π️Lonny's War Update- October 395, 2023 - November 4, 2024 π️
π️Day 395 that 101 of our hostages in Hamas captivity
**There is nothing more important than getting them home! NOTHING!**
“I’ve never met them,But I miss them. I’ve never met them,but I think of them every second. I’ve never met them,but they are my family. BRING THEM HOME NOW!!!”
We’re waiting for you, all of you.
A deal is the only way to bring
all the hostages home- the murdered for burial and the living for rehabilitation.
#BringThemHomeNow #TurnTheHorrorIntoHope
A deal is the only way to bring
all the hostages home- the murdered for burial and the living for rehabilitation.
#BringThemHomeNow #TurnTheHorrorIntoHope
There is no victory until all of the hostages are home!ΧΧΧ Χ Χ¦ΧΧΧ Χ’Χ Χ©ΧΧ ΧΧΧΧΧ€ΧΧ ΧΧΧΧͺ
The two sections at the end, personal stories and Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages are very important to read, as important or more than the news of the day.
Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements
*12:00am- north - rockets/missiles -Mt. Meron Field School and Galilee regions*12:15am - north -rockets/missiles
*12:20am - north- rockets/missiles
*7:40am - north - hostile aircraft - Keshet, Aniam, Katzrin
*9:25am - north -rockets/missiles
*10:55am - north - rockets/missiles
*11:00am - north - rockets/missiles -The IDF says it struck a Hezbollah launcher in Lebanon that was used to fire a barrage of 30 rockets at the Upper Galilee this morning. video of the strikeAnother barrage of 30 rockets was fired at the Western Galilee an hour ago. According to the military, some of the rockets launched in the attacks were intercepted and the rest hit open areas.
*1:00pm - Several drones launched at Israel from Iraq were shot down by the Israeli Air Force a short while ago, the IDF says.
*12:20am - north- rockets/missiles
*7:40am - north - hostile aircraft - Keshet, Aniam, Katzrin
*9:25am - north -rockets/missiles
*10:55am - north - rockets/missiles
*11:00am - north - rockets/missiles -The IDF says it struck a Hezbollah launcher in Lebanon that was used to fire a barrage of 30 rockets at the Upper Galilee this morning. video of the strike
*1:00pm - Several drones launched at Israel from Iraq were shot down by the Israeli Air Force a short while ago, the IDF says.
No sirens sounded, as the drones were intercepted before threatening any towns. The Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq takes responsibility for launching the drones.
*5;15pm - north - hostile aircraft - Milu'ot, Gesher Haziv, Leeman, Naharia, Ramat Naftali, Yiftach, Yasod Hama'ala -The IDF says a drone launched from Lebanon was shot down by air defenses over the Western Galilee a short while ago, as sirens sounded in northern communities near the border with Lebanon warning of incoming rocket fire and suspected UAV infiltration.
The rocket sirens blared in towns including Yiftach and Ramot Naftali, while the drone alerts were in the Nahariya area.
Hostage Updates
- How To End the War in Gaza and Bring Home the Hostages - Gershon Baskin
The following are axioms:
• The war in Gaza will not end until all of the Israeli and foreign hostages are freed from Gaza.
• The war will not end as long as Hamas continues to rule Gaza.
• Hamas may be willing to give up civil governmental control over Gaza to a professional, non-partisan, technocratic government, but it will not voluntarily give up its weapons.
• The war will not end without a significant release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
• Hamas wants the war to end and for all Israeli forces to withdrawal from Gaza.
• Hamas will not end the war until all Israeli forces leave Gaza.
• The Sunni Arab states around Israel want a unified Palestinian government which is not Hamas to rule the West Bank and Gaza, but not the current Palestinian Authority leadership.
• Prime Minister Netanyahu does not want to end the war.
I am in regular contact with the people responsible for negotiations in Israel, Egypt, Qatar, the United States and Hamas. I have 18 years of experience negotiating with Hamas. I believe that I am the Israeli citizen with the most hours of discussions with Hamas leaders, except perhaps Israeli prison guards and prison authorities and their discussions with Hamas people are entirely different than mine. From what I have been told by several Hamas leaders over the past two months I believe that Hamas’s primary goal now is to end the war in Gaza and for Israel to withdraw all of its troops from the Strip. Hamas will not make any agreement with Israel to release hostages held in Gaza without the end of the war and the Israeli withdrawal. Hamas will also demand a significant release of Palestinian prisoners from Israel, especially those serving life sentences for killing Israelis. Hamas is willing to have their control over Gaza transferred to a professional, technocratic Palestinian government which is not composed of members of the various political factions, including Hamas and Fatah. Although Hamas has stated that they are willing to turn over all aspects of government to the new non-Hamas government, including security and control of border passages, several Arab intelligence agencies have stated that they do not believe that Hamas will surrender their weapons to the new government.
Assuming that Hamas is willing for a new Palestinian government to be established, most of the Arab states involved, along with the United States would like to see a reunification of Palestinian government, with one authority governing both the West Bank and Gaza. All parties concerned do not see the viability of the current Palestinian Authority, including its latest Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa as having the legitimacy in the eyes of the Palestinian street, in the West Bank and Gaza in order to actually govern Gaza post-Hamas. Most of the parties involved would like to see President Mahmoud Abbas appointing a new Prime Minister with much greater independence than Mr. Mustafa has and that the new Prime Minister be granted by Abbas the real powers to govern. Mr. Abbas would remain President, but he would be more ceremonial than what he is today which is in charge of executive, legislative, judicial powers as well as controlling the money and the security. The newly appointed Prime Minister should be granted the powers to independently appoint a governing council for Gaza (at least) with real executive powers and the ability to invite an Arab-led international peace keeping force to Gaza. If President Abbas refuses to give up power and to appoint a truly independent Prime Minister, then the Arab states, the US and the EU should pressure Abbas to at least appoint a head for a Gaza governing council that would be independent to establish the non-partisan technocrat professional governing council. According to the leaders and people involved in negotiations, Prime Minister Netanyahu has no plan for post Hamas Gaza and has voiced opposition to every plan put forward by the Arab mediators and by the United States.
Hamas has agreed that in a deal to end the war and for Israel to withdraw all of its forces from Gaza, it is willing to release all of the hostages held in Gaza. Hamas has said that they require 3-5 days of full ceasefire including no Israeli fly-overs to locate all of the hostages and to know what is their condition. Hamas claims that they do not have that information now, and I believe them. They don’t have freedom and ability to move around Gaza and their chain of command is quite broken and destroyed. There are hostages that might be held by non-Hamas groups, such as Islamic Jihad or the Popular Front. There might be hostages being held by non-affiliated civilians. There are also likely to be hostages who are buried underneath the rubble of buildings bombed by Israel along with thousands of Gazans who status is “missing”. It may be that all 101 hostages held in Gaza cannot be returned. When a deal is made, the first test of Hamas’s ability to implement the deal will have to be to produce a list of all of the hostages and their status and that list needs to be given to the Qatari and Egyptian mediators. It will be difficult for Hamas to lie to the mediators and therefore, the list that they produce will be as accurate as possible.
