π️Lonny's War Update- October 370, 2023 - October 10, 2024 π️
π️Day 370 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
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!ΧΧΧ Χ Χ¦ΧΧΧ Χ’Χ Χ©ΧΧ ΧΧΧΧΧ€ΧΧ ΧΧΧΧͺ
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
*9:15pm yesterday - North - Hostile aircraft - Dovev, Matat, Sasa*11:25pm yesterday - north - hostile aircraft - Majdal Shams
*10:00- north - rockets/missiles
*11;15am - north - rockets/missiles
*12:00pm - The IDF says it brought down a small drone launched from Gaza into Israel.
*10:00- north - rockets/missiles
*11;15am - north - rockets/missiles
*12:00pm - The IDF says it brought down a small drone launched from Gaza into Israel.
The army says the drone was under surveillance and brought down as it crossed the border. No one was hurt in the incident.
*1:55pm - north - rockets/missiles
*2:20pm -north - rockets/missiles
*3:00pm-north - rockets/missiles
*3:40pm -north - rockets/missiles
A number of impacts have also been identified. There are no immediate reports of casualties.
*5:05pm - north - The IDF says the Air Force intercepted a “hostile” drone that crossed into the Upper Galilee from Lebanon.
Sirens were triggered in the area as a result of the incident, but there were no casualties, the army says.
The IDF announces that Sgt. Maj. (res.) Ronny Ganizate, of the Alon Brigade’s 5030th Battalion, was killed during fighting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Another reserve soldier from the 5030th Battalion was seriously wounded in the same incident and taken to a hospital, the military adds.
Ganizate, 36, of Givat Shmuel, is the 12th Israeli soldier killed in the ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon and during operations on the border.
Hostage Updates
Today is Yarden Bibas' 35th birthday and Ziv Berman's 27th birthdayThe family of the hostage Yarden Bibbs gathered Wednesday in Hostage Square in the plaza of the Tel Aviv Museum in honor of his 35th birthday. Bibas will be the first hostage to have a second birthday in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip. Ofri Bibas said to her kidnapped brother: "How I would like to laugh at you again, for the way you perceive the world. Always black and white, with no middle ground. Right and wrong, right and wrong. How these concepts have lost meaning in the last year. What is more right and justified than you coming home?". His family dedicated an installation for him inspired by the word "HOME." 
Yarden Bibas, Shiri’s man and the father of Ariel and Kfir.
A tall and strong man with a sensitive soul, warm beautiful eyes and an irresistible smile. Yarden will always offer his chair to someone else and will remain standing, as he simply does not know how to rest. He has a unique sense of humor, making everyone laugh, especially his wife Shiri, even when she is most upset with him. He calls his son Ariel “the first Yemenite redhead”. We are waiting for him to return and see how famous his redheaded children have become. Yarden was abducted from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on that black Saturday, October 7th, after trying to defend his family with his private weapon. In the photos, he is seen wounded with his head bleeding, on a motorcycle between two Hamas terrorists, one of them holding a hammer covered with blood. The assumption is that Yarden is separated from Shiri and the children, all hostages in Gaza. We must bring back the whole family. Now. video of Yarden with Kfir in happier times
Dozens gather in Tel Aviv to mark Yarden Bibas’s second birthday in Hamas captivity
Hostage Updates
Yarden Bibas, Shiri’s man and the father of Ariel and Kfir.
A tall and strong man with a sensitive soul, warm beautiful eyes and an irresistible smile. Yarden will always offer his chair to someone else and will remain standing, as he simply does not know how to rest. He has a unique sense of humor, making everyone laugh, especially his wife Shiri, even when she is most upset with him. He calls his son Ariel “the first Yemenite redhead”. We are waiting for him to return and see how famous his redheaded children have become. Yarden was abducted from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on that black Saturday, October 7th, after trying to defend his family with his private weapon. In the photos, he is seen wounded with his head bleeding, on a motorcycle between two Hamas terrorists, one of them holding a hammer covered with blood. The assumption is that Yarden is separated from Shiri and the children, all hostages in Gaza. We must bring back the whole family. Now. video of Yarden with Kfir in happier times
Dozens gather in Tel Aviv to mark Yarden Bibas’s second birthday in Hamas captivity
Father of Ariel, 5, and Kfir, 1, is the first hostage to pass two birthdays in Gaza; family in Israel marks occasion with somber ceremony in Tel Aviv’s Hostages SquareTaken captive: Ziv Berman, from his home in Kfar Aza’s young generation neighborhood
Ziv and twin brother Gali were nowhere to be found at Kibbutz Kfar Aza after the Hamas onslaught of October 7
Dozens of family members and supporters gathered in Tel Aviv on Wednesday ahead of the second birthday in captivity of Yarden Bibas, who was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.
Bibas will turn 35 on Thursday, the first hostage to mark a second birthday in Hamas captivity.
His family marked the occasion with a ceremony in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, where his sister Ofri unveiled an iron sign reading “HOME,” that Yarden had made and gifted to her when she moved to the kibbutz.
“We aren’t a family that celebrates birthdays so much,” said Ofri at the ceremony, “but there was always cake, dinner and a crown that Shiri made for you, like for kids in kindergarten. That reality is so far from us now,” she said referring to Bibas’s wife who is also a hostage along with their two small children Ariel and Kfir.
At Hostages Square, participants marked Yarden’s birthday with Goldstar beers and a milk pie dessert that were much loved by him and his wife.
Terrorists abduct Yarden Bibas to Gaza after kidnapping him from his home in Nir Oz, a kibbutz in Israel near the Gaza border, on Oct. 7, 2023. His wife Shiri and son Ariel, 4, and baby Kfir, were also abducted. (AP Photo)
Shiri, Ariel and Kfir had been slated for release along with other mothers and children during a November truce, but that never materialized, amplifying fears over their fates.
Video recovered by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza earlier this year showed Shiri, Ariel and Kfir hours after they were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz. It was the first proof of life for the three, but did not include any footage of Yarden.
Nili Margalit, who spent nearly 50 days in Hamas captivity, revealed in December 2023 that she was with Yarden when Hamas terrorists told him his wife and two young children had been killed and ordered him to film a video in which he blamed Netanyahu for refusing to return their bodies to Israel.
After the ceremony at Hostages Square on Wednesday, Ofri Bibas lashed out at the government for not achieving the release of her brother and his family.
“I am very, very angry — furious — that they’re still not here. I think there were many opportunities, and they could be here already,” she told the Ynet news site.
Ofri said she didn’t invite politicians to the ceremony, and didn’t want them to show up.
“One full year, I met with members of Knesset, I sat in Knesset committees, with representatives of the public, I heard everyone. They say the hostages are in their hearts, they want them to come back, just like we do, and they’ll do everything they can — but I’m sorry, after a year I just don’t believe them anymore,” she said.
The Bibas family, father Yarden, mother Shiri, baby Kfir and four-year-old Ariel, were taken captive by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 from Kibbutz Nir Oz. (Courtesy)
Of her loved ones, Ofri told Ynet, “I don’t know their condition. I don’t know whether they’re alive or dead, I don’t know where they are, I don’t know anything.”
As a message to her captive brother, Ofri said: “We love you very, very much, and we miss you. All of us, really. I don’t have much to wish for, except your freedom, and that you get to hug Shiri again and kiss Ariel and Kfir and be with them together, and that we will be able to celebrate your next birthday, and many after that, together.”
Ziv Berman, 26, is being held captive in Gaza, after being abducted by Hamas terrorists who overran Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7.
He was abducted along with his twin brother, Gali Berman, both of whom live in the ‘young generation’ neighborhood of Kfar Aza. Out of 37 residents of that neighborhood, 11 people were murdered and seven were kidnapped and taken to the Strip — among the 1,200 who were killed and 240 kidnapped when gunmen rampaged through southern Israeli communities.
His older brother, Liran Berman, 36, didn’t spend the Simchat Torah Shabbat with the rest of his family, because his wife had tested positive for Covid, he told The Guardian.
Liran was at home in Zichron Ya’akov, when sirens began sounding on Shabbat morning. He Whatsapped his mother, Talia, 60, Ziv and Gali and a third brother, Idan, 32, as they hid in their safe rooms.
Berman texted with his younger twin brothers for hours, asking how they were doing, and whether they were safe. In the evening, they stopped answering.
Hours later, Talia and the boys’ father, Doron, 64, who has Parkinson’s disease and dementia, were freed. Idan was released the following afternoon.
It took several days to regain control over Kfar Aza, where more than 60 of 400 residents were murdered and 18 abducted. During this time, the Berman didn’t know if Ziv and Gali were dead or kidnapped.
After 10 days of attending countless funerals — sometimes several in one day — the Bermans were told by Israeli officers that the twins were kidnapped by Hamas.
“When we were told they were kidnapped, we were joyful,” said Liran Berman to The Guardian. “It’s such a weird thing. It was a glimmer of hope.”
- Brett McGurk, the special assistant of President Biden said to an audience of American Jewish leaders that Sinwar is blocking agreement on the hostages and ceasefire. That fits the American and official Israeli narrative. People in DC told me that McGurk is so invested in the failed negotiations on a bad deal that it is difficult for him to let go and adopt the #threeweeksdeal. My understanding is that if Israel were to tell the mediators that the three weeks deal is acceptable, Hamas would return a positive answer too. To me it seems that there is either the three weeks deal or no deal. This war must end and the hostages must come home. Now! (Gershon Baskin, October 10, 2024)
Gaza
The US believes that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is alive and likely hiding in an underground Gaza tunnel with hostages in his vicinity, White House Mideast czar Brett McGurk revealed on Wednesday.
