π️Lonny's War Update- October 386, 2023 - October 26, 2024 π️
π️Day 386 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
*7:20pm yesterday - north -rockets/missiles *7:30pm yeterday - north - rockets/missiles
*7:35pm yesterday - north - rockets/missiles
*9:40pm yesterday - north -rockets/missiles
*10:20pm yesterday - north - rockets/missiles
*12:10am - north -rockets/missiles -Some 65 rockets were launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon at northern Israel today, according to an IDF tally.In the latest attack, three rockets were launched at Kiryat Shmona and were intercepted.
Earlier, two civilians were killed and seven wounded in a rocket impact in Majd al-Krum, and another rocket strike earlier wounded six soldiers in Shomera.
*4:05am - north - hostile aircraft - Naharia, Shavei Zion, Regba, Mizra'a, Lohemei Hagheto'ot, Bustan Hagalil, Shomera, Acre, Gedida Maker
*4:35am - north - hostile aircraft - Shlomi, Metzuba
*8:40am -north - hostile aircraft - Metulla, Kfar yuval, Kfar Giladi, Maayan Baruch, Kiryat Shemona
*9:05am - north - hostile aircraft - Ein Yaacov, Gaaton, Yehiam, Klil
*12:25pm - north - rockets/missiles
*12:55pm - north - hostile aircraft - Metulla, Kfar Yuval
*1:20pm - north - hostile aircraft - Arab al Aramsha, Hanita, Goren, Gordot Hagalil, Goren Guest House, Yaara, Hila, Metzuba, Shlomi, Mailia, Manot, Ma'ona
*2:10pm - north - rockets/missiles -Hezbollah has fired some 80 rockets at northern Israel today so far, according to an IDF tally.The military said earlier that it has downed four drones launched from Lebanon today.
*4:05pm - north -rockets/missiles*4:10pm - north - rockets/missiles
*4:30pm - north-rockets/missiles
*5:10pm - north -rockets/missiles
*5:45pm - north -rockets/missiles
*7:35pm yesterday - north - rockets/missiles
*9:40pm yesterday - north -rockets/missiles
*10:20pm yesterday - north - rockets/missiles
*12:10am - north -rockets/missiles -Some 65 rockets were launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon at northern Israel today, according to an IDF tally.
In the latest attack, three rockets were launched at Kiryat Shmona and were intercepted.
Earlier, two civilians were killed and seven wounded in a rocket impact in Majd al-Krum, and another rocket strike earlier wounded six soldiers in Shomera.
*4:05am - north - hostile aircraft - Naharia, Shavei Zion, Regba, Mizra'a, Lohemei Hagheto'ot, Bustan Hagalil, Shomera, Acre, Gedida Maker*4:35am - north - hostile aircraft - Shlomi, Metzuba
*8:40am -north - hostile aircraft - Metulla, Kfar yuval, Kfar Giladi, Maayan Baruch, Kiryat Shemona
*9:05am - north - hostile aircraft - Ein Yaacov, Gaaton, Yehiam, Klil
*12:25pm - north - rockets/missiles
*12:55pm - north - hostile aircraft - Metulla, Kfar Yuval
*1:20pm - north - hostile aircraft - Arab al Aramsha, Hanita, Goren, Gordot Hagalil, Goren Guest House, Yaara, Hila, Metzuba, Shlomi, Mailia, Manot, Ma'ona
*2:10pm - north - rockets/missiles -Hezbollah has fired some 80 rockets at northern Israel today so far, according to an IDF tally.
The military said earlier that it has downed four drones launched from Lebanon today.
*4:05pm - north -rockets/missiles*4:30pm - north-rockets/missiles
*5:10pm - north -rockets/missiles
*5:45pm - north -rockets/missiles
Hostage Updates
Hostage Updates
A senior Hamas official tells AFP that the terror group told Egyptian officials it was ready to stop fighting in Gaza if Israel committed to a ceasefire deal.
The official says a Hamas delegation discussed “ideas and proposals” related to a Gaza truce with Egyptian officials in Cairo earlier today.
Hamas-run Al Aqsa TV cites sources that the delegation to Cairo, headed by chief negotiator and deputy Hamas Gaza chief Khalil Al-Hayya, met with the head of Egypt’s general intelligence agency, Hassan Mahmoud Rashad.
“Hamas has expressed readiness to stop the fighting, but Israel must commit to a ceasefire, withdraw from the Gaza Strip, allow the return of displaced people, agree to a serious prisoner exchange deal, and allow the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” the official says, adding that the talks in Cairo were part of Egypt’s ongoing efforts to resume ceasefire negotiations.
Egypt and Qatar have acted as mediators between Israel and Hamas in months of talks that broke down in August without an agreement to end fighting that began when the Palestinian terror group launched its brutal onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The report comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Egypt’s willingness to advance a deal for the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier today, Qatar and Washington’s top diplomats said that American and Israeli negotiators would gather in Doha in the coming days to try to restart talks toward a deal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza
Amid a new push toward hostage talks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says in a statement that he “welcomes Egypt’s readiness to advance a deal to free hostages.”
Israeli officials, including Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, have held meetings on the topic in Cairo over the past week.
“In addition to meetings that were held in Cairo, the prime minister instructed the head of the Mossad to travel to Doha to advance a series of initiatives on the agenda, backed by the cabinet,” the PMO continues.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Al Qahera News outlet, citing a senior Egyptian official, reports that Egyptian negotiators met with Hamas officials in Cairo “to examine the situation in Gaza and ways to overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of quiet in the Strip.”
The official says the meeting was part of “Egyptian efforts to restart talks for a ceasefire in Gaza.”
A senior Hamas official tells AFP that the terror group told Egyptian officials it was ready to stop fighting in Gaza if Israel committed to a ceasefire deal.
The official says a Hamas delegation discussed “ideas and proposals” related to a Gaza truce with Egyptian officials in Cairo earlier today.
Hamas-run Al Aqsa TV cites sources that the delegation to Cairo, headed by chief negotiator and deputy Hamas Gaza chief Khalil Al-Hayya, met with the head of Egypt’s general intelligence agency, Hassan Mahmoud Rashad.
“Hamas has expressed readiness to stop the fighting, but Israel must commit to a ceasefire, withdraw from the Gaza Strip, allow the return of displaced people, agree to a serious prisoner exchange deal, and allow the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” the official says, adding that the talks in Cairo were part of Egypt’s ongoing efforts to resume ceasefire negotiations.
Egypt and Qatar have acted as mediators between Israel and Hamas in months of talks that broke down in August without an agreement to end fighting that began when the Palestinian terror group launched its brutal onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The report comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Egypt’s willingness to advance a deal for the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier today, Qatar and Washington’s top diplomats said that American and Israeli negotiators would gather in Doha in the coming days to try to restart talks toward a deal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza
Amid a new push toward hostage talks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says in a statement that he “welcomes Egypt’s readiness to advance a deal to free hostages.”
Israeli officials, including Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, have held meetings on the topic in Cairo over the past week.
“In addition to meetings that were held in Cairo, the prime minister instructed the head of the Mossad to travel to Doha to advance a series of initiatives on the agenda, backed by the cabinet,” the PMO continues.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Al Qahera News outlet, citing a senior Egyptian official, reports that Egyptian negotiators met with Hamas officials in Cairo “to examine the situation in Gaza and ways to overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of quiet in the Strip.”
The official says the meeting was part of “Egyptian efforts to restart talks for a ceasefire in Gaza.”
-
Osama Hamdan a senior member of the Hamas terror group on Friday rejected a proposal for a "small deal," that would see the release of some of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza.Families of hostages said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told them during his visit to Israel earlier in the week that he was trying to secure an initial deal to "test the waters" and see who can now speak for Hamas after the killing of its leader Yahya Sinwar.Blinken met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the first big U.S. push for a Middle East ceasefire since Israel killed the leader of Hamas last week - and the last attempt before a presidential election that could upend U.S. policy. The two men met for 2.5 hours before the secretary met with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Speaking to the Hezbollah-affiliated al-Mayadeen network, Hamdan said Israel was trying to work around the Hamas terms for a deal that would include a withdrawal of troops and an end to the war. "Israel wants to get some hostages in exchange for a few days of calm without committing to ending the war and pulling out its troops. Hamas rejects the proposals that do not meet our basic demands," he said.
- Senior Official: If Israel Doesn't Show Flexibility - There Won't Be a Hostage Deal
A source involved in the negotiation details: After Sinwar's elimination and military pressure in Gaza, there are conditions for reaching an agreement, but they require compromise • Despite having a majority, the Cabinet didn't vote for the "initial deal" • The negotiating team is taking Hamas's statement against the Egyptian initiative with a grain of salt.
A senior Israeli official called the Mossad chief's trip to Qatar next week "throwing sand in the eyes of the public and hostages' families," as we reported tonight (Friday) on "Friday Studio." "If there isn't flexibility - there won't be a deal," said the source familiar with the details, "just like previous deals fell through."
On Sunday, Mossad chief Dedi Barnea is supposed to travel to Doha with lots of goodwill, but without a mandate to compromise on the Philadelphia Corridor and Netzarim conditions. Security officials say that after Sinwar's elimination, conditions are optimal. While there's always more to do in Gaza, the question is when to say enough.
Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich opposed the proposal, calling it "a gift to Hamas while Israel has momentum." On the other hand, Ministers Yoav Gallant, Miri Regev, Israel Katz, and Yariv Levin supported advancing the deal. The Americans want at least the appearance of negotiations to reach the November elections peacefully. Even if Hamas agrees to the outline, it will come back to the same decision - whether the PM is willing to stop the military campaign in exchange for a hostage deal.