Israel has legitimate security concerns regarding leaving Gaza. Even if a new Palestinian non-Hamas government is established, as I have heard in Egypt and in Qatar, Hamas will not turn over their weapons to the new government. Turning Gaza into a non-militarized zone is a process that will take time. First, Israel (and Egypt) must agree that any Hamas civilian or military personnel that want to leave Gaza to a third country that would accept them, should be granted safe passage out of Gaza – most likely through Egypt. The Hamas or Islamic military people that would choose to leave, would do so, of course without their weapons. The new government in Gaza will form a professional security force. Hamas police and other security or military personnel remaining in Gaza should be encouraged to join the new security force with the enticement of receiving double the salary that they were receiving before. The new Palestinian non-Hamas government would have to be committed to a non-aggression policy towards Israel, otherwise it will not be supported by the Arab countries (Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and maybe others) and will receive no funding from these countries or from the USA or the EU or other donor nations. Even if the majority of remaining Hamas military people join the new governing security force, or leave Gaza, there will remain more radical armed militants willing to continue their attacks against Israel. This will be a challenge for Israel, for the Palestinian government in Gaza and for the Arab-led international peace keeping force, but it is not a reason for Israel to not withdraw from Gaza. In fact, the longer Israeli forces remain in Gaza, the longer the war will continue, more Israeli soldiers will be killed and armed insurgency will be supported by the general Palestinian public in Gaza, of whom today a large majority simply want the war to end. Israel will not be facing the Russian army and the forces that remain in Gaza have little access to more weapons, no ability to produce new weapons and severely damaged military command and control capabilities. Israel forces need to be deployed on the Israeli-Gaza border so that there is a zero chance of another attack such as October 7. Egypt needs to continue to guarantee that the Egypt-Gaza border will be sealed and that the legal crossing point at Rafah will be controlled against smuggling by Egypt from the Egyptian side on the Gaza side, it is advisable that international observers be stationed there, perhaps from the Arab-led international peacekeeping force.
The economic blockade on Gaza must come to an end and Gazans must be reintegrated into the world with the right for movement and access, just like any other people in the world. The continuation of the economic blockade on Gaza cannot be justified in anyway. Obviously, security systems need to be put in place to ensure the safe passage of people and goods in and out of Gaza.
Israel will have to release Palestinian prisoners in order for Hamas to agree to release hostages in Gaza. This is the price to be paid to retrieve the hostages. Before October 7, 2023 there were 559 Palestinian prisoners serving life-sentences for killing Israelis. Some of them are serving multiple life-sentences for killing many Israelis. Some of these prisoners are considered the symbols of Palestinian terrorism by Israel and these will be the most difficult for Israel to release. As such, they will be the prisoners that Hamas is most anxious to release. Israel will probably not have a choice and Hamas will not agree to an Israeli veto on the names of Palestinian prisoners. One solution might be for the most dangerous (as considered by Israel) of the prisoners to be granted safe passage to a third country (perhaps Algeria, Turkey, Iran, maybe some others). They would not be allowed to return to Palestine according to the agreement. This was done partially in the Schalit deal of 2011. My advice to the Israeli side would be to allow all other West Bank prisoners to return to their homes in the West Bank. All prisoners released have historically been required to sign an undertaking that they will not return to acts of violence against Israel. The main reason for this document to be used is that it provides the legal pretext for re-arresting those who violate the terms of their release, as was done in 2014 when 68 prisoners released in 2011 were re-arrested by Israel. By allowing them to remain in the West Bank there is greater ability for Israel to monitor them and to re-arrest them if need be.
The end of the war in Gaza needs to be the beginning of a genuine new regional based peace process to enable the Palestinian people to establish their own independent state next to Israel in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967. I won’t go into the contours of what that peace should be. I will only state that this war in Gaza must be the last Israeli-Palestinian war, but if the occupation over the Palestinian people continues, it will not be the last Israeli-Palestinian war.
Almost everything that I have written above is opposed to by Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu. I have heard from very senior sources in Qatar, Egypt, the EU and the United States that the primary obstacle to ending the war today is Prime Minister Netanyahu. In all honesty, the United States is also opposed to ending the war as long as Hamas continue to control Gaza. But there is a way out. What I have heard from Qatar, Egypt and the USA is that with Netanyahu’s refusal to agree to any possible day-after scenario for Gaza, the mediators are stuck and don’t know how to move forward. To me this is shocking. The formulation of a non-Hamas professional technocratic government for Gaza is a Palestinian issue over which Israel should not be granted a veto. Israel should not be asked or consulted on this matter. Both Egypt and Qatar have the ability to work with Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and other independent Palestinian personalities in order to come up with a solution that enables the legitimate creation of a Palestinian government that can take Gaza forward into reconstruction. This is not a matter on which Israel should even have the right to decide. As long as Egypt and Qatar are satisfied that the new government in Gaza will not be Hamas and will not provoke new attacks against Israel, they should support it and enable the international community to begin to assist in the reconstruction of Gaza.
The President of the United States Biden has said that the war must end. US officials have said that President Biden wants the war to end by the end of his term in office on January 20, 2025. There are 75 days between Election Day and the day that the new President is sworn into office. That is sufficient time for the US to use its enormous leverage on Israel to even force Netanyahu to accept a deal – assuming that Hamas does not continue to control Gaza after the war ends. If Hamas is willing to release all of the hostages and to give up control over Gaza, then Biden needs to use the full weight of the Office of the President to even force the deal on Netanyahu. There are so many points of US leverage over Israel, I am not even referring to the doomsday leverage of withholding military support and weapons. There is leverage behind closed doors which can be very effective, but there is also the kind of leverage which is used openly and announced publicly and that has proven, in the past to be even more effective on changing Israeli public opinion.
Lastly, the Israeli public is very divided on the issue of ending the war. The division derives from the belief that Hamas will never release all of the hostages and that Hamas will never give up control over Gaza. This is clearly part of the narrative of the Israeli government and it has penetrated deeply into Israeli public opinion. But if it is turns out that Hamas is ready to release all of the hostages and that Hamas is prepared to give up control over Gaza, the overwhelming majority of Israelis would support the deal to end the war and to withdraw from Gaza. This is what must happen now to bring this war to an end, to return the hostages to Israel, to free Palestinian prisoners and to enable the millions in Gaza to begin the process of reconstruction.
About the AuthorThe writer is the Middle East Director of ICO - International Communities Organization - a UK based NGO working in Conflict zones with failed peace processes. Baskin is a political and social entrepreneur who has dedicated his life to peace between Israel and her neighbors. He is also a founding member of “Kol Ezraheiha - Kol Muwanteneiha” (All of the Citizens) political party in Israel. link
- The head of Mossad to the families of the hostages: "The chance of a small deal is low"
Families of the hostages met with the head of Mossad to receive an update on the progress of negotiations for their release. According to those present in the meeting, Barnea clarified that no response has yet been received from the mediators, and that Hamas insists on halting the fighting. A security official stated: "If the goal is to bring back the hostages, the operation in Gaza must be wrapped up."
In recent days, Mossad chief Dedi Barnea met with some of the hostages' families to update them on the progress of the negotiations. Despite the Israeli delegation's trip for another round of talks in Doha, the families left the meeting with Barnea disappointed after hearing from him that the chances for a deal appear low.
During the meeting, a relative of one of the hostages asked: "What is happening with the deal right now?" The Mossad chief replied, "We have not yet received a response from the mediators to either the Qatari or Egyptian proposals officially, so it is best to wait. At this moment, the chance of a small deal is low; Hamas insists on stopping the war."
The relative further asked about the possibility of halting the fighting, to which Barnea responded that the negotiation team does not have a mandate from the prime minister to move forward with a comprehensive deal and ending the war, and that from a security perspective, there are other strategies to handle the situation along the Philadelphi Route.
The consultation at the Prime Minister's Office and the security message
Yesterday, a limited consultation was held at Prime Minister Netanyahu's office with senior security officials and a team of ministers. The meeting included an update on the status of negotiations for a deal. The political leadership was informed that following another round of talks, an official response from Hamas to the Qatari proposal has yet to be received. However, the understanding in Israel is that Hamas does not intend to give up on its prior demands from July 2, including a commitment from Israel to stop the fighting and a full IDF withdrawal, even in a post-Sinwar era.
A senior security official estimates that this stance is unlikely to change. "It's time to face reality," the official said. "If the goal is to bring back the hostages, the operation in Gaza must be wrapped up and a framework must be established to ensure Israel’s security interests moving forward. This is possible."
