🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 394, 2023 - November 3, 2024 🎗️

  

🎗️Day 394 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

There is no victory until all of the hostages are home!

‎אין נצחון עד שכל החטופים בבית

 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

*6:30pm yesterday - north - rockets/missiles

*8:35pm yesterday- north -rockets/missiles

*9:00pm yesterday- south- rockets- Sderot, Mefalsim -Two rockets launched from Gaza at Sderot area struck open areas; none hurt

*10:00pm - north-rockets/missiles|
*6:20am - north  lower Galilee- hostile aircraft - Ramat Magshimim, Haspin, Nov, Avnei Eitan
*6:30am - north  lower Galilee- hostile aircraft - Bali Ad, Givat yoav, Neot Golan
*7:25am - north - rockets/missiles
*7:30am - north - rockets/missiles
*8:05am - Haifa and Acre and areas surrounding
*8:55am - south of Haifa - rockets/missiles
*9:00am - north - rockets/missiles
*9:00am - north - hostile aircraft - Bokata
*9:00am - north - hostile aircraft - El Rom, Bokata
*11:10am - north - rockets/missiles
*11:45am - north - rockets/missiles
*12:05pm - north and Acre - rockets/missiles
*2:20pm - north - rockets/missiles
*2:25pm - north - rockets/missiles
*2:35pm - north - hostile aircraft - Lev hahula
*3:45pm - north - rockets/missiles
*3:55pm - north - rockets/missiles - Since this morning, Hezbollah has fired over 100 rockets from Lebanon at Israel, according to an IDF tally.
*4:55pm - Haifa and areas around - 
*5:20pm - north - hostile aircraft - Gesher Haziv, Milu'ot, Leeman, Naharia, Saar
*5:25pm - north and Acre area- hostile aircraft - Evron, Mizra'a, Regba, Lochamei Haghetto'ot, Shomrat, Acre
*5:25pm - north - rockets/missiles
*5:30pm - Acre and areas around - hostile aircraft - Acre, Jedida Macker, Ein Hamifratz
*5:30pm - Haifa and Acre areas - hostile aircraft - Bar Lev Industrial zone, Achihud, Shaar Neaman, Ein Hamifratz, Acre, Kfar Masarik,
*5:30pm- Haifa areas - hostile aircraft - Kiryat Bialik, Kiryat Yam, Kiryat Motzkin
*5:35pm - Haifa areas - hostile aircraft - Kiryat Haim, Shmuel, Kfar Bialik, Kiryat Ata, Kfar Bialik, Haifa, Osha, Afek, Kfar Macabi, Ramat Yohanan
*5:35pm - Haifa areas, west and south west of Haifa- hostile aircraft - Kfar Hassidim, Rechasim, Osha, Afek, Kfar Hamacabi, Kiryat Ata, Ramat Yohanan, Yagur, Ivtin
*5:35pm - north - rockets/missiles
*5:40pm - South west of Haifa - hostile aircraft - Shaar Ha'amakim, Kishon Prison, Kiryat Tivon
*5:40pm - west of Haifa - hostile aircfraft - Oranim, Elyakim, Kfar Tikva, Kiryat Tivon, Yokneam
*5:45pm - West of Haifa - hostile aircraft - Yokneam, Elyakim, Ein Haemek

IDF announces deaths of 2 soldiers killed in battle in northern Gaza Strip

Two Israeli soldiers were killed during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip earlier today, the IDF announces.

The slain troops are named as:

• Staff Sgt. Itay Parizat, 20, from Petah Tikva.
• Staff Sgt. Yair Hananya, 22, from Mitzpe Netofa.
  
  Soldiers killed in the northern Gaza Strip on November 2, 2024: Staff Sgt. Itay Parizat (L) and Staff Sgt. Yair Hananya. (Courtesy)
  Both served with the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion.
  
  

  An Israeli soldier was killed by a grenade explosion early Saturday morning in the northern Gaza Strip, the IDF announces.

  The Military Police has launched an investigation into the circumstances of the deadly incident, which was apparently not directly related to the fighting.

  The IDF does not announce the soldier’s identity. He is named by local authorities as Shneur Zalman Cohen, 20, from the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar.

  

An IDF soldier wounded during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip in September succumbed to his wounds, the military announced Friday.

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. Naim was the first female soldier to have been killed during the IDF’s ground offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

A man has died of wounds sustained during a rocket barrage fired at Nahariya last month, the Galilee Medical Center announces.
The 57-year-old man from Nahariya was injured by shrapnel as a rocket barrage was intercepted on October 23.
The victim is not immediately publicly named.
The man was apparently was hit in the head by shrapnel amid a barrage of 25 rockets targeting the area.
He was hospitalized in intensive care and underwent a number of surgeries, the medical center says.

MAY THEIR MEMORIES BE A REVOLUTION

Hostage Updates 

• Israel is “pessimistic” about the chances of reaching a hostage deal, Ynet reports, citing an Israeli official.