While Hamas sources said this morning they won't accept the proposal for a short ceasefire in exchange for releasing a small number of hostages, professional sources aren't particularly impressed by this and think there is willingness there.
The Prime Minister's Office issued a statement Saturday night stating that "the Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Netanyahu, ordered the initiation of steps to advance a deal for the release of hostages."link. The official who called this 'throwing sand in the eyes of the Israeli public is 100% correct. The only deal that Hamas will accept is one that comes with a complete end of the war. That is the reason that they accepted my brother's 3 week plan which consists of the 2 major issues: return of all the hostages and ending the war. Netanyahu doesn't want to end the war and anything less means leaving the hostages to die. "No Hostage Will Be Released": Iran Takes One Dangerous Step Toward Israel
Murals with pictures of hostages were hung in Palestine Square in the Iranian capital, Tehran, featuring the text: "No hostage will be released." This was written on a mural in Palestine Square in Iran's capital, Tehran, which displays pictures of the hostages in Gaza accompanied by text in Hebrew and Persian.
"No hostage will be released", murals in Tehran, Iran (notice that the murals are in Hebrew)
This message comes close to today's news (Thursday) about negotiation teams from the US, Israel, Egypt, and Qatar who are expected to meet in Doha in the coming days to renew negotiations on a hostage deal. Among the personnel are: William Burns, CIA Director, Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Mossad chief David Barnea, and possibly Egyptian Intelligence chief Hassan Rashad.
Additionally, in recent days, the name of the senior US Defense Department official responsible for leaking documents detailing Israel's attack plan on Iran was published - Ariane Tabatabai, who holds an extensive professional and academic record, including being a member of the American negotiating team responsible for Iran's nuclear program in 2021. link
A source involved in the negotiation details: After Sinwar's elimination and military pressure in Gaza, there are conditions for reaching an agreement, but they require compromise • Despite having a majority, the Cabinet didn't vote for the "initial deal" • The negotiating team is taking Hamas's statement against the Egyptian initiative with a grain of salt.
A senior Israeli official called the Mossad chief's trip to Qatar next week "throwing sand in the eyes of the public and hostages' families," as we reported tonight (Friday) on "Friday Studio." "If there isn't flexibility - there won't be a deal," said the source familiar with the details, "just like previous deals fell through."
On Sunday, Mossad chief Dedi Barnea is supposed to travel to Doha with lots of goodwill, but without a mandate to compromise on the Philadelphia Corridor and Netzarim conditions. Security officials say that after Sinwar's elimination, conditions are optimal. While there's always more to do in Gaza, the question is when to say enough.
Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich opposed the proposal, calling it "a gift to Hamas while Israel has momentum." On the other hand, Ministers Yoav Gallant, Miri Regev, Israel Katz, and Yariv Levin supported advancing the deal. The Americans want at least the appearance of negotiations to reach the November elections peacefully. Even if Hamas agrees to the outline, it will come back to the same decision - whether the PM is willing to stop the military campaign in exchange for a hostage deal.
While Hamas sources said this morning they won't accept the proposal for a short ceasefire in exchange for releasing a small number of hostages, professional sources aren't particularly impressed by this and think there is willingness there.
The Prime Minister's Office issued a statement Saturday night stating that "the Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Netanyahu, ordered the initiation of steps to advance a deal for the release of hostages."link. The official who called this 'throwing sand in the eyes of the Israeli public is 100% correct. The only deal that Hamas will accept is one that comes with a complete end of the war. That is the reason that they accepted my brother's 3 week plan which consists of the 2 major issues: return of all the hostages and ending the war. Netanyahu doesn't want to end the war and anything less means leaving the hostages to die.
"No Hostage Will Be Released": Iran Takes One Dangerous Step Toward Israel
Murals with pictures of hostages were hung in Palestine Square in the Iranian capital, Tehran, featuring the text: "No hostage will be released." This was written on a mural in Palestine Square in Iran's capital, Tehran, which displays pictures of the hostages in Gaza accompanied by text in Hebrew and Persian.
"No hostage will be released", murals in Tehran, Iran (notice that the murals are in Hebrew)
This message comes close to today's news (Thursday) about negotiation teams from the US, Israel, Egypt, and Qatar who are expected to meet in Doha in the coming days to renew negotiations on a hostage deal. Among the personnel are: William Burns, CIA Director, Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Mossad chief David Barnea, and possibly Egyptian Intelligence chief Hassan Rashad.
Additionally, in recent days, the name of the senior US Defense Department official responsible for leaking documents detailing Israel's attack plan on Iran was published - Ariane Tabatabai, who holds an extensive professional and academic record, including being a member of the American negotiating team responsible for Iran's nuclear program in 2021. link
Gaza
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says two children died at the last functioning hospital in the territory’s north after Israeli fire hit oxygen equipment. At the same time, the military tells AFP it is unaware of strikes in the area.
“Two children have died in the intensive care unit after the hospital’s generators failed and the oxygen station was targeted,” says a health ministry statement about the Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp.
Israeli forces “are searching the hospital and firing within different departments, increasing the panic and anxiety,” the ministry adds.
The Israeli army says it is “not aware of live fire and strikes in the area of the hospital.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that Israel in recent days offered Hamas leaders safe passage to another country if they disarmed and freed the hostages they are holding.
The paper says the head of the spy agency Mossad, David Barnea, conveyed the offer during meetings in Egypt over the past week.
The Journal, citing Arab mediators, says Hamas rebuffed the proposal. link Just as I have been posting for quite some time. Anyone who made that offer and truly expected them to leave Gaza has no understanding of Hamas and their leaders, in particular Yihya Sinwar and his close associates. They have always been prepared to die in the fight in Gaza and become martyrs.
Hamas operative planning ‘imminent’ terror attack killed by special forces in West Bank — IDF, Shin Bet, police
A Hamas operative planning an “imminent” terror attack was killed by special forces in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, the IDF, Shin Bet, and police say.
Members of the police’s elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit and the Kfir Brigade’s Haruv reconnaissance unit encircled a building in Tulkarem this morning and carried out a tactic known as “pressure cooker” that involves escalating the volume of fire directed at a building to force a suspect to come out.
The IDF says the suspect, Islam Odeh, opened fire from the building and was eventually killed in an exchange of fire.
In the suspect’s car, the IDF says it found weapons, including parts to build a bomb.
According to the military, Odeh was a member of a Hamas network in Tulkarem and was involved in planning a major terror attack on the anniversary of the October 7 massacre with Hamas commander Zahi Oufi, who was killed in an airstrike on October 3.
“After the assassination of Oufi, Odeh commanded and led the network and in recent days was planning more attacks,” the statement says.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says two children died at the last functioning hospital in the territory’s north after Israeli fire hit oxygen equipment. At the same time, the military tells AFP it is unaware of strikes in the area.
“Two children have died in the intensive care unit after the hospital’s generators failed and the oxygen station was targeted,” says a health ministry statement about the Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp.
Israeli forces “are searching the hospital and firing within different departments, increasing the panic and anxiety,” the ministry adds.
The Israeli army says it is “not aware of live fire and strikes in the area of the hospital.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that Israel in recent days offered Hamas leaders safe passage to another country if they disarmed and freed the hostages they are holding.
The paper says the head of the spy agency Mossad, David Barnea, conveyed the offer during meetings in Egypt over the past week.
The Journal, citing Arab mediators, says Hamas rebuffed the proposal. link Just as I have been posting for quite some time. Anyone who made that offer and truly expected them to leave Gaza has no understanding of Hamas and their leaders, in particular Yihya Sinwar and his close associates. They have always been prepared to die in the fight in Gaza and become martyrs.
Hamas operative planning ‘imminent’ terror attack killed by special forces in West Bank — IDF, Shin Bet, police
A Hamas operative planning an “imminent” terror attack was killed by special forces in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, the IDF, Shin Bet, and police say.
Members of the police’s elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit and the Kfir Brigade’s Haruv reconnaissance unit encircled a building in Tulkarem this morning and carried out a tactic known as “pressure cooker” that involves escalating the volume of fire directed at a building to force a suspect to come out.
The IDF says the suspect, Islam Odeh, opened fire from the building and was eventually killed in an exchange of fire.
In the suspect’s car, the IDF says it found weapons, including parts to build a bomb.
According to the military, Odeh was a member of a Hamas network in Tulkarem and was involved in planning a major terror attack on the anniversary of the October 7 massacre with Hamas commander Zahi Oufi, who was killed in an airstrike on October 3.
“After the assassination of Oufi, Odeh commanded and led the network and in recent days was planning more attacks,” the statement says.
Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria
- Countries pledge $1 billion to aid Lebanese, bolster army amid calls for ceasefire
https://www.timesofisrael.com/countries-pledge-1-billion-to-aid-lebanese-bolster-army-amid-calls-for-ceasefire/
- Syrian media reports blasts over Damascus and HomsWhile explosions are reportedly heard in the Iranian capital of Tehran, Syrian media outlets also report blasts over Damascus and Homs in Syria.
At least two Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanese state media reports, as footage shows smoke rising from the area after Israel issued an evacuation call.
The official National News Agency says “enemy aircraft launched two new strikes” on the Haret Hreik district, one of the areas where the Israeli military had earlier told residents to evacuate. video
- Israel strikes Syria, Iraq as part of broad response to Iran
Israel struck several targets across Syria and Iraq as part of its wide-reaching response to Iran.
Israel struck several targets across Syria and Iraq as part of its wide-reaching response to Iran on Saturday.