The Qatari proposal for a deal
Five days ago, it was reported for the first time that Qatar had presented a new proposal for a deal between Israel and Hamas, which would see the release of 11 hostages, prioritizing living female hostages, in exchange for a one-month cessation of fighting in the Gaza Strip. This came amidst Qatar's clarification...
link. I have been saying for so long that the only way to bring the hostages home is with a deal that includes ending the war in Gaza. At this point, everyone knows that and the one person who is standing in the way and has always been standing in the way is no other than Benjamin Netanyahu. And I will repeat again the 3 reasons Netanyahu will not allow a deal to go through that includes ending the war, even though he knows that the hostages are dying and more soldiers are dying daily. #1 - his extreme messianic coalition partners, Smotrich and Ben Gvir have stated innnumeral times that they will leave the government if any deal that includes ending the war will be accepted. This means that the government would fall and there would be new elections. Netanyahu will do anything to maintain his coalition and remain prime minister and the costs don't matter to him, not to lives and not to the economy. #2 - an end of the war will almost definitely bring about an Official State Commision of Inquiry into everything that led up to October 4 and the management of the war since then, something that Netanyahu has been preventing for a year. Ne knows that he will be found fully responsible, culpable and to blame for much of what brought us to October 7 and for total mismanagement of the war. And an official commission could recommend criminal charges as well. Netanyahu wants there to only be a Knesset committee, one that he and his cronies will be able to manipulate and they will have a very limited mandate of inquiry and definitely will not have any mandate to recommend criminal charges or anything else that he doesn't want. #3 - Netanyahu has 3 criminal trials going on that, if found guilty, he could be sentenced to prison and then not be allowed to hold public office for 7 years or forever. One of the trials is set to resume in December but if the war is in still going on in full force, he will almost definitely get more delays. He is counting on this as his failed government is still trying to push through the judicial coup that they tried before the war which had 10 months of major demonstrations throughout the country against this coup where the government would basically be able to over rule the judicial system in just about every area. This judicial overhaul would also mean the end of Netanyahu's indictments. Every single reason for not ending the war is based on Netanyahu's personal and political interest and not the good of the nation or the lives of the hostages. And the most disgusting part is that his government is enabling all of this to happen because of their personal and political self interests as well. DISGRACEFUL!!!
Hostage Updates
- How To End the War in Gaza and Bring Home the Hostages - Gershon Baskin
The following are axioms:
• The war in Gaza will not end until all of the Israeli and foreign hostages are freed from Gaza.
• The war will not end as long as Hamas continues to rule Gaza.
• Hamas may be willing to give up civil governmental control over Gaza to a professional, non-partisan, technocratic government, but it will not voluntarily give up its weapons.
• The war will not end without a significant release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
• Hamas wants the war to end and for all Israeli forces to withdrawal from Gaza.
• Hamas will not end the war until all Israeli forces leave Gaza.
• The Sunni Arab states around Israel want a unified Palestinian government which is not Hamas to rule the West Bank and Gaza, but not the current Palestinian Authority leadership.
• Prime Minister Netanyahu does not want to end the war.I am in regular contact with the people responsible for negotiations in Israel, Egypt, Qatar, the United States and Hamas. I have 18 years of experience negotiating with Hamas. I believe that I am the Israeli citizen with the most hours of discussions with Hamas leaders, except perhaps Israeli prison guards and prison authorities and their discussions with Hamas people are entirely different than mine. From what I have been told by several Hamas leaders over the past two months I believe that Hamas’s primary goal now is to end the war in Gaza and for Israel to withdraw all of its troops from the Strip. Hamas will not make any agreement with Israel to release hostages held in Gaza without the end of the war and the Israeli withdrawal. Hamas will also demand a significant release of Palestinian prisoners from Israel, especially those serving life sentences for killing Israelis. Hamas is willing to have their control over Gaza transferred to a professional, technocratic Palestinian government which is not composed of members of the various political factions, including Hamas and Fatah. Although Hamas has stated that they are willing to turn over all aspects of government to the new non-Hamas government, including security and control of border passages, several Arab intelligence agencies have stated that they do not believe that Hamas will surrender their weapons to the new government.
Assuming that Hamas is willing for a new Palestinian government to be established, most of the Arab states involved, along with the United States would like to see a reunification of Palestinian government, with one authority governing both the West Bank and Gaza. All parties concerned do not see the viability of the current Palestinian Authority, including its latest Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa as having the legitimacy in the eyes of the Palestinian street, in the West Bank and Gaza in order to actually govern Gaza post-Hamas. Most of the parties involved would like to see President Mahmoud Abbas appointing a new Prime Minister with much greater independence than Mr. Mustafa has and that the new Prime Minister be granted by Abbas the real powers to govern. Mr. Abbas would remain President, but he would be more ceremonial than what he is today which is in charge of executive, legislative, judicial powers as well as controlling the money and the security. The newly appointed Prime Minister should be granted the powers to independently appoint a governing council for Gaza (at least) with real executive powers and the ability to invite an Arab-led international peace keeping force to Gaza. If President Abbas refuses to give up power and to appoint a truly independent Prime Minister, then the Arab states, the US and the EU should pressure Abbas to at least appoint a head for a Gaza governing council that would be independent to establish the non-partisan technocrat professional governing council. According to the leaders and people involved in negotiations, Prime Minister Netanyahu has no plan for post Hamas Gaza and has voiced opposition to every plan put forward by the Arab mediators and by the United States.
Hamas has agreed that in a deal to end the war and for Israel to withdraw all of its forces from Gaza, it is willing to release all of the hostages held in Gaza. Hamas has said that they require 3-5 days of full ceasefire including no Israeli fly-overs to locate all of the hostages and to know what is their condition. Hamas claims that they do not have that information now, and I believe them. They don’t have freedom and ability to move around Gaza and their chain of command is quite broken and destroyed. There are hostages that might be held by non-Hamas groups, such as Islamic Jihad or the Popular Front. There might be hostages being held by non-affiliated civilians. There are also likely to be hostages who are buried underneath the rubble of buildings bombed by Israel along with thousands of Gazans who status is “missing”. It may be that all 101 hostages held in Gaza cannot be returned. When a deal is made, the first test of Hamas’s ability to implement the deal will have to be to produce a list of all of the hostages and their status and that list needs to be given to the Qatari and Egyptian mediators. It will be difficult for Hamas to lie to the mediators and therefore, the list that they produce will be as accurate as possible.
Israel has legitimate security concerns regarding leaving Gaza. Even if a new Palestinian non-Hamas government is established, as I have heard in Egypt and in Qatar, Hamas will not turn over their weapons to the new government. Turning Gaza into a non-militarized zone is a process that will take time. First, Israel (and Egypt) must agree that any Hamas civilian or military personnel that want to leave Gaza to a third country that would accept them, should be granted safe passage out of Gaza – most likely through Egypt. The Hamas or Islamic military people that would choose to leave, would do so, of course without their weapons. The new government in Gaza will form a professional security force. Hamas police and other security or military personnel remaining in Gaza should be encouraged to join the new security force with the enticement of receiving double the salary that they were receiving before. The new Palestinian non-Hamas government would have to be committed to a non-aggression policy towards Israel, otherwise it will not be supported by the Arab countries (Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and maybe others) and will receive no funding from these countries or from the USA or the EU or other donor nations. Even if the majority of remaining Hamas military people join the new governing security force, or leave Gaza, there will remain more radical armed militants willing to continue their attacks against Israel. This will be a challenge for Israel, for the Palestinian government in Gaza and for the Arab-led international peace keeping force, but it is not a reason for Israel to not withdraw from Gaza. In fact, the longer Israeli forces remain in Gaza, the longer the war will continue, more Israeli soldiers will be killed and armed insurgency will be supported by the general Palestinian public in Gaza, of whom today a large majority simply want the war to end. Israel will not be facing the Russian army and the forces that remain in Gaza have little access to more weapons, no ability to produce new weapons and severely damaged military command and control capabilities. Israel forces need to be deployed on the Israeli-Gaza border so that there is a zero chance of another attack such as October 7. Egypt needs to continue to guarantee that the Egypt-Gaza border will be sealed and that the legal crossing point at Rafah will be controlled against smuggling by Egypt from the Egyptian side on the Gaza side, it is advisable that international observers be stationed there, perhaps from the Arab-led international peacekeeping force.