  

  Demonstrators hold placards and wave Israeli flags during an anti-government protest calling for action to secure the release of Israeli hostages held captive since Hamas's October 7, 2023, massacre, Tel Aviv, November 2, 2024. (Jack Guez/AFP)

  “Hamas insists on a complete end to the war and is therefore not ready for small deals,” says the official. “This is not going in a good direction. The mediators have not yet returned with an official answer so that the talks do not collapse completely.”

  The outlet cites another source who says, “The chance seems very small.”

  Additionally, adds Ynet, Israel believes that it will face intense pressure to end the war in Gaza no matter who wins the US elections this week. Link whenever there is an unnamed official like this, it is one of Netanyahu’s cronies speaking in his name without saying his name. Of course he is pessimistic because he, Netanyahu is making it impossible to make a deal that would include ending the war. Not only will ge not make a deal like this, he is doing everything to prolong the war for his own self interests. And the new investigation about the leaked secret documents are absolute black and white proof that Netanyahu’s well oiled poison machine has done everything to prevent a deal and make the hostage families and supporters the ‘enemies’  

• The weekly rally at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square disperses after a chorus of “Hatikva,” the national anthem.

  Speakers at the rally reiterate the Hostage Families Forum’s recent demand for a hostage deal that would see all 101 remaining hostages released at once.

  “There is no time for a multi-stage deal, and no use for it,” says Ronen Neutra, father of Israeli-American hostage Omer Neutra, who was kidnapped on October 7, 2023, while serving as a tank commander near Gaza.

  Two of the possible deals currently being discussed are an Egyptian proposal to release four hostages during a two-day ceasefire, and a multi-stage, Qatari-American proposal that would ultimately see all hostages released and the war ended.

  Earlier draft agreements envisioned a staggered release, beginning with “humanitarian” cases — female, elderly and injured hostages.

  “All the hostages are humanitarian,” says Neutra, adding that a speedy release of all the captives would afford Israel a “magnificent victory” over Hamas. Speaking in English, Orna Neutra, the hostage’s mother, says that on October 7, 2023, her son fought Hamas terrorists knowing “that if something happened to him he would not be left behind.”

  “That is the Israeli ethos,” she says.

  Noam Idan Ben Ezra, whose brother Tsahi Idan was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, says, “The hostages’ release requires an end to the war.”

  “The army has already won, now it’s the political echelon’s turn,” she says.

  She demands a deal to release “everyone now, not in trickles and not in parts — Tsahi and all the hostages.”

  The rally also features speeches by Amir Idan, Tsahi Idan’s cousin; Noam Katz, whose father Lior Rudaeff was killed on October 7 and kidnapped to Gaza; freed hostage Maya Regev; Ilan Dalal, father of hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal; and Dr. Ayelet Levy Shahar, mother of hostage Naama Levy.

  Levy Shahar urges the Israeli public to “take to the streets.”

  “Vote with your feet,” she says, “to save the values on which the state was founded.”

  
  

  Protesters march from Jerusalem’s Zion Square to Paris Square, calling for the release of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

  Some anti-government activists carry a large banner criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid an ongoing investigation into the alleged leak of classified documents from his office.

  

  
  

  The banner reads, “A spy in my office? I didn’t see anything. Netanyahu – a useful idiot.”

  Other protesters wave yellow flags, representing the hostages, and Israeli flags.

  Simultaneous anti-government protests are taking place around the country, as they do every Saturday evening, in locations including Tel Aviv, Kfar Saba, Karkur and Hadera.

• Shai Moses, whose uncle Gadi Moses is still held captive in Gaza, stated at a hostage families’ rally in front of the Kirya compound in Tel Aviv that "Netanyahu has been thwarting deals from the beginning and is trying to label us, the families, as the enemy. With the exposure of the perception-shaping operations aimed at derailing the deal, it’s clear to everyone now that Netanyahu wants to bury the captives in captivity. We must not allow him to sacrifice them on the altar of his rule; we will not let up on the pressure against Netanyahu, and we will even increase it.” He added, “Anyone who, after the release of this affair, continues to collaborate with Netanyahu in sabotaging the deals will be forever remembered as a partner in the betrayal of the hostages and their families.”

• Hostage families: Classified and falsified information was leaked from Netanyahu's circle to the media to sabotage the deal.

  The families addressed the severe security affair involving Netanyahu's office and criticized the Prime Minister. Hostage families, including Einav, the mother of Matan Tzangauker, responded today (Saturday) to the security affair linked to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, as revealed by Kan News. “Classified and falsified information was passed from Netanyahu’s circle to the media in a way that supports sabotaging the deal,” the families accused. “The Israeli government is conducting a deceitful and cruel perception campaign against the hostage deal,” they added. “It is a knife in the nation’s back.” The hostage families accuse the Prime Minister of wanting to prolong the war indefinitely. They stressed that the only way to bring the hostages back is “through a deal that ends the war in Gaza.”

