🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 365, 2023 - October 5, 2024 🎗️ - A YEAR THAT THE HOSTAGES ARE STILL IN GAZA!!!

  

🎗️Day 365 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!!!”

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

Today, we have reached the unimaginable, when the counting is now a year and not by the day, something so unbelievable that we are not able to truly internalize that we are now at a year that there are 101 souls languishing in the hell of barbarous Hamas captivity and 101 hostage families and so many more extended families are vicariously in that hell with them.  We ask ourselves, how can it be? How did we reach a year and they are still not home with their loved ones and the dead, not buried and providing their loved ones a place of final peace? How can it be that for a year, every week, every day, we need to go into the streets and try to convince our government, our prime minister that they need to bring home the hostages now as a first priority before anything else? How can it be that we even need to convince them and that it is not something that is taken for granted? How can it be that they don't see their responsibility for the hostages being there and take it upon themselves to attempt to make this part of their ammends and to to everything imaginable to bring them home?
Everyday, I write a new number on a piece of tape (like so many others) and put it on my shirt. That is the number of days that the hostages have been in hell. And everyday that the number grows by a day, I can't believe that I am writing a number so high. When it was 100 days, I thought that anyday, they would be home and then we reached 150, 200, 250 and 300. How? And today 365! THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE!!! Where is the outrage of the 120 members of Knesset? Where is the outrage of the government ministers who are too many to even remember how many in this corrupt failed government? Where is the moral compass, compassion, empathy, sympathy, guilt, responsibility of the one who has brought us to this point, the weak and failed prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu? How could you, Netanyahu allow this to go on for so long? History will judge you and judge you ever so harshly, but we must make sure that it doesn't say that you let all of the still living hostages die because you care more about your own personal political position and future than the lives of those remaining. BRING THEM HOME NOW!!!!

 The two sections at the end, personal stories and Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages are very important to read, as important or more than the news of the day.

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

*8:40pm yesterday - north - rockets/missiles
*2:15am -  north - rockets/missiles
*3:00am -  north - rockets/missiles

*3:10am - north - hostile aircraft - Ortal, Aloni Habashan, Merom Golan, Ein Zivan
*8:05am -  north - rockets/missiles - A barrage of five rockets was launched from Lebanon at northern Israel, setting off sirens in many towns in the Jezreel Valley and Wadi Ara area, including Nazareth.

The IDF says some of the rockets were intercepted by air defenses while the rest impacted open areas. There are no immediate reports of injuries.

*11:30am -  north - rockets/missiles - Hezbollah says it fired Fadi-1 rockets earlier this morning at the Ramat David air base near the northern city of Haifa, about 45 kilometers (30 miles) from the Lebanese border.

The attack triggered sirens in multiple towns and communities, including in Nazareth. The military said all of the rockets were intercepted or struck open ground.

*12:30pm - hostile aircraft - Admit,
*1:35pm - north - rockets/missiles

*2:10pm - north - rockets/missiles
*2:40pm -north - rockets/missiles
*2:50pm - north - rockets/missiles
*3:00pm -north - rockets/missiles
*4:30pm - north - rockets/missiles
*4:45pm-north - rockets/missiles - A barrage of some 25 rockets was fired from Lebanon at the Karmiel area in the Galilee a short while ago, setting off sirens in several towns, the IDF says.

Some of the rockets were intercepted, and the rest struck open areas, according to the military. There are no immediate reports of injuries in the attack. Since this morning, at least 110 rockets have been fired from Lebanon at northern Israel.

Hostage Updates 

• **"Gershon Baskin, one of the architects of the Shalit deal: 'Gilad was in captivity for five unnecessary years because of Israel'"**

  
  

  Gershon Baskin, one of the architects of the Shalit deal, published a letter today ahead of Rosh Hashanah, in which he addressed the negotiations for a hostage deal: "Every year I send a Rosh Hashanah greeting. Like all of us, this year I have no words - but it is achievable." Left-wing activist **Gershon Baskin**, who is considered one of the architects of the deal to release **Gilad Shalit** from Hamas captivity in 2011, published a letter today (**Wednesday**) addressing the possibility of a hostage deal, ahead of Rosh Hashanah and marking one year since the Swords of Iron war.

  
  

  "Every year I send a Rosh Hashanah greeting," he wrote at the beginning of his statement. "I always try to formulate wishes for peace and give a little inspiration to all of us. Like everyone else, this year I have no words. The heart is broken, the eyes are tearful, sleep without thoughts of the hostages doesn't exist. I maintain my sanity thanks to the non-stop activity to bring an end to the war and return the hostages home."

  
  

  "My personal history," he continued, "has led me to be perhaps the only Israeli in constant contact with Hamas leaders, and this allows me to offer proposals, advance deals, and with great hope - bring our hostages home. I have 18 years of experience negotiating with Hamas, and also 18 years of struggles with the official bodies in the State of Israel that determine whether there will be a deal or not. Gilad Shalit was in captivity for five unnecessary years because of the Israeli system. Our hostages in Gaza have been there for many more unnecessary months."

  
  

  "According to my understanding," Baskin added, "there is a deal on the table that could bring them home in three weeks. The price is known: ending the Gaza war, complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, agreed release of Palestinian prisoners - and all 101 hostages will return home. In addition, Hamas says (to me) that they are willing to transfer control in Gaza to a professional, technocratic body, not of Hamas. In other words, the Prime Minister can present this deal as his great victory. He brings back the hostages and also the rule in Gaza will not be by Hamas."

