π️Lonny's War Update- October 392, 2023 - November 1, 2024 π️
π️Day 392 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!!!”
October 7th painted our lives in black and white. They abducted our loved ones and left us empty, leaving our lives devoid of color and taste.There is not a moment of the day that we do not imagine them returning to us - the living for rehabilitation and the murdered for a proper burial.We have to bring color back to our lives.We have to bring them all back home. Now!
We’re waiting for you, all of you.
A deal is the only way to bring
all the hostages home- the murdered for burial and the living for rehabilitation.
#BringThemHomeNow #TurnTheHorrorIntoHope
A deal is the only way to bring
all the hostages home- the murdered for burial and the living for rehabilitation.
#BringThemHomeNow #TurnTheHorrorIntoHope
There is no victory until all of the hostages are home!ΧΧΧ Χ Χ¦ΧΧΧ Χ’Χ Χ©ΧΧ ΧΧΧΧΧ€ΧΧ ΧΧΧΧͺ
The two sections at the end, personal stories and Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages are very important to read, as important or more than the news of the day.
Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements
*9:15pm yesterday - north -rockets/missiles*9:20pm yesterday - north and west of Haifa- hostile aircraft - Kiryat Bialik, Kiryat Ata, Afek, Osha, Kfar Maccabi, Ramat Yohanan, Eivtin -Another suspected drone launched from Lebanon was shot down by air defenses over northern Israel a short while ago, the IDF says.Sirens had sounded in several towns in the Jezreel Valley amid the incident.
*9:25pm yesterday - west and south west of Haifa - Hostile aircraft - Kfar Hassidim, Shaar Haemekim, Beit Zide, Oranim, Kfar Tikva
*9:30pm yesterday - Kfar Yehosha, Nahalal - The IDF says that the air force downed a pair of drones over the Red Sea as they headed toward Israeli territory.
Sirens had sounded in several towns in the Jezreel Valley amid the incident.
*9:25pm yesterday - west and south west of Haifa - Hostile aircraft - Kfar Hassidim, Shaar Haemekim, Beit Zide, Oranim, Kfar Tikva*9:30pm yesterday - Kfar Yehosha, Nahalal - The IDF says that the air force downed a pair of drones over the Red Sea as they headed toward Israeli territory.
According to the military, the drones came “from the east,” a term the IDF uses for attacks launched from Iraq.
*12:45am - south -The IDF says that the air force downed a pair of drones over the Red Sea as they headed toward Israeli territory.
According to the military, the drones came “from the east,” a term the IDF uses for attacks launched from Iraq.
*2:10am - north - north -rockets/missiles*6:35am - north - north -rockets/missiles
*6:40am - north - north -rockets/missiles
*7:05am - north - north -rockets/missiles
*8:15am - north - hostile aircraft - Ajar
*8:35am - north - north -rockets/missiles
*10:45am - north - north -rockets/missiles
*1:35pm - north - rockets/missiles - Medics are responding to initial reports of casualties in the latest Hezbollah rocket barrage on the Galilee.
Sirens sounded in Sakhnin, Deir al-Asad, Karmiel, Ma’alot-Tarshiha and other nearby towns in the attacks. According to the IDF, some 30 rockets were launched in the attack. The military says some of the rockets were intercepted, and impacts were also identified.
A 37-year-old man was moderately wounded in a rocket impact in the northern Arab town of Sha’ab in the Hezbollah barrage an hour ago, hospital officials say. Galilee Medical Center in Nahriya says the man is suffering from shrapnel wounds, but he is in a stable condition.
An IDF soldier wounded during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip in September succumbed to his wounds today, the military announces.
Cpt. Yarden Zakay, 21, a platoon commander in the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion, from Hadera, was seriously wounded on September 17.
In the same incident, four other soldiers — Cpt. Daniel Mimon Toaff, Staff Sgt. Agam Naim, Staff Sgt. Amit Bakri, and Staff Sgt. Dotan Shimon — were killed, and several others were wounded.
According to an IDF probe, the soldiers were hit by weaponry that detonated inside a building in Rafah.
Hostage Updates
Hamas on Thursday rejected any proposal for a temporary halt to more than a year of fighting in Gaza and reiterated its insistence on a lasting ceasefire, as American, Egyptian, and Qatari mediators tried to coax the Palestinian terror group back to the negotiating table.
“The idea of a temporary pause in the war, only to resume aggression later, is something we have already expressed our position on. Hamas supports a permanent end to the war, not a temporary one,” senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP.
Mediators seeking to broker a Gaza ceasefire were expected to present Hamas with a proposal for a truce of less than a month, a source with knowledge of the talks told AFP on Wednesday. The proposal was discussed during meetings in Doha between Mossad head David Barnea, CIA Director Bill Burns, and Qatar’s prime minister, which concluded on Monday, the source said on condition of anonymity because of the talks’ sensitivity.
The source echoed reports in Hebrew media that the latest proposal involves exchanging several hostages kidnapped during Hamas’s brutal October 7, 2023, massacre for Palestinian security prisoners and increasing aid to Gaza.
According to the reports in Hebrew media, the Mossad chief presented Qatari interlocutors with a proposal for the release of 11-14 hostages from Gaza in exchange for around 100 Palestinian security prisoners from Israel, along with a monthlong pause in fighting in the Strip. All of the remaining women and children held by the terror group would reportedly be among the hostages that would be released in the deal. “US officials believe that if a short-term deal can be reached, it could lead to a more permanent agreement,” the source said.
Nunu said Hamas had not received any proposal so far, adding that if the terror group were to receive such a plan, it would respond.
However, he reiterated the demands the group has been insisting on for months — “a permanent ceasefire, withdrawal [of Israeli forces] from Gaza, the return of displaced people, sufficient humanitarian aid to Gaza and a serious prisoner exchange deal.”
According to the earlier reports, the proposal does not demand a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip nor a complete end to the fighting — both of which have been sticking points in previous rounds of failed negotiations, as Hamas has insisted it will agree to nothing less.
Qatar was also reportedly set to present Hamas with two other short-term truce proposals — an offer put forward by Egyptian mediators for a two-day ceasefire to exchange four Israeli hostages for some Palestinian prisoners, and another drawn up by Moscow for the release of two hostages with Russian citizenship.
The Hamas official’s comments come as Qatari mediators were reportedly meeting with Hamas leaders in Doha to discuss whether or not the terror group is willing to return to the negotiating table.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014. Link
Hostage Updates
Hamas on Thursday rejected any proposal for a temporary halt to more than a year of fighting in Gaza and reiterated its insistence on a lasting ceasefire, as American, Egyptian, and Qatari mediators tried to coax the Palestinian terror group back to the negotiating table.
“The idea of a temporary pause in the war, only to resume aggression later, is something we have already expressed our position on. Hamas supports a permanent end to the war, not a temporary one,” senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP.
Mediators seeking to broker a Gaza ceasefire were expected to present Hamas with a proposal for a truce of less than a month, a source with knowledge of the talks told AFP on Wednesday. The proposal was discussed during meetings in Doha between Mossad head David Barnea, CIA Director Bill Burns, and Qatar’s prime minister, which concluded on Monday, the source said on condition of anonymity because of the talks’ sensitivity.
The source echoed reports in Hebrew media that the latest proposal involves exchanging several hostages kidnapped during Hamas’s brutal October 7, 2023, massacre for Palestinian security prisoners and increasing aid to Gaza.
According to the reports in Hebrew media, the Mossad chief presented Qatari interlocutors with a proposal for the release of 11-14 hostages from Gaza in exchange for around 100 Palestinian security prisoners from Israel, along with a monthlong pause in fighting in the Strip. All of the remaining women and children held by the terror group would reportedly be among the hostages that would be released in the deal. “US officials believe that if a short-term deal can be reached, it could lead to a more permanent agreement,” the source said.
Nunu said Hamas had not received any proposal so far, adding that if the terror group were to receive such a plan, it would respond.
However, he reiterated the demands the group has been insisting on for months — “a permanent ceasefire, withdrawal [of Israeli forces] from Gaza, the return of displaced people, sufficient humanitarian aid to Gaza and a serious prisoner exchange deal.”
According to the earlier reports, the proposal does not demand a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip nor a complete end to the fighting — both of which have been sticking points in previous rounds of failed negotiations, as Hamas has insisted it will agree to nothing less.
Qatar was also reportedly set to present Hamas with two other short-term truce proposals — an offer put forward by Egyptian mediators for a two-day ceasefire to exchange four Israeli hostages for some Palestinian prisoners, and another drawn up by Moscow for the release of two hostages with Russian citizenship.
The Hamas official’s comments come as Qatari mediators were reportedly meeting with Hamas leaders in Doha to discuss whether or not the terror group is willing to return to the negotiating table.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014. Link
- Released hostage Erez Calderon marks bar mitzvah, as father Ofer remains in captivity
Hostage families mark different life cycle events this week, as former hostage Erez Calderon, 13, celebrated his bar mitzvah in Kiryat Gat, where his community, Kibbutz Nir Oz, has been living for several months. Calderon read from the Torah at a local synagogue.
Calderon was released with his older sister, Sahar, 17, after 52 days in captivity. Their father, Ofer Calderon, remains in Gaza.
