organization claimed they would intervene, but couldn't figure out how. Two Muslim clerics promised us, in vain, that our loved ones would be okay - because harming hostages violates Islam." According to the families, "They, and too many leaders of other religions, remained silent in public. More than one of the people in power promised us that the hostages would survive. That their return was just a matter of time. Some said our loved ones are suffering, but surely not dead. This is a loud call: there are still 101 hostages in terrible conditions in Gaza, and time to save them is running out. Words of sympathy will not save them from a fate similar to that of Almog, Alex, Carmel, Eden, Hirsh and Ori. Time for decisive, measured and meaningful action."

  
  

  "251 hostages from 39 nationalities were kidnapped. Why didn't the presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers of those countries stand side by side and demand their release? Where is the global outrage? Where is the economic and diplomatic pressure on Hamas and its sponsors? Why didn't the US use its forces and deploy its power sufficiently and creatively - to free the hostages? The evil actors in the world are watching, learning and planning. The implications for global security are much broader than Israel and Gaza. The future of humanity hangs in the balance."

  
  

  The families concluded their words in the article: "Almog, Alex, Carmel, Eden, Hirsh and Ori will not return. In their memory, we urge you: act now to bring back their 101 brothers and sisters still in Gaza. If not now, when?"

  
  

  As mentioned, the bodies of Hirsh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Almog Sarusi, Carmel Gat and Alex Loubanov were found in a tunnel in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in western Rafah. The hostages were murdered by their Hamas captors, probably fearing a possible IDF rescue operation in the area. IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari revealed footage from the tunnel, whose entrance was hidden in a children's room. Hagari showed a dry pool of blood at the point where the hostages were murdered. "This is a transit tunnel, this is a tunnel where you can't stand with a straight back," he described, while bending, and emphasized that the humidity conditions there are also very difficult. He also showed urine bottles and what he said might be a cesspit for defecation.

  
  

  The footage shows that the hostages were held in the tunnel in inhumane conditions, starved and living in lack of basic hygiene. The hostages had very little food in captivity, and they lost significant weight. Eden Yerushalmi's body was found weighing only 36 kg.

  
  

  The six bodies were found on August 31. An IDF investigation revealed that about a day earlier, Hamas observers saw soldiers approaching the tunnel and ordered the terrorists to murder the six hostages. The terrorists shot the six hostages to death at close range. link
  
  
• Hostage’s dad attacked with eggs, berated as ‘cancer’ as he protests outside Likud event
  

  Eggs are thrown and insults are hurled toward the father of a Gaza hostage as he demonstrates outside a festive event in Netanya hosted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and attended by ministers and MKs.

  
  Eli Albag, father of Gaza hostage Liri, speaks to the Kan public broadcaster as he is berated and attacked with eggs while demonstrating outside a Likud event in Netanya, September 25, 2024. (Screenshot: Kan; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

  
  

  As Eli Albag, father of Liri who has been held by terrorists in the Strip for almost a year, continues his campaign pressuring the government to release his daughter, unknown assailants throw the eggs, hitting Albag and a nearby police officer.

  Hebrew media reports add that apparent Likud activists also berated Albag and other activists on behalf of the hostages, who have been urging the government to sign a hostage deal with Hamas.
  

  “[Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar is funding you,” one reportedly says.

  “You are cancer in the country,” another is said to shout.

  Albag then tells reporters that he regularly gets threatening messages, is cursed and even beaten due to his struggle to reunite with his daughter.

  “It’s one thing to throw at me, I’m used to it… I have very thick skin. But why throw eggs at the police? That disturbed me more,” Albag tells the Kan public broadcaster, before right-wing counterprotesters start berating him again on live television and disrupting the broadcast. link This, unfortunately, is another in a long list of attacks, verbal and physical against hostage families and supporter. The attacks are propagated and encouraged by the vile hate machine of the extreme right lawmakers in the Knesset, and some of the most disgusting Likud Knesset members and ministers. They have turned a national consensus issue into a political issue that divides. They are nothing less than a blight on the Knesset and should never ever again be entrusted with the public trust

Gaza 

• "Even before shifting forces to the north: This is how Hamas is regaining control of Gaza"

  
  

  The IDF identifies how Hamas is increasing its governmental hold in an area where Israeli forces have largely been absent for about half a year. "There is no civil uprising against it and no opposition has emerged," military officials said. While 30,000 fighters were in the Strip, the political echelon itself had eyes - and did not form another government over the Gazans. Also: The interim state that allows regular soldiers to go abroad

  
  

  The last IDF ground operation in Gaza, not around the Philadelphi Corridor or in the Netzarim bisection corridor, was about a month ago, on the outskirts of Deir al-Balah in the center of the Strip. Brigade 7, under Division 98, destroyed several tunnels near the border with Israel for about a week, in a place where the IDF had not maneuvered at all and as a conclusion to the raid to locate the bodies of six hostages in the Hamad neighborhood in western Khan Yunis. Since then, and even before, in most of the Gaza Strip, the IDF has not been operating on the ground, and Hamas is taking full advantage of this to tighten its control over the Gaza Strip again. The forces of the IDF's elite division, which carried out most of the raids as part of phase 3 of the fighting in Gaza, are already busy training for a possible maneuver in southern Lebanon. All this is happening while 101 hostages are still in Hamas captivity.