  
  

  Baskin further wrote: "Since I am not a representative of the State of Israel and not a spokesperson for Hamas, the responsibility now rests with the negotiating team of the State of Israel. They do not need the Prime Minister's approval to check with the mediators - the US, Qatar, and Egypt - whether Hamas stands behind the three-week deal or not. They must check this. This deal proposal is on the desk of President **Joe Biden**, on the desk of the Emir of Qatar, on the desk of the head of Egyptian intelligence."

  
  

  "Israel's Prime Minister, **Benjamin Netanyahu**, knows there is such a proposal," he added. "There is no more time to hesitate. It's time to decide. Netanyahu must accept this deal. President Biden must put all possible pressure on the Prime Minister to accept it, and then Biden's legacy will be that of the President who ended the Gaza war and brought back the hostages."

  
  

  "All of this is achievable," he declared. "All of this can happen right after Rosh Hashanah. All of this must happen immediately after Rosh Hashanah. We can't bear this pain any longer. Our healing as a people will only begin after the return of the hostages. I wish us all a much better year." link
  
  
• Assessment: Hostage Deal - Only After Calm in the North

  
  

  The hostage issue has been at a standstill since the escalation in Lebanon • The Defense Minister canceled two meetings with hostages' families, the Prime Minister hasn't responded to their request to meet for over two weeks - and additional ministers haven't contacted them • However, a security official told the families: The intense fighting in the north will end within two to three weeks, it will be possible to reach an arrangement in the south as well - and proceed with a deal

  
  

  After nearly a year of war, 101 Israeli men and women who were kidnapped are still in Hamas tunnels in Gaza - dozens of them still alive. Last night (Friday), a senior security official addressed the situation (in recordings first published in Haaretz), and told the hostages' families that a deal will likely happen after the intense part of the fighting in the north ends - within at least two weeks.

  

  
  

  The attention of cabinet ministers to the hostage deal issue has significantly decreased since the fighting in the north began. Defense Minister Gallant has already canceled two meetings with hostages' families, Prime Minister Netanyahu hasn't responded to their request to meet for over two weeks, and other ministers have also avoided meetings and haven't contacted them - something that used to happen before the escalation in the north.

  
  

  As mentioned, a security official familiar with the negotiations conveyed the following message to the families: "The assessment is that the intense fighting in the north will end within two to three weeks, and the aim is to have an arrangement in both the north and south together - and then proceed with a hostage deal." Of course, a lot can change - but this is actually what might give hope to the families in the shadow of the standstill. link
  
  
• Rescued hostage Shlomi Ziv reveals he heard beatings in Gaza while in captivity
  

  Ziv spent eight months in Hamas captivity, and was rescued in Operation Arnon.
  “There were quiet nights in captivity when you could hear every little sound, and then suddenly, you’d hear someone getting beaten, just like you see here,” rescued hostage Shlomi Ziv said in response to a video posted on X/Twitter on Friday.

  The video depicted a Gazan man getting beaten by Hamas terrorists in front of children. video

  “It was chilling to hear the screams of that person being brutally beaten,” he added.

  In an earlier post, he discussed what he learned while captive in Gaza.

  "One thing that my captivity in Gaza reinforced more than anything else is the understanding and realization that they don’t want any peace with us or to live next to us or with us," he said.
  "The terrorists constantly said that they wanted the left because it brings them closer to their goal of destroying the state. They always said that the next time they do something like 7/10, they won't take hostages, they will kill all of us, and that we are cockroaches. Please wake up," he concluded.

  Ziv's captivity

  Ziv spent eight months in Hamas captivity. He was rescued in early June in Operation Arnon along with Noa Argamani, Almog Meir, and Andrey Kozlov. The operation received its name after Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora who was killed during the daring rescue.

  Ziv was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival, where he worked as a security guard.  link  Peace with Hamas was never possible. My brother, the Israeli who has spent more time talking and negotiating directly with Hamas, than any other Israeli has always said that they will never accept the State of Israel and the best we can hope to achieve with them is a long ceasefire, never peace. But Hamas does not speak for most Palestinians or Palestinian leaders. There have been so many missed opportunities to reach peace and total recognition of both a State of Israel and a State of Palestine and with our Prime Minister, that has never been possible. He has done everything he could to weaken the only real partners, the Palestinian Authority and strengthen Hamas which brought us to October 7. Each of our sides needs new leadership with vision and dedication to end this cycle of violence and bring about a new reality where both sides success will be a win-win situation for a new Middle East. - see the article below in Politics and the War section "Former Israeli and Palestinian ministers: A way out of this endless war "

  
  

• The mother of Emily Damari, a UK-Israeli hostage held by terrorists in Gaza for almost a year has given British Prime Minister Keir Starmer a note for her daughter and asked him to try and get it to her.

  
  Emily Damari was taken captive from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023 by Hamas terrorists (Courtesy)

  “It is breaking my heart a little more, day by day,” Mandy Damari tells the Daily Mail. “Soon there will be nothing left of my heart – or Emily.”

  Damari says that most of the British public don’t know that there is a UK citizen held hostage, and has asked Starmer to mention her 28-year-old daughter whenever he talks about the hostages.

  The Daily Mail publishes the note that Mandy wrote to her daughter:

  Dear Emily,

  I hope this note gets to you when you are alive and home with me, abba and all your family. And you’ll see that we are all alive.

  If it gets to you in Gaza know that we all love you and miss you and are sick with worry about what is happening to you every day and we are praying and meeting whoever we can to get you back home.