  Einav Tzangauker stated: “Yesterday, it was revealed that while my Matan and the other hostages are suffering in tunnels in Gaza, the Israeli government is running a deceitful and cruel perception campaign against the hostage deal and against us, the families. A cynical deception operation straight out of dark regimes. The information fueled the toxic campaign against the families, aiming to label us as the enemy and block the deal.” Tzangauker called: “Bring an Israeli initiative for a comprehensive deal from the negotiation team, vote on it in the government, and bring our loved ones back to us.”

  Kan News reported this week about an unprecedented crisis between the political and security levels due to concerns over the unlawful transfer of classified information. Yesterday, it was cleared for publication that several individuals have been arrested on suspicion of leaking classified information, an act that harmed the war's objectives. One of the detainees worked closely with the Prime Minister. The investigation focuses on the suspicion of harming the war’s goals.  link This leak of top secret documents for the purpose of futhering Netanyahu's personal agenda vs the State agenda could and should be treated as a treasonous felony. Since day 1 of the war, he has jeopordized the security of the nation and flagrantly allowed the hostages to be sacrificed on his alter of personal and political graft all for 3 main personal purposes: the prevent an official committed on investigation of the war and all that led up to it; to keep his coalition together and therefore keep him as prime minister; to delay his trials in order to complete the judicial junta which will cancel his indictments and therefore his trials and the strong possibility of his being found guilty and sentenced to prison. An Official Committee of Inquiry about the submarine affair already found him culpable of endangering the security of the state, but unfortunately did not go further and recommend charges. A committee that will investigate the war will not be so limited and will likely recommend bringing charges to many of the responsible parties with Netanyahu being the most responsible. This leak out of his office will be the first documented proof of his utter deliberate torpedoing every opportunity to make a deal and bring the hostages home. He is the most dangerous person in Israel today.

• Ex-hostage posts photo of herself, brothers in Gaza tunnel in plea for deal: ‘How much longer will you ask them to survive like this’
• 

  Agam Goldstein-Almog and her little brothers Gal and Tal, in a Gaza tunnel on October 8, 2023, in a photo apparently obtained by the IDF (Instagram used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

  Agam Goldstein-Almog releases photos of her and her younger brothers when they were being held hostage in Gaza. They were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza along with their mother after their father and older sister were murdered by terrorists.

  Goldstein-Almog posts the images on Instagram along with a plea for the remaining hostages to be released.

  “Sitting in a tunnel in Gaza, being photographed and asking to go home,” she writes. “With tired, frightened eyes that a day earlier saw the worst things possible, and afraid of what they will see in the future.

  “Today is November 3, 2024, and on this date last year I did not know that I would be released in three weeks, I did not know if I would even survive, if I would meet more hostages. I was afraid of what my eyes would see. I did not want to see more disasters, more pain.

  “I will probably never be able to tell what those eyes saw. Those eyes that looked every day at the clock, waiting, not knowing why.

  “Those eyes that looked closely at the hostages there. I looked into your eyes and I didn’t know it would take so long. How can we look you in the eyes? What will we say to you? What have they done to you there since we left you? Today I see you in my eyes, and I see people for whom you are not the top priority.

  

  Agam Goldstein-Almog in a Gaza tunnel on October 8, 2023 in a photo apparently obtained by the IDF (Instagram used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

  “I see you, and then I see your mother fighting for you wherever possible. I see two worlds and I know what you see there. Look into my eyes, lost and exhausted in the photo, and tell me that I will have to survive like this for another 51 days. I would not believe it.

  “And I am angry, Because if they had released me a week earlier, I would have been saved from so much. Even one day earlier.

  “So what will I say about them? Soon it will be 400 days and how much could we save them from what their eyes will see? And how much more will we put onto them with postponement and delay? Look them in the eyes, how much longer will you ask them to survive like this?”

  The images appear to have been obtained by the IDF.

  Chen Goldstein-Almog, 48, and three of her four children — Agam, 17, Gal, 11 and Tal, 9 — were released on November 26 as part of a temporary ceasefire deal. Her husband Nadav and eldest daughter Yam were murdered in the safe room of their home.
  
  

Gaza and the South

• IDF says it killed one of the last remaining Hamas politburo members still in Gaza 
  Military announces that Izz al-Din Kassab, who served as terror group’s head of national relations, was killed alongside his assistant in Khan Younis area. Top Hamas official Izz al-Din Kassab was killed Friday in an airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip, the IDF and Shin Bet announced.
  Kasab was one of the last remaining members of Hamas’s political bureau, where he served as head of national relations.
  According to the military, he was responsible for coordination between Hamas and the other terror groups in Gaza. “Kassab was a significant source of power and, by virtue of his role, was responsible for the organization’s strategic and military relations with other factions in the Gaza Strip. He held the authority to direct the execution of terror attacks against the State of Israel,” the IDF said in a statement.
  According to the IDF, Kassab’s assistant, Ayman Ayesh, was also killed in the strike.

• A Hamas Nukhba Force terrorist who participated in the October 7 onslaught was killed in a drone strike in the southern Gaza Strip last week, the IDF announces.