  
  

  A year after the outbreak of war and after the IDF's announcement at the beginning of the month that Hamas's Rafah Brigade had been defeated, the military is identifying a worrying trend that is intensifying from month to month: Hamas controls about two million Gazans, without any opposition in the Strip challenging it and without any uprising against it by the Gazan public. This is what security sources monitoring the situation in the Strip tell ynet. This is happening in most cities, towns and villages in the Gaza Strip, except for Rafah where the maneuver ended as mentioned these days and where, according to army estimates, only about ten thousand civilians remain. Meanwhile, the IDF is effectively turning, day by day, the northern arena into the main one and Gaza into the secondary one: A limited number of infantry and armored combined brigades remain in the Strip, to hold the Netzarim bisection corridor and the Philadelphi Corridor for raids. The IDF's regular and elite Division 98, whose soldiers carried out most of the ground raids throughout the Strip since the beginning of the year and the transition to phase 3 of the fighting in Gaza, has been diverted in recent days to train for platoon and battalion exercises in rear firing zones to prepare for a northern scenario, in case the air operation "Northern Arrows" that began this week also deteriorates into ground action in southern Lebanon.

  
  

  Over the past few months, several reserve brigades and brigades of the Northern Command's regular 36th Armored Division, including Golani and 188, have conducted such training exercises in the north. The implication of the change: Hamas will receive even greater credit to receive the food, water, fuel and medicine shipments that Israel is pumping to it in about 220 trucks every day, thereby continuing its rule in the Gaza Strip while the local public depends on it. Meanwhile, discussions continue regarding other alternatives that have been proposed, such as "strangling" the northern Gaza Strip including Gaza City and expelling southward 300,000 of the million civilians who remained there, but this is happening in the shadow of the IDF's operational and General Staff focus shifting to Lebanon. It is doubtful whether the army will be able to carry out such a large move in parallel with the big fire operation in Lebanon that is expected to continue.

  
  

  **More airstrikes**

  
  

  All this is happening as the IDF identified increasing signs of Hamas's renewed control over more and more sections of the Gaza Strip, where in most of its area an IDF soldier has not set foot for about half a year. However, and perhaps as an alternative to ground raids, the IDF is carrying out more airstrikes, sometimes two-three a week, on targets in the Strip, especially refugee shelter sites such as schools, where Hamas operatives are reorganizing.

  
  

  "We saw this amazingly in the polio vaccination operation last month: Hamas Health Ministry officials vaccinated about 400,000 Gazans within five days, with impressive efficiency that would not have shamed our HMOs. Despite all the destruction and ruin, the Gazan population is not coming out against Hamas and no one is challenging its rule," security sources tell ynet.

  
  

  They added: "Hamas also manages to echo false narratives to its public about its military achievements against the IDF, promises to equate the treatment given to terrorists in Israeli prisons with that given to Israeli hostages in captivity, and succeeds in convincing, at least its public, that Israel is to blame for their situation, hurts Gazan medical teams and tries to starve the population." At the same time, Hamas is regaining control of more and more markets in the Gaza Strip that have been refilled courtesy of Israel, which in accordance with international pressure is slowly returning reality to what it was before the war. Hamas ensures that there are no price increases in the markets as there were at the beginning of the war. Some of the food is distributed in refugee shelters directly by terrorist organization operatives, and the fear barrier of Hamas rule among Gazans, the army estimates, is still far from being broken.

  
  

  In refugee camps like al-Mawasi, more and more makeshift pharmacies, barbershops and classrooms are opening alongside a failed attempt by the Palestinian Authority for distance learning via Zoom. "The public in Gaza is increasingly adapting to the new reality, certainly in the face of Hamas's brutal enforcement measures, arrests and torture of those who try to steal food from aid shipments. The average Gazan in the shelters is busy these days sampling his tent for the winter and finding a toilet cubicle - a very sought-after commodity in the Strip," the security sources noted."
  

  "The sources further noted that most municipalities across the Strip are functioning at a low level, but provide garbage collection, basic cleaning, and debris removal services. Economically, the security system identifies that banks in the Strip were not a main target for Israeli attacks because they belong to the Central Bank of Palestine, and when some of their branch managers closed ATMs, they were immediately punished.