In Syria, Israel struck military targets across the center and south of the country, Syrian media confirmed.
There were early reports of explosions outside Damascus, which the Syrian Military said was a result of Syrian air defense interceptions.
"Around 02:00, [Israel] carried out an air strike against several military sites in the southern and central region of Syria. The air defense confronted the missiles and shot down some of them. Tests of the results of the attacks are still ongoing."
The attack was reportedly an attempt to "blind" Iranian early warning radars.
Explosions in Iraq
Explosions were reported in Basra, in southern Iraq, but soon after, Iraqi officials denied this, saying that they had actually occurred across the border in Iran.
Basra is a stronghold for Iraqi Shia, having been the site of numerous Shia uprisings during the Saddam Hussein era. The Iraqi Transportation Ministry announced it was suspending all air traffic until further notice, following the reports of strikes. link
Overnight, Israeli fighter jets also struck Hezbollah targets in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
According to the IDF, the targets included weapons manufacturing sites, a command room belonging to Hezbollah’s intelligence division, and surveillance equipment.
The Hezbollah assets were all located in civilian buildings in Beirut’s southern suburb, according to the IDF. Before the strike, the military issued evacuation warnings to civilians.
Separately, the IDF says a cell of Hezbollah operatives who launched a missile at an IDF drone in southern Lebanon yesterday were killed in a drone strike a short while later.
The drone flying over Kfar Fila was not hit in the incident, according to the IDF.
Troops with the 91st Division seized four truck-mounted rocket launchers during operations in southern Lebanon this week, the IDF says.
A truck-mounted rocket launcher found by troops in southern Lebanon in a handout image published October 26, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)
According to the military, the launchers were loaded with some 160 rockets.
Separately, around 130 Hezbollah launchers were struck by the Israeli Air Force in the past week, the IDF says.
The launchers included those used to fire rockets at Israel, including in Friday’s deadly attack on Majd al-Krum.
Meanwhile, some 125 rockets were fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon at northern Israel in two barrages in the past few hours. The IDF says some of the rockets were intercepted, and there are no reports of injuries.
At least two Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanese state media reports, as footage shows smoke rising from the area after Israel issued an evacuation call.
The official National News Agency says “enemy aircraft launched two new strikes” on the Haret Hreik district, one of the areas where the Israeli military had earlier told residents to evacuate. video
Israel struck several targets across Syria and Iraq as part of its wide-reaching response to Iran on Saturday.
In Syria, Israel struck military targets across the center and south of the country, Syrian media confirmed.
There were early reports of explosions outside Damascus, which the Syrian Military said was a result of Syrian air defense interceptions.
"Around 02:00, [Israel] carried out an air strike against several military sites in the southern and central region of Syria. The air defense confronted the missiles and shot down some of them. Tests of the results of the attacks are still ongoing."
The attack was reportedly an attempt to "blind" Iranian early warning radars.
Explosions in Iraq
Explosions were reported in Basra, in southern Iraq, but soon after, Iraqi officials denied this, saying that they had actually occurred across the border in Iran.
Overnight, Israeli fighter jets also struck Hezbollah targets in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
According to the IDF, the targets included weapons manufacturing sites, a command room belonging to Hezbollah’s intelligence division, and surveillance equipment.
The Hezbollah assets were all located in civilian buildings in Beirut’s southern suburb, according to the IDF. Before the strike, the military issued evacuation warnings to civilians.
Separately, the IDF says a cell of Hezbollah operatives who launched a missile at an IDF drone in southern Lebanon yesterday were killed in a drone strike a short while later.
The drone flying over Kfar Fila was not hit in the incident, according to the IDF.
Troops with the 91st Division seized four truck-mounted rocket launchers during operations in southern Lebanon this week, the IDF says.
A truck-mounted rocket launcher found by troops in southern Lebanon in a handout image published October 26, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)
According to the military, the launchers were loaded with some 160 rockets.
Separately, around 130 Hezbollah launchers were struck by the Israeli Air Force in the past week, the IDF says.
The launchers included those used to fire rockets at Israel, including in Friday’s deadly attack on Majd al-Krum.
Meanwhile, some 125 rockets were fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon at northern Israel in two barrages in the past few hours. The IDF says some of the rockets were intercepted, and there are no reports of injuries.
West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel
Politics and the War (general news)
- Poll: Most Israelis favor early elections, amid low confidence in Netanyahu
Public confidence in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is low and most Israelis favor early elections, according to a poll released by Channel 12 news last night, before the IDF carried out retaliatory airstrikes on military targets in Iran.
Asked when elections should be held, 51 percent of respondents say as soon as possible, while 39% want to wait until the next general elections, formally scheduled for October 2026.
Israel’s security chiefs get better grades in the television news poll than the premier, who was rated “good” by 41% of respondents and “bad” by 55%.
By way of comparison, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is rated positively by 58% of respondents and negatively by 34%, while IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halev gets “good” marks from 59% and “bad” from 30%.
Similarly, 55% of respondents rate Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar’s performance as “good” and only 29% “bad,” and Mossad head David Barnea is positively rated by 60% of respondents and negatively by just 20%.
The polls also finds overwhelming support for a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas — even if it means a halt to fighting in Gaza — with 73% supporting a deal and only 14% opposing it.
The vast majority of participants in the survey also call for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the failures leading to Hamas’s devastating October 7, 2023 attack, with 80% for and 10% against.
The survey, by pollster Manu Geva, questioned 502 respondents and has a 4.4% margin of error. Data was collected on September 29.
Public confidence in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is low and most Israelis favor early elections, according to a poll released by Channel 12 news last night, before the IDF carried out retaliatory airstrikes on military targets in Iran.
Asked when elections should be held, 51 percent of respondents say as soon as possible, while 39% want to wait until the next general elections, formally scheduled for October 2026.
Israel’s security chiefs get better grades in the television news poll than the premier, who was rated “good” by 41% of respondents and “bad” by 55%.
By way of comparison, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is rated positively by 58% of respondents and negatively by 34%, while IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halev gets “good” marks from 59% and “bad” from 30%.
Similarly, 55% of respondents rate Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar’s performance as “good” and only 29% “bad,” and Mossad head David Barnea is positively rated by 60% of respondents and negatively by just 20%.
The polls also finds overwhelming support for a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas — even if it means a halt to fighting in Gaza — with 73% supporting a deal and only 14% opposing it.
The vast majority of participants in the survey also call for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the failures leading to Hamas’s devastating October 7, 2023 attack, with 80% for and 10% against.
The survey, by pollster Manu Geva, questioned 502 respondents and has a 4.4% margin of error. Data was collected on September 29.
The Region and the World
- Iran says it has ‘duty to defend itself’ after Israeli strikes, claims 2 soldiers killed
NY Times says Israel struck S-300 air defenses near Tehran airport, secretive Parchin base; source tells Washington Post attack was designed to minimize casualties, prevent escalation
Iran said Saturday it was obliged to “defend itself” after Israel conducted strikes on military targets throughout the Islamic Republic — an assault that came in retaliation for Tehran’s ballistic missile barrage on the country earlier this month.
“Iran has the right and the duty to defend itself against foreign acts of aggression,” Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement, citing Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.
Israel indicated that it was braced for a potential Iranian response but warned Iran against it. “If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Saturday morning, after the four-hour operation was complete
Iranian state news agency Tasnim reported that two soldiers were killed in the overnight strikes. No further details were given.
According to two Iranian officials quoted by The New York Times, one of the sites targeted was the S-300 air defense of Imam Khomeini International Airport near Tehran. (Israel reportedly targeted a Russian-made S-300 air defense system near Iran’s Natanz nuclear site in April.)
At least three Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps missile bases were targeted in the strikes, according to the unnamed officials, one of whom is a member of the IRGC.
Israeli drones also targeted the secretive Parchin military base on the outskirts of Tehran, the report added, citing the officials as saying that one hit the site while others were downed.
Satellite image of the Parchin facility, April 2012. (AP/Institute for Science and International Security)The Israeli operation, hitting targets some 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) away, marked an unprecedented attack in terms of its scale, duration and Israel’s immediate acknowledgment of responsibility.
However, Israel did not target nuclear or oil facilities, heeding pressure from the Biden Administration. The US, in turn, endorsed the Israeli attack as an act of self-defense, and made clear it was ready to help Israel defend itself against an Iranian response.
The Washington Post quoted an informed source as saying the strike was designed to minimize casualties and to allow Tehran to deny any major damage, preventing an escalation between the countries.
Iran indeed appeared to downplay Israel’s strikes, with a source quoted by state media denying the IDF’s announcement that dozens of fighter jets had taken part in the retaliatory attack.
“The reports alleging that 100 Israeli military planes have had a role in the strike are also complete lies, as Israel is seeking to overplay its weak attack,” the source was quoted as saying by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The report also claimed that Israeli jets did not cross into Iranian airspace during the strikes and that they caused only limited damage.
Commuters drive along a street in Tehran on October 26, 2024. (Atta Kenare/AFP)Footage published by Qatar-funded Al Araby TV purported to show damage from Israeli strikes to a factory in Shamsabad, south of Tehran.
Unverified reports on social media said three workers were killed at the factory, which was said to be involved in the development and production of military drones.
The IDF said it precisely targeted strategic military sites — specifically drone and ballistic missile manufacturing and launch sites, as well as air defense batteries.
Washington and London said they back Israel’s right to defend itself after Iran’s attack on October 1, while calling on Iran to de-escalate. Arab nations also urged de-escalation, though many blamed Israel for destabilizing actions.