  Please keep strong, keep praying and just be your beautiful self that I love to the moon and back. You will come home. And I promise that I’ll never complain again about your perfume sticking to me when you’re home.

  Love you so much

  Your Mum (who is always right!

Gaza 

•  The IDF is calling on Palestinian civilians in some areas of Nuseirat and Bureij in the central Gaza Strip to evacuate to the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone.

  Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, publishes a map of the zones that need to be evacuated.

  He says that Hamas and other terror groups “continue their terror activities within your area, and accordingly the IDF will act with great force against these elements.”

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria

• • US wants to use Hezbollah's weakness to elect new Lebanese president - report

    The US officials said the first priory is electing a Lebanese president, then reaching a diplomatic solution to the conflict at the Israeli-Lebanese border based on a UN resolution.
    The White House wants to take advantage of Israel's massive blow to Hezbollah's leadership and infrastructure to push for an election of a new Lebanese president in the coming days, US officials said.

    Lebanon hasn't had a president for almost two years, which has increased instability and exacerbated the country's political and economic crisis.

    Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah, top Hezbollah commanders, and other Hezbollah members were killed by Israeli airstrikes in recent weeks, weakening the influential terror organization. The Israeli attacks killed more than 1,100 people in Lebanon, including dozens of women and children, the Lebanese health ministry said, without specifying how many of the people killed were Hezbollah members.

    Hezbollah, beginning in mid-September, stopped publishing the number of casualties it suffered. Nasrallah blocked any effort to elect a person who was not its ally, Suleiman Frangieh.

    One candidate is Gen. Joseph Aoun, the commander of the Lebanese armed forces, who is supported by the US and France. The Lebanese armed forces will be a key player in any post-war settlement in Lebanon. With Nasrallah dead and Hezbollah at its weakest in years, the Biden administration thinks there is now an opportunity to dramatically reduce its influence on the Lebanese political system and elect a new president who is not an ally of the Shia militia, two US officials said.

    The Lebanese political system

    The Lebanese political system is built on power sharing between the different religious sects. A Christian occupies the post of the president.

    At the end of October 2022, former president Michel Aoun, who had close relations with Hezbollah, ended his term. Since then the Lebanese parliament hasn't agreed on a new president.

    The US, France and several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been trying for two years to mediate between the different political parties in the country to reach a compromise. Still, almost every initiative was undermined by Hezbollah.

    "We have made clear for some time that we think the Lebanese government needs to overcome the dysfunction in the system — one of the primary instigators of that dysfunction being the Hezbollah veto over who the next president would be — and elect a president. That remains true," US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Thursday. An opportunity to break the deadlock

    Two US officials said the White House sees the current situation in Lebanon as an opportunity to break the deadlock over the election of a Lebanese president and thinks this should be the top priority, even before a push for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

    Recently, Lebanon's acting prime minister Najib Mikati told President Biden's adviser Amos Hochstein he wants to move forward with the plan the US laid out in June for a diplomatic solution in Lebanon.

     Hochstein told Mikati that the proposal "is off the table" because the conditions on the ground have changed in the last two weeks due to the increased fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the US officials said.

    Instead, Hochstein told Mikati the priority should be electing a new president.

    Lebanese foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib met on Thursday in Washington with the State Department's top Middle East diplomat, Barbara Leaf. According to the Lebanese official news agency, Leaf told Bou Habib that due to the country's situation, a new president must be elected as soon as possible.

    The White House didn't respond to a request for comment.

    On Thursday, Mikati called for elections as soon as possible for a new president who represents the majority of the  Lebanese people.

    "The key point is to elect a president who is not aligned with one team against another," Mikati said.

    The US officials said the first priory is electing a Lebanese president, then reaching a diplomatic solution to the conflict at the Israeli-Lebanese border based on a UN resolution that was adopted after the 2006 war in Lebanon but never fully implemented, and then appointing a new Lebanese prime minister. link

  • The IDF assesses that it has killed more than 400 Hezbollah operatives during ground operations in southern Lebanon so far.

    The operatives, including many field commanders, were killed both in airstrikes and during fighting with IDF troops, according to the military.

    The field commanders include the officers in charge of various regional units and villages in southern Lebanon, the IDF says.

    The Israeli ground operations in southern Lebanon have been described by the IDF as “limited, localized, and targeted raids,” with the goal of demolishing Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the border area, especially in the villages adjacent to Israel, to enable residents of the north to return home.

    The raids are focusing on Hezbollah’s “centers of gravity” in southern Lebanon villages, where troops have so far found massive amounts of weapons.

    The IDF is saying that the operations in southern Lebanon will expand as needed, but that it still intends for the operations to end as quickly as possible, even within a few weeks.

    
    The aftermath of Israeli airstrikes that targeted Hezbollah in Beirut's southern suburbs, on October 5, 2024 (ANWAR AMRO / AFP)
    
    Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on a Hezbollah target in Beirut's southern suburbs on October 5, 2024 (ETIENNE TORBEY / AFP)
  
  

• Overnight, the IDF says it struck Hezbollah operatives at a command center embedded within a mosque in southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil, within the Martyr Salah Ghandour Hospital compound.

  
  A graphic showing a mosque in southern Lebanon's Bint Jbeil, within the Martyr Salah Ghandour Hospital compound, issued on October 5, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

  The IDF says the drone strike was “precise” and based on intelligence.