  
  

  "There was a bank branch manager in Nuseirat who was arrested by Hamas about a month ago because he closed the branch, but most of the money flows anyway through money changers in the Strip, who are very obedient to Hamas," the security sources said. On this issue, discussions and debates are still ongoing in the security system and at the political level: If we want to overthrow Hamas's rule, is it right to eliminate every deputy director of the sanitation department in Beit Hanoun or Jabalia municipality? Every senior tax collector who collects taxes on behalf of Hamas's Ministry of Finance in Khan Yunis or a Hamas elementary school principal in al-Bureij, whose incitement content is known to all?

  
  

  The answer to this, in most cases, is negative. Hamas's local and central government mechanism includes thousands of managers at various levels, in addition to tens of thousands of workers and clerks. Only a small part of them is intelligence-implicated in activities that support terrorism, and it was decided by the IDF and with the knowledge of the cabinet, for reasons of international law, that only they would be targets for assassinations, mostly when they wear an additional hat such as "head of the local emergency committee". The sources noted: "We also don't want to eliminate everyone, because there need to be local factors that provide health and sanitation services to citizens, otherwise we'll really be in a humanitarian disaster that will immediately stop the fighting."

  
  

  **The political echelon did not initiate any alternative government**

  
  

  At the peak of the maneuver, there were more than 20 combined brigades of the IDF in the Gaza Strip, 30,000 fighters between early November to around February, until the last main move in Khan Yunis, of Division 98, ended in April, and in Rafah as mentioned ended about two weeks ago. The IDF will probably not return to these giant operations in the Gaza Strip in the foreseeable future, because in parallel to that period of about half a year when soldiers maneuvered in the Gaza Strip, the political echelon did not initiate any governmental alternative to Hamas, who would be responsible for the lives of two million Gazans who will not disappear when the last tank leaves.

  
  

  The cabinet did not decide on an Israeli military government, not on a local Palestinian government, with or without the involvement of the Palestinian Authority, and not on an external protectorate government of moderate Arab countries in combination with a local Palestinian mechanism. The big winner from the failure of the political echelon on this strategic issue is of course Hamas, which suffered severe military blows but knew how to preserve at least ten thousand armed terrorists from its terror army, hundreds of commanders and even recruit new operatives - in addition to the civilian government mechanism that functions minimally at this time, and it too is recovering. The IDF raids, therefore, even in Rafah, are expected to continue in the coming years, and there are those in the IDF's top echelons who estimate that at the current pace it will take another whole decade of fighting until the complete collapse of Hamas. Meanwhile, the IDF is attacking more and more by air in the Strip and less with ground forces: The sequence of assassinations of Hamas operatives reorganizing in refugee shelters like schools is increasing to a weekly frequency and even more than that, like in the "Shuhada al-Zaytoun" school in the last month.

  
  

  Every such attack includes the use of small bombs of the "Sharp Hail" type, GPS-guided, that know how to attack a specific classroom with terrorists inside a large institution, even if there are dozens of children in a nearby corridor. This precise technological-operational capability is upgrading from operation to operation, and in recent months hundreds of terrorists and commanders in Islamic Jihad and Hamas have been eliminated this way, but it still involves the risk of mass killing of Gazan civilians, and thus criticism and heavy international pressure on Israel to stop the fighting.

  
  

  Under the cover of these expanding air operations in Gaza, and the dilution of IDF ground activity in the Strip, there are those who benefit from this on our side too: Regular IDF fighters began to receive approvals to fly for vacations abroad for the first time since October 7, after long and grueling months of continuous fighting in the Strip.

  
  

  But not everyone enjoys this: In the Paratroopers Brigade, which is increasingly looking northward, this benefit has not yet been approved, unlike the Nahal Brigade, where fighters were allowed to rest a little overseas. This is made possible in parallel with the jump in training of the various brigades for maneuvering in Lebanon, with large brigade exercises that the IDF is careful to document and distribute in the media, towards shifting the center of gravity to southern Lebanon." link Since the beginning of the war, there have been some people (specifically my brother) who started talking about the day after. Unfortunately, it took many months before the General Staff and some politicians began talking about it. Even more unfortunately, Netanyahu absolutely refused to talk about it and said we would talk about it at the end of the war. That was not only pig headed, it was stupid. The main reason that it needed to be worked on from the beginning was to already plan for an alternative governing body to Hamas, otherwise Hamas would continue to reign which is exactly what happened. Everywhere that the IDF left, Hamas reappeared immediately and no civilian will challenge them as they are an authoritarian ruler using fear, violence and killing to maintain their iron fist on the population. Despite Netanyahu's history of weakening the Palestinian Authority and refusing to allow them to replace Hamas in Gaza, that is the only possible solution. He had the IDF and Shin Bet attempt to have local Palestinians take over and that was met with total failure. Until the PA is officially put in with the backing of many Arab nations (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, etc), Hamas will remain, rebuild their ranks and continue to be a threat both to their own people and to Israel. 