A general view of Tehran after Israel launched airstrikes on Iranian military sites, October 26, 2024. (Atta Kenare/AFP)Reports of explosions near Tehran began to emerge around 2:15 a.m. local time, with the Israel Defense Forces quickly releasing a statement confirming that it was attacking, in response to “months of continuous attacks from the Iranian regime against the State of Israel.”
The strikes were carried out in several waves over the course of several hours, in various areas of Iran, with the Islamic Republic closing its airspace for the duration and seemingly showing little ability to counter the assault. Strikes were reported in the Tehran, Karaj, Isfahan and Shiraz areas.
The first wave of attacks apparently targeted Iran’s air defense capabilities, both to ensure the IDF’s freedom of operations during Saturday’s sorties, and to lay the ground for further strikes, should Iran retaliate. As the campaign was underway, Syrian state media reported that Israel struck several military sites in the south and center of the country, action possibly taken to enable the IAF to operate more freely in Iran.
The next waves hit drone and ballistic missile manufacturing sites — those used in direct Iranian attacks on Israel on April 14 and October 1 — as well as sites used to launch such weapons.
The Israeli military said at 6 a.m. that the assault had been completed, with “all goals achieved” and all aircraft returning safely home. It dubbed the campaign “Days of Repentance,” a reference to the recent Yom Kippur holiday. It said dozens of IAF aircraft, including fighter jets, refuelers and spy planes, participated in the “complex” operation some 1,600 kilometers from Israel.
The military said the strikes had given the IAF “wider freedom of aerial action in Iran,” and that it had a broad bank of targets that it could hit in the future if required.
“The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7th –- on seven fronts –- including direct attacks from Iranian soil,” the IDF said. “Like every other sovereign country in the world, the State of Israel has the right and the duty to respond.”
Following the strikes, the IDF said it was holding an assessment on a potential Iranian response to the attack, but as of now, there were no changes to guidelines for civilians. The IDF added that its “defensive and offensive capabilities are fully mobilized,” and that it “will do whatever necessary to defend the State of Israel and the people of Israel.”
Iran had braced for an Israeli reprisal after its latest direct attack on Israel, in which it fired 200 ballistic missiles that sent most of Israel to bomb shelters on October 1, killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank, and caused damage in residential areas and at military bases — although the IDF said that the attack had no operational impact.
Iran said that the attack came in response to strikes in Lebanon that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and much of the terror group’s senior leadership last month, as well as the killing of Hamas politburo leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, which has been widely blamed on Israel despite its silence on the matter. link
One of the sites targeted in Israel’s overnight airstrikes was the S-300 air defense of Imam Khomeini International Airport near Tehran, according to two Iranian officials quoted by The New York Times.
Israel reportedly targeted a Russian-made S-300 air defense system near Iran’s Natanz nuclear site in April.
At least three Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps missile bases were targeted in the strikes, according to the unnamed officials, one of whom is a member of the IRGC.
Israeli drones also targeted the secretive Parchin military base on the outskirts of Tehran in this morning’s strikes, the report adds, citing the officials as saying that one hit the site while others were downed.
In 2022, an engineer was killed and another employee injured in an apparent drone attack on the Parchin military complex.
Jordanian state media cites a military source as saying that no fighter jets from any conflicting regional parties were allowed to cross into the country’s airspace, after Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes on Iran overnight.
Jordan also says the strikes were “in violation of international law and [Iran’s] sovereignty, and a dangerous escalation that leads to more tension in the region.”
The strikes came after Iran launched some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1, some of which were downed by the Jordanian Air Force.
Jordan also helped Israel thwart its previous attack on Israel in April this year.
Survivors
"My husband came in covered in blood and whispered 'I killed a terrorist, stay quiet'"
The messages we received on October 7 only hinted at the horror that unfolded in the Malichi family home in Ein HaShlosha. While her husband went out to fight for their home and kibbutz, Odia Malichi held the safe room door handle with all her strength, with a baby in her arms and two children hiding in silence. When the terrorists moved through the house, she tried not to think about the worst. Now she recounts what happened to her on that Black Saturday: "The life we had was erased and collapsed." Special for N12 Magazine
A year ago on Simchat Torah, the Malichi family home in Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha became a battlefield. The terrorists arrived, bullets whistled, and father Matan, a member of the emergency response team, left the house: he went to fight, to protect his family and the community after the security coordinator was killed - while his wife Odia tried to protect the children and not think about the worst.
Brief messages sent in real time revealed some of the dramatic and horrifying moments: "Armed terrorists, more than 12, are moving through Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha. The IDF hasn't arrived yet," family member Ofer wrote to our reporter Nir Dvori at noon, "Our brother-in-law just killed a terrorist in the living room."
Behind this brief message lay a family's survival story under fire: while the father bravely fought terrorists with only a handgun, the mother held the safe room door with force - carrying two-year-old Maya to calm her, and hiding two other children - 8-year-old Neta and 4.5-year-old Daria - under the safe room bed so they wouldn't be discovered.
The traces of blood in the house of the Malihi family after the shootings Photo: Courtesy of the family
The battle at the house of the Malihi family in Ein Hasholsha on 7.10 Photo: Courtesy of the family
During those hours, the terrorists threw grenades at the house, which was damaged but didn't catch fire. A large group of terrorists entered the house repeatedly, drank from the refrigerator and stole the car - and also tried to reach the safe room.
While chaos engulfed the country on that Black Saturday, Ofer sent the family's house location. Nir Dvori passed the details to Captain Dorin Kuperman, who was with the Gaza Division commander while their base was also under attack. Even under fire, Kuperman sent the address to forces to try to rescue the family. Days after the fire subsided, in October 2023, we tried to discover what happened to the Malichi family. Through messages and conversations, the complete and shocking story began to unfold before our eyes.
Today, a year later, Odia Malichi, from her temporary home in Netivot, shares with us a text she wrote for herself with a choked throat - trying to process the vivid memories that won't let go. With time's perspective, she returns to those long hours alone with the children under fire, mostly without reception and disconnected from everything, and to the moment she thought the worst had already happened. To her personal sense of Holocaust, when the kibbutz and home she so loved became a nightmare vision.
"We'll wash the dishes in the morning, you thought, and you went to sleep" | Photo: Courtesy of those photographed
Matan went out to protect his family and the settlement, Odia stayed with the children in MMD | Photo: Courtesy of the photographers*"Hey you. Remember? A year ago, you took a golf cart ride with the kids while Matan mopped the floor. You said hello to a neighbor who had just returned from the pool. It was the pool's last day - and hers. But you didn't know then. You continued to the fields you love so much, to the combination of rosemary scent with yellow in your eyes. Simple landscapes of home. Around 4:00 PM you reached the playground, your community inaugurated the new field - a moment of togetherness that seemed so natural then.*
*"In the first game your child scored a goal, then got upset about missing a penalty. As a mother, you mediated to him that everything was okay and there would always be tomorrow. It was all so normal then. Friday dinner - you were tired and the dishes stayed in the sink. We'll wash them in the morning, you thought, and went to sleep."*
"It was the last day of the pool - and of the neighbor" | Photo: Courtesy of those photographed
Odia remembers and writes to herself: "In the beginning at safe room you were still able to mediate a kind of game, an experience for the children" | Photo: Courtesy of the photographed
*"You woke up to Red Alert. At first in the safe room you still managed to make it seem like a game, an experience for the kids. But too quickly the sounds came from outside the house - shots beyond the window. You couldn't believe what you heard. Even when your man went outside the safe room and told you not to open the door for anyone - except for two knocks as the signal. And more shooting. You think it must be the IDF and the incident is over... and then one boom you'll never forget, that still burns in your ear today."*
*"Your man is outside. The children are screaming beside you. And you? Where are you? Like on autopilot. Hiding them under the bed, covering them with blankets. For a moment you remember the story of your four-year-old grandfather hiding under a bed when the Nazis searched for him. But you can't let these thoughts surface."*
"You think it must be the IDF and the event is over... and then one boom that you will never forget." The battle at the Malihi family home | Photo: Courtesy of the family*"The voices grow stronger, you know they're inside the house. Now. And there are many of them. Not a sound can be made, they mustn't come closer. But the children are scared and the two-year-old is hungry and won't hide under the bed. She's crying and your heart pounds in terror. You hug her to you with one hand, with the second hand never letting go of the safe room door. With the third hand you're calling, seeking rescue. And with the fourth hand occasionally stroking under the bed, trying wordlessly to calm them. It will end soon, you whisper, the army will arrive any moment."*
"But it continues: beyond the door you hear shooting bullet after bullet and again, and again and again and then a burst and silence. Complete silence. Stillness. Terror. You understand the worst has already happened. Your children understand too. You're still holding the door handle, but they're crying. So what do you do? Breathe. Slowly together with them you breathe and sing some songs, trying to be a safe space for them, to keep the chaos away from their small world."
"And you? Where are you? Like on a vending machine. Hiding them under the bed, covering them with blankets" | Photo: Courtesy of the family"And suddenly... two knocks. Should you open? You open."
"You see him, your man, covered in blood and everything around full of blood. Is he alive? Is he wounded? You don't understand, don't believe. Exchange words for a moment: 'I just killed a terrorist, stay quiet, they're coming again'. And the door closed. And you're again putting them under the bed and covering them again. And with the little one hugged to you, you hope to at least save her older siblings, thinking how no one will find them under the bed but not cover them too much so they won't suffocate if it takes time until rescue and we're no longer alive."