“Yahya Sinwar remains the decision-maker. He remains — we believe — alive and in a tunnel underneath Gaza, holding hostages, and likely with hostages in his vicinity,” McGurk said during a High Holiday call the White House held with American rabbis.
McGurk’s remarks were the most detailed update regarding the status of Sinwar from a senior US official in weeks.
In recent days, Sinwar reportedly re-established contact with Hamas officials outside of Gaza after more than a month in which he had not been heard from.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Wednesday that Sinwar ordered commanders in the West Bank to renew suicide attacks in Israel shortly after he replaced Ismail Haniyeh as head of the terror organization’s politburo following the latter’s assassination in Tehran.
McGurk reiterated the administration’s belief that the war in Gaza could end immediately if Sinwar agreed to release the remaining 101 hostages Hamas is holding in Gaza.
During their phone call earlier Wednesday, the White House said US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “discussed the urgent need to renew diplomacy to release the hostages held by Hamas.”Biden also raised “the humanitarian situation in Gza and the imperative to restore access to the north, including by reinvigorating the corridor from Jordan immediately,” according to the US readout. full article
The US believes that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is alive and likely hiding in an underground Gaza tunnel with hostages in his vicinity, White House Mideast czar Brett McGurk revealed on Wednesday.
“Yahya Sinwar remains the decision-maker. He remains — we believe — alive and in a tunnel underneath Gaza, holding hostages, and likely with hostages in his vicinity,” McGurk said during a High Holiday call the White House held with American rabbis.
In recent days, Sinwar reportedly re-established contact with Hamas officials outside of Gaza after more than a month in which he had not been heard from.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Wednesday that Sinwar ordered commanders in the West Bank to renew suicide attacks in Israel shortly after he replaced Ismail Haniyeh as head of the terror organization’s politburo following the latter’s assassination in Tehran.McGurk reiterated the administration’s belief that the war in Gaza could end immediately if Sinwar agreed to release the remaining 101 hostages Hamas is holding in Gaza.
During their phone call earlier Wednesday, the White House said US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “discussed the urgent need to renew diplomacy to release the hostages held by Hamas.”Biden also raised “the humanitarian situation in Gza and the imperative to restore access to the north, including by reinvigorating the corridor from Jordan immediately,” according to the US readout. full article
Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria
- Hezbollah stronghold turned into a killing field: "It's a ghost town, chaos reigns in the streets of Dahieh"Just a few weeks ago, Hezbollah leaders still believed they were protected in Beirut, but Israel, it seems, has begun implementing the "Dahieh Doctrine" - and the assassinations proved that no one is safe there. Residents have left, thieves were tied to poles, and chaos has taken over, but Hezbollah leaders - those still alive - are still there: "It seems they have nowhere to run."
Powerful attacks in Da'ahia have turned the district into a "ghost city" (Photo: Reuters / REUTERS / Amr Abdallah Dalsh)The Dahieh district in Beirut was one of Hezbollah's most distinct strongholds, where the Shiite terrorist organization from Lebanon showed an increased presence and absolute control. In this district of the capital city, Hezbollah hid various types of weapons and central command centers, which seemed to be a protected place for them. However, in recent weeks, IDF attacks in the area have intensified - and from a significant stronghold, Dahieh has turned into a killing field.While in the first months of the war, attacks in Dahieh were seen as an exceptional event, reserved only for the assassination of senior officials, it seems that in the last month and a half, the IDF has been attacking there on a daily basis, often carrying out several attacks a day. In fact, the IDF has long understood that Dahieh is a central terrorist stronghold of Hezbollah. The IDF spokesperson even emphasized yesterday morning (Wednesday) that "this is where Hezbollah's decisions are made, and it produces and hides its strategic weapons - inside and underneath civilian buildings in Dahieh."In light of the extensive attacks in the area, and residents' understanding that the intensity will only increase, many Lebanese are abandoning Dahieh and moving northward - to areas where IDF attacks have not yet reached. For some of these residents, this is already the second or even third evacuation. Some of the families who were evacuated at the beginning of the war from border villages in southern Lebanon found shelter in areas that were then considered safer, such as Tyre, Sidon, Nabatieh, and Dahieh in Beirut. But as the fighting progressed, these areas also became unsafe, and families found themselves moving north again.But the situation is even more complex for most of Dahieh's displaced people. The population in the district is mostly Shiite, and not all of Lebanon is willing to accept them, due to the danger they bring with them following their support for Hezbollah. For example, in recent days, footage has been circulated from the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, where residents peeled off stickers with pictures of Nasrallah and Hezbollah activists from a car belonging to displaced people.**Attacks intensified, senior officials assassinated - and the "Dahieh Doctrine" returned to our lives**In recent weeks, the top leadership of Hezbollah has been eliminated in Dahieh, including the organization's Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. Many of them were eliminated while hiding under civilian complexes. Additionally, the IDF destroyed large weapons depots, including advanced and precise land-to-sea missiles, which were also hidden in the area. It can be assumed that if the organization's leaders had suspected they were in immediate danger where they were - they would have fled as soon as possible. But from the results of the attacks, we can actually learn that Hezbollah did not believe Israel had such intelligence penetration into its ranks, which it did not have in the Second Lebanon War in 2006.Moreover, the intense attacks in Lebanon raise another issue, first presented after the Second Lebanon War. Does the new phase in the fighting indicate the implementation of the "Dahieh Doctrine," which Gadi Eisenkot presented in 2008 when he was the Northern Command chief? This doctrine speaks of disproportionate use of aerial and artillery fire against civilian infrastructures used by terrorist organizations, primarily Hezbollah. In those days of presenting the idea, Eisenkot said that "each of the Shiite villages is a military site. Dozens of rockets are buried in basements and attics. Dozens of local activists and fighters from outside are prepared for defensive battle and missile fire towards Israel. We know that Hezbollah will carry out much wider fire than in the last war, and we will respond accordingly. Any village that fires at Israel - we will use disproportionate force on it and cause enormous destruction."And in recent days, 16 years after Eisenkot's speech, it seems that this is being implemented. The pictures and videos coming from the villages in southern Lebanon recently, and sometimes even from certain areas in Dahieh, indicate unprecedented destruction in the streets. The villages, which have been under fire for long months, have been emptied of residents, and those who did not leave at the beginning of the war - decided to leave in recent weeks with the intensification of attacks.But despite the extensive destruction, it should be noted, since the Second Lebanon War, the IDF's intelligence and offensive capabilities have developed, and therefore the current attacks are carried out in a much more focused manner. Even the attacks in Dahieh, despite their intensity - are target-oriented.
"There is destruction, but it is not extensive and systematic. Israel acts in a targeted manner." Attack in Dahaiah (Photo: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)
"In 2006, the IDF basically had no targets. Our capabilities against Hezbollah were relatively limited, and the fact is we didn't eliminate any of their commanders. Certainly not a leader, not a senior commander," said Prof. Eyal Zisser, an expert on the modern history of Lebanon and Syria and Vice Rector at Tel Aviv University. "The attacks were more on places, assets, not something precise. We didn't know where they had weapons, it was very unfocused and imprecise. The result was also that a lot of environmental destruction was caused."Today, first of all after Gaza, we are more careful, and secondly, we have good intelligence, so we are focused," he added. "There is destruction and people have fled, but I wouldn't compare the extent of the destruction. We also see that the IDF spokesperson's announcements are about very focused things. It's not about widespread and systematic destruction of Dahieh. There is destruction, but I wouldn't say it's like 2006. Maybe we'll get there yet. Israel is trying and also able, thanks to quality intelligence, to be more focused."Prof. Zisser noted that from Hezbollah's perspective, this is not a different war from 2006. "It's not a different war in the sense that they continue to fire. It has aspects of our ability to hit their assets and commanders, that's true, but in essence, they are firing at Haifa like in 2006," he said.**Ghost town and chaos in the streets - thieves were hanged or tied to poles**
There is no governance - and chaos prevails throughout the Da'ahiah. Punishment for caught thieves
Orna Mizrahi, former deputy head of the National Security Council, who serves as a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, believes that we probably won't know until the end of the war what's in the planners' minds regarding Dahieh. "What's happening now, although the attacks are very focused, in the end it's a lot of attacks. I hear about an order of magnitude of about seven attacks a day. In each attack, we're talking about several buildings and that creates a lot of damage," she said. According to her, "I don't know if it will eventually be a story of complete destruction of Dahieh, but we might end up in similar circumstances. The IDF's attacks today are focused, often done with bunker-busting bombs. Dahieh probably also has an underground city, and it's hard to estimate the extent or compare it to 2006. We're still at the beginning of the road."Unlike the "Dahieh Doctrine," which speaks of "applying disproportionate force and causing enormous destruction," Mizrahi believes that the current attacks are not being carried out with the intention of destroying the area. "The attacks right now are focused according to the target, whether it's assassinations, warehouses, ammunition stockpiles, and industrial plants," she explained.Regarding the chaos reigning in Dahieh, she added: "Many of the residents have evacuated from there. I heard a Lebanese journalist saying that it's really a ghost town. Previously, it was completely controlled by Hezbollah, and the organization's members were very strict about order in the streets. Thieves and criminals were afraid of them, and it gave people personal security." But now, some of the people who returned to check on their property after evacuating from Dahieh - discovered they had been robbed. "It's become a lawless area with no judge or judgment," Mizrahi added.In recent days, pictures and videos from Dahieh have been circulated, showing thieves caught looting property of residents who were uprooted from their homes. These thieves were hanged or tied to street poles - injured and bleeding. Posts on social media stated that Hezbollah is responsible for these harsh punishments, and in fact, the footage proves the damage to governance and the chaos currently prevailing in Dahieh. One of the users who posted the pictures of the thieves wrote: "Soon, the same fate will come to internal collaborators."**The positioning in Dahieh - and the reason why senior officials aren't fleeing from there**In the past, Dahieh was the location of several agricultural villages in the Beirut area. The area of Haret Hreik, a town in the suburbs of the Dahieh district, was once one of the most important villages. In the 1950s, migration began from southern Lebanon and the Bekaa area in the east of the country to the Dahieh area. Due to poverty and the need to find work, the villages surrounding Beirut expanded and later became suburbs of the capital. "Dahieh is a suburb that started as villages outside Beirut, which joined and became part of Beirut," Mizrahi explained. "What's interesting is that Lebanon's main airport, Rafic Hariri International Airport - is located in the neighborhood, adjacent to Dahieh. This is what allowed Hezbollah to also control what happens at the airport and its facilities."She said that recently ideas have been raised in Lebanon to establish another airport, but Hezbollah strongly opposed it. "Hezbollah wanted everyone to continue using the Rafic Hariri Airport in Beirut, so that it wouldn't be just for the terrorist organization and become a clear target," she explained. "Once all Lebanese use it, because it's the only airport, then you can't see it as a Hezbollah target, but as a general Lebanese infrastructure."Nevertheless, despite Dahieh's location in Beirut, it has become a daily target for the IDF - where rows of Hezbollah senior officials were eliminated. In recent months, as mentioned, the organization's leader Nasrallah was eliminated there, before him Saleh al-Arouri, deputy head of Hamas's political bureau, senior Hezbollah official Fouad Shukr, and the head of the organization's operations apparatus Ibrahim Aqil were also eliminated in Dahieh. In addition, the Arabic Sky News network reported from Israeli security sources at the end of last weekend that the death of senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safi al-Din, who was marked as Hezbollah's Secretary-General's successor, was also confirmed, who was also attacked in the Dahieh district.The district's residents took the assassination of Nasrallah quite hard, and hundreds of them spontaneously went out for protest marches in the streets of Dahieh. A reporter for the Qatari Al-Arabi channel reported several cases of crying and collapse of Lebanese people, and the Saudi newspaper "Asharq Al-Awsat" wrote that after the assassination, there is a sense of confusion in the Lebanese streetBut despite the assassinations of senior officials in many attacks in Dahieh, none of them decided to flee the district. The simple answer to this is that they actually have nowhere to go. Prof. Zisser explained that "they can't go to a Christian neighborhood because everyone would immediately report on them, so they hide among the Shiites. They planned, but it didn't turn out well." He added: "They built themselves for one type of war and for it to be more limited, not to be intense, because we wouldn't attack in Dahieh and they wouldn't fire at Tel Aviv."