  
  

• Several rockets were launched by terror operatives in Gaza at troops inside the Strip this morning, the military says. Some of the projectiles were intercepted and the rest struck inside Gaza, causing no injuries, the IDF adds.

  There were no injuries in the incident. Residents of southern Israel reported seeing Iron Dome interceptor missiles launched over Kibbutz Sufa amid the incident. 

  
  

  Hamas and other terror groups have frequently launched mortars and short-range rockets at soldiers inside Gaza amid the fighting.

  Rocket attacks from Gaza targeting Israeli towns have become increasingly rare, with the last projectiles fired on September 14.

• An official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s entourage traveling to New York says a focus of the war in Gaza is the attempt to harm Hamas’s civil rule of the Strip by taking away its control over the distribution of humanitarian aid.

  Netanyahu instructed the IDF to present proposals, but because of the escalation in the north, it was delayed, the official says.

  The presentation is likely to occur in the next 1-2 weeks, according to the source.   LINK This is one of the stupidest statments to come out of the 'official's' mouth. Whenever it is an unnamed 'official', it's coming directly from Netanyahu but allows him to have his plausible deniability. The only body that has any capability or possibility is the Palestinian Authority and all of Netanyahu's games of looking for a different option only plays more into the hands of Hamas and allows them to continue to strengthen their position and regain the total control of Gaza. Netanyahu's continuing 'sin' is to allow history to repeat itself due to his dangerous obstinance.

  
  

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria

• Heavy damage has been caused to the Mount Hermon tourist site, as a Hezbollah rocket from Lebanon hit the cable car in the ski resort.

  The Hermon site says it has been closed for an entire year now in the shadow of the war, with its CEO Refael Nave saying in a statement that the hit necessitates a “massive and swift fix so we will be able to provide the security needs on the mount.”

  The site publishes video footage of the rocket impact.  video of the hit on the cable car

• US-led talks for a potential de-escalation of the Israel-Hezbollah flare-up with an eye to a possible ceasefire have seen “significant progress” and have reached “a serious and advanced stage,” Lebanese news site LBCI reports, citing unnamed sources.

  The outlet claims “operational results” may emerge as early as tomorrow morning, but qualifies that the outcome depends on decisions made by both sides in the coming hours and on other developments in the conflict.

• The United States, France and some of their allies call for an immediate 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah while also expressing support for a ceasefire in Gaza, according to a joint statement of the countries released by the White House following an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Lebanon.

  “The situation between Lebanon and Israel since October 8th, 2023, is intolerable and presents an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation,” says the statement, citing the date Hezbollah began launching attacks on northern Israeli communities and military posts following its ally Hamas’s October 7 massacres in southern Israel.

  “This is in nobody’s interest, neither of the people of Israel nor of the people of Lebanon,” continues the statement. “It is time to conclude a diplomatic settlement that enables civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes in safety.”

  The statement goes on to say that diplomacy “cannot succeed amid an escalation of this conflict,” before urging “an immediate 21 day ceasefire across the Lebanon-Israel border to provide space for diplomacy towards the conclusion of a diplomatic settlement.”

  “We call on all parties, including the governments of Israel and Lebanon, to endorse the temporary ceasefire immediately… and to give a real chance to a diplomatic settlement.”

  “We are then prepared to fully support all diplomatic efforts to conclude an agreement between Lebanon and Israel within this period, building on efforts over the last months, that ends this crisis altogether,” concludes the statement.

  The statement’s other signatories are Australia, Canada, the European Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

  The White House also releases a separate statement from Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron, who met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, urging “broad endorsement” of the joint statement and “for the immediate support of the governments of Israel and Lebanon.”

  “It is time for a settlement on the Israel-Lebanon border that ensures safety and security to enable civilians to return to their homes. The exchange of fire since October 7th, and in particular over the past two weeks, threatens a much broader conflict, and harm to civilians,” the two presidents say. “We therefore have worked together in recent days on a joint call for a temporary ceasefire to give diplomacy a chance to succeed and avoid further escalations across the border.”

  Neither of the statements mention Hezbollah or Hamas at any point.

• A call by the United States, European Union and several Arab states for a ceasefire in Lebanon is an “important breakthrough,” a senior US official says.

  “This is an important breakthrough on the Lebanon side, given all that has gone on there,” the official tells reporters in a briefing on the joint statement, which is aimed at avoiding a wider conflict as the nearly year-long fighting between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies.