In Herzliya, the family of hostage Omer Shem Tov marked his 22nd birthday, his second birthday in captivity.
The crowd of hundreds walked with the family through the streets of Herzliya, holding yellow and white balloons.
“You all want to meet him,” says his mother, Shelly Shem Tov, to the crowd, which then sang Happy Birthday.
“He’ll be here soon,” says Shem Tov.
The commemoration was attended by former hostages and siblings Itay and Maya Regev, who were taken captive alongside Shem Tov from the Nova music festival and later released during November’s hostage deal.
Former hostages Maya Regev (far right) and Itay Regev (far left) at a birthday celebration on October 31, 2024, in Herzliya for hostage Omer Shem Tov, still held in Gaza. (Dana Reany)
Gaza
- Israeli forces struck a Gaza hospital where it said “dozens of terrorists” had been found hiding out Thursday, as the military pushed an offensive in the north of the Strip, claiming regrouped terror cells in the city of Jabalia were falling apart.
There were no reports of any casualties at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya after an IDF strike hit the third floor of the building, though Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza reported that at least 30 Palestinians were killed in other attacks throughout the Strip, without clarifying how many were combatants.
The Israel Defense Forces said it was continuing to strike targets in Jabalia and elsewhere, releasing what it said was testimony from a United Nations worker testifying that Hamas members had raided aid supplies and used UN vehicles to move around.
Northern Gaza, where Israel said in January it had dismantled the terror group’s command structure, is currently the main focus of the IDF’s operations in the Palestinian enclave. Earlier this month, it sent tanks into Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahiya to flush out terror operatives it said had regrouped in the area.
Eid Sabbah, director of nursing at Kamal Adwan, told Reuters some staff had suffered minor burns from the strike on the hospital.
The IDF said in a statement following Thursday’s strike that “during the operation, it was found that dozens of terrorists were hiding in the hospital, with some even posing as hospital staff.”
Israeli forces who raided the hospital last week captured around 100 suspected Hamas operatives, the IDF said at the time.
Medical charity MΓ©decins Sans FrontiΓ¨res (MSF) said on Thursday that one of its doctors at the hospital, Mohammed Obeid, had been detained last Saturday by Israeli forces. It called for the protection of him and all medical staff who “are facing horrific violence as they try to provide care.”
Israel maintains that its military campaign takes pains to avoid casualties among civilians and aid workers, blaming the Hamas terror group for using innocent Gazans and international aid organizations as cover, putting them in the line of fire.
In a video published by the army’s public affairs arm Thursday, a Jabalia man described as a former security guard for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, tells an Israeli interrogator that following the outbreak of the war on October 7, 2023, Hamas members came into an UNRWA facility and “took everything” by force.
The man said that Hamas members brazenly looted trucks loaded with “supplies,” and then commandeered the UNRWA vehicles as well, using them as a shield.
“It’s a form of defense for them, so they can move around easily, transport and get things et cetera,” the man said, according to a translation provided by the military. Video of UNRWA employee
The army said Thursday that its raids in Jabalia had netted arrests of hundreds of suspected terrorists, including some accused of taking part in the October 7 massacre.
It added that dozens of civilians evacuating south out of Jabalia had testified that they had been pressured and even threatened by Hamas to stay in the area, which the army claimed harbors a “high concentration of terrorists from Hamas and other terror organizations.”
“The surrender of terrorists and their attempts to move south as a result of military pressure testifies to the breaking of the terror stronghold of Jabalia,” the IDF said.
The army announced Thursday that a soldier with the Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion was seriously wounded during operations in northern Gaza. He was taken to a hospital in Israel for treatment.
In central Gaza, meanwhile, the military said on Thursday that troops destroyed a site used for the production of munitions.
There were no reports of any casualties at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya after an IDF strike hit the third floor of the building, though Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza reported that at least 30 Palestinians were killed in other attacks throughout the Strip, without clarifying how many were combatants.
The Israel Defense Forces said it was continuing to strike targets in Jabalia and elsewhere, releasing what it said was testimony from a United Nations worker testifying that Hamas members had raided aid supplies and used UN vehicles to move around.
Northern Gaza, where Israel said in January it had dismantled the terror group’s command structure, is currently the main focus of the IDF’s operations in the Palestinian enclave. Earlier this month, it sent tanks into Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahiya to flush out terror operatives it said had regrouped in the area.
Eid Sabbah, director of nursing at Kamal Adwan, told Reuters some staff had suffered minor burns from the strike on the hospital.
The IDF said in a statement following Thursday’s strike that “during the operation, it was found that dozens of terrorists were hiding in the hospital, with some even posing as hospital staff.”
Israeli forces who raided the hospital last week captured around 100 suspected Hamas operatives, the IDF said at the time.
Medical charity MΓ©decins Sans FrontiΓ¨res (MSF) said on Thursday that one of its doctors at the hospital, Mohammed Obeid, had been detained last Saturday by Israeli forces. It called for the protection of him and all medical staff who “are facing horrific violence as they try to provide care.”
Israel maintains that its military campaign takes pains to avoid casualties among civilians and aid workers, blaming the Hamas terror group for using innocent Gazans and international aid organizations as cover, putting them in the line of fire.
In a video published by the army’s public affairs arm Thursday, a Jabalia man described as a former security guard for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, tells an Israeli interrogator that following the outbreak of the war on October 7, 2023, Hamas members came into an UNRWA facility and “took everything” by force.
The man said that Hamas members brazenly looted trucks loaded with “supplies,” and then commandeered the UNRWA vehicles as well, using them as a shield.
“It’s a form of defense for them, so they can move around easily, transport and get things et cetera,” the man said, according to a translation provided by the military. Video of UNRWA employee
The army said Thursday that its raids in Jabalia had netted arrests of hundreds of suspected terrorists, including some accused of taking part in the October 7 massacre.
It added that dozens of civilians evacuating south out of Jabalia had testified that they had been pressured and even threatened by Hamas to stay in the area, which the army claimed harbors a “high concentration of terrorists from Hamas and other terror organizations.”
“The surrender of terrorists and their attempts to move south as a result of military pressure testifies to the breaking of the terror stronghold of Jabalia,” the IDF said.
The army announced Thursday that a soldier with the Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion was seriously wounded during operations in northern Gaza. He was taken to a hospital in Israel for treatment.
In central Gaza, meanwhile, the military said on Thursday that troops destroyed a site used for the production of munitions.
Aid reported down
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Wednesday that since the US sent a letter to Israel on October 13 warning that continued security assistance was at risk if it didn’t take significant steps to improve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza within 30 days, the measures Jerusalem has taken have been minor and insufficient.
While there has been some improvement in the number of delivery routes to aid, the uptick has been minor and the humanitarian “situation still remains at a level that we don’t find acceptable,” Miller said.
He said there continue to be breakdowns in communications between the IDF and aid agencies and issues in which approvals aren’t granted by the IDF for aid workers to operate throughout Gaza, or issues where authorizations are given but they aren’t transmitted to officers on the ground. There are also still Palestinian armed gangs that have been looting some of the aid coming into Gaza, Miller said.
Citing figures from COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for facilitating the delivery of aid into Gaza, Haaretz revealed Thursday that the amount of aid in tons that entered the Strip during the month of October was the least this year.
On Tuesday, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield expressed her horror over reports from humanitarian agencies that no food assistance has reached the northern Gaza cities of Jabalia and Beit Lahiya in nearly a month.
“The United States has made clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that one year into this conflict, Israel must address the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza; that the United States rejects any Israeli efforts to starve Palestinians in Jabalia, or anywhere else,” she said in her remarks to UN Security Council session on the war in Gaza.
The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Vowing to destroy Hamas and free the hostages, the IDF launched a wide-scale campaign in the Strip, which the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says has left more than 42,000 people dead or presumed dead.
This toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it had killed some 17,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7. Link
Israel’s COGAT military body that facilitates the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza confirms announcements by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF that a second round of child polio vaccinations in northern Gaza will begin on Saturday after IDF bombing in the area halted the drive last month.
COGAT says the move was approved by the political echelon and that hundreds of thousands of children will be vaccinated from November 2 to 4 between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The vaccine drive will be coordinated with the IDF’s Southern Command operating in Gaza in order to ensure that recipients can safely reach medical centers where the vaccines will be administered, COGAT says.
- North Gaza situation ‘apocalyptic’: UN agency chiefs
A woman walks above the rubble of a building following an Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on October 28, 2024, amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by AFP)
A woman walks above the rubble of a building following an Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on October 28, 2024, amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by AFP)
A woman walks above the rubble of a building following an Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on October 28, 2024, amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by AFP)
The unfolding situation in the northern Gaza Strip is “apocalyptic,” the heads of the major UN agencies say, warning that its entire population was at “imminent risk” of death.
“The situation unfolding in North Gaza is apocalyptic… the entire Palestinian population in North Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence,” says the joint statement from heads of organizations that form the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee.
Israel’s COGAT military body that facilitates the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza confirms announcements by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF that a second round of child polio vaccinations in northern Gaza will begin on Saturday after IDF bombing in the area halted the drive last month.