Mizrahi also believes that "their options are likely limited." According to her, "I think the main problem is that they haven't yet realized how exposed they are to Israeli intelligence. They don't understand how deeply they've been infiltrated, so they keep thinking they can hide and conceal themselves. In my opinion, the fact that they haven't appointed and haven't convened to appoint Hashem Safi al-Din as Secretary-General is no coincidence. First of all, maybe they struggled to gather all the required people, as the Shura Council needs to appoint him. Maybe they were afraid of such a gathering."Additionally, it seems he was afraid that the moment they appoint him, he'd become a target, but he didn't understand that even as a candidate, he's a target," said Mizrahi. "There are probably places they believe they're protected in. It's a huge area. Still, they need to hold meetings and meet somewhere. Also, where can they go besides leaving Lebanon? The Dahieh is the center, it's the headquarters, it's everything."**"Hezbollah has taken a blow - but continues to function"**The psychological blow that the Shiite terrorist organization from Lebanon has taken in recent weeks is significant. The organization is confused, and those following its activities could have identified this in recent weeks - but it's still active. "There's no doubt that it has taken a blow, but it continues to function. It continues to fire. It's a large organization. You've cut off its strategic head, but the one firing at Kiryat Shmona – continues to fire," said Prof. Zisser.Mizrahi added: "The current war has amazing achievements. The penetrations, the connection between intelligence capability, stemming from capabilities developed over the years and truly prioritizing the northern arena, together with the Air Force's operational ability to strike with bunker-buster bombs in a special method - this allows for much more precise strikes." According to her, "We should also note the limited collateral damage. The very great fear I remember about this war was regarding the extent of collateral damage. Overall, it's relatively limited because the strikes are relatively precise."In recent days, the issue of Nasrallah's burial has also arisen, and a Hezbollah source even claimed last week that he was secretly buried in a temporary location. But according to Mizrahi, the reason a funeral hasn't been held yet is because they're "afraid to hold it." She added: "There was all kinds of talk about whether he might be buried in Lebanon or not. There's also uncertainty about how he was killed, whether it was from the strike or gases in the place. It was also said that he was temporarily buried, with the intention that when times change, he'll be buried properly in an organized place. There's a very big fog surrounding the issue of Nasrallah's burial, also from the fear that Israel could use it to attack."link - Documentation from IDF Base: The Huge Weapons Arsenal of Hezbollah, Now in Israel's HandsMany weapons, including launchers, explosive devices, and missiles, have been located since the ground operation in southern Lebanon began, and were brought to Israel from Hezbollah's stockpiles. "This weaponry was supposed to help Hezbollah carry out an 'October 7' on the northern border," said Major G.
Some of the illegal weapons captured in southern Lebanon last week (Photo: Tomer Shunam Halevi)
A remnant of a ballistic missile launched into Israel in the Iranian attack (Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen)
At the ammunition dismantling institute on the IDF's Julis base, a rather unique display was held yesterday (Wednesday), showcasing Hezbollah's weapons that were located during the ground maneuver in southern Lebanon. "The weaponry seized and displayed here was intended to help the terrorist organization Hezbollah invade Israeli territory and Galilee settlements with the aim of carrying out an 'October 7' on the northern border," said the institute's commander, Major G.Among other things, launchers aimed at northern settlements and explosive devices used by Hezbollah were displayed at the institute. Additionally, a remnant of a ballistic missile from the Iranian attack was shown, as well as Hamas weaponry seized in the Gaza Strip, which also contained Kornet missiles, rockets, and RPGs.Major G. described the weaponry brought to the institute from Lebanese territory, adding that "the IDF brought these weapons from terrorist infrastructures and warehouses of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in southern Lebanon." According to him, "All the weaponry was brought only in the last week. Some of the seized launchers were aimed at Galilee settlements, intending to launch Kornet and anti-tank missiles at them."The institute commander further explained that "everything displayed is about 20% of Hezbollah's weapons found so far, which were not destroyed. The army entered in focused operations to extract Hezbollah's weapons from its forward bunkers. All its actions in southern Lebanon right now are aimed at preventing Hezbollah from realizing its plans and taking away its capabilities - so that northern residents can return to their homes soon."**"Hezbollah is hiding how much we've hit them"**Meanwhile, forces of Division 36, which include the Etzioni reserve brigade, Golani, and 188, are preparing for their next missions to clear villages adjacent to the border fence with Lebanon. According to the division's data, in one week of ground activity, the forces destroyed more than 500 terrorist infrastructures in two villages, and another combat area in the open field that Hezbollah had prepared - as a small part of its plan to invade the Galilee. A terrorist infrastructure could be, for example, a house where fighters found cables connected to a multi-barrel rocket launcher hidden in an adjacent olive grove from its living room window. There are also underground bunkers for storing weapons, or mined positions prepared against IDF movement. Accordingly, the forces initially minimized bringing tanks or APCs into the area, mainly to avoid Hezbollah's advanced and long-range anti-tank threat.The army says, "We didn't encounter too much resistance. There were a few dozen terrorists left in each such village, and in total, we killed about 150 terrorists in our area of operation in the last week. Half of them came from a nearby town to reinforce the remaining terrorists, and we eliminated them from the air with Division 36's fire complex."Additionally, the IDF says, "We didn't locate tunnels crossing into Israeli territory in the divisional area. We expected more anti-tank fire. We were surprised that we quickly eliminated the regional battalion commander of Hezbollah, his company commanders, and those responsible for engineering and artillery in the area. We simply identified chaos in the forces facing us due to all the early hits and eliminations."The IDF Chief of Staff said yesterday in a situation assessment that "Hezbollah is trying hard to hide the significant damage we've inflicted on it in recent weeks. It's experiencing command and control difficulties, leading to confusion in the decision-making level and challenges in execution capability. Even in Iran, they still don't understand the depth of the damage to the forward outpost they built on our northern border. We will continue to attack Hezbollah with force, without allowing Hezbollah a pause and recovery."According to the IDF, during the operation, fighters of the Barak Brigade (188) combat team destroyed the Yaron area headquarters. The headquarters served Hezbollah terrorists as a central base for terrorist operations against the State of Israel. In addition, forces of the Etzioni Brigade (6) combat team destroyed dozens of underground infrastructures and raided nature reserves disguised as the "Green Without Borders" organization that served as Hezbollah headquarters. link - Tal entered Lebanon with a weapon - and a camera: "A special and historic moment" | Watch
"This symbolism has a lot of power. These are exciting moments" (Photo: Tal Golan)For a long time, Tal Golan, a soldier in the Gedahan (Reconnaissance Unit), documented his team fighting in the Gaza Strip. Last week they entered Lebanon - and the camera continued with him to the northern arena as well. "It gives an understanding of what war is," he said. Prayers, books, and war: The images captured by Tal Golan (25) from Kfar Vitkin, a student at the Technion and a soldier in the Gedahan, entered the ground maneuver in Lebanon with Division 98, armed not only with weapons - but also with the camera he's so connected to. After documenting moments of himself and his team in Gaza for long weeks, now it was the northern arena's turn. "I take pictures because I feel that every moment here or in Gaza is special and historic," he said.**Watch the pictures he took from Lebanon.**
"Almost every house we visited had a set like this." Holy books of Muslims at home in southern Lebanon (Photo: Tal Golan)He said that he mainly documents his team. "They're all reservists and have families, wives, and children who worry about them daily, and they don't know what it looks like from the inside," he added. "It gives them perspective and less uncertainty. My friends can also explain it to them through the pictures, it really calms them down and also gives a sense of pride."Golan knows, of course, what is allowed to be photographed and what isn't, and most of the photos include everyday situations, such as a cigarette break, a short rest in a Hezbollah operatives' living room, a soldier guarding in the field, and also operational images, with full equipment in the field, on guard duty - and even preparing to blow up a building using explosives.