  Lebanon and Israel are expected to decide “within hours” whether to accept, a second US official says, adding: “We have had this conversation with the parties and felt this was the right moment.”

• The Lebanese health ministry says 72 people were killed and another 392 were wounded in IDF airstrikes strikes across Lebanon today.

  The IDF says it targeted Hezbollah sites, including homes where the terror group stored munitions. It warned civilians ahead of carrying out the strikes.

• The commander of Hezbollah’s aerial forces Muhammad Hussein Sarour, was killed in the Israeli airstrike in Beirut, the IDF confirms.

  According to the military, Sarour directed and commanded numerous aerial attacks on Israel, including explosive-laden drones and cruise missiles.

  In recent years, the IDF says he led Hezbollah’s drone manufacturing, and established sites in Lebanon where the terror group would build explosive UAVs, some of which were under civilian buildings in Beirut.

  Sarour joined Hezbollah in the 1980s and held various positions, including in the terror group’s air defenses, in the Aziz unit in the Radwan Force, and as Hezbollah’s attaché to Yemen where he was involved in the Houthis’ aerial forces, according to the military.

  During the war he advanced numerous explosive drone attacks on Israel, as well as surveillance drones, the IDF says.

• 
  

West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel

•     

Politics and the War (general news)

• US President Joe Biden acknowledges that an “all-out war” in the Middle East is possible, while insisting that a ceasefire is still possible in Lebanon.

  “An all-out war is possible, but I think there’s also the opportunity that’s still in play to have a settlement that can fundamentally change the whole region,” he says during an appearance on ABC’s “The View” talk show, apparently referring to the administration’s vision that sees Arab allies taking part in the postwar management of Gaza and Saudi Arabia agreeing to normalize relations with Israel if Jerusalem agrees to establish a pathway to a Palestinian state.

  This vision appeared to take a further hit in recent weeks as Arab leaders staked out further-reaching positions conditioning their cooperation with Israel on the need for the establishment of a Palestinian state, as opposed to previous foggier comments about the need for a “political horizon” or a “pathway to statehood.” But even those ideas have been rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

  “One of the things that I found is that the Arab world very much wants to have a settlement [with Israel] because they know what it does for them,” Biden continues. “They’re willing to make alliance with Israel if Israel changes some policies.”

  The president then stresses that he’s “a very strong supporter of Israel. I make no bones about it. I said years ago I was a Zionist. What a Zionist means is that there needs to be an Israel.”

  He repeats a story that he frequently relies on when explaining his political differences with the current Israeli government. “I’ve known Bibi Netanyahu for a long, long time… Bibi has a picture I signed for him when he was a young member of the embassy here in the United States. It was an eight by 10 picture that he asked me to sign. I wrote, ‘Bibi. I love you, but don’t agree with the damn thing you say or do — Joe’. I do, and that was right.”

  “I don’t agree with his position. There needs to be a two-state solution. Ultimately, it needs to happen,” Biden asserts.

  “You have a possibility — I don’t want to exaggerate it — but a possibility, if we can deal with a ceasefire in Lebanon, that it can move into dealing with the West Bank. But we also have Gaza to deal with,” Biden says.

  It’s unclear whether he is referring to a new framework for a deal involving the West Bank, which has seen an uptick in attacks by Palestinians and Israeli settlers along with deadly IDF counter-terror raids.

  In the past, the Biden administration has talked about how the surest way to restore calm between Israel and Hezbollah is to first secure a ceasefire in Gaza. In recent days, however, the US has reportedly begun crafting a new plan to broker a pause in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in order to give additional time for Gaza hostage talks.

  “It’s possible, and I’m using every bit of energy I have with my team… to get this done. There’s a desire to see change in the region, and… peace,” Biden says, regarding the vision he laid out.  link

  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given a “green light” to talks with the US over a potential temporary halt in the stepped-up conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, which would enable negotiations for a ceasefire, according to an unsourced report by the Ynet news site.

  The report says Netanyahu and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer are holding the talks with Washington, which is holding talks with Lebanon’s government and other official acting as intermediaries with Hezbollah.

  Iran is said to be involved in the talks, preferring to avoid an all-out war.

  “We are nearing a fork in the road for decisions on where the war is going,” an unnamed Israeli official is quoted as saying. -- shortly after it hit the news that Netanyahu gave the green light to cease fire discussion, his extremist right wing coalition partners were up in arms demanding that discussions for a ceasefire be removed from the table and that the IDF continues fighting and even to start a ground incursion. These are the same war mongers who didn't serve in the army (Ben Gvir was rejected because of the dangers of having his extremism in the ranks and Smotrich tried to get out of the army for many years, finally serving for a short period of time as a clerk in the army headquarters) as even worse, these are the same disgusting excuses for human beings who don't give a damn about the hostages and are willing to allow them all to die in captivity.