"Every time you hope it's over but it continues" | Photo: Courtesy of those photographed"And again, inside the house you hear them, shouting, moving around, opening closets. Going out and coming in. And each time you hope it's over but it continues. And you don't think your heart can take it anymore. So you breathe. And at 3 PM the door opens and one after another they come in - precious family, and Matan who leads them inside says he must go out because there's no one to take command and there are people who need help. So he brings us a knife and you don't understand - what will happen if we need help? After all, the house is already blown up, breached and penetrated and there's a body in the room. But you tell him 'go' and again with the handle you hold the door."
"In the evening, when it's over, you go out for the first time and understand that the life you had was erased and collapsed with the books scattered on the floor. And this destruction in the bedroom and the blood and the death. And you? Where are you?"
"Who are you today and how do you continue?"
"When it's over, you go out for the first time and realize that the life you had has been erased and collapsed" | Photo: Courtesy of the family
"Hey, you - remember? Yourself? Day after day, learning to live without roots with images, smells and sounds that won't let go. And here a year has passed - and who are you today and how do you continue? So I breathe. Choose in every moment anew just another breath and continue to the next moment." link
Personal Stories Taken captive: US citizen Keith Siegel, driven to Gaza in his own carKeith’s wife, Aviva, was released from captivity on November 26
Keith Siegel, 64, was taken captive with his wife, Aviva Siegel, 62, from their home on Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, when Hamas terrorists attacked their community, killing and abducting Israelis and burning kibbutz homes.
The couple was driven into Gaza in their own car, along with a neighbor and her two children.
Aviva Siegel was released on November 26 as part of a temporary ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar and the United States between Hamas and Israel. Her husband, Keith, remains a captive.
Within a week, Aviva Siegel was at a massive rally at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, holding up a placard with Keith’s picture.
“We’re all motivated to get him out, that’s the priority,” said Aviva’s twin sister, Fiona Wax. “We’re heartbroken, worried.”
Their daughter, Shir Siegel, who also lives on Kfar Aza, was away that weekend, and tried to call her father that morning, who didn’t answer his phone.
Her call to her mother’s phone was cut off, and they wrote on the family Whatsapp group that they couldn’t speak.
Keith Siegel, originally from North Carolina, is known as a quiet, kind man, dedicated to his wife, children and grandchildren. link
Keith, in a video released by Hamas in April 2024
‘It could have been Keith’: Aviva Siegel says hostages’ murders sap her hopes for husbandShe survived 51 days of Gazan captivity, but doesn’t know if her partner of 40 years is still alive, and what tortures he has undergone if he is still alive
As released hostage Aviva Siegel listened to the parents of murdered captive Hersh Goldberg-Polin eulogize him, her mind turned to her husband who is still held in Gaza.
“It could have been Keith,” she thought.
Goldberg-Polin was one of six hostages who were murdered in a Hamas tunnel late last month and whose bodies were retrieved by Israeli forces on September 1.
“My heart was broken up into pieces for them,” said Siegel, speaking recently to The Times of Israel at the Hostages and Missing Families Forum headquarters in Tel Aviv. “I’ve been with them for months, so many hours, and so many times. I know Hersh because they’ve been talking about him. It’s a complete and utter shock for me.”
It’s been 10 months since Aviva Siegel was released from Hamas captivity on November 26. Fifty-one days earlier, she and her husband, Keith, 65, were taken hostage on October 7 from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza.
Within days of her release, despite a lingering stomach infection and deep exhaustion from her time in captivity, Siegel joined the nationwide rallies in support of the hostages, as well as a smaller circle of eight families of dual US citizens being held hostage.
Keith, her husband of over 40 years, is a US citizen who moved to Israel from North Carolina in 1980 and fell in love with Aviva, a South African immigrant who had moved to Israel as a child.
Since December, Siegel, along with the Goldberg-Polins and the other families of American citizens held in Gaza, has met with US administration officials in Israel and Washington more than a dozen times, pursuing every possible path to bring their loved ones home.
The news of the execution of Goldberg-Polin, Or Danino, Carmel Gat, Eden Alexander, Almog Sarusi and Alex Lobanov, with additional details later emerging of the inhumane conditions in which they were held, brought Siegel back to her own time in Gaza.
Former Hamas hostage Aviva Siegel (L) comforts her daughter Elan Tiv next to former Hamas hostage Raz Ben Ami during their visit to the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on February 29, 2024. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)“I was in a tunnel just like that,” she said, pointing to a sketch of a winding passage that did not have enough room to stand up straight or air to breathe.
Siegel said she remembered looking at her captors as they descended into the tunnels on October 7 and thinking to herself, “These are terrorists, they’re not just people.”
“Every time something happened, I said to myself, ‘You’re going to go through worse things,’ and that’s what happened.”
There was discomfort, starvation, and utter terror during her time in captivity, alongside a deep fear for Keith and the other captives, which included young women who were held with them.
“It was too much for me when they hurt him, and they hurt his soul, and they hurt his heart and tortured him and threatened him and starved him,” said Siegel. “I could handle myself, but for me to see them do that to him, was beyond for me.”
Keith’s ribs were broken and his hand was shot during the initial Hamas attack on October 7. When the couple was brought to Gaza, they were given bandages and ointment, but no water to clean the wound.
“He just suffered,” said Siegel, who kept dousing his wound with ointment. “We were tortured all the time. They would make it as dark as possible — you couldn’t see a thing — and then they would shine a flashlight in my face.”
Sleep was impossible, with only snatches of rest for minutes at a time. Siegel said she does sleep now, but constantly dreams about Gaza.
“We were scared all the time about everything, always thinking, ‘They’re going to kill us,'” said Siegel. “They had their guns with them all the time, in front of us, just to see what reaction we would have. You had to say to them, ‘Tamam,’ which is like Arabic for thumb’s up, everything’s okay, even though nothing was okay.”
The young Israeli women who were kept captive alongside the Siegels became slaves of their captors, forced to clean and sweep for them, and constantly assaulted by the terrorists, blindfolded, and thrown around by their hair.
Siegel does not mention the young women by name as they are still held hostage, their fates unknown.
She is able to describe moments from those long, terrifying weeks in great detail.
There were days when they weren’t fed, or only given half a pita, often moldy. Siegel would often save bits of pita for Keith, wanting to keep his strength up.
Keith and Aviva Siegel, taken captive by Hamas terrorists from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023 (Courtesy)She and her husband were moved 13 times during her 51 days of captivity, and at times they could see what Gaza looked like while being moved in a car, with hulking, unfinished buildings, trash everywhere, donkeys, dogs and cats in skeletal condition, and a terrible stink.
They saw mostly male captors during the weeks of captivity, although Siegel recalls being kept in one home with their captor’s wife and three children. At one point, the terrorist told his wife to pin a hijab Siegel had been forced to wear, putting the two women face to face.
“I looked straight into her eyes. I waited for her to look at me and to see all that was in my heart,” she said. “She looked back and I remember her eyes, I remember what she looked like. Maybe I also felt sorry for her, being there with him.”
The couple felt they were going to die, and that fear was with them all the time, said Siegel.
She hoped she would die first so that she wouldn’t have to see Keith dead beside her.
“And you just get the feeling that you’re forgotten,” she said. “Someone would ask what day it was, and on that particular day, it was day 35. And we used to look at each other in disbelief, thinking, it’s already been 35 days?”
At this she shook her head of gray curls, to think that it had now been some 10 times that number since October 7.
Following the recent headlines about the tunnels where Goldberg-Polin, Danino, Alexander, Lobanov, Gat and Sarusi were held, Siegel noted how many times she has described the same kinds of tunnels and conditions in recent months.
This image released by the IDF on September 10, 2024, show the inside of a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah where six Israeli hostages were murdered by Hamas terrorists (Israel Defense Forces)“I’ve been talking about these things,” she said, describing the stomach infection she had, her loss of 10 kilos (22 pounds) in 51 days, the bruises she received from her captors, and the lack of air to breathe underground.
“We didn’t have oxygen, we were just a couple of hours from dying, we couldn’t breathe,” she said. “We had to lie down and figure out if we’re going to live and just try and concentrate on that.”
Now, all these months later, Siegel wants to believe that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying everything he can to get the hostages out, but says she doesn’t see proof of it.
“I need Bibi because he’s the only one who will be able to take Keith out,” said Siegel, who describes herself as an apolitical person. “So if I lose hope in what’s happening, I’ll break up into pieces even more than I’m already broken up.”
And so she keeps active, speaking up for Keith and for the young women held hostage with them.
She isn’t sure her husband has survived until now, and even if he has, whether he will ever make it home.
And “no girl should be lying on a mattress, terrified that they’re going to be touched or raped again, hit, starved.”
Aviva Siegel (L) and her daughter Shir testify at the Knesset caucus on victims of sexual and gender violence in the war, January 23, 2024 (Screen grab used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)The last time Aviva saw Keith was on the day she was released. The two were being held in separate rooms and hadn’t discussed what would happen if one of them was released before the other.
Keith had never mentioned to his Hamas captors that he was a dual US citizen, as he feared that the Americans might get him out and leave Aviva behind in Gaza.
As Aviva was being taken out of the apartment on that November day, she forcefully brushed past her captor to go to Keith and tell him to be strong for her, still unsure if she was going to be killed or released home.
“They had covered his eyes and Keith was shaking,” said Siegel. “I saw him just looking at the ceiling and he was very, very sad because he was alone.”
During the hours-long process of her release, Aviva was held with sevral Thai hostages who were also being released, in a huge space filled with Hamas terrorists. They were all dressed, she said, “like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” with green masks covering their faces.