Golan documented the Iranian attack from the northern border (Photo: Tal Golan)In one of Golan's notable photos, a soldier is seen standing in front of a library of holy books, which at first glance looks like the library found in any average religious home in Israel. "These are indeed books sacred to Muslims," Golan said. "We have a Druze soldier in our company who looked at them and explained to us exactly what's there, it's all kinds of interpretations and expansions of the Quran. In almost every house we've been in, there's such a set."Another prominent photo is a documentation of a soldier in the early morning hours, standing in front of ruined buildings. "This is my favorite photo from this session, from the first week in Lebanon," Golan said. "First of all, the composition is good, the natural lighting is very beautiful, and it gives perspective of the individual person against the size of the ruins. It also gives a bit of understanding of what war is, how it looks from the inside and what we're up against.""I like to photograph the beautiful and funny moments when they're playing backgammon, but also these situations," he added. "Moments when there are ruins, because we're blowing up their tunnels and the places where they keep weapons."Another of Golan's photos was taken on October 7, showing soldiers wrapped in prayer shawls praying at dawn. "I'm completely secular, but I can say that this symbolism has a lot of power," he said. "I felt it also when we celebrated Hanukkah in Gaza and lit candles. There's an understanding of who we are and what we represent. These moments are very moving. I felt it on October 7 too, understanding what we're fighting for and why we're here."While Golan was with his team on the northern border, the Iranian attack occurred. He didn't miss the opportunity, pulled out his camera, and documented the event. "It was a show that looked like Star Wars. We heard on the radio that there was an attack and there were sirens all over the country except for us. I managed to capture a few moments within this audiovisual show in the sky," he recounted.Golan added that the pictures look different with the passage of time. According to him, "Time does its thing. Even now when I look at the pictures from Gaza, they suddenly seem crazy to me. Amazing or bizarre situations, and that I went through it all with my team. This documentation is important for understanding the situation, but it's not so we won't forget. The mind can't forget what you see there, and certainly not the important things, mainly the insights." link
- **IDF: We eliminated two Hezbollah commanders responsible for anti-tank launches towards the north**
Israeli Air Force fighter jets attacked and eliminated, under the guidance of Fire Brigade 7338, the Hezbollah commander of the Hula area, terrorist Ahmad Mustafa al-Haj Ali, who was responsible for hundreds of high-trajectory and anti-tank launches towards Kiryat Shmona. This was reported by the IDF spokesperson. It was also reported that in another attack, the commander of Hezbollah's anti-tank array in the Mis al-Jabal area, terrorist Muhammad Ali Hamadan, who was responsible for many anti-tank launches towards northern Israeli settlements, was eliminated.Fighter jets attacked yesterday and during the night, with precise intelligence guidance from the Intelligence Division, weapons storage facilities in the Beirut area and southern Lebanon. "Before the attacks in Beirut, many steps were taken to minimize the chance of harming uninvolved individuals, including advance warnings to the population," it was reported. - Syria's Ministry of Defense commented on reports of an Israeli attack on the industrial area of Hasia in the suburbs of Homs, stating that it was aimed at a vehicle assembly plant and that another attack was aimed at a military site in Hama, property damage was reported. In addition, the state television in Syria reported an attack in Daraa in the south of the country.
- **Report: Israeli attack in Dahieh - after IDF ordered evacuation from the area**The Lebanese network "Al-Mayadeen", associated with Hezbollah, reported an Israeli attack in the Dahieh district of Beirut. Additionally, an attack was reported in the village of Budai in the Baalbek area deep within the country.The IDF spokesperson in Arabic, Lieutenant Colonel Avichay Adraee, earlier called on residents in several buildings in Dahieh to evacuate. In the message he published, it was written: "You are near Hezbollah facilities against which the IDF will soon operate. For your safety, you must immediately evacuate the place and move at least 500 meters away."
A Western diplomatic official says the IDF tank fire toward a UNIFIL position is a “very serious” incident.
“Expect a round of condemnations at the UN Security Council,” says the official.
The UN peacekeeping force says that “this morning, two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall. The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but they remain in hospital.”
It also accuses the IDF of firing on UN position 1-31 in Labbouneh, “hitting the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, and damaging vehicles and a communications system. An IDF drone was observed flying inside the UN position up to the bunker entrance.”
Yesterday, according to UNIFIL, Israeli troops “deliberately fired at and disabled the position’s perimeter-monitoring cameras. They also deliberately fired on UNP 1-32A in Ras Naqoura, where regular Tripartite meetings were held before the conflict began, damaging lighting and a relay station.”
Diplomatic communications have intensified in recent hours, before a UN Security Council meeting discussing the situation in the Middle East, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati says in a statement on X.
“There are contacts taking place between the United States and France with the aim of reviving a ceasefire declaration for a specific period in order to resume the search for political solutions,” he is quoted as saying.
Israeli Air Force fighter jets attacked and eliminated, under the guidance of Fire Brigade 7338, the Hezbollah commander of the Hula area, terrorist Ahmad Mustafa al-Haj Ali, who was responsible for hundreds of high-trajectory and anti-tank launches towards Kiryat Shmona. This was reported by the IDF spokesperson. It was also reported that in another attack, the commander of Hezbollah's anti-tank array in the Mis al-Jabal area, terrorist Muhammad Ali Hamadan, who was responsible for many anti-tank launches towards northern Israeli settlements, was eliminated.
A Western diplomatic official says the IDF tank fire toward a UNIFIL position is a “very serious” incident.
“Expect a round of condemnations at the UN Security Council,” says the official.
The UN peacekeeping force says that “this morning, two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall. The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but they remain in hospital.”
It also accuses the IDF of firing on UN position 1-31 in Labbouneh, “hitting the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, and damaging vehicles and a communications system. An IDF drone was observed flying inside the UN position up to the bunker entrance.”
Yesterday, according to UNIFIL, Israeli troops “deliberately fired at and disabled the position’s perimeter-monitoring cameras. They also deliberately fired on UNP 1-32A in Ras Naqoura, where regular Tripartite meetings were held before the conflict began, damaging lighting and a relay station.”
Diplomatic communications have intensified in recent hours, before a UN Security Council meeting discussing the situation in the Middle East, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati says in a statement on X.
“There are contacts taking place between the United States and France with the aim of reviving a ceasefire declaration for a specific period in order to resume the search for political solutions,” he is quoted as saying.
West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel
- Undercover Israeli forces opened fire on a car in the West Bank city of Nablus, killing five terror suspects, authorities said Wednesday.
Among those killed in the broad daylight shooting near central Nablus was the long-sought leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade terror group in the nearby Balata refugee camp, according to police. He was named in reports as Issam al-Salaj.
The Israel Police said commandos from the Yamam counter-terror unit had been operating in Nablus when they opened fire on the terror suspects.
“The Yamam forces eliminated five armed terrorists who posed a threat to their lives,” police said.
According to police, the unit had been in Nablus as part of an arrest operation targeting terror suspects, backed by the Israel Defense Forces, Shin Bet security service and Border Police force.
No Israeli forces were injured, police said.
The Palestinian health ministry said four men were killed in the raid and a fifth person was hospitalized with bullet shrapnel wounds. His condition was not given.
An unnamed security source quoted by the Kan public broadcaster said the occupants of the car had been high-ranking terror operatives who were planning an attack.
Police did not identify the other wanted Palestinians, but said they had been “involved in carrying out and planning terror operations against civilians and the IDF.”
Salaj had reportedly been the target of a failed June 2023 raid in Nablus, managing to escape with only injuries after a firefight with Israeli forces who had surrounded his home. A Palestinian teen with mental disabilities was killed during the standoff.
Nablus and the adjacent Balata camp have been one of the several flashpoints in the northern West Bank where Israel has intensified efforts against Palestinian terror groups.
The raids have largely targeted Hamas, Islamic Jihad and allied groups, but have also sought to clamp down on the Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades, which is linked to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party.
The shooting came hours after a terrorist stabbed several people in the Israeli city of Hadera, wounding six, in the second major terror attack this week following a deadly shooting in Beersheba on Sunday. In both instances, the perpetrators were Israeli citizens.
According to the PA, more than 716 West Bank Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops since October 7, 2023, when the IDF stepped up anti-terror operations.
The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.
Troops have also arrested some 5,250 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,050 affiliated with Hamas. video
5 Israelis linked to ISIS arrested for plot to bomb Azrieli Mall in Tel Aviv
Police and Shin Bet announce monthlong clandestine investigation culminating in arrests of Taybeh-based cell tied to fanatical terror group
The Israel Police and the Shin Bet security service recently thwarted a plot by five Arab Israeli citizens to carry out a car-bombing attack at Tel Aviv’s Azrieli Mall under the banner of the Islamic State terror group, according to a joint statement Thursday.