  According to the military, the command room was being used by the Hezbollah operatives “to plan and carry out acts of terror against IDF troops and the State of Israel.”

  Before carrying out the strike, the IDF says it sent text messages to the residents and called up officials in the nearby villages, “demanding that all acts of terror carried out at the hospital cease immediately.”

  “Since the beginning of the war, and even more so since the beginning of the limited ground activity in southern Lebanon, the IDF has been making great efforts to prevent harming uninvolved civilians and civilian infrastructure, in contrast to the cynical use of the Hezbollah terrorist organization of civilian infrastructure, including essential buildings, for carrying out terrorist acts,” the IDF adds in a statement.

• The United Nations peacekeeping force it Lebanon says it will not leave positions in the country’s south despite what it said was an Israeli request to “relocate.”

  

  An armoured personnel carrier of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrols along al-Khardali road in south Lebanon on September 17, 2024. (RABIH DAHER / AFP)

  “On September 30, the IDF (Israeli military) notified UNIFIL of their intention to undertake limited ground incursions into Lebanon. They also requested we relocate from some of our positions,” the UN Interim Force in Lebanon says in a statement, adding that “peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly.”

  The organization issued a similar statement on October 1.

• An Iranian Qeshm Fars Air flight from Tehran, heading for Lebanon or Syria, made a U-turn over Iraqi airspace earlier today, data from flight tracking websites show.

  The flight was allegedly carrying weapons to Hezbollah, and therefore, the IDF worked to warn it to turn around.

  The IDF is saying that its “military blockade” on Lebanon will continue, likely for a long time.

  As part of the blockade, aimed at preventing Iranian arms from being delivered to Hezbollah, the IDF struck all of the “military” crossings between Lebanon and Syria — including a tunnel — and also hit a civilian crossing after Hezbollah began to use it.

  The IDF has also warned it would foil any attempts by Iran to transfer weapons to Hezbollah via the civilian Beirut airport.

  
  "Here we go again. Aircraft turning 180° west of Baghdad, just as it did a week ago."

  
  

  Separately, the IDF has allegedly struck several warehouses in Syria in recent days, that were believed by the military to have been used to store Iranian weapons that were to be delivered to Hezbollah.

• Troops of the IDF’s Commando Brigade and elite Yahalom Unit demolished several Hezbollah tunnel shafts that the military says were used by operatives to get close to the Israeli border in southern Lebanon.

  The soldiers also located and demolished underground caches of weapons, observation posts, and rocket launching sites in villages in southern Lebanon.

  Dozens of Hezbollah operatives were also killed in airstrikes directed by the commandos, the military adds.

• The IDF says it carried out a wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah intelligence division sites in the Lebanese capital of Beirut a short while ago.

  Overnight, several more strikes were carried out in Beirut, which according to the military targeted weapon depots, command rooms, and other infrastructure.

  The IDF says it took steps to mitigate civilian harm in the strikes, including using “precision munitions,” aerial surveillance, and issuing evacuation orders.

  Meanwhile, some 60 rockets were fired at northern Israel earlier today in two barrages at the Galilee, the IDF says.

  Many of the rockets were intercepted, but some impacted in Karmiel and Deir al-Asad, lightly wounding three and causing damage.

• A Syrian pro-government radio station is reporting that an Israeli drone strike on a car in central Syria killed one person and wounded three.

  It was not immediately clear who was the target of the airstrike near the central city of Hama, which was reported by pro-government Sham FM radio. It doesn’t give further details, though other reports indicated it was an attack by Syrian rebels.

  There is no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel regularly carries out airstrikes inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria but rarely acknowledges them. When it has, it says it targets Iranian-backed groups or Hezbollah weapons shipments.

• The IDF and Shin Bet security agency in a joint statement confirm that two senior Hamas commanders were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon today.

  The first strike, which took place overnight in the Beddawi camp for Palestinian refugees near the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, targeted and killed Saeed Atallah Ali.

  According to the IDF and Shin Bet, Ali advanced terror attacks against Israel and worked to recruit more members to Hamas in Lebanon.

  Hamas confirmed Ali’s death, calling him a field commander.

  The second strike, which took place this morning near the Beqaa Valley town of Saadnayel, targeted and killed Mohammed Hussein al-Lawis.

  The IDF and Shin Bet describe al-Lawis as Hamas’s “executive authority in Lebanon” and say that he directed terror attacks in the West Bank.

  The statement adds that he was also responsible for “Hamas’s entrenchment inside Lebanon, using it to supply weapons for rocket attacks against Israel and in attempts to manufacture advanced weaponry.”

  Hamas also confirms al-Lawis’s death in a statement.

West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel

•     Hamas’s armed wing al-Qassam Brigades has confirmed the death of one of its commanders Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi in an Israeli strike on the West Bank city of Tulkarm along with seven other fighters, the group says in a statement.

  The Israeli military said that it killed Oufi, head of the Hamas network in Tulkarm, in an attack on Thursday.

• The IDF and Shin Bet say they have identified at least 12 terror operatives among the dead in Thursday night’s fighter jet strike in the West Bank city of Tulkarem.

  The strike had targeted a senior Hamas commander, Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, who was planning a major terror attack on the anniversary of the October 7 massacre, according to the military.

  The Palestinian Authority health ministry reported 18 dead in the strike, including eight and seven-year-old siblings Karam and Sham Abu Zahra.

  According to the IDF, at least 12 of those killed in the strike are confirmed to be members of the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups. The two terror groups also announced the deaths of several operatives in the strike.