  According to the military, Rafaat Ibrahim Mahmoud Aqdih was among the Nukhba terrorists who raided Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, killing and abducting civilians.

  
  Illustrative: Israeli soldiers walking next to the destruction caused by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, near the Israeli-Gaza border, in southern Israel, November 21, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

  During the war, the IDF says he served as an assistant to the head of the Nukhba Force in Khan Younis.

• On the Path to Irreversible Damage in Gaza -Ofer Shelah, Commentary**

What will happen when hundreds of thousands of Gaza residents become dependent on Israel for food, water, and basic needs? This is not a theoretical question but a scenario unfolding on the ground, out of public view, as attention remains focused on the northern front and Iran’s threats. Without deep deliberation or political planning, the IDF is pursuing a course that risks turning Israel into the de facto occupier of the Gaza Strip. 

Public and media attention is naturally directed toward the northern border and potential developments to the east. The ongoing exchange of fire with Hezbollah, despite the severe blows the group has sustained, has exacted a heavy human toll; Iran’s threats to respond to the air force’s strikes could materialize in the coming days. However, the most significant events of this war are currently unfolding in Gaza.

This importance stems from the fact that, unlike Lebanon or Iran, where a clear and achievable political goal could secure military gains, in Gaza, daily developments on the ground could soon lead Israel to irreversible damage. A combination of military operations whose full details are not publicly disclosed, political pressures pushing an undefined vision that has never been declared a war goal, and the absence of any political initiative have brought Israel to the brink of de facto occupation of Gaza, with immeasurable costs to its international standing and the IDF.

Contrary to the endless analysis of options concerning Iran, all this is happening with little public debate. The IDF leadership repeatedly asserts that it does not intend to implement the "Generals' Plan." Yet, in practice, the military is enacting this dangerous idea: applying intense and violent pressure on residents of northern Gaza to move south (a move only partially heeded) while executing operations that have resulted in significant civilian casualties and are reported in the international media as verging on war crimes.

Israel does not intend to fulfill the part of the plan that caused the most uproar, which was to starve those who remain under the pretext that those who stay are considered Hamas operatives. However, given the current military actions, the end result could be just as severe. The alternative to siege and starvation is Israeli responsibility for the fate of hundreds of thousands of people, including the obligation to meet their basic needs. Even if this task is outsourced to foreign contractors, regardless of who bears the costs, Israel will be held accountable for their humanitarian situation, potential unrest, and civilian deaths resulting from fights over resources. Attacks on these contractors by Hamas guerrilla units are also likely.

Pretending that Israel will not bear responsibility might work domestically, given public indifference to Gaza's plight. Internationally, it would mark a significant, perhaps irreversible step toward Israel’s image as a rogue state—one that is sanctioned, denied arms, and deprived of diplomatic support. Israel, perceived as the occupier of Gaza, would become a pariah state, and anyone who underestimates the ramifications of such a status is either delusional or messianic.

The current military actions and those Israel would need to take under humanitarian obligations already have serious repercussions within the army itself. Media coverage is inadequate, but those attuned to the situation can see the corrupting effects reminiscent of, though less severe than, the IDF's experiences during its presence in Lebanon between 1982 and 1985. This time, it includes scenes of lawlessness justified as revenge for the October 7 atrocities, expressed through rhetoric saturated with hatred. Claiming "this is the spirit of the soldiers" ignores that this is not the spirit of the IDF. But even from a practical standpoint, such phenomena will further strain the regular and reserve forces already burdened by continuous combat in three ground fronts (Gaza, Lebanon, and the West Bank).

The current generation of generals was not yet enlisted when the IDF saw a steep decline in officer volunteerism and a significant rise in "gray refusal" to report for reserve duty during Lebanon's first war. Perhaps this is why, or due to their reluctance to speak frankly to the political echelon, they are complicit in the destructive path they are leading, justifying it with operational explanations that sound hollow in the face of reality.

We all hope for a hostage deal that would bring home citizens whose suffering and Israel’s culpability in their abandonment are beyond measure, while also providing an exit strategy from the dire situation we have escalated into. For months, security officials have spoken about the need for such a deal. However, in its absence—whether due to obstacles set by the prime minister or Hamas's refusal—there is no alternative but to continue full-force down a path that leads to disaster. When that happens, whether the blame lies with Netanyahu, Smotrich, or Galant and Halevi will be a matter for political or historical debate; the damage to Israel, its military, economy, and spirit will be irreversible.

>>> *Ofer Shelah is a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies*  LINK

• "He Was Armed, Taken Out of the House Immediately": Report – How Sinwar Was Nearly Eliminated in the Past and Managed to Escape at the Last Moment 

The Saudi newspaper *Asharq Al-Awsat* has revealed, based on various sources, how the Hamas leader evaded IDF forces for over a year. According to the report, the IDF came close to capturing him at least five times until he was encountered almost by chance in a building in the southern Gaza Strip, where he was ultimately killed. "Sinwar insisted on staying in Khan Younis, sending letters to his children."