The five residents of Taybeh in central Israel formed a terror cell allied to ISIS, the fanatical terror group that originated in Iraq and Syria.
The five were arrested after a month-long clandestine investigation in collaboration with the Lahav 433 serious crime unit and were set to face charges in the coming days. The cell’s leaders were named as Mahmoud Azam and Ibrahim Sheik Yousef.
They recruited three others — Sajed Masarwa, Abdullah Baransi and Abdel Kareem Baransi.
Police and the Shin Bet said that the five had studied footage of terror attacks in Syria and discussed the amount of explosives needed to bring down Tel Aviv’s iconic Azrieli towers.
Azam and Yousef were in contact with foreign ISIS agents and planned to travel abroad to meet with operatives from the terror group, the statement added, noting that the plan was uncovered with the help of “precise and effective intelligence operations,” and had been halted in its preliminary stages.
The Azrieli towers in Tel Aviv, June 19, 2023. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)The statement said that the arrests “prevented a major disaster and saved lives” and vowed that the police and Shin Bet would continue to “use all means at their disposal to thwart plots to harm the security of the State of Israel and its citizens.”
The announcement came after a Border Police officer was killed and at least 10 others wounded when an Arab Israeli terrorist opened fire in the Beersheba bus station on Sunday afternoon.
Then on Wednesday, an Arab Israeli man went on a stabbing spree in the central city of Hadera, wounding six people, one of whom succumbed to his injuries a day later.
The arrests also came days after the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 mass onslaught against southern Israel, which was the worst terror attack in Israel’s history, and a week after a deadly shooting attack in Jaffa in which two Palestinian terrorists from Hebron opened fire at a light rail stop, killing seven people. video of the arrests
A man gravely wounded in yesterday’s terrorist stabbing attack in Hadera has died of his injuries.
The victim is named as Rafael Mordechai Fishof, 35, a father of six.
Fishof was hospitalized in intensive care at Hillel Yafe Medical Center since the attack. - May his memory forever be a blessing.
The other five victims include another man in serious but stable condition, one in moderate condition and three in good condition.
The suspect used a moped to drive between four locations in the city, attacking people at each place. He was identified by Hebrew-language media as an Arab Israeli resident of Umm al-Fahm.
The terrorist was apprehended by police with the help of armed citizens at the scene.
Among those killed in the broad daylight shooting near central Nablus was the long-sought leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade terror group in the nearby Balata refugee camp, according to police. He was named in reports as Issam al-Salaj.
The Israel Police said commandos from the Yamam counter-terror unit had been operating in Nablus when they opened fire on the terror suspects.“The Yamam forces eliminated five armed terrorists who posed a threat to their lives,” police said.
According to police, the unit had been in Nablus as part of an arrest operation targeting terror suspects, backed by the Israel Defense Forces, Shin Bet security service and Border Police force.No Israeli forces were injured, police said.
The Palestinian health ministry said four men were killed in the raid and a fifth person was hospitalized with bullet shrapnel wounds. His condition was not given.An unnamed security source quoted by the Kan public broadcaster said the occupants of the car had been high-ranking terror operatives who were planning an attack.
Police did not identify the other wanted Palestinians, but said they had been “involved in carrying out and planning terror operations against civilians and the IDF.”Salaj had reportedly been the target of a failed June 2023 raid in Nablus, managing to escape with only injuries after a firefight with Israeli forces who had surrounded his home. A Palestinian teen with mental disabilities was killed during the standoff.
Nablus and the adjacent Balata camp have been one of the several flashpoints in the northern West Bank where Israel has intensified efforts against Palestinian terror groups.
The raids have largely targeted Hamas, Islamic Jihad and allied groups, but have also sought to clamp down on the Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades, which is linked to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party.
The shooting came hours after a terrorist stabbed several people in the Israeli city of Hadera, wounding six, in the second major terror attack this week following a deadly shooting in Beersheba on Sunday. In both instances, the perpetrators were Israeli citizens.
According to the PA, more than 716 West Bank Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops since October 7, 2023, when the IDF stepped up anti-terror operations.
The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.
Troops have also arrested some 5,250 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,050 affiliated with Hamas. video
5 Israelis linked to ISIS arrested for plot to bomb Azrieli Mall in Tel Aviv
Police and Shin Bet announce monthlong clandestine investigation culminating in arrests of Taybeh-based cell tied to fanatical terror group
The Israel Police and the Shin Bet security service recently thwarted a plot by five Arab Israeli citizens to carry out a car-bombing attack at Tel Aviv’s Azrieli Mall under the banner of the Islamic State terror group, according to a joint statement Thursday.
The five residents of Taybeh in central Israel formed a terror cell allied to ISIS, the fanatical terror group that originated in Iraq and Syria.
The five were arrested after a month-long clandestine investigation in collaboration with the Lahav 433 serious crime unit and were set to face charges in the coming days. The cell’s leaders were named as Mahmoud Azam and Ibrahim Sheik Yousef.
They recruited three others — Sajed Masarwa, Abdullah Baransi and Abdel Kareem Baransi.
Police and the Shin Bet said that the five had studied footage of terror attacks in Syria and discussed the amount of explosives needed to bring down Tel Aviv’s iconic Azrieli towers.
Azam and Yousef were in contact with foreign ISIS agents and planned to travel abroad to meet with operatives from the terror group, the statement added, noting that the plan was uncovered with the help of “precise and effective intelligence operations,” and had been halted in its preliminary stages.
The Azrieli towers in Tel Aviv, June 19, 2023. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
The statement said that the arrests “prevented a major disaster and saved lives” and vowed that the police and Shin Bet would continue to “use all means at their disposal to thwart plots to harm the security of the State of Israel and its citizens.”
The announcement came after a Border Police officer was killed and at least 10 others wounded when an Arab Israeli terrorist opened fire in the Beersheba bus station on Sunday afternoon.
Then on Wednesday, an Arab Israeli man went on a stabbing spree in the central city of Hadera, wounding six people, one of whom succumbed to his injuries a day later.
The arrests also came days after the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 mass onslaught against southern Israel, which was the worst terror attack in Israel’s history, and a week after a deadly shooting attack in Jaffa in which two Palestinian terrorists from Hebron opened fire at a light rail stop, killing seven people. video of the arrests
A man gravely wounded in yesterday’s terrorist stabbing attack in Hadera has died of his injuries.
The victim is named as Rafael Mordechai Fishof, 35, a father of six.
Fishof was hospitalized in intensive care at Hillel Yafe Medical Center since the attack. - May his memory forever be a blessing.
The other five victims include another man in serious but stable condition, one in moderate condition and three in good condition.
The suspect used a moped to drive between four locations in the city, attacking people at each place. He was identified by Hebrew-language media as an Arab Israeli resident of Umm al-Fahm.
The terrorist was apprehended by police with the help of armed citizens at the scene.
Politics and the War (general news)
- Bumper stickers of the fallen coalesce online into a mosaic of mourning
Decals of slain Israelis bearing powerful messages are appearing on cars, walls and lampposts in a new and unusual homage. Now, Stickers of Meaning features them all in one place
A wall in Tel Aviv memorializing those killed on October 7 and in the ongoing war (Courtesy)
A new crop of bumper stickers has appeared in Israel over the last year, pasted on cars and lampposts, plastered on the back walls of train stations and bus depots, naming and commemorating victims and soldiers who were killed in the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught and the ongoing war.
The decals aren’t printed by a single organization, but are produced independently by family and friends of those killed on and after October 7, just one of the many ways they try to keep their loved ones’ memory alive.
When Jeffrey Weiss began seeing the stickers, he quickly realized that he was witnessing something of a phenomenon, and started taking photos of each new sticker he saw.
Now he’s created Stickers of Meaning, a website featuring the stickers with a brief biography of each person in Hebrew and English.
“I would expect in any country to see respect for soldiers who died in combat — that seems normal and universal,” said Weiss, a lawyer who immigrated to Israel from Washington, DC. “But there was this additional feature on each one, a sentence that offered a kind of advice to the living.”
The messages were moving and powerful, said Weiss. One, for a soldier, told of how he fought out of love for those behind him rather than hatred for those in front of him. Another, for a woman killed at the Nova music festival, told readers that she came to each place with optimism.
He noted the Jewish and Israeli tone inherent in the gestures, as the bumper stickers often reimagined classic Jewish phrases such as, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and, “Love those like you, even those not like you,” or, “You ran after justice and peace, but preferred love.”
Israelis are no strangers to slapping politically or theologically loaded messages on bumper stickers, from exhortations on God’s oneness to demands regarding settlement expansion. In 2004, before the decals began to fade from boards and bumpers in favor of Facebook walls and Twitter, the phenomenon was famously recorded by author David Grossman and set to music by rock band Hadag Nahash.
Sometime after October 7, the stickers made a heartbreaking comeback. Stickers with images of the fallen began appearing throughout the country, hundreds grouped on walls of bus stations and train stations, as well as in other public places, including the site of the Nova rave and Tkuma, where hundreds of the ruined cars driven by those trying to escape the terrorists are piled high in another kind of memorial site.
At some point, after taking photos of some 400 stickers, Weiss, a patent lawyer by trade, began categorizing the stickers, organizing them according to types and messages.
He felt that a website featuring every sticker would emphasize the size and breadth of the ad-hoc national memorial and the power of a simple sticker.