  
  Palestinians inspect the damage caused by an Israeli airstrike in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, October 4, 2024. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

Politics and the War (general news)

•  Former Israeli and Palestinian ministers: A way out of this endless war - It’s time to secure a lasting peace — for Israelis, Palestinians and the broader region.  
  By Ehud Olmert

   and  Nasser al-Kidwa

  Ehud Olmert was prime minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009. Nasser al-Kidwa was foreign affairs minister of the Palestinian National Authority from 2005 to 2006.

  On Oct. 7, 2023, a new earth-shattering chapter in the history of violent encounters between Palestinians and Israelis launched their most devastating war yet. Almost one year later, too many thousands of people have been killed on both sides. The Gaza Strip has been destroyed, and most of its inhabitants have become refugees once again; there are now about 2 million homeless Gazans. More than 200,000 Israelis also have been displaced, forced to leave their homes near Gaza and in the north, near the border with Lebanon. The war now threatens to spread across Lebanon itself, and perhaps the broader region as well.
  We didn’t know each other in our past official positions in service of our peoples. Nor did our professional paths cross — until now. After many hours of discussions, we believe we have come up with a blueprint for a breakthrough toward ending the war in Gaza. This would also serve as a starting point for renewed negotiations to reach an agreement that would end the violent conflict between Israelis and Palestinians once and for all — and in doing so remove one of the biggest impediments to a lasting regional peace.
  The suggestion of any radical change is, of course, viewed as capitulation or granting the other side victory. But the true test of leadership is not in following public opinion but in determining the best strategic path for the future and presenting it boldly and without fear.
  We begin with the basics: The war in Gaza must end. The Israeli hostages held by Hamas must be returned to their families. And Israel will have to release the agreed number of Palestinian prisoners. Israel must also withdraw from Gaza. And the Palestinians must create a new, responsible and legitimate ruling entity in Gaza that is not composed of politicians from any of the Palestinian factions — a governmental structure that would be organically linked to the Palestinian Authority but independent enough to gain the acceptance of the Palestinian people, the Arab neighbors and the international community.
  The following part of our plan contains the conditions to enable a sustainable Israeli-Palestinian peace. This peace must be based on the existence of the states of Israel and Palestine, living side by side on the basis of the June 4, 1967, borders. We agree that 4.4 percent of the West Bank, where the main Israeli settlement blocs exist (including in the Jerusalem area), represents realities on the ground that are too difficult to reverse. This land will need to be annexed to Israel, in exchange for the same amount of land being ceded to the new Palestinian state.
  

  We also propose to remove the Old City of Jerusalem — the center of the religious sites — from the exclusive sovereign control of either Israel or Palestine. The Old City of Jerusalem would be administered by a trusteeship of five states, including Israel and Palestine.

  This plan does not have all the details worked out. We have agreed on the contours of what genuine Israeli-Palestinian peace must be based on. In the not-too-distant future, a new generation of Israeli and Palestinian leaders would have the task of negotiating and transforming this vision into reality.

  As part of our commitment, we are investing our time and effort to generate support for our proposal from the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, opinion makers, and political leaders in the region and beyond. We are presenting the unavoidable truth: that this conflict must be resolved diplomatically for us to create a course for a different tomorrow. We are working tirelessly to explain our plan and to secure public support as widely as possible. To us, this is not merely a document but a living vision of a better future for Israel, Palestine and the world.

  In a period of such frightening darkness, we seek to shine a light of hope pointing to the path that our two peoples must take. link  As an FYI, my brother, Gershon Baskin is the architect behind the scenes of this move bringing together Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister who came the closest to achieving a peace agreement and cessation of the Israel/Palestinian conflict, and Nasser al-Kidra, former Foreign Minister of the PA and nephew of Yasser Arafat
  
  

The Region and the World

• The FBI is warning ahead of the anniversary of the October 7 attacks that it “may be a motivating factor for violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators to engage in violence or threaten public safety.”

  It says foreign terrorist organizations and other extremists may seek to “motivate threat actors across ideologies, including those who espouse violent antisemitism and Islamophobia, to engage in violence. Individuals inspired by this online messaging could act alone to commit an attack with little to no warning.”  -- This is a serious warning and should not be taken lightly. I don't know how much it is being discussed in the world news, but I expect that October 7th anniversary will be like a dog whistle to terror organizations around the world.

•  Extraordinary documentation published tonight: a Jordanian photographer set up a camera that recorded the skies of Jordan during the eve of the Iranian attack on 1/10. You can see the missiles making their way to Israel, in two separate waves, with the first wave being more massive. You can also see a number of interceptions carried out in Jordanian skies.
  
  
  
  
• Interview with my brother, Gershon Baskin on BBC during the Iranian Missile Attack BBC interview with Gershon Baskin (starts at minute 33:00)
  
  

• The Israeli military is in the midst of planning a response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack on the country earlier this week, and warns that it will be “serious and significant.”

  The IDF has said that Iran’s attack of some 200 ballistic missiles on the country will “have consequences.”

  The attack caused damage in Israel, including in Israeli airbases, though the military has said that no aircraft or critical infrastructure were hit. link Israel and the US administration are discussing the Israeli retaliatory attack on Iran. The US is asking Israel not to attack Iranian Nuclear sites or oil producing sites. They believe that an attack on either will be the spark to ignite a regional war.

  
  
• US air strikes target several cities across Yemen -Attacks hit key port city of Hodeidah as well as the capital, Sanaa, Houthi-run media and US sources say.
  