The economic blockade on Gaza must come to an end and Gazans must be reintegrated into the world with the right for movement and access, just like any other people in the world. The continuation of the economic blockade on Gaza cannot be justified in anyway. Obviously, security systems need to be put in place to ensure the safe passage of people and goods in and out of Gaza.
Israel will have to release Palestinian prisoners in order for Hamas to agree to release hostages in Gaza. This is the price to be paid to retrieve the hostages. Before October 7, 2023 there were 559 Palestinian prisoners serving life-sentences for killing Israelis. Some of them are serving multiple life-sentences for killing many Israelis. Some of these prisoners are considered the symbols of Palestinian terrorism by Israel and these will be the most difficult for Israel to release. As such, they will be the prisoners that Hamas is most anxious to release. Israel will probably not have a choice and Hamas will not agree to an Israeli veto on the names of Palestinian prisoners. One solution might be for the most dangerous (as considered by Israel) of the prisoners to be granted safe passage to a third country (perhaps Algeria, Turkey, Iran, maybe some others). They would not be allowed to return to Palestine according to the agreement. This was done partially in the Schalit deal of 2011. My advice to the Israeli side would be to allow all other West Bank prisoners to return to their homes in the West Bank. All prisoners released have historically been required to sign an undertaking that they will not return to acts of violence against Israel. The main reason for this document to be used is that it provides the legal pretext for re-arresting those who violate the terms of their release, as was done in 2014 when 68 prisoners released in 2011 were re-arrested by Israel. By allowing them to remain in the West Bank there is greater ability for Israel to monitor them and to re-arrest them if need be.
The end of the war in Gaza needs to be the beginning of a genuine new regional based peace process to enable the Palestinian people to establish their own independent state next to Israel in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967. I won’t go into the contours of what that peace should be. I will only state that this war in Gaza must be the last Israeli-Palestinian war, but if the occupation over the Palestinian people continues, it will not be the last Israeli-Palestinian war.
Almost everything that I have written above is opposed to by Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu. I have heard from very senior sources in Qatar, Egypt, the EU and the United States that the primary obstacle to ending the war today is Prime Minister Netanyahu. In all honesty, the United States is also opposed to ending the war as long as Hamas continue to control Gaza. But there is a way out. What I have heard from Qatar, Egypt and the USA is that with Netanyahu’s refusal to agree to any possible day-after scenario for Gaza, the mediators are stuck and don’t know how to move forward. To me this is shocking. The formulation of a non-Hamas professional technocratic government for Gaza is a Palestinian issue over which Israel should not be granted a veto. Israel should not be asked or consulted on this matter. Both Egypt and Qatar have the ability to work with Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and other independent Palestinian personalities in order to come up with a solution that enables the legitimate creation of a Palestinian government that can take Gaza forward into reconstruction. This is not a matter on which Israel should even have the right to decide. As long as Egypt and Qatar are satisfied that the new government in Gaza will not be Hamas and will not provoke new attacks against Israel, they should support it and enable the international community to begin to assist in the reconstruction of Gaza.
The President of the United States Biden has said that the war must end. US officials have said that President Biden wants the war to end by the end of his term in office on January 20, 2025. There are 75 days between Election Day and the day that the new President is sworn into office. That is sufficient time for the US to use its enormous leverage on Israel to even force Netanyahu to accept a deal – assuming that Hamas does not continue to control Gaza after the war ends. If Hamas is willing to release all of the hostages and to give up control over Gaza, then Biden needs to use the full weight of the Office of the President to even force the deal on Netanyahu. There are so many points of US leverage over Israel, I am not even referring to the doomsday leverage of withholding military support and weapons. There is leverage behind closed doors which can be very effective, but there is also the kind of leverage which is used openly and announced publicly and that has proven, in the past to be even more effective on changing Israeli public opinion.
Lastly, the Israeli public is very divided on the issue of ending the war. The division derives from the belief that Hamas will never release all of the hostages and that Hamas will never give up control over Gaza. This is clearly part of the narrative of the Israeli government and it has penetrated deeply into Israeli public opinion. But if it is turns out that Hamas is ready to release all of the hostages and that Hamas is prepared to give up control over Gaza, the overwhelming majority of Israelis would support the deal to end the war and to withdraw from Gaza. This is what must happen now to bring this war to an end, to return the hostages to Israel, to free Palestinian prisoners and to enable the millions in Gaza to begin the process of reconstruction.
About the AuthorThe writer is the Middle East Director of ICO - International Communities Organization - a UK based NGO working in Conflict zones with failed peace processes. Baskin is a political and social entrepreneur who has dedicated his life to peace between Israel and her neighbors. He is also a founding member of “Kol Ezraheiha - Kol Muwanteneiha” (All of the Citizens) political party in Israel. link
- The head of Mossad to the families of the hostages: "The chance of a small deal is low"
Families of the hostages met with the head of Mossad to receive an update on the progress of negotiations for their release. According to those present in the meeting, Barnea clarified that no response has yet been received from the mediators, and that Hamas insists on halting the fighting. A security official stated: "If the goal is to bring back the hostages, the operation in Gaza must be wrapped up."
In recent days, Mossad chief Dedi Barnea met with some of the hostages' families to update them on the progress of the negotiations. Despite the Israeli delegation's trip for another round of talks in Doha, the families left the meeting with Barnea disappointed after hearing from him that the chances for a deal appear low.
During the meeting, a relative of one of the hostages asked: "What is happening with the deal right now?" The Mossad chief replied, "We have not yet received a response from the mediators to either the Qatari or Egyptian proposals officially, so it is best to wait. At this moment, the chance of a small deal is low; Hamas insists on stopping the war."
The relative further asked about the possibility of halting the fighting, to which Barnea responded that the negotiation team does not have a mandate from the prime minister to move forward with a comprehensive deal and ending the war, and that from a security perspective, there are other strategies to handle the situation along the Philadelphi Route.
The consultation at the Prime Minister's Office and the security message
Yesterday, a limited consultation was held at Prime Minister Netanyahu's office with senior security officials and a team of ministers. The meeting included an update on the status of negotiations for a deal. The political leadership was informed that following another round of talks, an official response from Hamas to the Qatari proposal has yet to be received. However, the understanding in Israel is that Hamas does not intend to give up on its prior demands from July 2, including a commitment from Israel to stop the fighting and a full IDF withdrawal, even in a post-Sinwar era.
A senior security official estimates that this stance is unlikely to change. "It's time to face reality," the official said. "If the goal is to bring back the hostages, the operation in Gaza must be wrapped up and a framework must be established to ensure Israel’s security interests moving forward. This is possible."
The Qatari proposal for a deal
Five days ago, it was reported for the first time that Qatar had presented a new proposal for a deal between Israel and Hamas, which would see the release of 11 hostages, prioritizing living female hostages, in exchange for a one-month cessation of fighting in the Gaza Strip. This came amidst Qatar's clarification...
link. I have been saying for so long that the only way to bring the hostages home is with a deal that includes ending the war in Gaza. At this point, everyone knows that and the one person who is standing in the way and has always been standing in the way is no other than Benjamin Netanyahu. And I will repeat again the 3 reasons Netanyahu will not allow a deal to go through that includes ending the war, even though he knows that the hostages are dying and more soldiers are dying daily. #1 - his extreme messianic coalition partners, Smotrich and Ben Gvir have stated innnumeral times that they will leave the government if any deal that includes ending the war will be accepted. This means that the government would fall and there would be new elections. Netanyahu will do anything to maintain his coalition and remain prime minister and the costs don't matter to him, not to lives and not to the economy. #2 - an end of the war will almost definitely bring about an Official State Commision of Inquiry into everything that led up to October 4 and the management of the war since then, something that Netanyahu has been preventing for a year. Ne knows that he will be found fully responsible, culpable and to blame for much of what brought us to October 7 and for total mismanagement of the war. And an official commission could recommend criminal charges as well. Netanyahu wants there to only be a Knesset committee, one that he and his cronies will be able to manipulate and they will have a very limited mandate of inquiry and definitely will not have any mandate to recommend criminal charges or anything else that he doesn't want. #3 - Netanyahu has 3 criminal trials going on that, if found guilty, he could be sentenced to prison and then not be allowed to hold public office for 7 years or forever. One of the trials is set to resume in December but if the war is in still going on in full force, he will almost definitely get more delays. He is counting on this as his failed government is still trying to push through the judicial coup that they tried before the war which had 10 months of major demonstrations throughout the country against this coup where the government would basically be able to over rule the judicial system in just about every area. This judicial overhaul would also mean the end of Netanyahu's indictments. Every single reason for not ending the war is based on Netanyahu's personal and political interest and not the good of the nation or the lives of the hostages. And the most disgusting part is that his government is enabling all of this to happen because of their personal and political self interests as well. DISGRACEFUL!!!