Israel was reportedly close to reaching Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar at least five times during the war, *Asharq Al-Awsat* reported on Saturday. The sources detailed how Sinwar communicated with senior Hamas members and his family during the conflict, who remained by his side, and how he managed to evade the forces at the last moment before being eliminated.

The sources described that throughout the war, Sinwar maintained contact with his relatives "through specific security methods he devised." For instance, he "exchanged letters periodically" with his brother Mohammed, Mohammed Deif, and Rafah Salama, the commander of the Khan Younis Brigade. According to these sources, Sinwar met with them several times since the start of the war in "safe houses or tunnels." They noted that the four were not always together and would sometimes meet and spend hours or days with each other before separating, depending on the situation on the ground. "Sinwar insisted on staying in Khan Younis, and his wife and children received written letters from him at least once a month or month and a half," the report stated. It was also claimed that Sinwar sent his family a message after his nephew was killed, including details of the location of the body, but the message arrived two days after Sinwar himself was eliminated. His nephew Ibrahim, Mohammed's son, was by Sinwar’s side throughout the war. According to the sources, Ibrahim was killed in an IDF strike in Rafah in August after exiting a tunnel to check if the IDF was approaching. Sinwar reportedly sent a letter to his family explaining Ibrahim’s death and noted that he was buried in an underground tunnel. This message, however, arrived two months late, in October.

**"He Was Armed, Taken Out of the House Immediately"**

The sources further claimed that the IDF was only dozens of meters away from a house Sinwar was in, located in Block G in Khan Younis. He was there alone, accompanied only by his bodyguard, who helped him hide. According to the report, Sinwar was armed and ready for a possible IDF raid on the house. However, Hamas operatives in a nearby house engaged in gunfire with the forces. "Sinwar was immediately taken out of the house through openings Hamas had made in adjacent houses, and he was then moved to a safe house about a kilometer away from where he had been staying."

**Where Was Sinwar Hiding?**

At the start of the war, Sinwar was in Khan Younis. "Under pressure from his brother and senior Hamas officials, he left the city in February," the report stated. According to the sources, Sinwar was transferred to Rafah "safely" through both underground and above-ground movements after the IDF gained control of Khan Younis. The report noted that Sinwar spent several months in Rafah, moving between its neighborhoods: "He hid in its western areas since late May and was placed in underground and above-ground locations." The sources mentioned that Sinwar hid in several tunnels in Rafah, including the one where six hostages were held and killed.

The sources revealed to the Saudi newspaper that before Sinwar was eliminated, he and those with him faced severe food shortages, especially during the last three days: "They did not eat anything and were preparing for an encounter with the Israeli forces."  link

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria

• The commander of Hezbollah’s forces in southern Lebanon’s Khiam was killed in recent Israeli drone strike, the IDF announces.

  Farouq Amin al-Ashi, the commander of the Khiam area, was responsible for numerous rocket and missile attacks from the village on Israeli towns in the Galilee Panhandle, especially Metula, the military says.

  A separate strike in Khiam killed Yousef Ahmed Noun, who the IDF identifies as a company commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force in the area.

• The IDF Home Front Command says it is easing restrictions in several areas in northern Israel, following a fresh assessment.

  The changes come despite repeated Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks.

  As part of the changes, the Home Front Command has adjusted the activity scale in the Lower Galilee and southern Golan Heights, from “partial activity” to “full activity.”

  The changes there mean that gatherings are permitted up to 2,000 people.

  There are no changes to other areas in the country.

  
  
  

• The IDF is calling on civilians near four buildings in Baalbek in northeastern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of airstrikes targeting Hezbollah.

  Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, publishes maps alongside the announcement, which call on civilians to distance themselves at least 500 meters from the sites within the next four hours.

  “You are located near Hezbollah facilities and assets, against which the IDF will operate in the near future,” Adraee says.

• Several strikes hit Lebanon’s eastern Baalbek region, a Hezbollah stronghold, after the Israeli army issued an evacuation warning for the area, an AFP correspondent says.

  
  Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek on November 3, 2024. (Sam SKAINEH / AFP)
  
  

  The correspondent reports at least three strikes on the area, which has seen heavy air raids in recent days by Israel. A month ago Israel stepped up its battle against the Lebanese terror group, which has been firing rockets and explosive drones into Israel for over a year.

• The IDF releases undated footage of the Navy’s Shayetet 13 commando unit raiding a Hezbollah site in southern Lebanon (not the unit’s weekend operation in northern Lebanon, in which a Hezbollah operative was captured).

  According to the IDF, the naval commandos, along with members of the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit and Oketz canine unit, raided the compound, which it says was to be used by Hezbollah to plan and carry out infiltration attacks against Israel, as well as other attacks.

  The military says the elite forces battled and killed Hezbollah operatives in a tunnel at the compound.

  The soldiers also found bunkers where dozens of weapons were stored, including assault rifles, explosive devices, anti-tank missiles, surface-to-air missiles, mortars, and other equipment, the IDF says.