Weiss wasn’t in Israel on October 7. He had flown to the United States on October 4 to visit his four adult children ahead of a 72-mile ultra marathon he planned to run on October 14 around Lake Tahoe, an endeavor for which he had been training for months.
Given his lifelong love for Israel and recent immigration to Tel Aviv in 2022, Weiss felt terrible being out of the country in the aftermath of the massacre, which saw some 1,200 people brutally murdered and 251 kidnapped to the Gaza Strip. Once he was back several days after the race, he began volunteering with various initiatives, seeking a way to help ease the terrible anguish, pain, and suffering plaguing so many in Israel.
At some point, he noticed the stickers and was struck by messages similar in tone to the sayings from the world of extreme endurance sports that he had enveloped himself in for the race.
“They all talk about life that is joyful and daring, full of meaning and purpose and resilience,” Weiss said.
Weiss set out to organize the Stickers of Meaning website according to categories. He hired web developers and lawyers to help him, aiming to contact each family and ensure that each one agreed to have the sticker featured on the website.
His team has met with some of the families and heard more stories about the loved ones they are mourning.
One family told Weiss and his team that the quote on the sticker had been written on the inside of the door to their son’s room. He was determined to join an elite IDF unit and had trained for the role since he was 16, crawling through dunes in the dark.
Another sibling had tattooed her brother’s favorite saying, “Be happy in your life,” on her arm and wore the saying on a bracelet before having it printed on the bumper sticker.
“I’ve been so struck by how Israelis really do seem drawn to all sorts of stuff about living their best life,” said Weiss. “It wasn’t just soldiers in elite units, but victims of the Nova and other places on October 7. There’s this persistence in the need to be joyful and optimistic and lead life to the fullest. There’s not anger in these stickers, there’s always something positive.”
Weiss launched the site the week before October 7 and is thinking about writing a book expanding on the meanings behind individual stickers and messages.
One of the bereaved families is considering launching an educational program for high schools and post-high school programs based on the sticker messages.
“It’s easier during this period to focus on what’s hard and painful. You can easily spend all your days in anguish,” said Weiss. “What these stickers did is reveal something astonishing about the character of Israelis that is so impressive.” link
- One year into the Hezbollah conflict, Arab Israelis confront their complicated identity
Living near the border with Lebanon, Sheik Danun leaders say extremists in the government — not the fighting over the border — make them feel disenfranchised from Israeli society
Ahmed Samniya stands by his porch window in Sheikh Danun, Western Galilee, on October 8,
2024. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)
WESTERN GALILEE — As explosions shattered the air on Tuesday, Ahmed Samniya stood on his porch on the edge of the village of Sheikh Danun, staring out at the fields beneath his window.
Down below, IDF troops were firing artillery into Lebanon, 9.5 kilometers (5.9 miles) away. The loud blasts seemed to serve as exclamation points as Samniya talked about his complicated identity as an Arab Israeli — an identity that has gotten even more intricate since the conflict with Hezbollah began a year ago, last October 8.
“Just because my country has conflicts with other countries outside our border doesn’t make me an enemy,” said Samniya, director of his village’s community center.
Since last October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza during the war against Hamas there.
Israel launched what it called “limited, localized, and targeted raids” on the ground in southern Lebanon on September 30, aiming to demolish Hezbollah infrastructure near the frontier, especially in the villages adjacent to Israel, to enable displaced Israeli residents of the north to return home safely.
Samniya said he’s an Israeli Arab or an Arab Israeli – both ways are correct, he believes – as well as a Bedouin.
“I bet you never saw a Bedouin drive a Tesla,” he joked, tilting his head toward the blue Tesla that stood in his driveway, and then he grew serious.
“We live in the Galilee, close to the Lebanese border, and as Israeli citizens, all of us are under fire – Jews, Muslims, Bedouins, and Druze,” Samniya said. “Rockets don’t distinguish between religion, nationality, or gender.”
However, Samniya said that the growing divisiveness within Israel compounded by the war has brought to the forefront questions of Arab Israelis’ identity and fears about their place in the country.
“I have freedom of religion here,” he said. “I have freedom of speech. My grandparents were born here. What happens outside our borders shouldn’t make me feel like I don’t belong here.”
A sleepy town that’s now sleepless
Sheikh Danun, with 3,000 residents, almost all Muslim, is set on a hill with a view of the sparkling Mediterranean in the distance.
It has always been a sleepy little village — there are no cafes or restaurants and initiatives to attract tourists have been postponed because of the war — but now it’s become a sleepless one, said Mahmod Akawi, the mayor of Sheikh Danun. It is just outside the conflict zone, so residents have not been evacuated.
Mahmod Akawi, head of Sheikh Danun, points to Lebanon in the distance as he stands in front of a temporary elementary school being readied for students evacuated from Arab al-Aramshe on October 8, 2024. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)
The village is part of the Mateh Asher Regional Council, the largest settlement of the 32 communities. Eight of these have been evacuated, with more than 7,000 residents considered internally displaced citizens.
Residents of Arab al-Aramshe, the other non-Jewish settlement within the council that is closer to the Lebanese border, have been evacuated. Akawi took this Times of Israel reporter to see the temporary elementary school being built for Arab al- Aramshe children.
Attacks on northern Israel have resulted in the deaths of 26 civilians in Israel. In addition, 33 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.
Residents feel the war is being fought right there in their backyard, Akawi said. According to instructions from the IDF Home Front Command, all the schools in Sheikh Danun are closed, and there are no public events. Children have classes on Zoom, but Akawi said that one parent is required to stay at home to supervise their time on the computer. Younger children, he said, can’t use Zoom to go to kindergarten.
Two-thirds of the village’s homes do not have reinforced safe rooms, Akawi said. There are now seven temporary bomb shelters throughout the village. Residents of each neighborhood have also been instructed about which shelter they can enter in one of the schools or the kindergarten.
“Nobody can sleep at night because of the rockets,” Akawi said. “Parents don’t know what to tell their children.”
The war has also made Akawi feel that Arab Israelis are caught in the crosshairs.
A conflict against Arabs in Israel?
“I have worked in the town for 37 years in the public sector,” Akawi said as he sat in his office in the center of the town. “I’ve always been connected to people in the Knesset. I know how important it is to be good to all the country’s citizens. But now I feel that right-wing extremists led by [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben Gvir and [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich might turn the war into a conflict against the Arabs in Israel.”
A devout Muslim, a father of five, and a grandfather of 10, Akawi has a fatalistic view of life. He also has a wry sense of humor. When there’s a siren and he’s outside smoking a cigarette, he said, he comes back into his office, even though it is not a protected room. Yet he feels a deep uncertainty that no amount of humor can wrestle down.
“Arab Israelis are starting to feel like we’re considered a burden,” he said. “People here are wary that the government might go after us next.”
‘There is a danger to our existence’
On Samniya’s porch, the community center head gestured toward the hills. The rainy season hadn’t yet begun, and the earth and trees looked faded. In the distance hung a cloud of black smoke from launched rockets.
Samniya’s four children have all served in Israel’s National Service because, he said, he believes that “If I ask for rights from the country, I have to meet my responsibilities to give back to the country.”
Arabs in Israel, he said, have gone through what he called “Israelization.”
“We can’t say more than a few sentences without adding a Hebrew word,” he said. “In the supermarket, let’s say, we show the same kind of impatience.”
Arabs who stayed inside Israel after the Israeli War of Independence are sometimes called “the Arabs of 1948” by Arabs in other countries.
“They can’t understand the idea of ‘Arab Israelis,’” he said.
It is a unique identity, he said, that is far from simple. In Samniya’s living room, an Israeli news station played on the television. With his TV package, he could also choose Arabic-language stations, including from Algeria, Tunisia, and Palestine.
He said Al-Jazeera announces the news before the Israeli stations do, so he watches them both. Then he picked up a pin that he received from a memorial ceremony the previous night at the Mateh Asher Regional Council office, with the Hebrew word “Yizkor,” or remember. The pin commemorated the victims of the massacre of October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed into Israel from Gaza, murdered 1,200 people, and kidnapped 251 people to Gaza.
Samniay attended the event and stood and sang “Hatikva,” the Israeli national anthem.
“The words don’t speak to me, but it’s our national anthem, and I stand out of empathy and give respect because it’s my country,” Samniya said. “I even correct my Jewish friends when they don’t say the words right.”
The talk turned again to right-wing politicians who Samniya said are getting stronger in the country.
“Their agenda and ideology put us in danger,” Samniya said. “There is a danger to our existence.”
When asked what he would say to Ben Gvir and Smotrich if given the chance, Samniya replied, “They don’t live among Arabs. Let them come to the Western Galilee where they can see people living in coexistence.”
Arab Israelis shouldn’t be pushed away, he said. Instead, they can be a bridge between two peoples.
“We can find the golden way without losing our identity,” Samniya said. link
- Bumper stickers of the fallen coalesce online into a mosaic of mourning
Decals of slain Israelis bearing powerful messages are appearing on cars, walls and lampposts in a new and unusual homage. Now, Stickers of Meaning features them all in one place
A wall in Tel Aviv memorializing those killed on October 7 and in the ongoing war (Courtesy)A new crop of bumper stickers has appeared in Israel over the last year, pasted on cars and lampposts, plastered on the back walls of train stations and bus depots, naming and commemorating victims and soldiers who were killed in the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught and the ongoing war.
The decals aren’t printed by a single organization, but are produced independently by family and friends of those killed on and after October 7, just one of the many ways they try to keep their loved ones’ memory alive.