COGAT says the move was approved by the political echelon and that hundreds of thousands of children will be vaccinated from November 2 to 4 between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The vaccine drive will be coordinated with the IDF’s Southern Command operating in Gaza in order to ensure that recipients can safely reach medical centers where the vaccines will be administered, COGAT says.
A woman walks above the rubble of a building following an Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on October 28, 2024, amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by AFP)
A woman walks above the rubble of a building following an Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on October 28, 2024, amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by AFP)
A woman walks above the rubble of a building following an Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on October 28, 2024, amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by AFP)
The unfolding situation in the northern Gaza Strip is “apocalyptic,” the heads of the major UN agencies say, warning that its entire population was at “imminent risk” of death.
“The situation unfolding in North Gaza is apocalyptic… the entire Palestinian population in North Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence,” says the joint statement from heads of organizations that form the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee.
Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria
- Over 200 Hezbollah and Hamas targets struck in Lebanon and Gaza over past day
sraeli fighter jets struck a Hezbollah rocket launcher used in a deadly barrage on the Haifa area yesterday, and the operative who launched the attack was also killed in an airstrike, the IDF says.
Two people, a mother and son, were killed in the rocket attack.
Meanwhile, the IDF says the Air Force struck over 200 Hezbollah and Hamas targets, in Lebanon and Gaza respectively, in the past day.
The strikes come as the 91st and 146th divisions continue to operate against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, where the IDF says troops killed gunmen and located weapons in the past day.
In Gaza, the 162nd Division is pressing on with an operation against Hamas in northern Gaza’s Jabalia. The IDF says troops killed dozens of terror operatives in the area in the past day.
Also in Gaza, reservists with the 252nd Division continued operations in the Netzarim Corridor area, and the Gaza Division’s forces battled Hamas in Rafah.
The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman publishes a statement calling on residents of Beirut’s southern suburb to clear away from several buildings in the area, saying the military will soon strike targets in the Hezbollah stronghold for the first time in several days.
Israel is carrying out airstrikes early Friday on Beirut’s southern suburbs, Reuters witnesses say, the first strikes there in nearly a week.
At least 10 strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs at dawn, Lebanon’s official news agency says, after the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for buildings in the area.
AFPTV footage shows explosions followed by clouds of smoke that rang out in the city’s suburbs after the Israeli army ordered several buildings in Hezbollah’s stronghold to evacuate.
“The raids left massive destruction in the targeted areas, as dozens of buildings were leveled to the ground, in addition to the outbreak of fires,” the National News Agency (NNA) says.
Israeli warplanes carried out 10 raids targeting the suburban areas of Ghobeiry and Al-Kafaat, the Sayyed Hadi Highway, the vicinity of the Al-Mujtaba Complex, and the old airport road, it adds.
The IDF releases footage of some of the seven drones launched at Israel that were intercepted by the Israeli Air Force overnight.
Five of the drones were launched from Iraq, and two were launched from Lebanon.
The military says the drones were shot down using fighter jets, attack helicopters and ground-based air defense systems. Throughout October alone, more than 100 drones were launched at Israel. video of drone interceptions in northern Israel
Lebanon’s health ministry says 10 people have been killed in an initial toll for Israeli strikes in the country’s east today, most of them in a single village.
“Ten martyrs and 26 wounded in a preliminary toll for today’s Israeli enemy strikes on the Baalbek-Hermel region,” the ministry says, adding eight were killed in the village of Amhaz.
The figures didn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Israel had not issued evacuation calls for Lebanon’s east on Friday.
- Hezbollah’s military is weakened, but its civil branches are deeply embedded in LebanonTerror group likely to feel pinch after strikes on banking arm, but its network of charities is too entrenched in Lebanon’s Shiite community to be extracted easily, expert says
Last week, Israel’s military launched a series of airstrikes across Lebanon targeting branches of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, an unlicensed credit association considered to be Hezbollah’s bank.
The sorties marked a shift from strikes against military objectives alone to targeting infrastructure ostensibly in the civilian realm, underlining the challenges posed by the terror group’s deep integration in Lebanese society.
Due to its networks of welfare organizations, clinics, and extensive patronage system among Shiites, extricating Hezbollah from Lebanon’s civil fabric could prove a more complicated and daunting task than destroying the Iran-backed group’s military capabilities.
The Hezbollah that existed before the launch of the ground offensive no longer exists, “but it still is dangerous and it’s not going to disappear,” Hezbollah expert Matthew Levitt told The Times of Israel in a recent phone conversation.
“Hezbollah really is a movement. It’s not just a terrorist organization, or a militia, or a political party. It’s also deeply involved in social and religious activities,” said Levitt, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former FBI counterterrorism expert.
Hezbollah’s military capabilities are weakened and ostensibly crumbling. Last week, the IDF said it had killed over 2,000 members of the Iran-backed group since October 2023, including many of its commanders, and destroyed about 70-80% of the rockets it possessed before the war. It also said it defeated Hezbollah’s forces in every area where its troops operated in southern Lebanon.
And while the terror group recently appointed a new leader, Naim Qassem, to replace its slain Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, it is not clear who is leading the terror groups’ military strategy on the ground.
However, “much of Hezbollah’s social welfare infrastructure remains intact, because the IDF is targeting its weapons caches and command and control centers. They are not targeting Hezbollah-run medical clinics and welfare programs,” Levitt said.
The Hezbollah expert described the terror group’s wide range of social activities as a “shadow governance,” providing critical services to a country long on the brink of financial and political collapse, plagued by perennial corruption and sectarian strife. This has created a “shadow constituency” dependent on its assistance, Levitt said.
“Hezbollah today has the best of both worlds – it is part of the Lebanese state, with members holding cabinet positions and seats in parliament, but remains an independent group that operates apart from the state,” Levitt wrote in a recent article for the Washington Institute. Thus, “it avoids the accountability that typically comes with holding elected office.”
Hezbollah’s vast network of charities
The financial group Al-Qard Al-Hassan, or AQAH, was founded by Hezbollah in 1983, one year after the terror group’s establishment, to provide interest-free loans in line with Islamic principles. Over the years, AQAH grew into a major financial institution with branches throughout Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon.
The US blacklisted AQAH in 2007, saying Hezbollah uses it as a cover to manage the group’s financial activities and gain access to the international financial system.
However, Hezbollah’s civilian infrastructure extends far beyond, constituting a system of patronage that fills the gaps left by the inefficient Lebanese government and strengthens its clout over the country’s Shiite community of some 2 million, effectively creating a Shiite “mini-state.”
It includes a network of medical centers known as the Islamic Health Organization, which provides healthcare services for free or at a reduced cost to Shiites, while also treating wounded Hezbollah fighters, according to the Israeli Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.
In 2021, Hezbollah also launched the Al-Sajjad supermarket chain, named after a revered figure in Shiite Islam. These supermarkets sell products (often of Iranian, Syrian or Iraqi origin) at significantly reduced prices for customers who present Hezbollah-issued cards.
Additionally, Hezbollah controls a chain of gas stations, the Amana Petroleum Company, which sells Iranian fuel at discounted rates, sometimes in defiance of the Lebanese government. It has been under US sanctions since 2020.
Hezbollah’s construction arm, Jihad al-Bina, was instrumental in rebuilding areas destroyed in the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Today, the foundation, established in 1988, manages various large-scale projects in civil engineering, agriculture, and industry, and runs vocational training centers, according to the Meir Amit Center.
On the propaganda front, Hezbollah runs its own TV channel, Al-Manar, and various educational programs, including a youth group known as the Mahdi Scouts, used to indoctrinate young Shiites, according to the IDF.
The terror group also claims to be involved in environmental sustainability. It operates Green Without Borders, a nonprofit, which claims to manage reforestation projects in southern Lebanon. According to Israel, the group actually provides cover to Hezbollah positions; it was sanctioned by the US for alleged terror activities last year.
Hezbollah’s financial struggles
Last week, the IDF revealed that it had located a Hezbollah bunker under a Beirut hospital. Inside, the army said, was more than $500 million in gold and cash being stored by the terror group.
Despite its fortune, though, Hezbollah is reportedly undergoing a liquidity crisis, with the IDF’s airstrikes on branches of AQAH likely adding to the growing financial strain on the Iranian proxy.
Lebanese and foreign sources cited in a recent Voice of America report claimed Hezbollah was running out of cash and unable to pay its members. Its access to Lebanon’s formal banking system is also reportedly curtailed, as the country’s wealthiest bankers have fled abroad, fearing they could be targeted next by Israel for helping Hezbollah, according to VOA.
Until recently, the terror group was awash in cash, thanks to Iranian money transfers and its own illicit activities — chief among them its vast international drug smuggling network, according to experts. Hezbollah used that liquidity to keep its Shiite constituents happy, handing out monthly stipends in stable foreign currency.
A Shiite woman who recently evacuated from south Lebanon to Beirut told The Guardian that the group had doled out monthly cash payments of $200, as well as food parcels, praising them for “taking incredible care” of her family.
It is not clear how long Hezbollah will be able to continue disbursing those payments. The social welfare network also faces a labor shortage, as many of Hezbollah’s members whose day jobs were in its charities have been called up to fight or are incapacitated due to injuries sustained in pager and walkie-talkie explosions in September.