She was then placed in a van with two young hostages, sisters Ela and Dafna Elyakim, who didn’t know their father had been killed on October 7 and had been waiting anxiously to tell someone that Ela’s finger, injured during their capture, was seen to by a Gazan veterinarian who didn’t use any pain medication.
Aviva also sat next to Elma Avraham, 84, who was near death after weeks in captivity, her legs bruised and swollen, her extremities cold, as Aviva massaged her and got her to drink some water (Elma was hospitalized in serious condition upon her return, but eventually recovered).
Even when Siegel finally saw an Israeli soldier and realized she was back in Israeli territory, her biggest fear aside from Keith’s survival was whether her son Shai, who also lived in Kfar Aza, was still alive after October 7.
“I asked, and somebody made a call and said, ‘You have four children,'” she said. “It wasn’t pure relief because of Keith, but I was just crying and crying and crying.”
Fiona Wax, left, twin sister to Aviva Siegel (second from right), with Wax’s daughter Tal (second from left) and Siegel’s youngest daughter Shir (far right) on December 2, 2023 at a Tel Aviv rally to free the hostages (Courtesy)Within days, Siegel was speaking publicly at rallies and at the Knesset, but it’s been harder to hold on to hope since the murder of the six, she said. She’s had thoughts that maybe it would be better to hope that Keith is no longer alive, given the torture he would have had to survive for the last 11-plus months.
“Maybe then he won’t suffer any longer, he won’t starve, he won’t be in such fear,” she said. “And then my sister said, ‘You’re crazy. You just need to pull yourself together and be strong. Keith is there, being strong to stay alive for you and the children.'”
- Iran says it has ‘duty to defend itself’ after Israeli strikes, claims 2 soldiers killed
NY Times says Israel struck S-300 air defenses near Tehran airport, secretive Parchin base; source tells Washington Post attack was designed to minimize casualties, prevent escalationIran said Saturday it was obliged to “defend itself” after Israel conducted strikes on military targets throughout the Islamic Republic — an assault that came in retaliation for Tehran’s ballistic missile barrage on the country earlier this month.
“Iran has the right and the duty to defend itself against foreign acts of aggression,” Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement, citing Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.
Israel indicated that it was braced for a potential Iranian response but warned Iran against it. “If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Saturday morning, after the four-hour operation was complete
Iranian state news agency Tasnim reported that two soldiers were killed in the overnight strikes. No further details were given.
According to two Iranian officials quoted by The New York Times, one of the sites targeted was the S-300 air defense of Imam Khomeini International Airport near Tehran. (Israel reportedly targeted a Russian-made S-300 air defense system near Iran’s Natanz nuclear site in April.)
At least three Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps missile bases were targeted in the strikes, according to the unnamed officials, one of whom is a member of the IRGC.
Israeli drones also targeted the secretive Parchin military base on the outskirts of Tehran, the report added, citing the officials as saying that one hit the site while others were downed.
Satellite image of the Parchin facility, April 2012. (AP/Institute for Science and International Security)The Israeli operation, hitting targets some 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) away, marked an unprecedented attack in terms of its scale, duration and Israel’s immediate acknowledgment of responsibility.
However, Israel did not target nuclear or oil facilities, heeding pressure from the Biden Administration. The US, in turn, endorsed the Israeli attack as an act of self-defense, and made clear it was ready to help Israel defend itself against an Iranian response.
The Washington Post quoted an informed source as saying the strike was designed to minimize casualties and to allow Tehran to deny any major damage, preventing an escalation between the countries.
Iran indeed appeared to downplay Israel’s strikes, with a source quoted by state media denying the IDF’s announcement that dozens of fighter jets had taken part in the retaliatory attack.
“The reports alleging that 100 Israeli military planes have had a role in the strike are also complete lies, as Israel is seeking to overplay its weak attack,” the source was quoted as saying by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The report also claimed that Israeli jets did not cross into Iranian airspace during the strikes and that they caused only limited damage.
Commuters drive along a street in Tehran on October 26, 2024. (Atta Kenare/AFP)Footage published by Qatar-funded Al Araby TV purported to show damage from Israeli strikes to a factory in Shamsabad, south of Tehran.
Unverified reports on social media said three workers were killed at the factory, which was said to be involved in the development and production of military drones.
The IDF said it precisely targeted strategic military sites — specifically drone and ballistic missile manufacturing and launch sites, as well as air defense batteries.
Washington and London said they back Israel’s right to defend itself after Iran’s attack on October 1, while calling on Iran to de-escalate. Arab nations also urged de-escalation, though many blamed Israel for destabilizing actions.
A general view of Tehran after Israel launched airstrikes on Iranian military sites, October 26, 2024. (Atta Kenare/AFP)Reports of explosions near Tehran began to emerge around 2:15 a.m. local time, with the Israel Defense Forces quickly releasing a statement confirming that it was attacking, in response to “months of continuous attacks from the Iranian regime against the State of Israel.”
The strikes were carried out in several waves over the course of several hours, in various areas of Iran, with the Islamic Republic closing its airspace for the duration and seemingly showing little ability to counter the assault. Strikes were reported in the Tehran, Karaj, Isfahan and Shiraz areas.
The first wave of attacks apparently targeted Iran’s air defense capabilities, both to ensure the IDF’s freedom of operations during Saturday’s sorties, and to lay the ground for further strikes, should Iran retaliate. As the campaign was underway, Syrian state media reported that Israel struck several military sites in the south and center of the country, action possibly taken to enable the IAF to operate more freely in Iran.
The next waves hit drone and ballistic missile manufacturing sites — those used in direct Iranian attacks on Israel on April 14 and October 1 — as well as sites used to launch such weapons.
The Israeli military said at 6 a.m. that the assault had been completed, with “all goals achieved” and all aircraft returning safely home. It dubbed the campaign “Days of Repentance,” a reference to the recent Yom Kippur holiday. It said dozens of IAF aircraft, including fighter jets, refuelers and spy planes, participated in the “complex” operation some 1,600 kilometers from Israel.
The military said the strikes had given the IAF “wider freedom of aerial action in Iran,” and that it had a broad bank of targets that it could hit in the future if required.
“The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7th –- on seven fronts –- including direct attacks from Iranian soil,” the IDF said. “Like every other sovereign country in the world, the State of Israel has the right and the duty to respond.”
Following the strikes, the IDF said it was holding an assessment on a potential Iranian response to the attack, but as of now, there were no changes to guidelines for civilians. The IDF added that its “defensive and offensive capabilities are fully mobilized,” and that it “will do whatever necessary to defend the State of Israel and the people of Israel.”
Iran had braced for an Israeli reprisal after its latest direct attack on Israel, in which it fired 200 ballistic missiles that sent most of Israel to bomb shelters on October 1, killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank, and caused damage in residential areas and at military bases — although the IDF said that the attack had no operational impact.
Iran said that the attack came in response to strikes in Lebanon that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and much of the terror group’s senior leadership last month, as well as the killing of Hamas politburo leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, which has been widely blamed on Israel despite its silence on the matter. link
One of the sites targeted in Israel’s overnight airstrikes was the S-300 air defense of Imam Khomeini International Airport near Tehran, according to two Iranian officials quoted by The New York Times.
Israel reportedly targeted a Russian-made S-300 air defense system near Iran’s Natanz nuclear site in April.
At least three Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps missile bases were targeted in the strikes, according to the unnamed officials, one of whom is a member of the IRGC.
Israeli drones also targeted the secretive Parchin military base on the outskirts of Tehran in this morning’s strikes, the report adds, citing the officials as saying that one hit the site while others were downed.
In 2022, an engineer was killed and another employee injured in an apparent drone attack on the Parchin military complex.
Jordanian state media cites a military source as saying that no fighter jets from any conflicting regional parties were allowed to cross into the country’s airspace, after Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes on Iran overnight.
Jordan also says the strikes were “in violation of international law and [Iran’s] sovereignty, and a dangerous escalation that leads to more tension in the region.”
The strikes came after Iran launched some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1, some of which were downed by the Jordanian Air Force.
Jordan also helped Israel thwart its previous attack on Israel in April this year.
Brief messages sent in real time revealed some of the dramatic and horrifying moments: "Armed terrorists, more than 12, are moving through Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha. The IDF hasn't arrived yet," family member Ofer wrote to our reporter Nir Dvori at noon, "Our brother-in-law just killed a terrorist in the living room."
Behind this brief message lay a family's survival story under fire: while the father bravely fought terrorists with only a handgun, the mother held the safe room door with force - carrying two-year-old Maya to calm her, and hiding two other children - 8-year-old Neta and 4.5-year-old Daria - under the safe room bed so they wouldn't be discovered.
The traces of blood in the house of the Malihi family after the shootings Photo: Courtesy of the family
The battle at the house of the Malihi family in Ein Hasholsha on 7.10 Photo: Courtesy of the family
During those hours, the terrorists threw grenades at the house, which was damaged but didn't catch fire. A large group of terrorists entered the house repeatedly, drank from the refrigerator and stole the car - and also tried to reach the safe room.
While chaos engulfed the country on that Black Saturday, Ofer sent the family's house location. Nir Dvori passed the details to Captain Dorin Kuperman, who was with the Gaza Division commander while their base was also under attack. Even under fire, Kuperman sent the address to forces to try to rescue the family. Days after the fire subsided, in October 2023, we tried to discover what happened to the Malichi family. Through messages and conversations, the complete and shocking story began to unfold before our eyes.