  At the compound, the troops also located rocket launchers. The entire compound was later demolished, according to the IDF.  video

  
  

• The IDF says a Hezbollah drone launched from Lebanon impacted in the Wadi Ara area in northern Israel a short while ago, sparking a fire.

  Firefighters are working to extinguish the blaze.

  Amid the incident, the IDF says it attempted to shoot down the drone, before it ultimately impacted near a highway.

  Another drone was shot down by a Navy missile boat over the sea, just off the coast of Caesarea, the military says. It was shot down before entering Israeli airspace, according to the IDF.

  Sirens had sounded in numerous towns in northern Israel amid the drone attack.  video

West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel

• Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visits the Ephraim Regional Brigade, which operates around Tulkarm and Qalqilya in the West Bank, and holds an assessment with top commanders, his office says.

  In a statement, Gallant says that due to military operations weakening Iran’s proxies Hezbollah and Hamas, the Islamic Republic is now “looking for additional routes for terror, and are pouring everything they can into Judea and Samaria,” referring to efforts by Tehran to arm terrorists in the West Bank.

      

Politics and the War (general news)

•  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office denies that one of the premier’s aides leaked a classified Hamas document to a German newspaper, amid an investigation into the matter.

  “The published document never reached the Prime Minister’s Office from the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate, and the Prime Minister learned about it from the media,” says the PMO.

  In September, Bild published a document indicating that Hamas’s main concern in ceasefire negotiations with Israel is to rehabilitate its military capabilities, and not to alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s civilian population. The spring 2024 document, which Bild said it had obtained exclusively, without offering further details, was reportedly found on a computer in Gaza that belonged to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.  The PMO also claims that the suspect, a spokesman for the prime minister, “never participated in security discussions, was not exposed or received classified information, and did not take part in secret visits.”

  The PMO calls it “ridiculous” to allege that a sympathetic article “caused any damage to the negotiations for the release of the hostages, or to the security of Israel,” as investigators claim.

  “On the contrary – the document only helped the effort to return the hostages, and certainly did not harm it,” says the PMO. “The document and the article exposed the Hamas methods of exerting psychological pressure from home and abroad on the Israeli government and public by blaming Israel for the failure of the talks to release the hostages. This at a time when everyone knows – as has been repeatedly confirmed by senior American officials – that Hamas is the one preventing the execution of the deal.”

  Netanyahu’s office claims there has been a “flood” of leaks from confidential meetings throughout the war.

  “It is very curious why out of all these leaks, this particular document – the contents of which were known to everyone and helped Israel – was given such an aggressive and systematic investigation,” the PMO concludes. Link the PMO is filled with those who make up Netanyahu’s poison machine and lie consistently to protect him and cover up all of his negative activities and negative publicity. So when there is a question of who to believe, The prime minister’s office or almost anyone else, the choice is not difficult 

• The Arrest, Suspicions, and Classified Documents: Everything Known About the Leak Affair

A serious security affair is shaking the Prime Minister’s Office: suspicions of leaking classified documents to foreign media by one of Netanyahu's close advisors, who had access to sensitive materials despite failing a security clearance. The Prime Minister’s Office denies any connection to the suspect, but evidence points to his deep involvement in sensitive discussions. Here is what has been made public, the intense political reactions, and the unanswered questions surrounding this case.

The affair, which concerns the leak of documents and the handling of classified materials during the war, is under a publication ban preventing the exposure of most details. The investigation focuses on three main suspicions: the unlawful transfer of classified information, endangering sensitive information and its sources, and harming war efforts—specifically, the return of hostages. Several suspects have been detained, with the primary suspect being an advisor who worked closely with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the war. The Prime Minister has approached the Attorney General with a request to join a petition to lift the publication ban.

### What Can Be Said?

- The investigation centers on the leak of classified documents concerning Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to foreign media.

- The main suspect worked closely with Netanyahu during the war.

- The investigation involves the theft of documents from military systems, unauthorized data extraction, and concerns about harming war efforts.

- The investigation is being conducted jointly by the Shin Bet, the police, and the IDF, assessing the security damage and potential exposure of defense sources and methods.

- Investigators found that the military raised concerns in real time about suspected leaks of classified information.

- The leaked documents were previously blocked by military censorship due to security risks.

- Reports suggest senior figures in Netanyahu’s office, including Chief of Staff Tzachi Braverman and spokesperson Yonatan Urich, consulted with Netanyahu’s lawyer, Adv. Amit Haddad, on the issue.

### Who is the Suspect and How is He Linked to Netanyahu?

- The main suspect worked as a close advisor to Netanyahu, attended government meetings, and participated in sensitive discussions.

- He had access to classified materials despite failing a security clearance by the Shin Bet.

- He stopped receiving a salary from the Prime Minister's Office on April 1.

- The Prime Minister’s Office denies any official connection, claiming he was not part of the office.

- A source close to the suspect said, “Netanyahu's disavowal is ugly; he threw him under the bus immediately.”

### How Did the Opposition Respond?

- Yair Lapid: Netanyahu is already trying to distance himself from the affair and place blame on others.