Furthermore, the displacement of over a million people from Shiite-majority areas in southern Lebanon and elsewhere has put additional pressure on the informal welfare system.
“This is going to be another significant layer of demands at a time of diminishing resources and competing demands for those resources,” Levitt said.
Will Hezbollah turn its weapons against the Lebanese?
As Israel works to dismantle Hezbollah’s military and financial capabilities, the terror group may resort to using guns instead of butter to maintain its grip over Lebanon, Levitt warned. The group has a long history of using violence to suppress its critics.
With Iran’s backing, the terror group is likely to attempt to rearm and refill its coffers at the earliest opportunity. It remains unclear whether the international community would be able to step in and keep Tehran’s influence from infiltrating Lebanon, and whether the Lebanese Armed Forces would be capable of reasserting sovereignty and a state monopoly over the legitimate use of force, Levitt said.
“Hezbollah will fight hard to prevent it,” he predicted, “and it will still have the means to do so even after Israel removes a significant proportion of its strategic threat.” link
sraeli fighter jets struck a Hezbollah rocket launcher used in a deadly barrage on the Haifa area yesterday, and the operative who launched the attack was also killed in an airstrike, the IDF says.
Two people, a mother and son, were killed in the rocket attack.
Meanwhile, the IDF says the Air Force struck over 200 Hezbollah and Hamas targets, in Lebanon and Gaza respectively, in the past day.
The strikes come as the 91st and 146th divisions continue to operate against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, where the IDF says troops killed gunmen and located weapons in the past day.
In Gaza, the 162nd Division is pressing on with an operation against Hamas in northern Gaza’s Jabalia. The IDF says troops killed dozens of terror operatives in the area in the past day.
Also in Gaza, reservists with the 252nd Division continued operations in the Netzarim Corridor area, and the Gaza Division’s forces battled Hamas in Rafah.
The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman publishes a statement calling on residents of Beirut’s southern suburb to clear away from several buildings in the area, saying the military will soon strike targets in the Hezbollah stronghold for the first time in several days.
Israel is carrying out airstrikes early Friday on Beirut’s southern suburbs, Reuters witnesses say, the first strikes there in nearly a week.
At least 10 strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs at dawn, Lebanon’s official news agency says, after the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for buildings in the area.
AFPTV footage shows explosions followed by clouds of smoke that rang out in the city’s suburbs after the Israeli army ordered several buildings in Hezbollah’s stronghold to evacuate.
“The raids left massive destruction in the targeted areas, as dozens of buildings were leveled to the ground, in addition to the outbreak of fires,” the National News Agency (NNA) says.
Israeli warplanes carried out 10 raids targeting the suburban areas of Ghobeiry and Al-Kafaat, the Sayyed Hadi Highway, the vicinity of the Al-Mujtaba Complex, and the old airport road, it adds.
The IDF releases footage of some of the seven drones launched at Israel that were intercepted by the Israeli Air Force overnight.
Five of the drones were launched from Iraq, and two were launched from Lebanon.
The military says the drones were shot down using fighter jets, attack helicopters and ground-based air defense systems. Throughout October alone, more than 100 drones were launched at Israel. video of drone interceptions in northern Israel
Lebanon’s health ministry says 10 people have been killed in an initial toll for Israeli strikes in the country’s east today, most of them in a single village.
“Ten martyrs and 26 wounded in a preliminary toll for today’s Israeli enemy strikes on the Baalbek-Hermel region,” the ministry says, adding eight were killed in the village of Amhaz.
The figures didn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Israel had not issued evacuation calls for Lebanon’s east on Friday.
Last week, Israel’s military launched a series of airstrikes across Lebanon targeting branches of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, an unlicensed credit association considered to be Hezbollah’s bank.
The sorties marked a shift from strikes against military objectives alone to targeting infrastructure ostensibly in the civilian realm, underlining the challenges posed by the terror group’s deep integration in Lebanese society.
Due to its networks of welfare organizations, clinics, and extensive patronage system among Shiites, extricating Hezbollah from Lebanon’s civil fabric could prove a more complicated and daunting task than destroying the Iran-backed group’s military capabilities.
The Hezbollah that existed before the launch of the ground offensive no longer exists, “but it still is dangerous and it’s not going to disappear,” Hezbollah expert Matthew Levitt told The Times of Israel in a recent phone conversation.
“Hezbollah really is a movement. It’s not just a terrorist organization, or a militia, or a political party. It’s also deeply involved in social and religious activities,” said Levitt, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former FBI counterterrorism expert.
Hezbollah’s military capabilities are weakened and ostensibly crumbling. Last week, the IDF said it had killed over 2,000 members of the Iran-backed group since October 2023, including many of its commanders, and destroyed about 70-80% of the rockets it possessed before the war. It also said it defeated Hezbollah’s forces in every area where its troops operated in southern Lebanon.
And while the terror group recently appointed a new leader, Naim Qassem, to replace its slain Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, it is not clear who is leading the terror groups’ military strategy on the ground.
The Hezbollah expert described the terror group’s wide range of social activities as a “shadow governance,” providing critical services to a country long on the brink of financial and political collapse, plagued by perennial corruption and sectarian strife. This has created a “shadow constituency” dependent on its assistance, Levitt said.
“Hezbollah today has the best of both worlds – it is part of the Lebanese state, with members holding cabinet positions and seats in parliament, but remains an independent group that operates apart from the state,” Levitt wrote in a recent article for the Washington Institute. Thus, “it avoids the accountability that typically comes with holding elected office.”
Hezbollah’s vast network of charities
The financial group Al-Qard Al-Hassan, or AQAH, was founded by Hezbollah in 1983, one year after the terror group’s establishment, to provide interest-free loans in line with Islamic principles. Over the years, AQAH grew into a major financial institution with branches throughout Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon.
The US blacklisted AQAH in 2007, saying Hezbollah uses it as a cover to manage the group’s financial activities and gain access to the international financial system.
However, Hezbollah’s civilian infrastructure extends far beyond, constituting a system of patronage that fills the gaps left by the inefficient Lebanese government and strengthens its clout over the country’s Shiite community of some 2 million, effectively creating a Shiite “mini-state.”
It includes a network of medical centers known as the Islamic Health Organization, which provides healthcare services for free or at a reduced cost to Shiites, while also treating wounded Hezbollah fighters, according to the Israeli Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.
In 2021, Hezbollah also launched the Al-Sajjad supermarket chain, named after a revered figure in Shiite Islam. These supermarkets sell products (often of Iranian, Syrian or Iraqi origin) at significantly reduced prices for customers who present Hezbollah-issued cards.
Additionally, Hezbollah controls a chain of gas stations, the Amana Petroleum Company, which sells Iranian fuel at discounted rates, sometimes in defiance of the Lebanese government. It has been under US sanctions since 2020.
Hezbollah’s construction arm, Jihad al-Bina, was instrumental in rebuilding areas destroyed in the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Today, the foundation, established in 1988, manages various large-scale projects in civil engineering, agriculture, and industry, and runs vocational training centers, according to the Meir Amit Center.
On the propaganda front, Hezbollah runs its own TV channel, Al-Manar, and various educational programs, including a youth group known as the Mahdi Scouts, used to indoctrinate young Shiites, according to the IDF.
The terror group also claims to be involved in environmental sustainability. It operates Green Without Borders, a nonprofit, which claims to manage reforestation projects in southern Lebanon. According to Israel, the group actually provides cover to Hezbollah positions; it was sanctioned by the US for alleged terror activities last year.
Hezbollah’s financial struggles
Last week, the IDF revealed that it had located a Hezbollah bunker under a Beirut hospital. Inside, the army said, was more than $500 million in gold and cash being stored by the terror group.Despite its fortune, though, Hezbollah is reportedly undergoing a liquidity crisis, with the IDF’s airstrikes on branches of AQAH likely adding to the growing financial strain on the Iranian proxy.
Lebanese and foreign sources cited in a recent Voice of America report claimed Hezbollah was running out of cash and unable to pay its members. Its access to Lebanon’s formal banking system is also reportedly curtailed, as the country’s wealthiest bankers have fled abroad, fearing they could be targeted next by Israel for helping Hezbollah, according to VOA.
Until recently, the terror group was awash in cash, thanks to Iranian money transfers and its own illicit activities — chief among them its vast international drug smuggling network, according to experts. Hezbollah used that liquidity to keep its Shiite constituents happy, handing out monthly stipends in stable foreign currency.
A Shiite woman who recently evacuated from south Lebanon to Beirut told The Guardian that the group had doled out monthly cash payments of $200, as well as food parcels, praising them for “taking incredible care” of her family.
It is not clear how long Hezbollah will be able to continue disbursing those payments. The social welfare network also faces a labor shortage, as many of Hezbollah’s members whose day jobs were in its charities have been called up to fight or are incapacitated due to injuries sustained in pager and walkie-talkie explosions in September.
Furthermore, the displacement of over a million people from Shiite-majority areas in southern Lebanon and elsewhere has put additional pressure on the informal welfare system.
Will Hezbollah turn its weapons against the Lebanese?
As Israel works to dismantle Hezbollah’s military and financial capabilities, the terror group may resort to using guns instead of butter to maintain its grip over Lebanon, Levitt warned. The group has a long history of using violence to suppress its critics.