Today, a year later, Odia Malichi, from her temporary home in Netivot, shares with us a text she wrote for herself with a choked throat - trying to process the vivid memories that won't let go. With time's perspective, she returns to those long hours alone with the children under fire, mostly without reception and disconnected from everything, and to the moment she thought the worst had already happened. To her personal sense of Holocaust, when the kibbutz and home she so loved became a nightmare vision.
Matan went out to protect his family and the settlement, Odia stayed with the children in MMD | Photo: Courtesy of the photographers
*"Hey you. Remember? A year ago, you took a golf cart ride with the kids while Matan mopped the floor. You said hello to a neighbor who had just returned from the pool. It was the pool's last day - and hers. But you didn't know then. You continued to the fields you love so much, to the combination of rosemary scent with yellow in your eyes. Simple landscapes of home. Around 4:00 PM you reached the playground, your community inaugurated the new field - a moment of togetherness that seemed so natural then.*
*"In the first game your child scored a goal, then got upset about missing a penalty. As a mother, you mediated to him that everything was okay and there would always be tomorrow. It was all so normal then. Friday dinner - you were tired and the dishes stayed in the sink. We'll wash them in the morning, you thought, and went to sleep."*
*"You woke up to Red Alert. At first in the safe room you still managed to make it seem like a game, an experience for the kids. But too quickly the sounds came from outside the house - shots beyond the window. You couldn't believe what you heard. Even when your man went outside the safe room and told you not to open the door for anyone - except for two knocks as the signal. And more shooting. You think it must be the IDF and the incident is over... and then one boom you'll never forget, that still burns in your ear today."*
*"Your man is outside. The children are screaming beside you. And you? Where are you? Like on autopilot. Hiding them under the bed, covering them with blankets. For a moment you remember the story of your four-year-old grandfather hiding under a bed when the Nazis searched for him. But you can't let these thoughts surface."*
*"The voices grow stronger, you know they're inside the house. Now. And there are many of them. Not a sound can be made, they mustn't come closer. But the children are scared and the two-year-old is hungry and won't hide under the bed. She's crying and your heart pounds in terror. You hug her to you with one hand, with the second hand never letting go of the safe room door. With the third hand you're calling, seeking rescue. And with the fourth hand occasionally stroking under the bed, trying wordlessly to calm them. It will end soon, you whisper, the army will arrive any moment."*
"But it continues: beyond the door you hear shooting bullet after bullet and again, and again and again and then a burst and silence. Complete silence. Stillness. Terror. You understand the worst has already happened. Your children understand too. You're still holding the door handle, but they're crying. So what do you do? Breathe. Slowly together with them you breathe and sing some songs, trying to be a safe space for them, to keep the chaos away from their small world."
"And suddenly... two knocks. Should you open? You open."
"You see him, your man, covered in blood and everything around full of blood. Is he alive? Is he wounded? You don't understand, don't believe. Exchange words for a moment: 'I just killed a terrorist, stay quiet, they're coming again'. And the door closed. And you're again putting them under the bed and covering them again. And with the little one hugged to you, you hope to at least save her older siblings, thinking how no one will find them under the bed but not cover them too much so they won't suffocate if it takes time until rescue and we're no longer alive."
"And again, inside the house you hear them, shouting, moving around, opening closets. Going out and coming in. And each time you hope it's over but it continues. And you don't think your heart can take it anymore. So you breathe. And at 3 PM the door opens and one after another they come in - precious family, and Matan who leads them inside says he must go out because there's no one to take command and there are people who need help. So he brings us a knife and you don't understand - what will happen if we need help? After all, the house is already blown up, breached and penetrated and there's a body in the room. But you tell him 'go' and again with the handle you hold the door."
"In the evening, when it's over, you go out for the first time and understand that the life you had was erased and collapsed with the books scattered on the floor. And this destruction in the bedroom and the blood and the death. And you? Where are you?"
"Who are you today and how do you continue?"
"Hey, you - remember? Yourself? Day after day, learning to live without roots with images, smells and sounds that won't let go. And here a year has passed - and who are you today and how do you continue? So I breathe. Choose in every moment anew just another breath and continue to the next moment." link
Keith Siegel, 64, was taken captive with his wife, Aviva Siegel, 62, from their home on Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, when Hamas terrorists attacked their community, killing and abducting Israelis and burning kibbutz homes.
The couple was driven into Gaza in their own car, along with a neighbor and her two children.
Aviva Siegel was released on November 26 as part of a temporary ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar and the United States between Hamas and Israel. Her husband, Keith, remains a captive.
Within a week, Aviva Siegel was at a massive rally at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, holding up a placard with Keith’s picture.
“We’re all motivated to get him out, that’s the priority,” said Aviva’s twin sister, Fiona Wax. “We’re heartbroken, worried.”
Their daughter, Shir Siegel, who also lives on Kfar Aza, was away that weekend, and tried to call her father that morning, who didn’t answer his phone.
Her call to her mother’s phone was cut off, and they wrote on the family Whatsapp group that they couldn’t speak.
Keith Siegel, originally from North Carolina, is known as a quiet, kind man, dedicated to his wife, children and grandchildren. link
Keith, in a video released by Hamas in April 2024
As released hostage Aviva Siegel listened to the parents of murdered captive Hersh Goldberg-Polin eulogize him, her mind turned to her husband who is still held in Gaza.
“It could have been Keith,” she thought.
Goldberg-Polin was one of six hostages who were murdered in a Hamas tunnel late last month and whose bodies were retrieved by Israeli forces on September 1.
“My heart was broken up into pieces for them,” said Siegel, speaking recently to The Times of Israel at the Hostages and Missing Families Forum headquarters in Tel Aviv. “I’ve been with them for months, so many hours, and so many times. I know Hersh because they’ve been talking about him. It’s a complete and utter shock for me.”
It’s been 10 months since Aviva Siegel was released from Hamas captivity on November 26. Fifty-one days earlier, she and her husband, Keith, 65, were taken hostage on October 7 from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza.
Within days of her release, despite a lingering stomach infection and deep exhaustion from her time in captivity, Siegel joined the nationwide rallies in support of the hostages, as well as a smaller circle of eight families of dual US citizens being held hostage.
Keith, her husband of over 40 years, is a US citizen who moved to Israel from North Carolina in 1980 and fell in love with Aviva, a South African immigrant who had moved to Israel as a child.
Since December, Siegel, along with the Goldberg-Polins and the other families of American citizens held in Gaza, has met with US administration officials in Israel and Washington more than a dozen times, pursuing every possible path to bring their loved ones home.
The news of the execution of Goldberg-Polin, Or Danino, Carmel Gat, Eden Alexander, Almog Sarusi and Alex Lobanov, with additional details later emerging of the inhumane conditions in which they were held, brought Siegel back to her own time in Gaza.
Former Hamas hostage Aviva Siegel (L) comforts her daughter Elan Tiv next to former Hamas hostage Raz Ben Ami during their visit to the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on February 29, 2024. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
“I was in a tunnel just like that,” she said, pointing to a sketch of a winding passage that did not have enough room to stand up straight or air to breathe.
Siegel said she remembered looking at her captors as they descended into the tunnels on October 7 and thinking to herself, “These are terrorists, they’re not just people.”
“Every time something happened, I said to myself, ‘You’re going to go through worse things,’ and that’s what happened.”
There was discomfort, starvation, and utter terror during her time in captivity, alongside a deep fear for Keith and the other captives, which included young women who were held with them.
“It was too much for me when they hurt him, and they hurt his soul, and they hurt his heart and tortured him and threatened him and starved him,” said Siegel. “I could handle myself, but for me to see them do that to him, was beyond for me.”
Keith’s ribs were broken and his hand was shot during the initial Hamas attack on October 7. When the couple was brought to Gaza, they were given bandages and ointment, but no water to clean the wound.
“He just suffered,” said Siegel, who kept dousing his wound with ointment. “We were tortured all the time. They would make it as dark as possible — you couldn’t see a thing — and then they would shine a flashlight in my face.”
Sleep was impossible, with only snatches of rest for minutes at a time. Siegel said she does sleep now, but constantly dreams about Gaza.
“We were scared all the time about everything, always thinking, ‘They’re going to kill us,'” said Siegel. “They had their guns with them all the time, in front of us, just to see what reaction we would have. You had to say to them, ‘Tamam,’ which is like Arabic for thumb’s up, everything’s okay, even though nothing was okay.”
The young Israeli women who were kept captive alongside the Siegels became slaves of their captors, forced to clean and sweep for them, and constantly assaulted by the terrorists, blindfolded, and thrown around by their hair.
Siegel does not mention the young women by name as they are still held hostage, their fates unknown.
She is able to describe moments from those long, terrifying weeks in great detail.
There were days when they weren’t fed, or only given half a pita, often moldy. Siegel would often save bits of pita for Keith, wanting to keep his strength up.
Keith and Aviva Siegel, taken captive by Hamas terrorists from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023 (Courtesy)
She and her husband were moved 13 times during her 51 days of captivity, and at times they could see what Gaza looked like while being moved in a car, with hulking, unfinished buildings, trash everywhere, donkeys, dogs and cats in skeletal condition, and a terrible stink.
They saw mostly male captors during the weeks of captivity, although Siegel recalls being kept in one home with their captor’s wife and three children. At one point, the terrorist told his wife to pin a hijab Siegel had been forced to wear, putting the two women face to face.
“I looked straight into her eyes. I waited for her to look at me and to see all that was in my heart,” she said. “She looked back and I remember her eyes, I remember what she looked like. Maybe I also felt sorry for her, being there with him.”