  
  
  
• US officials weighing steps Biden could take to preserve two-states after election
  

  US officials have been deliberating steps that the administration could take during the lame-duck period to curb the effort by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to expand Israel’s footprint in the West Bank, a current and a former senior US official told The Times of Israel this week.

  The nearly three-month period from the November 5 presidential election to the January 20 inauguration will come with additional “political flexibility,” which will allow space for more confrontational policies vis-a-vis the Israeli government, said the current US official.

  The list of steps US President Joe Biden could take would be longer if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the election since she is less likely to reverse them, a former senior US official explained. The official added that Harris would also be shielded from any political backlash of such moves due to them being seen as part of her predecessor’s legacy.
  

  The former senior US official acknowledged that certain steps would be less likely taken if former president Donald Trump wins the election because he would be able to roll them back upon returning to office. However, some policies still might be implemented anyway because they would set a precedent that would give other Western countries the legitimacy to follow suit, as was the case with the sanctions that the Biden administration began implementing against extremist settlers in the West Bank.
  
  Sanctioning Ben Gvir and Smotrich
  While no formal list has been compiled, one idea raised by a large number of Biden aides has been to sanction far-right Israeli cabinet members National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich under that same executive order targeting individuals and entities destabilizing the West Bank, said the current and former US officials.

  The White House considered making this move already in July, but Biden decided against the idea, arguing that the US should not be sanctioning the ministers of Democratically elected countries, US officials told The Times of Israel at the time.
  

  The current US official speaking to The Times of Israel this week speculated that there would be another push to convince the president to take the unprecedented step. They argued that Biden would likely be more open to the idea since his frustration with the Israeli government has peaked over the lack of ceasefire in Gaza.

  The White House views Hamas as chiefly responsible but also feels that Netanyahu shares much of the blame for impasses that suited the positions of Ben Gvir and Smotrich, who have threatened to collapse the government if a hostage deal is reached.
  

  “When he entered office, the president wasn’t at a place where he would back sanctions against Israeli extremists, and he ended up moving on that because of the situation on the ground. That same shift can happen on other issues,” said a current US official.

  Proponents in the administration of sanctioning the two ministers point to allegations that Ben Gvir has ordered police not to crack down on rampant settler violence, that he has armed settlers throughout the West Bank and that he has upended the status quo on the flashpoint Temple Mount, among other destabilizing moves.

  Smotrich, meanwhile, has used his position as minister in charge of settlement affairs in the Defense Ministry to usher a massive influx in both the construction of settlements and illegal outposts across the West Bank. As finance minister, he has withheld hundreds of millions of shekels from the Palestinian Authority, bringing it to the brink of financial collapse, which could create a vacuum the Biden administration fears would be filled by terror groups.

  The administration is currently concerned that Smotrich will not sign a waiver granting indemnity to Israeli banks that carry out transactions with Palestinian ones in what risks crumbling of the Palestinian economy.

  With their support for annexing large parts of the West Bank and collapsing the PA, Ben Gvir and Smotrich are seen as major obstacles to the two-state solution, which is why a growing number of Biden aides back crossing the threshold from sanctioning Israeli civilians to Israeli officials, the two sources told The Times of Israel.

  If that step isn’t taken, a current US official said one should expect an intensification of the sanctions to possibly include organizations such as Amana and Nahala, which are responsible for building settlements and outposts, and have already been included on lists as potential designees during previous rounds this year. 
  
  Settlement Labelling

  However this is only one of the few steps that Biden aides are considering taking during the lame-duck period that are broadly aimed at preserving and advancing prospects for a two-state solution.

  Another one is to reverse a lame-duck decision taken by Trump in 2020 requiring goods made in Israeli-controlled areas of the West Bank to be labeled as “Made in Israel.” While the move was aimed at presenting the West Bank settlements as an equal part of Israel, it also applied to Palestinian towns in Area C of the West Bank.

  That was a move that some Biden aides thought would’ve been taken much earlier in the president’s term, but fell through the cracks, the former senior US official said, acknowledging that it was less likely to be approved if Trump wins, given the likelihood of its reversal.

  The concern in the past about labeling settlement products was that opponents would conflate it with a boycott of Israel, but proponents argue that it can be framed as a step that separates the settlements from the rest of the country. 
  
  Reopening the Consulate
  

  Biden came into office pledging to reopen the US Consulate in Jerusalem, the de facto mission to the Palestinians that Trump shuttered in 2019.