With Iran’s backing, the terror group is likely to attempt to rearm and refill its coffers at the earliest opportunity. It remains unclear whether the international community would be able to step in and keep Tehran’s influence from infiltrating Lebanon, and whether the Lebanese Armed Forces would be capable of reasserting sovereignty and a state monopoly over the legitimate use of force, Levitt said.
“Hezbollah will fight hard to prevent it,” he predicted, “and it will still have the means to do so even after Israel removes a significant proportion of its strategic threat.” link
West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel
- IDF says 3 gunmen killed in airstrike, clashes during day-long West Bank raid
The IDF says it has wrapped up a day-long raid in the West Bank’s Nur Shams camp near Tulkarem, during which three gunmen were killed in an airstrike and in clashes with troops.
The operation was carried out by the Kfir Brigade’s Haruv reconnaissance unit, alongside Border Police and Shin Bet forces.
Amid the raid, a drone strike was carried out against two gunmen who were shooting at the troops, the army says, publishing footage of the incident.
Also amid the operation, Haruv soldiers killed another operative who “posed a threat” and wounded several other gunmen in clashes, the IDF says.
Several explosive devices planted under and along roads in Nur Shams were neutralized by Border Police officers and combat engineers during the operation.
The IDF also releases drone footage showing gunmen operating at the entrance to a hospital in Tulkarem. The video shows one gunman handing over an assault rifle to another at the medical center compound.
The IDF says it has wrapped up a day-long raid in the West Bank’s Nur Shams camp near Tulkarem, during which three gunmen were killed in an airstrike and in clashes with troops.
The operation was carried out by the Kfir Brigade’s Haruv reconnaissance unit, alongside Border Police and Shin Bet forces.
Amid the raid, a drone strike was carried out against two gunmen who were shooting at the troops, the army says, publishing footage of the incident.
Also amid the operation, Haruv soldiers killed another operative who “posed a threat” and wounded several other gunmen in clashes, the IDF says.
Several explosive devices planted under and along roads in Nur Shams were neutralized by Border Police officers and combat engineers during the operation.
The IDF also releases drone footage showing gunmen operating at the entrance to a hospital in Tulkarem. The video shows one gunman handing over an assault rifle to another at the medical center compound.
- UNRWA chief says agency’s office in West Bank camp was damaged by Israeli bulldozers
Israeli bulldozers damaged the office of UN aid agency UNRWA in the West Bank’s Nur Shams camp on Thursday, the agency’s chief, Philippe Lazzarini, says.Lazzarini says in a post on social media platform X that the office “can no longer be used,” hours after the IDF announced that it was carrying out a counter-terror raid in Nur Shams.
Israeli bulldozers damaged the office of UN aid agency UNRWA in the West Bank’s Nur Shams camp on Thursday, the agency’s chief, Philippe Lazzarini, says.Lazzarini says in a post on social media platform X that the office “can no longer be used,” hours after the IDF announced that it was carrying out a counter-terror raid in Nur Shams.
The IDF issues a statement denying responsibility for damaging UNRWA’s office in the West Bank camp of Nur Shams, saying the damage was caused by Palestinian terror operatives.
“The claim that the UNRWA offices in Nur Shams were destroyed by IDF soldiers is false,” the statement reads.
“Terrorists planted explosives in the proximity of the UNRWA offices that were then detonated in an attempt to harm IDF soldiers. The explosives likely caused damage to the structure,” the IDF statement adds.
Politics and the War (general news)
- Netanyahu Can No Longer Wait: A Plan Dependent on War's End
The Knesset's Return Proves Nothing Has Been Learned: Reserve Soldiers Collapsing Under the Burden, While Public Representatives Are Preoccupied with Other Matters. The government may think the recruitment crisis is over and are promoting laws that will distance the ultra-Orthodox from the workforce. And what will become of the Defense Minister?
Dafna Liel sets the record straight: This week, a few hours after the opening session's commotion died down, one of the ministers called me. He had no new information to share or a shocking scoop, but he was worried and asked: "How do we bring in soldiers now? We urgently need more forces."
Suddenly it hit me - only a few in the coalition see the recruitment issue as a real problem to be solved, rather than a political wrestling match to be navigated smoothly. In their perception, the recruitment law crisis ends the moment a political solution is found.
But the reality is completely different. The reserve soldiers, who serve more than 250 days a year, are collapsing. The ranks are thinning and there's no solution in sight. Just in recent days, reserve soldiers were informed that even if the war ends now, they will need to come for several months of service next year as well.
The stinking deal we exposed three weeks ago regarding the daycare centers law is the essence of the matter. The current situation, where there is no conscription law, should drive Israeli society toward a healthy process where eventually it will not be worthwhile to avoid service. No ultra-Orthodox person will be forced to serve, but those who put on uniforms will enjoy regulated status and benefits, and those who don't - won't. Will this bring more soldiers? It's definitely worth trying. And even if not, hundreds of millions of shekels will be freed up and can be invested in compensating those who serve.
The new daycare centers law creates an outrageous distortion - it essentially determines that there will be no consequences for draft evasion. Those who don't enlist will be able to continue enjoying the same economic benefits they received, benefits that even those who serve aren't entitled to, since daycare subsidies are given to working couples with low income.
And what about the economic burden? This is the height of absurdity. Beyond the fact that the new law will cost the state hundreds of millions more shekels, it betrays the original purpose of daycare subsidies - encouraging entry into the workforce, a vital need for the economy. Without a strong economy, there isn't a strong military either. The new law does exactly the opposite - it will incentivize men with low wages not to work! After all, the benefit will be given to families where only the woman works if the total family income is low - exactly the opposite of what the original law was meant to do. Men with low incomes will simply prefer to stay at home to show low income and enjoy the benefit. It's impossible to know what will actually happen, but the new version undermines the purpose of daycare subsidies: encouraging entry into the workforce.
Already there are voices in the coalition speaking out against this distortion - the same lady changing her stance (and not in uniform). Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu silences them and intends to use all his weight to ensure it is approved. After all, the recruitment issue and economic situation are secondary to coalition stability.
What about Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and everyone who waves the military flag and supports the war "until the end"? They will support it, of course, even though the meaning is increasing the burden on those serving.
This leads us to another front - the potential dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. If the recruitment law is not approved, the defense system's conduct plays a crucial role in enforcement - how many orders will be issued? To whom? Who will enforce them? It's good to have a convenient defense minister.
Netanyahu can't wait. He wants to fire Gallant but can't do so during intense fighting. He will wait for the war's end to complete the move he's been dreaming of since Gallant's first night in office. However, Netanyahu is not eager to place Gideon Saar in Gallant's place. He needs a perfect "yes-man" in the Defense Ministry.
The era of investigations and inquiries will soon begin, and Netanyahu wants to control the information coming out. Although the Defense Minister doesn't completely control the system, Netanyahu is planning a comprehensive personnel change in the IDF and security branches that will certainly bring him closer to his goal.
This mood symbolizes a return to routine for Netanyahu - initially, he understood the need for broad public trust during these difficult days; now, only his trust in ministers matters.
This leads us to the winter session's opening. The session opened in a week when 23 soldiers fell and three civilians were murdered. 56 children were left orphaned. The opening session was essentially a mourning session. Yet, the coalition's Knesset members couldn't restrain themselves and brought back the judicial revolution to the table - the Bar Association law (delayed only because the ultra-Orthodox first demand the dormitories law), the rating law, a law that will harm Arab representation in the Knesset, and the list goes on. As if nothing was learned.
The budget remains unchanged, with the same priorities - coalition funds and unnecessary government ministries. And where is the opposition? Crumbling between itself. Even in the law to change the method of disqualifying Arab MKs - Opposition Leader Yair Lapid led the opposing camp, and the Mamlakhti Camp faction didn't arrive after different opinions were registered within it.
Instead of forming a unified and consistent front against the government's moves, each law manages to crumble the opposition rather than the coalition. It seems that for someone there, ending the day early is more important than ending the government's term. link
- Hezbollah’s Radwan force planned to invade Israel from this village; now the IDF controls it
Much of Kafr Kila, a central Hezbollah hub on the border with Israel, is now destroyed, as a monthlong Israeli ground offensive in south Lebanon uproots terrorist infrastructure
Col. Avi Marciano, the commander of the 769th 'Hiram' Regional Brigade, leads a group of journalists into Lebanon on October 28, 2024. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)
KAFR KILA, southern Lebanon – Only an hour after a barrage of Hezbollah rockets was fired into northern Israel on Monday morning, The Times of Israel and other journalists rode in a convoy of armored personnel carriers through Metula — now a ghost town on Israel’s northern border — directly into the southern Lebanon war zone.
Wearing helmets and flak jackets, the press corps entered Kafr Kila, a border village that until recently was a central hub for Hezbollah, one of the world’s largest and wealthiest terrorist groups, and was set to be a launchpad for an invasion of Israel.
The Hezbollah plan, “Conquest of the Galilee,” envisioned that the Radwan Forces would “storm the border from here, invade and capture Metula,” and set about killing and kidnapping residents as Hamas did in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, according to Col. Avraham Marciano, the commander of the 769th “Hiram” Brigade, a regional unit normally responsible for the eastern portion of the border with Lebanon.