  Smoke is seen over Sanaa, after air strikes hit several Yemeni cities on Friday [Osamah Abdulrahman/AP]

  The United States military has struck a number of cities in Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa, and the key port city of Hodeidah.

  Forces from the US Central Command (CENTCOM), the military command responsible for US forces in the Middle East, “conducted strikes on 15 Houthi targets in Iranian-backed Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen today”, it said on X on Friday.
  Four strikes targeted Sanaa and seven hit Hodeidah, according to the Houthi-run Al Masirah TV network. Correspondents with the AFP news agency also reported hearing loud explosions in both cities.

  The Hodeidah strikes hit the airport and the Katheib area, which has a Houthi-controlled military base, Al Masirah said. Footage on social media verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency showed large plumes of smoke resulting from the strikes in Hodeidah.

  At least one strike hit Dhamar province, and air raids took place in Bayda province, southeast of Sanaa, the Houthi media office also said.
  “These actions were taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US, coalition, and merchant vessels,” CENTCOM said in its post on X, adding that the strikes took place at around 1400GMT.
  The Associated Press news agency, quoting unnamed US officials, said the strikes targeted weapons systems, bases and other equipment belonging to the Houthis.
  Al Masirah, which did not elaborate on any damage or casualties, said the United Kingdom also participated in the attacks.

  But the UK Ministry of Defence has categorically denied any involvement in the strikes, according to an official who spoke to the Al Jazeera office in London.

  Washington has repeatedly struck Houthi targets in Yemen since January in response to attacks by the group on shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
  The Houthis say their strikes, which have disrupted maritime traffic in a globally important waterway, target vessels linked to Israel and are intended to signal solidarity with Palestinians and opposition to Israel’s war on Gaza.

  Now as the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, another Iran-backed group, escalates with Israeli strikes killing about 2,000 people in Lebanon, the Houthis are also demanding Israel halt its assault there.

  ‘Yemen will not be deterred’

  Israel has also struck Yemen with Israeli strikes on Hodeidah last month killing at least five people after the group said it targeted Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport with a missile.

  The latest strikes came a day after the Houthis said they carried out a drone attack on Tel Aviv. The Israeli military said it intercepted “a suspicious aerial target” off central Israel overnight without giving further details.

  The attacks also come just days after the Houthis threatened “escalating military operations” targeting Israel after they apparently shot down a US military drone flying over Yemen. And just last week, the group claimed responsibility for an attack targeting American warships.
  The rebels fired more than a half-dozen ballistic missiles and antiship cruise missiles and launched two drones at three US ships that were travelling through the Bab al-Mandeb strait, but all were intercepted by navy destroyers, according to several US officials.
  The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet publicly released.

  On Friday, thousands of people took to the streets of Sanaa to express solidarity with the Palestinians and Lebanese people amid intensified attacks by Israel.

  “The aggression on the capital and Yemeni governorates after the … solidarity marches with Lebanon and Gaza is a desperate attempt to terrorise our people,” Houthi official Hashem Sharaf al-Din told Al Masirah.

  “Yemen will not be deterred by these attacks and will continue its steadfastness in confronting the enemies with all its strength.” link

  
  

• French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday urges a halt to arms deliveries to Israel, calling for “a political solution” in the nearly yearlong Gaza war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack.

  “I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,” Macron tells broadcaster France Inter, adding that France is not sending any arms to Israel.

• 
  

Personal Stories

"I Wasn't Afraid They'd Kill Me": Yocheved Lifshitz and the Confrontation with Sinwar in the Tunnels

 

Yocheved Lifshitz, 86, was among the first hostages released from Gaza. Her husband Oded is still there, in the tunnels. Since her release, Yocheved has barely spoken, but now in a special interview, she tells all: how she was kidnapped on a motorcycle to Gaza, what she said to Sinwar when she met him in a tunnel, what happened at the press conference in the hospital that angered many - and what was said after she confronted Netanyahu, telling him he had no idea where Nir Oz is located.  

Yocheved Lifshitz, 86, was among the first hostages released from Hamas captivity. 11 months have passed since she returned to Israel; her 84-year-old husband Oded is still there. 

**How are you?**

"That's a question that's hard to answer. Physically, I'm okay, but practically my head is still in the tunnels. As long as there are hostages, I feel like I'm there with them. I'm constantly thinking about them, about what they're going through, it's driving me crazy." 

**I assume you also think a lot about Oded.**

"Very much. It's hard for me to believe he's holding on. Oded was kidnapped while injured and has blood pressure problems, he would occasionally faint, and he has a lung disease from smoking. If he doesn't get his inhaler and doesn't get his pills, I don't believe he can hold on."  

"There Was an Entrance to a Tunnel and We Started Going Down"

Yocheved and Oded Lifshitz are among the founders of Kibbutz Nir Oz. She was a photographer, a photography teacher, and a physical education teacher - Oded was a journalist and columnist for "Al HaMishmar." On October 7th, they were in their home in the kibbutz when the incessant Red Alert sirens began. Shortly after, five terrorists broke into their safe room: Oded was shot in the hand and fainted, Yocheved was forcibly dragged from the bed. 