  The move required a degree of approval from the Israeli government, which repeatedly rejected the idea. The administration sufficed with establishing an Office of Palestinian Affairs in 2022, which was still part of the US Embassy to Israel but was allowed to send diplomatic cables directly to Washington without being filtered by the US ambassador to Israel.

  The lack of follow-through on Biden’s election promise has been a major sticking point for the PA, which some US officials would still like to remedy if Harris wins in November.

  The former senior US official said the White House could dangle one last visit from Biden to Israel to participate in the corner-stone laying ceremony for the yet-to-be-built US embassy compound in exchange for Jerusalem lifting its opposition to reopening the consulate.
  
  Leveraging US aid to Israel
  

  One move that has not received as much public attention, but the former senior US official said could prove effective, would be for the US to threaten to change a clause in the Memorandum of Understanding on US security assistance to Israel that allows Jerusalem to spend up to 25 percent of the aid on weapons made in Israel.

  Israel is the only country that isn’t required to spend the entirety of assistance it receives from Washington in the US. The former US official said Netanyahu’s aides pushed for this clause to be included in the MoU before it was signed in 2008 because many of the weapon manufacturing plants in Israel are managed by members of Netanyahu’s Likud Party.

  While the MoU has already been signed, it is not legally binding, is subject to changes and has already seen minor violations by Israel, the former senior US official said, arguing that the US should threaten to remove the clause in question in order to pressure Netanyahu to take steps that advance a two-state solution.
  
  A 'Realistic' two-state solution
  

  While the current and former US officials were skeptical that Biden would unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state or allow a resolution to be passed against Israel at the UN Security Council during the lame-duck period, they did think the president could approve a top member of his administration giving a high-level speech laying out Washington’s view on the need for a two-state solution and what a “realistic” proposal could look like.

  It could be fashioned by the address former secretary of state John Kerry gave during the lame-duck period of Obama’s second term in December 2016 — a speech that was not received well by Netanyahu, who was still prime minister then.

  The current and former senior US officials offered several other ideas of steps that Biden could approve after the presidential election but didn’t want them publicized due to fear that this could harm their chances of being implemented. link
  
  

The Region and the World

•    

Personal Stories

 

 **"I Can't Wake Up to a New Morning in the Place Where My Family Ended Their Lives"**

Tomer Zak, a member of Kibbutz Kissufim, lost her parents, Eti and Itai, and her 15-year-old brother, Sagiv, who were murdered in their home’s protected room (bomb shelter) on October 7th. After the seven-day mourning period (shiva), she volunteered for reserve duty in the Gaza Division. 

"The first time I set foot in the house at Kissufim was in early January. Before that, the last time I was there was on October 6th, for Friday dinner with my family, before I returned to Arava. My father drove me to a shift at a hotel in Shaharut, my older brother Hader was in Eilat, and only our younger brother remained with my parents at home. In the months following October 7th, I couldn't mentally handle coming home. When I finally went, I made the decision on the spot. My uncle came with me but kept his distance as I walked through the rooms, the kitchen that used to be, and the safe room where they were killed.

"The house was completely open throughout the early days of the war, and people who weren’t even from the kibbutz had come in. I discovered that some of our belongings had been moved or taken—just random people who came to see what had happened. While I was there, a group of soldiers passed by, and I began telling them my family’s story. This isn’t Auschwitz, and it’s not a memorial site. This path? It’s the path I walked on every day, smelling my mother’s cooking. After the visit, they’ll go back to their homes and tell their families about where they were, but I have nowhere to return to."

**Did you prepare before re-entering the house?**

"I talked to my psychologist, but I couldn’t really prepare. There's no privilege of preparation for anything this year. I knew the house had burned down completely. During the shiva, people from the kibbutz brought us pieces of metal from my room and shards of other things. They said that’s all they could find from the house, so I knew nothing was left. Still, I didn’t fully know what I was walking into until I saw it all. As soon as I entered, I burst into hysterical tears for four hours. The hardest part was entering the protected room, where there were still some bed sheets left. In the kitchen area, I found an unopened carton of milk. We managed to salvage a bathtub and some other fragments of things. I stored them in a container, and I hope to one day turn them into art."

**During that visit, everything you knew about their final moments changed.**

"It turned out we had been given incorrect information about how my parents and my younger brother Sagiv were killed. We were initially told they died from smoke inhalation in the house fire. When I entered the protected room, I found Kalashnikov bullet casings, and I realized something wasn’t adding up. But I still held onto what they told me, because they’re supposed to know. When I decided to preserve items from the house, I contacted 'Yad Ben Zvi,' who came to help preserve the house. When they arrived a few days later, I asked them to take the bed sheets from the protected room. When they saw them, they explained that they couldn’t because there was blood on them. It turned out there was a massive bloodstain on the bed and sheets, which I hadn’t noticed or maybe my eyes just refused to see it. It was where my mother and Sagiv were embracing. There were bullet holes in the wall nearby, and still a bit of blood near the entrance to the protected room, meaning there had been clear shooting. Suddenly, I realized I had to investigate everything on my own, that I couldn’t trust anyone, not even to tell me what had happened there.