In late September, IDF troops instructed Kafr Kila’s 3,000 residents to leave the area. Then, after weeks of intense fighting, troops cleared the village of most of the Hezbollah terrorists.
Marciano, who was serving as our guide, pointed to a mound of debris 50 yards (50 meters) from where we stood. Here, he said, troops uncovered an underground shaft that ran for several hundred yards, almost reaching the border wall with Israel.
“Several battalions of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit were planning to go into the shaft from the village’s main street and get equipment they had stored there,” Marciano said. The IDF has found thousands of weapons, launchers, and tactical equipment belonging to the fighters of Hezbollah’s elite force in the village.
The terrorists would then emerge from the shaft opening only a few minutes’ walk from the border wall. Just on the other side is a residential neighborhood of Metula.
“They would have entered and killed and done all the unbearable things that were done on October 7 in the south,” he said.
Tunnel shaft found by IDF troops in Kafr Kila. (IDF)
A limited ground incursion
Hezbollah began striking northern Israel a day after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion, when 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists slaughtered some 1,200 people in a rampage through southern Israel and kidnapped 251 to Gaza.
After suffering nearly a year of Hezbollah cross-border rocket and drone attacks that forced 60,000 residents of northern Israel from their homes, Israel dramatically stepped up its operations in September, with strikes against commanders in the field and senior leaders in Beirut, and attacks on the terror group’s weaponry that crippled much of its capabilities.
While the IDF, including the 769th Brigade, had been operating close to the northern border since last October 8, it began an overt ground incursion only at the end of September this year — a limited operation targeting Hezbollah gunmen and infrastructure relatively close to the border.
The battles in southern Lebanon have been fierce and deadly, especially in the past week. Israel has been reeling from the loss of 17 soldiers — all but one of them reservists. Over the year of conflict, 60 IDF soldiers have died in the cross-border skirmishes and the ground operation.
IDF reservists killed during fighting in southern Lebanon on October 26, 2024: From left: Cpt. (res.) Amit Chayut, Cpt. (res.) Rabbi Avraham Yosef Goldberg, Maj. (res.) Eliav Amram Abitbol, Master Sgt. (res.) Gilad Elmaliach.
The IDF estimates that more than 2,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon.
Driving into enemy territory
Our convoy of journalists entered Lebanon near Fatima Gate, once known as the Good Fence Crossing, which was used from 1982 to 2000 during Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon.
A view of the border with Israel, from the southern Lebanese village of Kafr Kila, with Israeli vehicles driving on the right side and UN and Lebanese vehicles driving on the left, on December 4, 2018. (Ali Dia/AFP/File)
Oskar Lawther, a driver of one of the APCs in the 769th Brigade, said that when he used to drive in a patrol car on the Israeli side of the border, he always wondered what it was like on this — the other — side.
Our first stop, a strategic lookout onto Israel on the edge of Kafr Kila, could have been the perfect picturesque pause on a hike. “This is a historic vantage point… Radwan leaders used to come here and look down into Israel,” Marciano said as he stood with the journalists on the hilltop. “This is where Hezbollah operatives observed Israel and aimed at citizens’ houses.”
From here, terrorists made a direct hit on a house in Kfar Yuval in January, killing Barak Ayalon, 45, a member of the community’s security team, and his mother, Miri Ayalon, 76.
Israelis who were injured when a Hezbollah anti-tank missile hit Kfar Yuval in the Upper Galilee arrive at Ziv Medical Center in Safed, September 1, 2024. (David Cohen/Flash90)
“In every house in this village were weapons, Hezbollah flags, and photos of Nasrallah and other Hezbollah leaders,” Marciano said, adding that everyone who lived here in Kafr Kila had ties to Hezbollah.
“We better get moving quickly,” he said, glancing around cautiously. “An anti-tank missile landed where we are standing two days ago.”
The craziness of the Middle East
The soldiers and press corps moved carefully up the hill, stepping around a rocket casing and other debris.
Smoke billows in Kafr Kila on October 28, 2024. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)Marciano gave a short briefing with a view of the village.
“We had a checklist of what we needed to do, and we’ve accomplished about 65 percent of our goals,” Marciano said.
All around the rocky hillside were evacuated houses — some completely destroyed, others still standing.
“Hezbollah was here, and now we’re here,” Marciano said. “Our goal is to destroy all the Hezbollah infrastructure so they don’t return.”
An Israeli convoy in Kafr Kila, south Lebanon, on October 28, 2024. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel
Although he claimed to be an optimist, he also said the army is dealing with the balagan, or craziness, of the Middle East.
“I’m not a prophet,” he went on. “I can’t say that Hezbollah will never come back here. But I want to make the area free from Hezbollah so my children won’t have to fight.”
He paused. “Maybe my grandchildren will have to fight,” he said, “but not my kids.”
The day after
When asked what the army’s goals are in this war, Marciano replied that in 2006, Israel signed a ceasefire with Hezbollah after 34 days of fighting without a decisive victory.
The war ended when Israel, Hezbollah, and the Lebanese government agreed to UN Resolution 1701, which required Hezbollah to disarm and withdraw north of the Litani River — terms that were never enforced.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, right, escorted by his bodyguard Yasser Qarnabash, waves to his supporters during a rally, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon, on September 22, 2006. Qarnabash was reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike on July 9, 2024 and Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on September 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)
At the time, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an IDF airstrike in Beirut on September 27, boasted that Israel was “weaker than a spider’s web.”
Over the subsequent 18 years, Hezbollah established bases in villages throughout southern Lebanon, creeping closer and closer to the border. In December, the IDF said that Hezollah used “the infrastructure in the area for terror purposes, exploiting the civilian population and using it as a human shield for its operations.”
“This is not 2006,” said reservist Efraim Feiglin, guarding the press corps. “This time, we will continue to victory.”
It isn’t clear what exactly victory means or who will return to Kafr Kila and other villages once controlled by Hezbollah after the fighting ends.
For now, however, Marciano is focused on completing one of the Israeli government’s stated war goals: “We will do everything we have to do so that people can return to their homes in the north. We’ll stay as long as it takes to do the job.”
IDF soldiers in position in Kafr Kila. (IDF)
Jump scaresParts of the Lebanese side of the border wall that we passed on our trip were covered with standard graffiti — scribbles in English with hearts and people’s names — along with propaganda-style drawings of Hezbollah leaders.
Further on, the wall also bore evidence of Israeli troops’ presence, with words recently written in Hebrew that said, “You wanted it, you got it.”
Driver Oskar Lawther stands in front of the border wall on the Lebanese side on October 28, 2024. The Hebrew graffiti on the wall behind him reads, “You wanted it, you got it.” (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)
This meant, said driver Lawther, “that Hezbollah had wanted the war, and that is what they got.”
IDF bulldozers moved slowly through the village, clearing wreckage. There were still booby-trapped buildings to be searched, terrorist cells to be dismantled, and hidden forces to contend with, Marciano said.
Soldiers from the Golani Brigade, as well as from the paratroopers, were working together to clear the village of gunmen, he said, highlighting the cooperation between two units known for their long-standing rivalry.
Marciano walked us past a gas station he said was once owned by Hezbollah, now destroyed, directly across from the border wall.
A destroyed gas station that the IDF says was owned by Hezbollah, on October 28, 2024. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)In the distance, on the other side of the hill, there was a sudden, loud explosion from artillery shelling, making this reporter jump.
“It’s good for your adrenaline,” a soldier said lightly. “It gets your heart pumping.” link
The Region and the World
Much of Kafr Kila, a central Hezbollah hub on the border with Israel, is now destroyed, as a monthlong Israeli ground offensive in south Lebanon uproots terrorist infrastructure
Col. Avi Marciano, the commander of the 769th 'Hiram' Regional Brigade, leads a group of journalists into Lebanon on October 28, 2024. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)
KAFR KILA, southern Lebanon – Only an hour after a barrage of Hezbollah rockets was fired into northern Israel on Monday morning, The Times of Israel and other journalists rode in a convoy of armored personnel carriers through Metula — now a ghost town on Israel’s northern border — directly into the southern Lebanon war zone.
Wearing helmets and flak jackets, the press corps entered Kafr Kila, a border village that until recently was a central hub for Hezbollah, one of the world’s largest and wealthiest terrorist groups, and was set to be a launchpad for an invasion of Israel.
The Hezbollah plan, “Conquest of the Galilee,” envisioned that the Radwan Forces would “storm the border from here, invade and capture Metula,” and set about killing and kidnapping residents as Hamas did in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, according to Col. Avraham Marciano, the commander of the 769th “Hiram” Brigade, a regional unit normally responsible for the eastern portion of the border with Lebanon.
In late September, IDF troops instructed Kafr Kila’s 3,000 residents to leave the area. Then, after weeks of intense fighting, troops cleared the village of most of the Hezbollah terrorists.
Marciano, who was serving as our guide, pointed to a mound of debris 50 yards (50 meters) from where we stood. Here, he said, troops uncovered an underground shaft that ran for several hundred yards, almost reaching the border wall with Israel.