Gaza and the South
- Hamas, Fatah said to agree to set up technocratic administration for postwar Gaza governanceA round of talks between Hamas and Fatah officials in Cairo has yielded an agreement to establish a technocratic committee composed of independent Palestinian figures to manage the Gaza Strip after the ongoing war, according to an unnamed Hamas source quoted by the Qatari-owned paper Al-Araby al-Jadeed.
The talks were part of Egypt’s broader mediation efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and terror group Hamas and to expand humanitarian access to the enclave.
According to the Qatari paper, the Hamas delegation presented a detailed work plan for the technocratic committee, while the Fatah delegation requested a discussion of its central management, which will reportedly be done in follow-up meetings.
Today, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to sit down with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo to discuss ways to end the war in Gaza and the future Palestinian governance. A Hamas delegation led by top official Khalil al-Hayya reportedly met with the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate yesterday but did not achieve any progress on a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
Al-Araby al-Jadeed writes that the Hamas delegation included new officials who had never participated in such talks before, in order to create “new opportunities for future discussions.” The terror movement’s main demand was for Egypt to exert pressure on Israel to stop ongoing military operations in the northern Gaza Strip, the paper reports.
- IDF: Bomb planted by terror operatives exploded near Gaza aid convoy, wounding 6 kids
Palestinians walk amid the devastation in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 3, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
The IDF says an explosive device planted by terror operatives exploded near a humanitarian aid convoy in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday, wounding six children at a nearby hospital.
According to the IDF, the convoy was enabling the evacuation of patients and staff from the Kamal Adwan and al-Awda hospitals to other hospitals in northern Gaza. It was also bringing humanitarian aid to the hospitals.
“As the convoy passed by the Kamal Adwan Hospital, a report was received from the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding the detonation of an explosive device, only a few hundred meters away from the hospital. As a result of the explosion, the convoy was hit by shrapnel,” the IDF says.
There were no injuries among the convoy’s personnel, but the IDF says that “following an assessment by COGAT with hospital officials, six children in the hospital were injured by the explosion.”
Damage was also caused to the roof and courtyard of the hospital by the blast, according to the military.
“The terrorist organizations continue to exploit civilian infrastructure, medical facilities and international aid organizations for their terror activities,” the IDF says.
“The IDF and COGAT will continue to operate in accordance with international law to transfer humanitarian and medical aid to the Gaza Strip,” it adds.
- IDF says it killed PIJ operative who took part in Kfar Aza massacre on Oct. 7An Israeli airstrike has taken out a Palestinian Islamic Jihad military intelligence official who took part in the October 7, 2023, massacre in the Israeli community of Kfar Aza, the IDF says.
The military says Ahmed Al-Dalu has additionally been involved in the planning and carrying out of terror actions against Israeli citizens throughout the war.
He was killed in an Air Force strike along with another terror operative, the army says.
Meanwhile, the 162nd and 252nd divisions are continuing to operate throughout the Strip and have killed many terror operatives in close-quarters combat and by directing airstrikes, the IDF says, adding that forces have also destroyed terror infrastructure.
Troops from the Nahal Brigade are operating in Rafah in Gaza’s south and eliminating many operatives, the army adds. In the past day, they directed an airstrike on a terror cell that was hiding in a military building housing mines meant to harm Israeli soldiers. The strike killed the cell and destroyed the mines.
Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria
Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria
- IDF commandos raid Syria, seize Syrian-national IRGC operativeAl-Assi has been under IDF surveillance for some time and was detained and transferred for interrogation in Israel.
The IDF raided Southern Syria several months ago and captured a Syrian national who is believed to have operated Iranian terror networks from the area, the military announced on Sunday.
Ali Soleiman al-Assi, a Syrian citizen, lives in the area of Saida in southern Syria.
His work included gathering intelligence on IDF troops in the border area for future terror activity of the network.
He has been under surveillance by the IDF for some time and was detained and transferred for interrogation in Israel.
The IDF said that the raid had directly prevented future attacks and exposed an Iranian terror network operating out of Syria.
IDF raids continue
This update comes only a few days after the IDF raided Lebanon to capture a Hezbollah commander, Emad Fadel Amhaz.
During that raid, members of Israel's elite Shayetet 13 commando unit entered an apartment building where Amhaz was staying.
The operation took four minutes and occurred in the northern Lebanese city of Batroun, about 140 kilometers from the Israeli border. video with english subtitles of interrogation
Wearing Lebanese uniforms, some 20 Israeli commandos took part in Friday raid – report
Hezbollah-affiliated media says special forces were likely in area for reconnaissance before nabbing alleged terror operative, reiterates claim German Navy coordinated with Israel
New alleged details emerged on Sunday about an Israeli naval raid in northern Lebanon in which commandos captured a Hezbollah operative over the weekend, in a report by a publication affiliated with the Iran-backed terror group.
According to the Al-Akhbar report, operatives from the Navy’s Shayetet 13 commando unit were disguised as Lebanese security forces during the unusual raid in Batroun, south of Tripoli, some 140 kilometers (87 miles) north of Israel’s maritime border with Lebanon.
While the Israeli military has attacked northern Lebanon via airstrikes, its ground forces have been operating only in the country’s south.
New alleged details emerged on Sunday about an Israeli naval raid in northern Lebanon in which commandos captured a Hezbollah operative over the weekend, in a report by a publication affiliated with the Iran-backed terror group.
According to the Al-Akhbar report, operatives from the Navy’s Shayetet 13 commando unit were disguised as Lebanese security forces during the unusual raid in Batroun, south of Tripoli, some 140 kilometers (87 miles) north of Israel’s maritime border with Lebanon.
While the Israeli military has attacked northern Lebanon via airstrikes, its ground forces have been operating only in the country’s southThe late Friday raid lasted a mere four minutes and involved some 20 operatives, along with several unidentified civilians, the report said, adding that some Israeli special forces had likely been in the area for reconnaissance and surveillance before the operation.
While surveillance footage from a nearby building apparently captured part of the Israeli commando raid, Al-Akhbar reported that recordings were deleted from the residential building from which the Hezbollah operative, Imad Amhaz, was captured.
The report also said that Lebanese investigators believe a young man riding a bicycle seen in the widely circulated footage of the operation was part of the Israeli commando unit.
The Hezbollah-affiliated outlet cast doubt on the Israel Defense Forces’ assertion that Amhaz is a “significant source of knowledge” in the terror group’s naval force.
The IDF said Amhaz was taken to Israel to be questioned by the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504 — which specializes in HUMINT, or human intelligence — on Hezbollah’s naval operations.
Imad Amhaz, a Hezbollah official captured by Israeli naval commandos on November 1, 2024. (Social media)The Al-Akhbar report on Sunday also reiterated earlier accusations in Lebanese media that the German Navy operating within UN peacekeeping forces in the area had assisted with the Israeli raid.