The couple felt they were going to die, and that fear was with them all the time, said Siegel.
She hoped she would die first so that she wouldn’t have to see Keith dead beside her.
“And you just get the feeling that you’re forgotten,” she said. “Someone would ask what day it was, and on that particular day, it was day 35. And we used to look at each other in disbelief, thinking, it’s already been 35 days?”
At this she shook her head of gray curls, to think that it had now been some 10 times that number since October 7.
Following the recent headlines about the tunnels where Goldberg-Polin, Danino, Alexander, Lobanov, Gat and Sarusi were held, Siegel noted how many times she has described the same kinds of tunnels and conditions in recent months.
This image released by the IDF on September 10, 2024, show the inside of a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah where six Israeli hostages were murdered by Hamas terrorists (Israel Defense Forces)
“I’ve been talking about these things,” she said, describing the stomach infection she had, her loss of 10 kilos (22 pounds) in 51 days, the bruises she received from her captors, and the lack of air to breathe underground.
“We didn’t have oxygen, we were just a couple of hours from dying, we couldn’t breathe,” she said. “We had to lie down and figure out if we’re going to live and just try and concentrate on that.”
Now, all these months later, Siegel wants to believe that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying everything he can to get the hostages out, but says she doesn’t see proof of it.
“I need Bibi because he’s the only one who will be able to take Keith out,” said Siegel, who describes herself as an apolitical person. “So if I lose hope in what’s happening, I’ll break up into pieces even more than I’m already broken up.”
And so she keeps active, speaking up for Keith and for the young women held hostage with them.
She isn’t sure her husband has survived until now, and even if he has, whether he will ever make it home.
And “no girl should be lying on a mattress, terrified that they’re going to be touched or raped again, hit, starved.”
Aviva Siegel (L) and her daughter Shir testify at the Knesset caucus on victims of sexual and gender violence in the war, January 23, 2024 (Screen grab used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
The last time Aviva saw Keith was on the day she was released. The two were being held in separate rooms and hadn’t discussed what would happen if one of them was released before the other.
Keith had never mentioned to his Hamas captors that he was a dual US citizen, as he feared that the Americans might get him out and leave Aviva behind in Gaza.
As Aviva was being taken out of the apartment on that November day, she forcefully brushed past her captor to go to Keith and tell him to be strong for her, still unsure if she was going to be killed or released home.
“They had covered his eyes and Keith was shaking,” said Siegel. “I saw him just looking at the ceiling and he was very, very sad because he was alone.”
During the hours-long process of her release, Aviva was held with sevral Thai hostages who were also being released, in a huge space filled with Hamas terrorists. They were all dressed, she said, “like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” with green masks covering their faces.
She was then placed in a van with two young hostages, sisters Ela and Dafna Elyakim, who didn’t know their father had been killed on October 7 and had been waiting anxiously to tell someone that Ela’s finger, injured during their capture, was seen to by a Gazan veterinarian who didn’t use any pain medication.
Aviva also sat next to Elma Avraham, 84, who was near death after weeks in captivity, her legs bruised and swollen, her extremities cold, as Aviva massaged her and got her to drink some water (Elma was hospitalized in serious condition upon her return, but eventually recovered).
Even when Siegel finally saw an Israeli soldier and realized she was back in Israeli territory, her biggest fear aside from Keith’s survival was whether her son Shai, who also lived in Kfar Aza, was still alive after October 7.
“I asked, and somebody made a call and said, ‘You have four children,'” she said. “It wasn’t pure relief because of Keith, but I was just crying and crying and crying.”
Fiona Wax, left, twin sister to Aviva Siegel (second from right), with Wax’s daughter Tal (second from left) and Siegel’s youngest daughter Shir (far right) on December 2, 2023 at a Tel Aviv rally to free the hostages (Courtesy)
Within days, Siegel was speaking publicly at rallies and at the Knesset, but it’s been harder to hold on to hope since the murder of the six, she said. She’s had thoughts that maybe it would be better to hope that Keith is no longer alive, given the torture he would have had to survive for the last 11-plus months.
“Maybe then he won’t suffer any longer, he won’t starve, he won’t be in such fear,” she said. “And then my sister said, ‘You’re crazy. You just need to pull yourself together and be strong. Keith is there, being strong to stay alive for you and the children.'”
Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages
The Rules of the Game
Einav Galili
Media Personality.
I knew Keren Munder, who was kidnapped on October 7th with her son
Ohad and her parents Ruthi and Avraham, many years ago, when she was
my son’s volleyball coach. I didn’t give much thought to my kids’ after-
school activities - unless one of them turned out to be the next Ronaldo
or Marie Curie, don’t call me - but Keren drew my attention. She had that
quality that transforms a teacher into an educator, in the profound sense
of the word. Maybe it’s the messages she would occasionally send, which
were never really about sports: “Your son complimented the new young
players, good job,” or “Your son encourages his teammates, it’s a pleasure
to watch him play.” That’s not really about volleyball, is it?
Once, while watching the team practice, I noticed something: whenever a
player did something wrong, she would correct them quietly, and when they
did something well, she would raise her voice and shout the compliment.
That reverse attitude was so brilliant that we adopted it at home: whenever
someone does something that is considerate or especially cute, our roars
of “well done!” can make the walls shake.
What do these absolute values, set carefully like polished plates in the
kitchen cabinet, have to do with the ongoing moral failure and the complete
ethical decay of the person in charge of the lives and sanity of over one
hundred and twenty Israeli hostages who are still in Hamas captivity? Over
one hundred and twenty human beings - who knows how many of them
are still alive—and Prime Minister Netanyahu dillies and dallies, confirms
and denies, falters and wavers, declares and leaks. What began as a mere
hint (for it was so inconceivable) turned into a whisper (because it was
just unbelievable), has for a while now been glaringly obvious: when
choosing between human lives and his clutches on his reign, the strategy
is clear: stretching time out long enough makes the problem solve itself.
The only thing that remains under this modus operandi is to silence the
hostages’ families, who are crazed with grief. An entire trilogy dedicated
to Netanyahu’s legacy would not suffice to contain the horrors. Einav
Zangauker, Matan’s mother, was attacked at a demonstration. Liri Elbag’s
father Eli was beaten, as was Gadi Kedem, father of Tamar who was
murdered along with her husband and their three beautiful children. Danny
Elgarat, Itzik’s brother, was forcibly removed from a Knesset committee
meeting. It’s a hatred that trickles down from above like radioactive
pollution, afflicting people, animals, and water wells.
How does this compare with the world of values of Keren Munder, who
was released in the first hostage deal (when it seemed we still knew right
from wrong) after 49 days in captivity with her son and her mother, after
her brother was murdered and her 79-year old father remains hostage? These
are the simple rules that apply to grade-school activities: responsibility,
solidarity, and mutual accountability are what transform isolated people
into a functioning human group. That’s the stuff of which gravity is made,
as it pulls stars towards each other and keeps them together. Without it,
the human galaxy will collapse into itself.
The Rules of the Game
Einav Galili
Media Personality.
I knew Keren Munder, who was kidnapped on October 7th with her son Ohad and her parents Ruthi and Avraham, many years ago, when she was my son’s volleyball coach. I didn’t give much thought to my kids’ after- school activities - unless one of them turned out to be the next Ronaldo or Marie Curie, don’t call me - but Keren drew my attention. She had that quality that transforms a teacher into an educator, in the profound sense of the word. Maybe it’s the messages she would occasionally send, which were never really about sports: “Your son complimented the new young players, good job,” or “Your son encourages his teammates, it’s a pleasure to watch him play.” That’s not really about volleyball, is it?
Once, while watching the team practice, I noticed something: whenever a player did something wrong, she would correct them quietly, and when they did something well, she would raise her voice and shout the compliment. That reverse attitude was so brilliant that we adopted it at home: whenever someone does something that is considerate or especially cute, our roars of “well done!” can make the walls shake.
What do these absolute values, set carefully like polished plates in the kitchen cabinet, have to do with the ongoing moral failure and the complete ethical decay of the person in charge of the lives and sanity of over one hundred and twenty Israeli hostages who are still in Hamas captivity? Over one hundred and twenty human beings - who knows how many of them are still alive—and Prime Minister Netanyahu dillies and dallies, confirms and denies, falters and wavers, declares and leaks. What began as a mere hint (for it was so inconceivable) turned into a whisper (because it was just unbelievable), has for a while now been glaringly obvious: when choosing between human lives and his clutches on his reign, the strategy is clear: stretching time out long enough makes the problem solve itself.
The only thing that remains under this modus operandi is to silence the hostages’ families, who are crazed with grief. An entire trilogy dedicated to Netanyahu’s legacy would not suffice to contain the horrors. Einav Zangauker, Matan’s mother, was attacked at a demonstration. Liri Elbag’s father Eli was beaten, as was Gadi Kedem, father of Tamar who was murdered along with her husband and their three beautiful children. Danny Elgarat, Itzik’s brother, was forcibly removed from a Knesset committee meeting. It’s a hatred that trickles down from above like radioactive pollution, afflicting people, animals, and water wells.
How does this compare with the world of values of Keren Munder, who was released in the first hostage deal (when it seemed we still knew right from wrong) after 49 days in captivity with her son and her mother, after her brother was murdered and her 79-year old father remains hostage? These are the simple rules that apply to grade-school activities: responsibility, solidarity, and mutual accountability are what transform isolated people into a functioning human group. That’s the stuff of which gravity is made, as it pulls stars towards each other and keeps them together. Without it, the human galaxy will collapse into itself.
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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