- Benny Gantz: The Prime Minister is responsible for what happens in his office, both the good and the bad.

- There are demands for an urgent discussion in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

- Criticism over the breach of public trust in wartime management.

### How Did Hostage Families React?

- Several hostage families accused Netanyahu of conducting a “deceitful and cruel perception campaign” aimed at sabotaging a hostage deal.

- Einav Tzangauker, mother of hostage Matan Tzangauker, filed a request to join the petition to lift the publication ban on the affair.

- The hostages' families’ headquarters has not issued an official statement on the affair.

### What Happens Next?

- Today at 3:30 PM: A court hearing on releasing additional details about the case.

- An urgent discussion in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is planned. Since over a third of the committee members signed the request, the chairman is obliged to comply.

- Investigation into whether the suspect acted alone or under the guidance of higher authorities.

- Examination of the scope of the security damage and its implications.  link

 

The Region and the World

• A senior official in the pro-Iran Hezbollah al-Nujaba militia says Islamist groups in Iraq are fully coordinating with Tehran on a response “at the appropriate time and place” against Israel for last week’s airstrikes.

  
  Fighters lift flags of Iraq and paramilitary groups, including al-Nujaba and Kataib Hezbollah, during a funeral in Baghdad for five militants killed a day earlier in a US strike in northern Iraq, on December 4, 2023. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP)

  Israel’s airstrikes on October 26 came in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack on October 1.

  “When Israel attacked Iran it violated Iraqi airspace and international norms, and the United States cooperated with it, despite its security agreements with Iraq,” Haider al-Lami, a member of the militia’s political bureau, tells Lebanese news outlet Al-Akhbar.

  “Iran has the right to attack Israel from any point in Iraq,” he adds.

  
  
• US B-52 bombers arrive in region as Iran threatens to attack Israel again

  The US Central Command announces that B-52 bombers have arrived in its area of responsibility, which mainly consists of the Middle East.

  
  

  The deployment, announced on Friday, is possibly an attempt to deter Iran from attacking Israel again — as it has promised to do — following several recent direct attacks on each other.

  
  
  

• Israel has identified targets in Iraq it will strike if Iran-backed militia continue to attack Israel from there, and has warned Baghdad, the London-based Saudi Elaph news site reports.

  Unnamed officials apparently tell the outlet that satellites have monitored Tehran working to transfer ballistic missiles and related equipment from Iran to Iraqi territory, with the presumed goal of using them in an expected upcoming attack on Israel.

  The report says Israel is monitoring and identifying targets belonging to the Iran-backed militias, as well as Iraqi state targets, and has warned Baghdad that it must rein in the militias and stop them from using its territory to launch attacks.

  Iraqi sources are said to have expressed concern that Iran is using Iraq to shift the fighting away from its own territory.

  Iranian officials are increasingly threatening to launch yet another strike against Israel in response to Jerusalem’s October 26 attack on the Islamic Republic that targeted military bases and facilities and which Iran said killed at least five people.

  Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Iranian military facilities came weeks after the Islamic Republic’s October 1 attack, in which Iran launched some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, killing a Palestinian man in the West Bank.

  Any further attacks from either side could engulf the wider Middle East, already teetering over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s ground operation of Lebanon, into a wider regional conflict just ahead of the US presidential election on Tuesday.

• Iran’s president says a potential ceasefire between its allies and Israel “could affect the intensity” of Tehran’s response to Israel’s recent strikes on Iranian military sites.

  “If they (the Israelis) reconsider their behavior, accept a ceasefire, and stop massacring the oppressed and innocent people of the region, it could affect the intensity and type of our response,” Masoud Pezeshkian says, quoted by state news agency IRNA.

  He adds that Iran “will not leave unanswered any aggression against its sovereignty and security,” according to the news agency.

  Israeli warplanes carried out the October 26 strikes in retaliation for Tehran’s October 1 ballistic missile barrage.

  Iran had in turn described that attack as a reprisal for the killing of Hamas and Hezbollah terror group leaders and an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander.

Survivors

Personal Stories

  Taken captive: Naama Levy, Hands of Peace project alumnus

19-year-old, a seasoned triathlete, texted her mother to describe rockets and gunfire: ‘I’ve never heard anything like this in my life’

She last texted with her mother, Ayelet Levy, at 6:55 a.m.

“We’re in a secure space,” wrote Levy. “I’ve never heard anything like this in my life,” describing the stream of rockets and gunfire outside.

“She’s just 19,” her mother has said in multiple interviews.

Hours later, a Hamas video appeared on Telegram, showing Levy, her hands tied, her pants bottom covered in blood and smeared with dirt, her feet bare, being pulled by her hair from the back of a black pickup truck and then pushed into the back seat.

Levy is strong, say her family members. She’s a seasoned triathlete, used to the rigors of training and pushing past obstacles, traits that they hope are helping her withstand the trials, cruelties, and possible atrocities of Hamas captivity.