UNIFIL, the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, denied involvement in the operation, with an unnamed deputy spokesperson telling the Saudi channel Asharq News on Saturday that the organization “has no involvement in facilitating any kidnapping or any other violation of Lebanese sovereignty.”
The Friday raid came as Israel pressed on with its military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The operation aims to allow the fade return of some 60,000 displaced residents of northern Israel who were evacuated from their homes near the Lebanon border shortly after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, amid fears Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack and persistent rocket fire by the terror group.
After warning for nearly a year that it would not tolerate the ongoing attacks, Israel launched a major operation against Hezbollah in September, eliminating much of its leadership and crippling some of its fighting capabilities.
In October, it launched a ground offensive in Lebanon’s south to clear the border area of terror infrastructure it said was to be used in an October 7-style attack on northern communities. link
The IDF raided Southern Syria several months ago and captured a Syrian national who is believed to have operated Iranian terror networks from the area, the military announced on Sunday.
Ali Soleiman al-Assi, a Syrian citizen, lives in the area of Saida in southern Syria.
His work included gathering intelligence on IDF troops in the border area for future terror activity of the network.
He has been under surveillance by the IDF for some time and was detained and transferred for interrogation in Israel.
The IDF said that the raid had directly prevented future attacks and exposed an Iranian terror network operating out of Syria.
IDF raids continue
This update comes only a few days after the IDF raided Lebanon to capture a Hezbollah commander, Emad Fadel Amhaz.
The operation took four minutes and occurred in the northern Lebanese city of Batroun, about 140 kilometers from the Israeli border. video with english subtitles of interrogation
Wearing Lebanese uniforms, some 20 Israeli commandos took part in Friday raid – report
Hezbollah-affiliated media says special forces were likely in area for reconnaissance before nabbing alleged terror operative, reiterates claim German Navy coordinated with Israel
New alleged details emerged on Sunday about an Israeli naval raid in northern Lebanon in which commandos captured a Hezbollah operative over the weekend, in a report by a publication affiliated with the Iran-backed terror group.
According to the Al-Akhbar report, operatives from the Navy’s Shayetet 13 commando unit were disguised as Lebanese security forces during the unusual raid in Batroun, south of Tripoli, some 140 kilometers (87 miles) north of Israel’s maritime border with Lebanon.
While the Israeli military has attacked northern Lebanon via airstrikes, its ground forces have been operating only in the country’s south.
New alleged details emerged on Sunday about an Israeli naval raid in northern Lebanon in which commandos captured a Hezbollah operative over the weekend, in a report by a publication affiliated with the Iran-backed terror group.
According to the Al-Akhbar report, operatives from the Navy’s Shayetet 13 commando unit were disguised as Lebanese security forces during the unusual raid in Batroun, south of Tripoli, some 140 kilometers (87 miles) north of Israel’s maritime border with Lebanon.
While the Israeli military has attacked northern Lebanon via airstrikes, its ground forces have been operating only in the country’s southThe late Friday raid lasted a mere four minutes and involved some 20 operatives, along with several unidentified civilians, the report said, adding that some Israeli special forces had likely been in the area for reconnaissance and surveillance before the operation.
While surveillance footage from a nearby building apparently captured part of the Israeli commando raid, Al-Akhbar reported that recordings were deleted from the residential building from which the Hezbollah operative, Imad Amhaz, was captured.
The report also said that Lebanese investigators believe a young man riding a bicycle seen in the widely circulated footage of the operation was part of the Israeli commando unit.
The Hezbollah-affiliated outlet cast doubt on the Israel Defense Forces’ assertion that Amhaz is a “significant source of knowledge” in the terror group’s naval force.
The IDF said Amhaz was taken to Israel to be questioned by the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504 — which specializes in HUMINT, or human intelligence — on Hezbollah’s naval operations.
Imad Amhaz, a Hezbollah official captured by Israeli naval commandos on November 1, 2024. (Social media)
The Al-Akhbar report on Sunday also reiterated earlier accusations in Lebanese media that the German Navy operating within UN peacekeeping forces in the area had assisted with the Israeli raid.
UNIFIL, the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, denied involvement in the operation, with an unnamed deputy spokesperson telling the Saudi channel Asharq News on Saturday that the organization “has no involvement in facilitating any kidnapping or any other violation of Lebanese sovereignty.”
The Friday raid came as Israel pressed on with its military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The operation aims to allow the fade return of some 60,000 displaced residents of northern Israel who were evacuated from their homes near the Lebanon border shortly after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, amid fears Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack and persistent rocket fire by the terror group.
After warning for nearly a year that it would not tolerate the ongoing attacks, Israel launched a major operation against Hezbollah in September, eliminating much of its leadership and crippling some of its fighting capabilities.
In October, it launched a ground offensive in Lebanon’s south to clear the border area of terror infrastructure it said was to be used in an October 7-style attack on northern communities. link
The IDF releases footage of a Hezbollah tunnel recently located and demolished by troops in southern Lebanon.
The military says combat engineers with the 188th Armored Brigade are operating in forested areas close to the border, where Hezbollah constructed infrastructure that was slated to have been used in a planned invasion of Israel.
The troops have also located weapon bunkers hidden in the forested areas, the IDF adds.
- IDF says it killed 2 Hezbollah commanders, including chief of elite anti-tank missile unit
Two Hezbollah commanders, including a member of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force, were killed in recent airstrikes in southern Lebanon, the IDF says.
A strike carried out by fighter jets in as-Sultaniyah killed Riyad Reda Ghazzawi, whom the IDF identifies as a commander in the Radwan Force’s anti-tank missile unit.
The IDF says he was behind numerous anti-tank attacks on Israel and troops operating in southern Lebanon.
Additional strikes targeted several buildings in Safad al-Battikh where the IDF says Hezbollah members were operating.
The IDF says that a commander at Hezbollah’s headquarters was killed in the strikes. He was responsible for transferring weapons to Hezbollah cells, as well as recruitment, according to the military. video of airstrike
Israeli Air Force jets have struck and killed Abu Ali Rida, the Hezbollah commander of the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon, the IDF says, adding that he was responsible for planning and carrying out rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on IDF troops and commanded terror activities by Hezbollah operatives in that area.
Forces from the 91st Division are continuing to destroy terror infrastructure and confront terror operatives in southern Lebanon, the military adds.
It says that in the past day, forces from the 228th Brigade spotted a gunman in a building near the border with Israel, and opened fire at the building. Aftershocks were then observed.
The IDF releases footage of a Hezbollah tunnel recently located and demolished by troops in southern Lebanon.
The military says combat engineers with the 188th Armored Brigade are operating in forested areas close to the border, where Hezbollah constructed infrastructure that was slated to have been used in a planned invasion of Israel.
The troops have also located weapon bunkers hidden in the forested areas, the IDF adds.
Israeli Air Force jets have struck and killed Abu Ali Rida, the Hezbollah commander of the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon, the IDF says, adding that he was responsible for planning and carrying out rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on IDF troops and commanded terror activities by Hezbollah operatives in that area.
Forces from the 91st Division are continuing to destroy terror infrastructure and confront terror operatives in southern Lebanon, the military adds.
It says that in the past day, forces from the 228th Brigade spotted a gunman in a building near the border with Israel, and opened fire at the building. Aftershocks were then observed.
West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel
- Israel Police open probe after vehicles allegedly torched by settlers in West Bank city After Palestinian media reported that settlers allegedly torched some 15 vehicles in the West Bank city of Al-Bireh overnight, the Israel Police says an investigation has been opened. Investigators have started gathering evidence and other findings at the scene, police say. video of the burning cars. Interesting how it is allegedly after seeing this video.
- Report: Israelis injured by rock-throwing had tried to torch Palestinian olive trees
A security source quoted by Army Radio says two Israelis injured by rock throwing in the West Bank, north of Jerusalem, had arrived with a group to the Palestinian town of Burka in an attempt to burn olive trees.
According to the report, Palestinians at the scene threw the rocks, lightly injuring the two.