“Several battalions of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit were planning to go into the shaft from the village’s main street and get equipment they had stored there,” Marciano said. The IDF has found thousands of weapons, launchers, and tactical equipment belonging to the fighters of Hezbollah’s elite force in the village.
“They would have entered and killed and done all the unbearable things that were done on October 7 in the south,” he said.
Tunnel shaft found by IDF troops in Kafr Kila. (IDF)
A limited ground incursion
Hezbollah began striking northern Israel a day after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion, when 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists slaughtered some 1,200 people in a rampage through southern Israel and kidnapped 251 to Gaza.
After suffering nearly a year of Hezbollah cross-border rocket and drone attacks that forced 60,000 residents of northern Israel from their homes, Israel dramatically stepped up its operations in September, with strikes against commanders in the field and senior leaders in Beirut, and attacks on the terror group’s weaponry that crippled much of its capabilities.
While the IDF, including the 769th Brigade, had been operating close to the northern border since last October 8, it began an overt ground incursion only at the end of September this year — a limited operation targeting Hezbollah gunmen and infrastructure relatively close to the border.
The battles in southern Lebanon have been fierce and deadly, especially in the past week. Israel has been reeling from the loss of 17 soldiers — all but one of them reservists. Over the year of conflict, 60 IDF soldiers have died in the cross-border skirmishes and the ground operation.
IDF reservists killed during fighting in southern Lebanon on October 26, 2024: From left: Cpt. (res.) Amit Chayut, Cpt. (res.) Rabbi Avraham Yosef Goldberg, Maj. (res.) Eliav Amram Abitbol, Master Sgt. (res.) Gilad Elmaliach.
The IDF estimates that more than 2,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon.
Driving into enemy territory
Our convoy of journalists entered Lebanon near Fatima Gate, once known as the Good Fence Crossing, which was used from 1982 to 2000 during Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon.
A view of the border with Israel, from the southern Lebanese village of Kafr Kila, with Israeli vehicles driving on the right side and UN and Lebanese vehicles driving on the left, on December 4, 2018. (Ali Dia/AFP/File)
Oskar Lawther, a driver of one of the APCs in the 769th Brigade, said that when he used to drive in a patrol car on the Israeli side of the border, he always wondered what it was like on this — the other — side.
Our first stop, a strategic lookout onto Israel on the edge of Kafr Kila, could have been the perfect picturesque pause on a hike. “This is a historic vantage point… Radwan leaders used to come here and look down into Israel,” Marciano said as he stood with the journalists on the hilltop. “This is where Hezbollah operatives observed Israel and aimed at citizens’ houses.”
From here, terrorists made a direct hit on a house in Kfar Yuval in January, killing Barak Ayalon, 45, a member of the community’s security team, and his mother, Miri Ayalon, 76.
Israelis who were injured when a Hezbollah anti-tank missile hit Kfar Yuval in the Upper Galilee arrive at Ziv Medical Center in Safed, September 1, 2024. (David Cohen/Flash90)
“We better get moving quickly,” he said, glancing around cautiously. “An anti-tank missile landed where we are standing two days ago.”
The craziness of the Middle East
The soldiers and press corps moved carefully up the hill, stepping around a rocket casing and other debris.
Smoke billows in Kafr Kila on October 28, 2024. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)
Marciano gave a short briefing with a view of the village.
“We had a checklist of what we needed to do, and we’ve accomplished about 65 percent of our goals,” Marciano said.
All around the rocky hillside were evacuated houses — some completely destroyed, others still standing.
“Hezbollah was here, and now we’re here,” Marciano said. “Our goal is to destroy all the Hezbollah infrastructure so they don’t return.”
An Israeli convoy in Kafr Kila, south Lebanon, on October 28, 2024. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel
“I’m not a prophet,” he went on. “I can’t say that Hezbollah will never come back here. But I want to make the area free from Hezbollah so my children won’t have to fight.”
He paused. “Maybe my grandchildren will have to fight,” he said, “but not my kids.”
The day after
When asked what the army’s goals are in this war, Marciano replied that in 2006, Israel signed a ceasefire with Hezbollah after 34 days of fighting without a decisive victory.
The war ended when Israel, Hezbollah, and the Lebanese government agreed to UN Resolution 1701, which required Hezbollah to disarm and withdraw north of the Litani River — terms that were never enforced.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, right, escorted by his bodyguard Yasser Qarnabash, waves to his supporters during a rally, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon, on September 22, 2006. Qarnabash was reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike on July 9, 2024 and Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on September 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)
At the time, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an IDF airstrike in Beirut on September 27, boasted that Israel was “weaker than a spider’s web.”
Over the subsequent 18 years, Hezbollah established bases in villages throughout southern Lebanon, creeping closer and closer to the border. In December, the IDF said that Hezollah used “the infrastructure in the area for terror purposes, exploiting the civilian population and using it as a human shield for its operations.”
“This is not 2006,” said reservist Efraim Feiglin, guarding the press corps. “This time, we will continue to victory.”
It isn’t clear what exactly victory means or who will return to Kafr Kila and other villages once controlled by Hezbollah after the fighting ends.
For now, however, Marciano is focused on completing one of the Israeli government’s stated war goals: “We will do everything we have to do so that people can return to their homes in the north. We’ll stay as long as it takes to do the job.”
IDF soldiers in position in Kafr Kila. (IDF)
Jump scares
Further on, the wall also bore evidence of Israeli troops’ presence, with words recently written in Hebrew that said, “You wanted it, you got it.”
Driver Oskar Lawther stands in front of the border wall on the Lebanese side on October 28, 2024. The Hebrew graffiti on the wall behind him reads, “You wanted it, you got it.” (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)
This meant, said driver Lawther, “that Hezbollah had wanted the war, and that is what they got.”
IDF bulldozers moved slowly through the village, clearing wreckage. There were still booby-trapped buildings to be searched, terrorist cells to be dismantled, and hidden forces to contend with, Marciano said.
Soldiers from the Golani Brigade, as well as from the paratroopers, were working together to clear the village of gunmen, he said, highlighting the cooperation between two units known for their long-standing rivalry.
Marciano walked us past a gas station he said was once owned by Hezbollah, now destroyed, directly across from the border wall.
A destroyed gas station that the IDF says was owned by Hezbollah, on October 28, 2024. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)
In the distance, on the other side of the hill, there was a sudden, loud explosion from artillery shelling, making this reporter jump.
“It’s good for your adrenaline,” a soldier said lightly. “It gets your heart pumping.” link
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Survivors
Personal Stories Taken captive: Hamza Ziyadne, Rahat resident working in Kibbutz Holit
Abducted on October 7 by Hamas terrorists; still in Gaza after two siblings released November 30
Hamza Ziyadne, 22, was taken captive to Gaza, along with his father, Youssef Ziyadne, 53, and two other siblings, Bilal Ziyadne, 18, and Aisha Ziyadne, 17, while working in Kibbutz Holit.
Bilal and Aisha were released on November 30 after more than 50 days in Hamas captivity; their father and other brother remain hostages in Gaza.
Hamza, married and a father of two, was working with his father, Youssef, in the Holit cow shed, along with his brother Bilal, and his sister, Aisha, who had joined them for the morning.
The family lives in Rahat, in the Ziyadne neighborhood, named for their extensive family clan.
Following their release, Bilal said the terrorists kidnapped him and his family members even though they knew they were Arabs, as he struggled to describe his experiences in an interview.
Bilal said the four of them were kept together, and they were brought enough food to not be hungry, “normal food. Bread, beans, tomatoes, falafel, things like that.”
They did not know there were other hostages outside of the four members of their family and were unaware of the seriousness of the situation.
“We didn’t think the war would take that long. It felt like such a long time, we prayed to be freed,” said Bilal.
Bilal said that all four of them were provided with “a mattress, pillow, blanket,” unlike many of the other freed hostages who said they slept on the bare ground and were given barely enough food to survive.
The terrorists also gave them a Quran, he said.
The released teen said he felt afraid of the Israeli airstrikes he would hear, but not of Hamas: “I’m scared for those who are still there… I feel and I know what they’re going through.” link
“Our Blood Is the Same”: Jewish, Arab Relatives of Hostages Meet to Express Solidarity, Call for Hostage DealThe meeting, organized through the Partners in Fate organization, brought together Jewish and Arab family members whose loved ones are being held in Hamas captivity | Cousin of hostages Youssef Hamis Ziyadne and Hamza Ziyadne: “The hostages are all of our children”
Arab and Jewish family members of hostages held in Gaza met this week in the southern Bedouin city of Rahat through the Partners in Fate organization, a group dedicated to promoting Jewish-Arab solidarity during the war. Family members shared their stories, emphasizing the similarities between them and calling for the return of their loved ones.
“On October 7 we became one family, and we are partners in fate,” Shai Wenkert, father of 22-year-old hostage Omer Wenkert, shared. “We are part of the most important struggle happening in the state of Israel. Our shared strength can create tremendous pressure on our enemies. You can’t beat our spirit. We live in one country, we live on the same ground, and we are all humans. Our blood is the same blood. On October 7 they didn’t distinguish between hostages.”
Several of the victims of the October 7 attack and those taken hostage were Arabs, especially members of Israel’s Bedouin community in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip.