Oded Lifshitz, kidnapped and injured with blood pressure issues

"I was only in a nightgown and barefoot and everything, so they gave me some rug to wrap myself in. I saw Oded unconscious, I couldn't talk to him, I couldn't say goodbye. They laid me like a sack of potatoes on a motorcycle. I felt it very well - when you lie on your ribs, it's quite difficult. We drove, we reached Khirbet Khuzaa, and someone approached me and told me to give him my ring and watch, and if not - he'd cut off my hand. So I took them off and gave them to him. We arrived at a large hangar, and there was an entrance to a tunnel and we started going down." 

"Suddenly, people started arriving from all kinds of openings to the main path, many more people from Nir Oz and not from Nir Oz, and there we gathered about twenty-something people, and then they made a separation." Yocheved remained with four of her friends from Nir Oz: with Margalit Moses, Avraham Munder, and Amiram and Nurit Cooper. 

"They spread a mat on the floor because the humidity there is very high, and on top of that mattresses, and everyone received a blanket and a pillow. Everyone said what main medications they take. And they tried to provide them." 

**What about food?**

"One pita a day, a little white cheese on the pita, and one cucumber a day." 

**Did you have communication with the people guarding you?**

"Margalit was in communication with them. We talked to them very little. For everything we needed, she was our liaison." 

"I Wasn't Afraid to Say Something to Sinwar"

After about four days of being isolated from the outside world, with no idea what had happened to their community in Nir Oz and the rest of the country, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar came to meet them in the tunnel. 

"He introduced himself in Hebrew. He said he speaks excellent Hebrew, he was in prison for many years, and he told us 'Don't worry. Within a few days, there will be agreements between us and Israel, and you will be released.' And then I asked him, 'How can you do this to people who have fought for peace all their lives and drive you to hospitals? These are the ones you murder, these are the ones you capture?' So he didn't answer me." 

**Where did the courage come from in that situation, to say anything to him at all?**

"I wasn't afraid. What could they do to me, kill me? After all, I was already 85 then. I've already lived my life." 

After 17 days, she was released, for humanitarian reasons according to Hamas: "I was very sick. I stopped eating and was vomiting, and they were afraid I would infect others there and there would be an epidemic."

 

**In what condition did you arrive at Ichilov Hospital?**

"Very poor, with very low blood pressure. I could barely stand on my feet, but I walked on my own feet."

 

"I Know the Conditions in Captivity Deteriorated"

The day after she returned, a controversial impromptu press conference was held at Ichilov Hospital, where Yocheved first talked about the conditions in which she was held. Lifshitz candidly described the days in captivity - but her words sparked outrage and were perceived as an own goal for Israeli public diplomacy, especially the sentence: "The treatment of us was good." Now she explains: "I told the truth, that was the reality I had down there."

Yocheved Lifshitz in the hospital after her release from captivity

 

**It's possible they expected you to be angrier.**

"I am angry, but that was my truth. 40 meters underground is not 'reasonable' but in comparison, we received mattresses, a blanket, a pillow. As far as I know from those who remained after me, the conditions deteriorated. But I emphasized that this was with us: there were those who suffered and those who were murdered, and those who didn't receive medications and died."

 

Oded, Yocheved's husband, was held separately from her. Only in retrospect did she learn that in the first days after the kidnapping, he was in an apartment in Khan Yunis. "After 50 days when the released girls came out, it turned out that one of them, a member of Nir Oz, was with him together. And then she told us that he was alive and she said he functioned well and he helped her a lot, because it was very difficult for her. On the twentieth day, he felt unwell and they dragged him out of the room. And since then his traces have disappeared and we don't know anything about him."

 

"I told the truth. That is the reality that I had down there" - Yocheved Lifshitz in her statement after her release from Hamas captivity

**So beyond the first 20 days...**

"We don't know anything about him, like many others." 

"Since I Came Out and Was Kidnapped, I Haven't Cried" 

**When you think about Oded, what comes to mind?**

"I'm very pessimistic about him. I sit at home, see something, and I look to the side to say a word to him, and suddenly I realize he's not here. It's very difficult to suddenly disconnect from a person you've lived with for 64 years - you weren't prepared for it, nothing. It's all at once cut off."

 

And she remembers one moment after she was released: "When I came out I was at Kfar Hamaccabiah, in the hotel, and I was sleeping. At one in the morning I woke up from a dream where Oded was telling me 'I sent you a song, open the radio and listen to my song.' And it's a song we both love very much and heard a lot at home - 'I Won't Ask for Your Hand'."

 

**Have you dreamed about Oded again since then?**

"Two things stopped for me - tears and dreams."

 **You don't cry?**

"No. Since I came out and was kidnapped, I haven't cried. The springs dried up. I feel I can function and do things, I go to protests, I speak at protests, I meet people. But crying - I'm not capable of that." 

"I Left Very Disappointed from the Meeting with Bibi" 

**Why is it so important for you to be there (at the protests)?**

"I have a feeling that I add strength to the protesters."

 

**Do you feel it has an impact?**

"It doesn't affect the government. My feeling is - everyone will return in coffins." 

**Despite the recent statements from the most official American sources, they say Sinwar is not interested in negotiation.**

"Ours isn't interested either, according to the meeting I had with Bibi. I left very disappointed."

 

About a month ago, captivity survivors and relatives of hostages were summoned to the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem for a meeting with Netanyahu and his wife.

 

"I asked him 'Tell me, do you know how to read a map?' He says to me 'Of course'. I say to him 'So how did you not know where, you still don't know where Nir Oz is? You haven't been to my house.' Then (in the presentation on the Philadelphi Corridor) Nir Oz didn't exist on his map. Meaning that to this day Nir Oz doesn't interest him."