Syrian media reports explosions heard in the Damascus area amid an alleged Israeli airstrike.
The pro-government Sham FM radio says that the strikes apparently targeted the Sayyidah Zaynab area on the outskirts of Damascus.
There is no immediate word on causalities or damage.
A security source quoted by Army Radio says two Israelis injured by rock throwing in the West Bank, north of Jerusalem, had arrived with a group to the Palestinian town of Burka in an attempt to burn olive trees.
According to the report, Palestinians at the scene threw the rocks, lightly injuring the two.
Syrian media reports explosions heard in the Damascus area amid an alleged Israeli airstrike.
The pro-government Sham FM radio says that the strikes apparently targeted the Sayyidah Zaynab area on the outskirts of Damascus.
There is no immediate word on causalities or damage.
Politics and the War (general news)
- Netanyahu in fresh storm over Gaza hostages after arrests linked to alleged leak
Court says arrests followed investigation into suspected breach of national security that had ‘harmed Israeli war aims’
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is at the centre of a new political storm related to a hostage deal in the Gaza war after the arrest of several people in connection with an alleged leak of classified documents from his office.
An Israeli court announced the arrests on Friday afternoon, before the beginning of Shabbat, saying that a joint investigation by the police, internal security services and the army suspected a “breach of national security caused by the unlawful provision of classified information”, which had also “harmed the achievement of Israel’s war aims”.
One of those arrested is believed to be spokesperson for the prime minister.
While most details are still subject to a partial gag order, Israeli media has reported that the war aim in question is the release of the 101 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas. The suspects are alleged to have selectively leaked Hamas strategy documents found by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza, and manipulated or edited the material to make it seem as though the Palestinian militant group sought to smuggle hostages to Egypt, and then to Iran or Yemen.
In September, Netanyahu made this claim in interviews and news conferences in support of a fresh demand he had made in ceasefire and hostage release deal talks: the need for Israeli troops to remain on the Gaza-Egypt border. The demand was rejected by Hamas on the grounds it was not part of the terms both sides had already conditionally accepted, and was a major reason that months of negotiations failed.
Netanyahu has been accused repeatedly of stalling on a deal in order to avoid the collapse of his coalition government. Anything short of a total victory over Hamas is anathema to his far-right allies, and he is believed to see staying in office as the best way of avoiding prosecution in fraud, bribery and breach of trust cases filed in 2019. He denies any wrongdoing.
Shortly after the Israeli leader first mentioned the supposed Hamas plan, reports apparently based on the same doctored material appeared in the British outlet The Jewish Chronicle and the German tabloid Bild, which were picked up widely by the Israeli media.
Worried that the articles’ publication would jeopardise intelligence-gathering efforts in Gaza, the Israeli army launched an investigation into the leak, announcing that it was “unaware of any such document existing”. The Jewish Chronicle later retracted the story and fired the journalist who wrote it.
The prime minister’s office on Friday said no one who worked for Netanyahu has been questioned or detained, but on Saturday did not deny that the leak may have originated from his office. Dozens of other leaks related to ceasefire and hostage release negotiations have appeared in media reports, it pointed out, without triggering investigations.
The charges are understood to be related to the leaking of classified documents, negligence in handling the material, and using it to influence public opinion, as well as the improper hiring of an adviser without adequate security clearance.
News of the arrests has been met with fury by the prime minister’s detractors in the bitterly politically divided country. On Saturday night, thousands of people across Israel joined what are now weekly demonstrations in favour of a deal.
The opposition leader, Yair Lapid, wrote on X: “We have tough enemies abroad, but the danger from within and at the most sensitive decision-making centres shakes the foundations of the confidence of the citizens of Israel in the prosecution of the war, and in handling the most sensitive and explosive security issues.” link There is very little doubt that, not only did Netanyahu know about what happened, but is very likely that the instructions/orders to do so came indirectly from Netanayahu or his wife (yes, his wife; she has a lot of power in that office). The fact that it would have come indirectly is for Netanyahu to maintain plausible deniability, which is something that he is a professional about. It is exactly for this reason that so many statements come out from unnamed 'officials' which always means it is coming from Netanyahu but he can deny that it did.
An IDF officer has been arrested as part of the investigation into leaked classified documents from the Prime Minister’s Office, according to Hebrew media reports, bringing the total number of suspects in the case to five.
The leaked documents were said to have been written by the Hamas terror group and to have formed the basis of a widely discredited article in the London-based Jewish Chronicle — which was later withdrawn — suggesting Hamas had planned to spirit hostages out of Gaza through Egypt; as well as an article in Germany’s Bild newspaper that said Hamas was drawing out hostage talks as a form of psychological warfare on Israel.
The leaked material was not found by IDF forces in Gaza, according to the Kan public broadcaster, but was uncovered through “another type of intelligence.” The case is being taken so seriously by prosecutors in part because it risks revealing to Hamas key intelligence-collection methods.
- A Haredi-backed bill aimed at preserving daycare subsidies for members of the ultra-Orthodox community is approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation and is expected to go to the Knesset plenum for a preliminary vote on Wednesday, announces a spokesman for United Torah Judaism MK Yisrael Eichler, the legislation’s sponsor.
The controversial legislation passes the cabinet-level body despite opposition from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, which earlier today stated that it would not back the bill unless it also enshrines preferential treatment for the families of IDF reservists.
The bill aims to guarantee that the children of ultra-Orthodox men who are obligated to perform military service but have not done so will continue to be eligible for taxpayer-supported daycare subsidies.
Previously the law allowed families in which a mother works and a father studies full time in yeshiva in lieu of military service to receive the subsidies, worth thousands of shekels a month.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara recently declared the arrangement illegal after the High Court of Justice ruled in June that ultra-Orthodox men are obligated to serve in the IDF and that financial support for such students was also illegal by extension.
Addressing the bill ahead of today’s vote, Baharav-Miara’s office described it as “unconstitutional,” arguing that “the principle of equality will be harmed through state and institutional encouragement of avoiding conscription into the IDF.”
Responding to the bill’s approval by the government, the opposition Yesh Atid party states that “the names of the members of the ministerial committee who approved the law for financing mass evasion during a difficult and painful war will forever be a symbol of betrayal and a knife in the back of the middle class, the reservists, the IDF’s wounded and the memory of the fallen.” link. Netanyahu
Members of the Ministerial Committee on Legislation who voted in favor of the “‘evasion financing law” have dealt a fatal blow to the IDF soldiers and reservists today,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declares, following the committee’s approval of the so-called Daycare Law.
“This is an irreparable betrayal of our hundreds of dead and thousands of wounded fighters. Is their blood cheap?” he tweets. “The humiliating law must not get a majority in the Knesset.”
Lapid’s outrage is echoed by former religious services minister Matan Kahana (National Unity), who calls the bill “a slap in the face of the reservists.”
“The meaning of this law is the whitewashing and budgeting of evasion,” he says. “If any of the Zionist ministers have even an iota of care left for those who serve, let them immediately file an appeal with the government secretariat and stop the progress of this humiliating law.”
PM spokesman Eli Feldstein suspected of leaking intel that could have hurt hostage efforts
Former Ben Gvir aide and IDF spokesperson reportedly worked closely with Prime Minister’s Office despite failing security clearance; identities of 3 other suspects still under wraps
A court partially lifted a gag order Sunday on a case surrounding suspected leaks of classified information by an associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, unsealing the name of the central suspect and several other details.
Eli Feldstein, a spokesperson working with the Prime Minister’s Office, is accused of divulging top-secret information with national security implications to European media outlets, according to a ruling published Sunday evening by Rishon Lezion Magistrate Court head Menahem Mizrahi.
The names of three other suspects remain gagged by the court, but it confirmed that they were connected to the defense establishment. “The investigation began after significant suspicions arose in the Shin Bet and IDF — including as a result of media publications — that secret and sensitive intelligence information was taken from the IDF and removed illegally, sparking concerns of serious harm to national security and a danger to the sources of the information,” the court noted. “As a result, damage could have been done to the ability of defense bodies to achieve the goal of freeing the hostages [held in Gaza].”