"They told me that near a terrorist who had been evacuated from the pool area, there was a magnet with our family’s picture on it, with X’s etched over their faces. The magnet was from Sagiv’s bar mitzvah, which coincidentally took place on October 7th two years earlier. They said the terrorist wasn’t wearing a green headband like the others but IDF uniforms, to confuse people. I pieced together that after we spoke to them at 1:00 PM, when they were still alive, they thought he was an IDF soldier coming to rescue them, which is why they opened the protected room for him. There were no signs of gunfire on the door, and there wasn’t a struggle. It’s surreal that I have to discover all this on my own. It was hard to tell my older brother what I found in the house and what I understood, because it changes everything. In the end, there’s no one you can rely on."

**Shortly afterward, you enlisted for reserve duty in the Gaza Division.**

"In my original role, I was a Hummer operator, but after the shiva ended, I learned that my position wasn’t needed in the war, since I mostly handled training. I couldn’t see myself staying on the sidelines, so I begged my uncle, a reserve lieutenant colonel, to take me, even though there were already too many people and no need. For me, it was a matter of survival to be involved in defense; everything else felt disconnected.

"If I hadn’t been in the reserves, I’m sure it would have taken me even longer to go back to the house in Kissufim. My older brother had no interest in going at all. After sunset, I can’t bear to be in the area, or wake up to a new morning in the place where my family’s lives ended." link

Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages

By His Own Doing, the Prime Minister has Removed Himself from Israeli Society

Prof. Yuli Yael Tamir

President of Beit Berl College, Former Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and former Minister of Education and Immigration Absorption.

There are women held in Hamas captivity. There are people held in Hamas captivity. There are people in captivity. It is inconceivable. It hurts when you breathe, it hurts when you sleep, and above all - when you wake up and realize that they are still there, in the dark.

The hostages are there because the Prime Minister has relegated them to the periphery of his mind. The Prime Minister is interested in his own personal survival, his legal status, his political prospects, and speeches addressing the world’s dignitaries. The death of hostages does not move him, the suffering of the women who are being raped and degraded is alien to him, and the heart-rending weeping of mothers does not open the gates to his heart. By his own doing, the Prime Minister has placed himself outside the bounds of Israeli society.

In the study of ethics, standing idly by, failing to assist a person who is in mortal danger, is akin to murder. It is possibly even worse: you look at someone who is in grave distress, and simply ignore them.

Indifference to the fate of the hostages undermines not only the fundamentals of personal morality - between one person and another – but also the fundamentals of our community and cultural morality. We were raised on mottos like “all of Israel is responsible for one another” and “no person left behind.” We took pride in Israeli solidarity, in the blood-sealed pact between us. The long months during which our government and its leader have demonstrated indifference to the hostages have uncovered the underlying hollowness of these platitudes, leaving us without worthy compassionate values to substitute for the unraveled pact.

Israeli society was stripped of its values and beliefs at the very moment when it needed them most. In our personal and collective moments of vulnerability and dread, we were deprived of the ability to believe in our collective strength. It is no wonder that the civil society has become Israel’s sole reprieve: People believe in other people, working with other people, to protect them and act in their interest. People - individuals, groups—good people, jointly sealing voluntary pacts with other good people, for the sake of those that have had everything taken from them.

A multitude of people and no state in sight.

A government that breaks down its people into fragments is a dangerous one not only in the here and now but also for generations to come. It sends a distressing message to anyone who believes in the power of being together. It tells us that we are alone, that we have no one to rely on (not even our heavenly father, who—not for the first time– saw his people being massacred and did nothing to save them). That is the source of the present Israeli sense of helplessness, in the realization that our governmental system is rotten and hollow.

When citizens delegate powers to the government, they aim to confer powers on the persons who will protect them and act on their behalf.

When the government and the prime minister fail to provide citizens with protection and shelter (as well as food and medicine), they lose their legitimacy. When the prime minister is concerned with himself and does not see the citizens he is supposed to serve, he disqualifies himself and denies himself the right to govern. Netanyahu’s government is illegitimate, and it must be replaced by a government that places the safety, well-being and life of its citizens as its top priority. Hence, the demand to replace this government is a natural and just demand that will allow us all to rise and try, together, to rebuild the home that has been destroyed.

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

Join my Whatsapp update group https://chat.whatsapp.com/IQ3OtwE6ydxBeBAxWNziB0 
Twitter - @LonnyB58