Four members of the Bedouin Alziadana family of Rahat were taken hostage on October 7 while working in the Kibbutz Holit cow shed. Bilal Ziyadne, 18, and Aisha Ziyadne, 17, were released during the November hostage deal, but their brother Hamza Ziyadne, 22, and father Youssef Hamis Ziyadne, 53, remain in captivity.
“The hostages are all of our children,” Youssef’s cousin Bashir Ziyadne said. “We all could have been in the same boat. We’re hoping for a deal and for developments in the state that will prevent this from happening again.”
“We’re tired of telling our story,” Youssef’s brother Eli Ziyadne said. “I hope that this is the last gathering that we’ll tell it. There’s a table with a deal sitting on it that everyone supports. I’m calling on the prime minister: don’t go to the US until you’ve signed the deal.”
He also called on Opposition Leader Yair Lapid to join the government and to replace far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, both of whom have vocally opposed a hostage deal.
Ila Metzger, daughter-in-law of Yoram Metzger, whose body remains in Hamas captivity, also expressed her frustration with the government. “I see the state as totally responsible,” she said. “It needs to put forward some sort of development that will provide hope for people both here and on the other side. Unfortunately, my prime minister is putting off signing the agreement to return the hostages. We’re at the moment of truth.”
Sha’ban al-Sayed, the father of Hisham al-Sayed, a 36-year-old Bedouin with schizophrenia who has been held in Gaza since entering the strip in 2015, said, “The brotherhood between Jews and Arabs has existed since the founding of the state. If we leave behind politics there will be stronger brotherhood between us. We support everyone who helps with the return of the hostages. I’m ready to come to every meeting anywhere in order to support the return of the hostages.”
Fouad Talalka from the Bedouin town of Hura, whose son Samar Talalka was mistakenly killed by the Israeli military in Gaza along with fellow hostages Alon Shamriz and Yotam Haim, also spoke at the event, as did Salam Alatrash, the brother of Mohammad Alatrash, whose body is being held in Gaza; Shuki Raviv, a relative of the hostage Avraham Munder; and Mohammad Al Qadi, a relative of the hostage Farhan Al Qadi
The event was supported by solidarity organization Have You Seen the Horizon Lately as well as the Rahat community center. link
Hamza Ziyadne, 22, was taken captive to Gaza, along with his father, Youssef Ziyadne, 53, and two other siblings, Bilal Ziyadne, 18, and Aisha Ziyadne, 17, while working in Kibbutz Holit.
Bilal and Aisha were released on November 30 after more than 50 days in Hamas captivity; their father and other brother remain hostages in Gaza.
Hamza, married and a father of two, was working with his father, Youssef, in the Holit cow shed, along with his brother Bilal, and his sister, Aisha, who had joined them for the morning.
The family lives in Rahat, in the Ziyadne neighborhood, named for their extensive family clan.
Following their release, Bilal said the terrorists kidnapped him and his family members even though they knew they were Arabs, as he struggled to describe his experiences in an interview.
Bilal said the four of them were kept together, and they were brought enough food to not be hungry, “normal food. Bread, beans, tomatoes, falafel, things like that.”
They did not know there were other hostages outside of the four members of their family and were unaware of the seriousness of the situation.
“We didn’t think the war would take that long. It felt like such a long time, we prayed to be freed,” said Bilal.
Bilal said that all four of them were provided with “a mattress, pillow, blanket,” unlike many of the other freed hostages who said they slept on the bare ground and were given barely enough food to survive.
The terrorists also gave them a Quran, he said.
The released teen said he felt afraid of the Israeli airstrikes he would hear, but not of Hamas: “I’m scared for those who are still there… I feel and I know what they’re going through.” link
Arab and Jewish family members of hostages held in Gaza met this week in the southern Bedouin city of Rahat through the Partners in Fate organization, a group dedicated to promoting Jewish-Arab solidarity during the war. Family members shared their stories, emphasizing the similarities between them and calling for the return of their loved ones.
“On October 7 we became one family, and we are partners in fate,” Shai Wenkert, father of 22-year-old hostage Omer Wenkert, shared. “We are part of the most important struggle happening in the state of Israel. Our shared strength can create tremendous pressure on our enemies. You can’t beat our spirit. We live in one country, we live on the same ground, and we are all humans. Our blood is the same blood. On October 7 they didn’t distinguish between hostages.”
Several of the victims of the October 7 attack and those taken hostage were Arabs, especially members of Israel’s Bedouin community in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip.
Four members of the Bedouin Alziadana family of Rahat were taken hostage on October 7 while working in the Kibbutz Holit cow shed. Bilal Ziyadne, 18, and Aisha Ziyadne, 17, were released during the November hostage deal, but their brother Hamza Ziyadne, 22, and father Youssef Hamis Ziyadne, 53, remain in captivity.
“The hostages are all of our children,” Youssef’s cousin Bashir Ziyadne said. “We all could have been in the same boat. We’re hoping for a deal and for developments in the state that will prevent this from happening again.”
“We’re tired of telling our story,” Youssef’s brother Eli Ziyadne said. “I hope that this is the last gathering that we’ll tell it. There’s a table with a deal sitting on it that everyone supports. I’m calling on the prime minister: don’t go to the US until you’ve signed the deal.”
He also called on Opposition Leader Yair Lapid to join the government and to replace far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, both of whom have vocally opposed a hostage deal.
Ila Metzger, daughter-in-law of Yoram Metzger, whose body remains in Hamas captivity, also expressed her frustration with the government. “I see the state as totally responsible,” she said. “It needs to put forward some sort of development that will provide hope for people both here and on the other side. Unfortunately, my prime minister is putting off signing the agreement to return the hostages. We’re at the moment of truth.”
Sha’ban al-Sayed, the father of Hisham al-Sayed, a 36-year-old Bedouin with schizophrenia who has been held in Gaza since entering the strip in 2015, said, “The brotherhood between Jews and Arabs has existed since the founding of the state. If we leave behind politics there will be stronger brotherhood between us. We support everyone who helps with the return of the hostages. I’m ready to come to every meeting anywhere in order to support the return of the hostages.”
Fouad Talalka from the Bedouin town of Hura, whose son Samar Talalka was mistakenly killed by the Israeli military in Gaza along with fellow hostages Alon Shamriz and Yotam Haim, also spoke at the event, as did Salam Alatrash, the brother of Mohammad Alatrash, whose body is being held in Gaza; Shuki Raviv, a relative of the hostage Avraham Munder; and Mohammad Al Qadi, a relative of the hostage Farhan Al Qadi
The event was supported by solidarity organization Have You Seen the Horizon Lately as well as the Rahat community center. link
Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages
On Leaders Alienated From Their PeopleMalka PuterkovskyA religious public figure, an educator and activist for women's rights, a leader of the movement promoting Torah study for women.
Tikun leyl Shavuot: [traditional Torah study on the eve of the Shavuot holiday that lasts all night] at the hostages’ tent city in Jerusalem. Study based on the source Tractate Ta'anit.How does the Torah tell us to behave toward someone who is in trouble? "When the community is immersed in suffering, a person may not say: I will go to my home and I will eat and drink, and peace be upon you, my soul."Moses was a great leader, one of whose primary characteristics was the ability to feel empathy and sorrow.The Gemara component of the Torah tells us that during the war against Amalek, Moses wanted to raise his hands towards the heavens and imbue the fighting people with faith. By then Moses was old, and it was hard for him to stand, so he sat upon a stone. The Gemara asks: an aged man, can he not bring something to pad the stone a little, a pillow, a cushion? But Moses said: "Since the Jewish people are immersed in suffering, I too will be with them in suffering". Take note of what makes a man a great leader, one who fulfills the basic, essential condition for a leader.I cannot remain silent in view of what the Torah demands of us.The Jewish people's existence is based on the axiom that all Jews are responsible for one another.A leader who does not see his evacuated citizens who are living for eight months in cramped hotel rooms with three, sometimes five, children, is a leader who does not adhere to that axiom. Nor does a leader who asks “what makes September 1st sacred?” while one of his ministers, wearing a kippah, declares he is committed to the values of the Torah, and yet allows himself to speak out against the families of the hostages. He does so as if the nightmare they live in is not due, among other reasons, to the disgraceful functioning of that leadership. It is a leadership that blatantly destroys the basis of our existence here, a leadership that denies the vital condition for our continued life in this country!I am a Jewish woman who tries very hard to obey the commandments in the proper way. I live in a settlement; many consider me a right-winger. But this is not a political issue; there is no room here for disagreement. And when we have a leadership without a plan, which also shows contempt for its citizens, a woman like me cannot remain silent! And a word to those who do remain silent. The hottest place in hell is reserved for those who do not speak out. Silence is akin to complicity. I believe every Jew knows that unless we maintain true mutual responsibility, we have no existence here, neither physical nor spiritual.I appeal to my acquaintances, to all my beloved friends who declare themselves observers of the Torah and its commandments, it is our duty to carry out the commandment of rebuke - this government does not deserve to be in power. The government of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, if you are unable to help, at least do the minimum required of leadership - show empathy.Now it is actually those who feel committed to the Torah who are obliged to raise a loud bitter cry.
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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