She’s also the great-granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and was a participant in the Hands of Peace project in the US, working toward peace between Israel and the Palestinians. link

Naama's Story

Naama was born in Israel, and raised in India where she was educated in an American school. She graduated with a diplomacy major in high school. She was raised on values of tolerance, acceptance, equality, freedom, social justice…

As a young girl, Naama participated in the “Hands of Peace” delegation, which brings together young Americans, Israelis, and Palestinians and nurtures young leaders to promote values of mutual understanding and the pursuit of peace as a lever for creating social-global change.
Naama has always been attentive to others. She has always stood by the different and the less fortunate. She volunteered in a kindergarten for children of foreign workers (asylum seekers) and is a graduate of a youth movement that brings children together from different sectors of Israeli society.

Always looking to find common ground between people, Naama chose to practice a sport that she loves very much and that, in itself, embodies the convergence of various sports – Triathlon. The strong connection to sports runs in her family – her mother is the doctor of the Israeli women’s soccer team, so Naama has lived and breathed soccer since childhood.

She is also the connecting force at home. The second child out of four, Naama is a role model to her two younger siblings and is adored by her older brother.

Friends always surround Naama; she has friends from all over the world. We received a helping hand from Australia (newspaper story).

If her friends from Gaza whom she met at the “Hands of Peace” delegation saw the photos and videos across the web of how Naama was violently abducted from her bed, there is no doubt that they would want to help her if only they could… link

Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages

A War Hero Abandoned: Abraham Munder, Pioneer

Zahiro Shahar Mor

Nephew of Abraham Munder, who was kidnapped from his home in Nir Oz and is still held captive by Hamas.

My uncle, Abraham Munder, was born in Givatayim to a blue-collar family. From a young age he was taught the value of caring for community and land alike. He was a member of Ha’Shomer Ha’Tzair (a labor Zionist secular youth movement) and later joined the Israel Defense Forces as a paratrooper. In the 1967 Six Day War, he participated in the liberation of Jerusalem and was injured in battle. For me, Abraham was and always will be both the heroic and playful uncle. He would carry you on his broad shoulders and play backgammon with you out in the field.

He was an old-fashioned man - hard-working, industrious, and devoted - who fit into the framework of the kibbutz and chose it as his home. In his free time, Uncle Abraham loved to travel around Israel and sing in various local choirs.

I grew up in Be’er Sheva, not far from Nir Oz. On our visits to the uncles on the kibbutz, we would enjoy the elegant architecture, the well-tended greenery, and the peacefulness of the surroundings.

   But for the past 15 years, Abraham and his family and his kibbutz have been trapped in an unbearable reality that culminated in the darkest tragedy that Israel has ever known, in which Abraham was kidnapped along with his wife, his daughter, and his grandson. His son, Roy, who lived on the kibbutz and devotedly took care of his parents, was murdered.

But they were not abandoned for the first time on the 7th of October. These people of peace and solidarity, who settled in the Western parts of the Negev and made the desert blossom - as Ben Gurion said - were consistently abandoned over and over again by the right-wing governments. The inhabitants of the kibbutzim bordering on the Gaza Strip were subjected to bombardments of missiles and a series of hopeless wars.

At the same time, the members of these kibbutzim were abandoned in the face of a campaign of hatred directed against all Israelis who weren’t on the political right, which continued for years on end. When the government took away the kibbutzim’s weapons kept for emergency defense, they were told: “You supported Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, this is what you get.” Even though it had been a right-wing prime minister who had initiated the withdrawal.

The status of the kibbutz faded. No longer “the golden youth, defenders of the southwestern border in the flowering desert,” they became “traitors to Israel,” shunned in the eyes of Netanyahu’s government. The vision of the kibbutzim was neglected and abandoned over the course of many years, until the tragedy of the 7th of October.

In my eyes, Abraham symbolizes the dream of the State of Israel. He was born a few years before the establishment of the state, and the course of his life intersected with its greatest milestones. Abraham is the epitome of the Jewish pioneer, the first generation of native Israelis, who have been sacrificed at the altar of narrow-minded political considerations, and was abandoned in his old age by a government that did all it could to harm anyone they deemed “enemies of the people:” the voters of the left wing.

Netanyahu began his preparations to abandon the people of the kibbutzim near the Gaza Strip when he contributed to the incitement against Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin that led to his assassination in 1995. Since then, Netanyahu has not rested, setting up his propaganda machine that has poisoned public discourse and turned the “pioneers” into the “traitors of Israel.” The blood of the hostages is on Netanyahu’s hands. He began his work years ago, and we are all next.

Acronyms and Glossary

COGAT - Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories

ICC - International Criminal Court in the Hague

IJC - International Court of Justice in the Hague

MDA - Magen David Adom - Israel Ambulance Corp

PA - Palestinian Authority - President Mahmud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen

PMO- Prime Minister's Office

UAV - Unmanned Aerial vehicle, Drone. Could be used for surveillance and reconnaissance, or be weaponized with missiles or contain explosives for 'suicide' explosion mission

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