When Jeffrey Weiss began seeing the stickers, he quickly realized that he was witnessing something of a phenomenon, and started taking photos of each new sticker he saw.
Now he’s created Stickers of Meaning, a website featuring the stickers with a brief biography of each person in Hebrew and English.
“I would expect in any country to see respect for soldiers who died in combat — that seems normal and universal,” said Weiss, a lawyer who immigrated to Israel from Washington, DC. “But there was this additional feature on each one, a sentence that offered a kind of advice to the living.”
The messages were moving and powerful, said Weiss. One, for a soldier, told of how he fought out of love for those behind him rather than hatred for those in front of him. Another, for a woman killed at the Nova music festival, told readers that she came to each place with optimism.
He noted the Jewish and Israeli tone inherent in the gestures, as the bumper stickers often reimagined classic Jewish phrases such as, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and, “Love those like you, even those not like you,” or, “You ran after justice and peace, but preferred love.”
Israelis are no strangers to slapping politically or theologically loaded messages on bumper stickers, from exhortations on God’s oneness to demands regarding settlement expansion. In 2004, before the decals began to fade from boards and bumpers in favor of Facebook walls and Twitter, the phenomenon was famously recorded by author David Grossman and set to music by rock band Hadag Nahash.
Sometime after October 7, the stickers made a heartbreaking comeback. Stickers with images of the fallen began appearing throughout the country, hundreds grouped on walls of bus stations and train stations, as well as in other public places, including the site of the Nova rave and Tkuma, where hundreds of the ruined cars driven by those trying to escape the terrorists are piled high in another kind of memorial site.
At some point, after taking photos of some 400 stickers, Weiss, a patent lawyer by trade, began categorizing the stickers, organizing them according to types and messages.
He felt that a website featuring every sticker would emphasize the size and breadth of the ad-hoc national memorial and the power of a simple sticker.
Weiss wasn’t in Israel on October 7. He had flown to the United States on October 4 to visit his four adult children ahead of a 72-mile ultra marathon he planned to run on October 14 around Lake Tahoe, an endeavor for which he had been training for months.
Given his lifelong love for Israel and recent immigration to Tel Aviv in 2022, Weiss felt terrible being out of the country in the aftermath of the massacre, which saw some 1,200 people brutally murdered and 251 kidnapped to the Gaza Strip. Once he was back several days after the race, he began volunteering with various initiatives, seeking a way to help ease the terrible anguish, pain, and suffering plaguing so many in Israel.
At some point, he noticed the stickers and was struck by messages similar in tone to the sayings from the world of extreme endurance sports that he had enveloped himself in for the race.
“They all talk about life that is joyful and daring, full of meaning and purpose and resilience,” Weiss said.
Weiss set out to organize the Stickers of Meaning website according to categories. He hired web developers and lawyers to help him, aiming to contact each family and ensure that each one agreed to have the sticker featured on the website.
His team has met with some of the families and heard more stories about the loved ones they are mourning.
One family told Weiss and his team that the quote on the sticker had been written on the inside of the door to their son’s room. He was determined to join an elite IDF unit and had trained for the role since he was 16, crawling through dunes in the dark.
Another sibling had tattooed her brother’s favorite saying, “Be happy in your life,” on her arm and wore the saying on a bracelet before having it printed on the bumper sticker.
“I’ve been so struck by how Israelis really do seem drawn to all sorts of stuff about living their best life,” said Weiss. “It wasn’t just soldiers in elite units, but victims of the Nova and other places on October 7. There’s this persistence in the need to be joyful and optimistic and lead life to the fullest. There’s not anger in these stickers, there’s always something positive.”
Weiss launched the site the week before October 7 and is thinking about writing a book expanding on the meanings behind individual stickers and messages.
One of the bereaved families is considering launching an educational program for high schools and post-high school programs based on the sticker messages.
“It’s easier during this period to focus on what’s hard and painful. You can easily spend all your days in anguish,” said Weiss. “What these stickers did is reveal something astonishing about the character of Israelis that is so impressive.” link
- One year into the Hezbollah conflict, Arab Israelis confront their complicated identity
Living near the border with Lebanon, Sheik Danun leaders say extremists in the government — not the fighting over the border — make them feel disenfranchised from Israeli societyAhmed Samniya stands by his porch window in Sheikh Danun, Western Galilee, on October 8,
2024. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)WESTERN GALILEE — As explosions shattered the air on Tuesday, Ahmed Samniya stood on his porch on the edge of the village of Sheikh Danun, staring out at the fields beneath his window.
Down below, IDF troops were firing artillery into Lebanon, 9.5 kilometers (5.9 miles) away. The loud blasts seemed to serve as exclamation points as Samniya talked about his complicated identity as an Arab Israeli — an identity that has gotten even more intricate since the conflict with Hezbollah began a year ago, last October 8.
“Just because my country has conflicts with other countries outside our border doesn’t make me an enemy,” said Samniya, director of his village’s community center.
Since last October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza during the war against Hamas there.
Israel launched what it called “limited, localized, and targeted raids” on the ground in southern Lebanon on September 30, aiming to demolish Hezbollah infrastructure near the frontier, especially in the villages adjacent to Israel, to enable displaced Israeli residents of the north to return home safely.
Samniya said he’s an Israeli Arab or an Arab Israeli – both ways are correct, he believes – as well as a Bedouin.
“I bet you never saw a Bedouin drive a Tesla,” he joked, tilting his head toward the blue Tesla that stood in his driveway, and then he grew serious.
“We live in the Galilee, close to the Lebanese border, and as Israeli citizens, all of us are under fire – Jews, Muslims, Bedouins, and Druze,” Samniya said. “Rockets don’t distinguish between religion, nationality, or gender.”
However, Samniya said that the growing divisiveness within Israel compounded by the war has brought to the forefront questions of Arab Israelis’ identity and fears about their place in the country.
“I have freedom of religion here,” he said. “I have freedom of speech. My grandparents were born here. What happens outside our borders shouldn’t make me feel like I don’t belong here.”
A sleepy town that’s now sleepless
Sheikh Danun, with 3,000 residents, almost all Muslim, is set on a hill with a view of the sparkling Mediterranean in the distance.
It has always been a sleepy little village — there are no cafes or restaurants and initiatives to attract tourists have been postponed because of the war — but now it’s become a sleepless one, said Mahmod Akawi, the mayor of Sheikh Danun. It is just outside the conflict zone, so residents have not been evacuated.
Mahmod Akawi, head of Sheikh Danun, points to Lebanon in the distance as he stands in front of a temporary elementary school being readied for students evacuated from Arab al-Aramshe on October 8, 2024. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)The village is part of the Mateh Asher Regional Council, the largest settlement of the 32 communities. Eight of these have been evacuated, with more than 7,000 residents considered internally displaced citizens.
Residents of Arab al-Aramshe, the other non-Jewish settlement within the council that is closer to the Lebanese border, have been evacuated. Akawi took this Times of Israel reporter to see the temporary elementary school being built for Arab al- Aramshe children.
Attacks on northern Israel have resulted in the deaths of 26 civilians in Israel. In addition, 33 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.
Residents feel the war is being fought right there in their backyard, Akawi said. According to instructions from the IDF Home Front Command, all the schools in Sheikh Danun are closed, and there are no public events. Children have classes on Zoom, but Akawi said that one parent is required to stay at home to supervise their time on the computer. Younger children, he said, can’t use Zoom to go to kindergarten.
Two-thirds of the village’s homes do not have reinforced safe rooms, Akawi said. There are now seven temporary bomb shelters throughout the village. Residents of each neighborhood have also been instructed about which shelter they can enter in one of the schools or the kindergarten.
“Nobody can sleep at night because of the rockets,” Akawi said. “Parents don’t know what to tell their children.”
The war has also made Akawi feel that Arab Israelis are caught in the crosshairs.
A conflict against Arabs in Israel?
“I have worked in the town for 37 years in the public sector,” Akawi said as he sat in his office in the center of the town. “I’ve always been connected to people in the Knesset. I know how important it is to be good to all the country’s citizens. But now I feel that right-wing extremists led by [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben Gvir and [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich might turn the war into a conflict against the Arabs in Israel.”
A devout Muslim, a father of five, and a grandfather of 10, Akawi has a fatalistic view of life. He also has a wry sense of humor. When there’s a siren and he’s outside smoking a cigarette, he said, he comes back into his office, even though it is not a protected room. Yet he feels a deep uncertainty that no amount of humor can wrestle down.
“Arab Israelis are starting to feel like we’re considered a burden,” he said. “People here are wary that the government might go after us next.”‘There is a danger to our existence’
On Samniya’s porch, the community center head gestured toward the hills. The rainy season hadn’t yet begun, and the earth and trees looked faded. In the distance hung a cloud of black smoke from launched rockets.
Samniya’s four children have all served in Israel’s National Service because, he said, he believes that “If I ask for rights from the country, I have to meet my responsibilities to give back to the country.”
Arabs in Israel, he said, have gone through what he called “Israelization.”
“We can’t say more than a few sentences without adding a Hebrew word,” he said. “In the supermarket, let’s say, we show the same kind of impatience.”
Arabs who stayed inside Israel after the Israeli War of Independence are sometimes called “the Arabs of 1948” by Arabs in other countries.
“They can’t understand the idea of ‘Arab Israelis,’” he said.
It is a unique identity, he said, that is far from simple. In Samniya’s living room, an Israeli news station played on the television. With his TV package, he could also choose Arabic-language stations, including from Algeria, Tunisia, and Palestine.