 

**What did he say?**

"He didn't answer. He explained to us that he went through a series of captivity [training]. So I laughed, I told him 'My son who's sitting next to me, you both went through the same series from the same unit. But what's a week-long series, captivity, when your friends beat you and that's it, compared to a year in hell?' I left with the feeling that he doesn't want to release. He wants the absolute victory first, and he doesn't care about contributing us to science."

 

"We Must Reach a Political Settlement"

This week, an exhibition of Yocheved's photographs opened at the Eretz Israel Museum - the few that survived, because they were kept with her daughter in London: "These are individual pictures that remained after the great fire of my entire photo archive, the remnant, as they say. They came to our house, kidnapped us, and then set the house on fire. It was excellent burning material - everything burned, nothing was left. They erased all my past." For her, the exhibition is also a kind of victory picture.

 

"I hope that, in the end, we will reach an agreement. Otherwise, we have to fight all of our lives?" Lifshitz and her family

**Over the years, you and Oded were peace people, you drove Palestinians from Gaza to hospitals. You believed...**

"In coexistence, yes."

 

**Has something changed in your perception?**

"No. We have no choice. We must find a solution. We must reach a political settlement."

 

**With whom? With the people who kidnapped you? With the people who burned Nir Oz?**

"How did the world forgive Germany?"

 

**Are you capable of forgiving the people who did this to you and your loved ones? To your community?**

"I have nothing left in Europe. And today, Germany is one of the countries that supports us the most. They were very cruel, they killed more of mine. I have no choice - the reality is such that we must find an arrangement. We must find a way to live together."

 

**How do you see it happening?**

"I don't know." 

**You're smiling.**

"What can I do?" 

**Are you optimistic?**

"Half. But I hope, I hope that in the end we'll reach an agreement. Because otherwise fight all our lives? I have three sons, all were combat soldiers. I have a grandson in the army, he's now in the paratroopers. I have a grandson who was drafted, he just did seven months of reserve duty, now he's been drafted again. What future do they have? I hope there will be a solution someday."  link

Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages

Inspired by Avraham Shlonksy's Vow

Shira Geffen Author.

By his eyes that saw the grief

Exploiting slaughter to gather more power

By his lies, beyond belief

Uttered only to escape justice's hour

He vowed to ruin one and all

And forget those he had forsaken.

He'll grip his throne, through storm and squall,

Leaving his people isolated and shaken.

Cross every boundary, break every moral code

Will we again remain silent, suppress our rage?

Will we, come morning, go back to our old ways

And elect the tyrant, time and time again?

 

 My Son was Sacrificed by the Felon Benjamin Netanyahu

Dr. Maayan Sherman

Mother of Ron, who was kidnapped alive from his army base and killed while in Hamas captivity. 

Ron Sherman, my beloved son, was 19 years old when he died. Ron was an ambitious, intelligent, good-looking and charismatic soldier, who loved life so much. Ron’s life ended because of the greatest blunder in the history of the State of Israel.

The Hamas monster was fostered under the patronage of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister for the past 15 years...  Netanyahu enabled and even assisted in the growing and strengthening of Hamas.

During his tenure as prime minister, Hamas armed itself and planned without hindrance how to carry out its satanic attack.

On the morning of October 7th, Ron was at his army base near Gaza, where he served as a coordination and communications commander. He was texting with me from 6:30 a.m. up until the moment he was kidnapped.

His last words were: “I love you all, they are here, it’s over. Ron was kidnapped from inside a bomb shelter and was seen in a Hamas video being led out by Hamas terrorists, barefoot, frightened and beaten, but alive and uninjured, into the tunnels of Gaza.

I believed, from the first moment, that the Israeli government had a supreme moral obligation to bring Ron and all the other hostages home.

Last November, Hamas published a flier with Ron’s picture and a message in Hebrew warning that Netanyahu intends to kill our son together with Hamas leaders. A few days later, on November 10th, Ron, Nick Baizer, and Eliah Toledano were killed as a result of the bombing of the tunnel in which they were held, the tunnel of Ahmed Randur, Hamas’s northern brigade commander.

I keep asking myself, how did this happen? Where was our government over the past years? Where was Israel’s Prime Minister, Netanyahu, “Mr. Security,” as he was referred to, who claimed he was the only one standing strong against Hamas? Who would have believed that a day would come in which all that arrogance would crumble into one dreadful moment that would change our lives forever?

Netanyahu abandoned Ron. Ron was a combat support soldier whose role was to provide services to the Gaza population, under the auspices of the Israeli government and its leader. The thought was that if we took care of the Gazans’ welfare, they would not want to harm us.

Benjamin Netanyahu failed in his most important mission: to guarantee the safety of Ron and of the citizens of Israel. Moreover, Netanyahu actually sacrificed the lives of Ron and his friends. The life of Ron, a simple soldier, was a price Benjamin Netanyahu was willing to pay for the head of a Hamas  commander.

My family and I are constantly facing the dreadful understanding that Ron’s life came to a tragic end because of a conscious decision. Ron’s death could have been prevented. Benjamin Netanyahu abandoned Ron by doing nothing to defeat Hamas over his 15 years as Israel’s Prime Minister. Benjamin Netanyahu sacrificed Ron’s life after Ron was kidnapped when he approved the targeting of Ahmed Randur together with the hostages who surrounded him. Benjamin Netanyahu abandoned and sacrificed so many, amongst them, my son Ron Sherman. This is Netanyahu‘s legacy, and this is how he will be remembered to the end of time.

 

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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