He said Al-Jazeera announces the news before the Israeli stations do, so he watches them both. Then he picked up a pin that he received from a memorial ceremony the previous night at the Mateh Asher Regional Council office, with the Hebrew word “Yizkor,” or remember. The pin commemorated the victims of the massacre of October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed into Israel from Gaza, murdered 1,200 people, and kidnapped 251 people to Gaza.
Samniay attended the event and stood and sang “Hatikva,” the Israeli national anthem.
“The words don’t speak to me, but it’s our national anthem, and I stand out of empathy and give respect because it’s my country,” Samniya said. “I even correct my Jewish friends when they don’t say the words right.”
The talk turned again to right-wing politicians who Samniya said are getting stronger in the country.
“Their agenda and ideology put us in danger,” Samniya said. “There is a danger to our existence.”
When asked what he would say to Ben Gvir and Smotrich if given the chance, Samniya replied, “They don’t live among Arabs. Let them come to the Western Galilee where they can see people living in coexistence.”
Arab Israelis shouldn’t be pushed away, he said. Instead, they can be a bridge between two peoples.
“We can find the golden way without losing our identity,” Samniya said. link
The Region and the World
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Personal Stories
Nova survivor reveals she witnessed rape on October 7
Yuval Sharvit Trabelsi, who survived the Nova massacre but lost her husband Mor there, revealed for the first time that she witnessed rape while trying to evade Hamas terrorists.
As the sun dipped over Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park and families of Hamas’ victims and hostages began trickling in for an Oct. 7 memorial, a siren blared, warning of a missile fired from Yemen that forced everyone to the ground, their hands shielding their heads.
It was a stark reminder that the war begun a year ago was far from over.
The event — organized as a counterpoint to the official state-led ceremony, which many of the grieving families boycotted — was supposed to be much larger. The 50,000 tickets allotted for the event were reserved within hours of their release, but due to wartime restrictions on large gatherings, attendance was limited to press and victims’ families.The scaled-back audience — and a larger crowd viewing from all over the world by livestream — heard musical performances from a host of celebrities, political outrage from families who feel abandoned by Israel’s government and chilling testimony from Oct. 7 survivors.
Hamas's use of sexual violenceIn a video broadcast at the event, Yuval Sharvit Trabelsi, who survived the Nova massacre but lost her husband Mor there, revealed for the first time that she witnessed rape while trying to evade Hamas terrorists.
“We saw murder, kidnappings, but the hardest of them all was rape,” she said. “I have never heard screams for help like the ones I heard from that woman.”
She went on to recount how she smeared herself with her husband’s blood so that the terrorists would think she was dead. In all, more than 360 people were killed at the Nova festival.
As on Oct. 7 last year, a Hamas-fired rocket had triggered sirens in Tel Aviv earlier in the day, a sign that the terror group still poses a danger after a yearlong campaign by the Israeli military to eliminate it. But Linda Trabelsi, Mor’s mother, said the threat of rockets didn’t deter her from attending the memorial service.
“Not coming wasn’t an option,” she told JTA. But she said the anniversary was not her hardest day.
“No, Oct. 7, 2023, was the hardest day,” she said. “And after that? Every day since.” But she noted that September had been especially difficult, as it included both Mor’s birthday and what would have been his first wedding anniversary.
Many families of victims and hostages blame the government for failing to prevent the Hamas attack, when thousands of terrorists stormed Israel’s southern border en masse, killing some 1,200 people, abducting more than 250 to Gaza and perpetrating the worst one-day attack in Israel’s history. And in the year since the attack, many hostage families say the government could have — and should have — done more to secure their freedom.
“Instead of standing here in multitudes as a united people of Israel, we wait for the next siren,” said co-organizer Yonatan Shamriz, the brother of Alon Shamriz, who was taken captive and later killed by Israeli soldiers in a case of mistaken identity.
“Instead of a state investigative commission being formed to investigate this colossal failure, we are left asking the questions ourselves, without getting any answers,” he said. “There is no personal example, no vision, no leadership, no accountability.”
Shamriz’s anger was reflected in the split-screen reality of the day: In contrast to the Tel Aviv event, the official state ceremony was prerecorded weeks ago and featured speeches by the leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom the hostage families blame for not rescuing their loved ones from the tunnels of Gaza.
There is broad Israeli support for an intensified effort to release the hostages. A survey released on Monday by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 62% of Israelis said freeing the captives should be the main goal of the war, and most said the war in Gaza should be ended, in part to avoid endangering the hostages’ lives.
But Netanyahu focused his speech on defeating Hamas, which he listed first among the war’s aims, and vowed to continue the fight.
“We mustn’t stop the war prematurely,” he said. “As long as the enemy threatens our existence and the peace of our country, we will continue to fight. As long as our hostages are still in Gaza, we will continue to fight. We will not forsake any of them. I will not give up. As long as our citizens have not returned to their homes safely, we will continue to fight.”
Doron Weiss, who attended the Tel Aviv memorial in honor of his nephew, captive soldier Matan Angrest, also voiced anger at Israel’s leadership. Last month, his sister, Anat Angrest, played a recently unearthed audio clip of her son speaking from Gaza — the first sign of life since his abduction.
“I’m finished with tears. We’ve been living this hell for a year. We know our leaders are not doing everything they can to release them, and it stings,” Weiss told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Several Jewish communal leaders also attended the Tel Aviv event, including William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America.
Daroff, who was leading a solidarity mission, focused his rebuke not on Netanyahu but on Israel’s allies in the wake of the attack.
“Our allies weren’t there standing with us at the end of the day. As Jews we can only really count on Jews,” he said. “When Israel bleeds, American Jews bleed and when Israel cries American Jews cry. That’s become a standard since Oct. 7.”
British-Israeli Gaby Young Shalev, whose brother Nathanel Young, a soldier, was killed in action on Oct. 7, said today was the “first day it really hit” her.
She described the months following her brother’s murder as a whirlwind of otherwise happy life events, including her parents’ aliyah, two of her siblings giving birth, and the arrival of her own twins.
“And even though we speak about Nat every day, talking about projects and ways we can commemorate him, it’s almost like a distraction from the truth,” she said. “Then, at these kinds of events, when people send messages and send their support, you kind of realize this is actually real. It makes you realize the extent of it, and the fact that there are thousands of other families going through the same thing is just even more tragic.”
She added, “Every time I see another fallen soldier’s name, it’s hard, knowing more families are going to go through the same cycle. Especially when they’ve served quietly in Gaza for months, only to fall after all that.”
Yigal Cohen took to the stage and recounted how his daughter, a surveillance soldier at the Nahal Oz base, was “murdered barefoot, in her pajamas.”
“The blood of our daughters cries out to us from the earth. We cannot be silent. We will not leave, we will not forget, and we will not grow weary,” he said.
At the conclusion of his speech, in a symbolic gesture calling for the release of the five surveillance soldiers still held captive in Gaza, he released five yellow balloons into the air.
A common refrain from Israelis — and especially hostage families — is that they are still living the hell of last Oct. 7. One year later, that anguish that was evident at the ceremony in Tel Aviv.
“Tal’s children, Neve and Yahel, keep asking: Where’s Dad? When will he come back? When Dad comes back, will he be very old?” said Nitza Korngold, mother of hostage Tal Shoham. “In which country are these the questions a 9-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl ask?”
Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages
A Strategic Decisionis the WayDr. Daniel SobelmanDepartment of International Relations, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.In strategy and international relations, time is both a resource and an asset. It allows for strategic depth, providing a buffer zone for a country to regroup and prepare. A prolonged period of relative calm is especially valuable. For instance, some of Israel’s critical strategic assets, including the national water carrier and the Dimona nuclear plant, were developed under David Ben-Gurion during a decade of relative peace following the successful 1956 Sinai Campaign. This period of deterrence and industrialtranquillity, only eight years after the establishment of the State of Israel, lasted longer than the country’s existence at that point.What has occurred in Israel during the tenure of Benjamin Netanyahu, which has surpassed that of the nation’s founder? As prime minister, Netanyahu achieved significant international milestones, such as the Abraham Accords. However, under his leadership, a regional, well-oiled, and threatening system has emerged, led by none other than the nation he regarded as a major adversary: Iran. The country, which Netanyahu compared to Nazi Germany two decades ago, has shifted the regional balance of power and is now on the brink of acquiring nuclear capabilities. In the weeks and months following the October 7th War, Israel began to grasp the full impact of the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance. On that fateful morning, it became clear that Hamas in the Gaza Strip had become a formidable and terrifying player within this axis. Alongside Hamas, Hezbollah’s growing strength over the past decade-and-a-half poses dramatic implications for Israel’s security. No one anticipated that one morning Israel would need American aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines to keep Hezbollah and Iran at bay. It is now evident that any conflict with Hezbollah will also necessitate massive American support.A significant part of this new reality, which will shape Israel’s strategic future, developed during Netanyahu’s watch. More often than not, he chose indecision. This truth cannot be mitigated or ignored. The only remedy is a complete overhaul of strategy and the establishment of a new and robust regional geopolitical architecture to deter Iran. Achieving this goal requires ending the war, releasing the hostages, and taking institutional steps to stabilize the Palestinian arena.Geopolitically, the recent war has delivered a stark warning: Israelcannot continue to avoid core strategic decisions. Netanyahu, known for his aversion to risk and decisive action, especially those that might incur political costs or threaten his position, must recognize this. True, democratic leaders often balance national and personal political interests. However, Israel can no longer afford a leader who, as Netanyahu himself warned when he was opposition leader, might make decisions “based on personal political survival rather than the national interest.”
Acronyms and Glossary
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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