In recent days Netanyahu had sought to distance himself from the case, claimed no one from his office was arrested or was under investigation, and pushing back against critics who claimed the leaks had been politically expedient for him. The premier had downplayed the affair and had publicly called for the gag order to be lifted. According to multiple outlets, however, Feldstein had functioned as a PMO employee in all but name over the past year, and was frequently in the premier’s close orbit. He is seen beside Netanyahu in various photos over the past year. Kan news reported that Feldstein was technically working for the PMO’s director-general and not the office itself due to failing a polygraph test, which made him ineligible for the security clearance required to work at the PMO, but was in close contact with the premier regardless.
The leaked documents are said to have formed the basis of a widely discredited article in the London-based Jewish Chronicle — which was later withdrawn — suggesting Hamas had planned to spirit hostages out of Gaza through Egypt; as well as an article in Germany’s Bild newspaper that said Hamas was drawing out hostage talks as a form of psychological warfare on Israel.
Israeli media and other observers expressed skepticism about those articles, which appeared to serve Netanyahu’s demands in the talks and to absolve him of blame for their failure. The pair of reports regarding Hamas’s strategy were nearly identical to talking points made by Netanyahu in interviews, statements at cabinet meetings and press conferences shortly before and after the articles appeared in early September, including a claim that Sinwar sought to smuggle Israeli hostages out of Gaza through the Philadelphi Corridor which separates the Strip from Egypt.
The case first became public on Friday, four days after Feldstein was arrested in an early morning police raid. He was remanded in custody until Tuesday at least, when another hearing is scheduled.
Ynet reported that investigators are examining four separate issues in the case: the leaking of top-secret documents; allowing an adviser without security clearance to access meetings and premises that should have been off-limits to him; negligence in the handling of classified documents; and the use of documents to influence public opinion on a hostage deal.
Some of the suspects in the ongoing investigation could face up to 15 years in prison, Ynet said, citing an official familiar with the details.
Who is Feldstein
Feldstein, 32, had been an officer in the military’s spokesperson unit, serving as spokesman for the religious Netzah Yehuda battalion and for the army’s West Bank Division. He was at one point an operations officer within the IDF Spokesman’s unit, winning plaudits as the first Orthodox person in the role, according to the Ynet news site. Following his discharge from the military, the Bnei Brak native briefly worked as a spokesperson for Otzma Yehudit head Itamar Ben Gvir, who is now national security minister.
On Saturday, the PMO did not deny allegations that a document was leaked from Netanyahu’s office, but sought to distance the premier himself from the episode. It claimed that the spokesperson “never participated in security discussions, was not exposed to or receive classified information, and did not take part in secret visits.” “The published document never came to the Prime Minister’s Office from the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate, and the prime minister learned about it from the media,” the PMO asserted apparently relating to the document cited by Bild.
The two articles in September
On September 6, Germany’s Bild published a report that cited a document captured in Gaza indicating that Hamas’s main concern in ceasefire negotiations with Israel was to rehabilitate its military capabilities, and not to alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s civilian population. Bild said it had obtained the spring 2024 document exclusively, without offering further details. It said the document was found on a computer in Gaza that belonged to then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
The IDF launched a probe into the information leak at the time and said that the document had been found in Gaza some five months earlier, and was not written by Sinwar but was rather a recommendation paper drawn up by a mid-level Hamas officer.
The PMO called it “ridiculous” to allege that a sympathetic article in Bild “caused any damage to the negotiations for the release of the hostages, or to the security of Israel.”
Regarding a debunked September 5 Jewish Chronicle article headlined “Sinwar’s secret plan to ‘smuggle hostages to Iran'” — which alleged that a document had been uncovered in the Gaza Strip proving that Sinwar was planning to smuggle himself and some of the hostages out of Gaza and from there to Iran — the IDF said at the time it was unaware of any such document actually existing.
The Jewish Chronicle announced in mid-September that it had fired the writer who penned that article and others, amid doubts about their veracity, and had removed his stories from its website.
Opposition’s Gantz: If proven, it’s a national crime
Responding to the lifting of the gag order, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid charged that Netanyahu was either too incompetent to lead Israel during wartime or was “complicit in one of the most serious security offenses.”
“Netanyahu’s defense is that he has no influence or control over the bodies he leads. If that’s true, he’s ineligible, he’s not qualified to lead the State of Israel in the most difficult war in its history,” Lapid declared, calling for the probe to include an investigation of whether Netanyahu had ordered the leaks.
And “if he did not know that his close aides were stealing documents, operating spies within the IDF, forging documents, exposing intelligence sources and passing secret documents to foreign newspapers in order to stop the hostage deal, then what does he know?” he asked.
National Unity party leader Benny Gantz, a former member of the war cabinet, said the affair was “proof” of his earlier claims that political considerations were harming security deliberations.
“Contrary to the impression they are trying to create in the Prime Minister’s Office, this is not suspicion of a leak, but of state secrets being profiteered for for political purposes,” he said, speaking alongside Lapid. “If sensitive security information is stolen and becomes a tool in a political survival campaign, this is not only a criminal offense, it is a national crime.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum issued a statement on Sunday evening saying the information revealed in the case “indicates that those close to the prime minister acted in a manner that endangers national security in an attempt to thwart the return of the hostages.
“The suspicions indicate that individuals affiliated with the prime minister acted to carry out one of the largest efforts to at engineering a narrative in the country’s history. A government that abandoned citizens who became victims of brutal kidnappings is effectively working to slander them and to sway public opinion against the duty to return them — as though they were enemies of the nation.
Hard worker with ‘a pure heart’
On Instagram, Feldstein’s sister said he had been in Shin Bet custody for a week, describing her brother as a hard worker with a “pure heart.”
A source close to Feldstein told Channel 12 earlier that he had been sold out by the premier.
“He worked for Netanyahu and was an adviser to him over the past year and a half. He has dedicated his life to the prime minister and would endanger himself for him. The moment [the scandal] erupted, Netanyahu threw him under the bus and is even lying, saying he doesn’t work for him,” the source said.
On the hard-right Channel 14, devoted Netanyahu supporter Yaakov Bardugo, sometimes described as an associate of the premier, described the probe as “an attempt by people in the Shin Bet and the IDF to use their investigative power for a coup.”
“We’ve seen this over recent years — investigative powers, prejudiced enforcement and prejudiced investigations being used, all to get to Netanyahu.” link
Court says arrests followed investigation into suspected breach of national security that had ‘harmed Israeli war aims’
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is at the centre of a new political storm related to a hostage deal in the Gaza war after the arrest of several people in connection with an alleged leak of classified documents from his office.
An Israeli court announced the arrests on Friday afternoon, before the beginning of Shabbat, saying that a joint investigation by the police, internal security services and the army suspected a “breach of national security caused by the unlawful provision of classified information”, which had also “harmed the achievement of Israel’s war aims”.
One of those arrested is believed to be spokesperson for the prime minister.
While most details are still subject to a partial gag order, Israeli media has reported that the war aim in question is the release of the 101 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas. The suspects are alleged to have selectively leaked Hamas strategy documents found by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza, and manipulated or edited the material to make it seem as though the Palestinian militant group sought to smuggle hostages to Egypt, and then to Iran or Yemen.
In September, Netanyahu made this claim in interviews and news conferences in support of a fresh demand he had made in ceasefire and hostage release deal talks: the need for Israeli troops to remain on the Gaza-Egypt border. The demand was rejected by Hamas on the grounds it was not part of the terms both sides had already conditionally accepted, and was a major reason that months of negotiations failed.
Netanyahu has been accused repeatedly of stalling on a deal in order to avoid the collapse of his coalition government. Anything short of a total victory over Hamas is anathema to his far-right allies, and he is believed to see staying in office as the best way of avoiding prosecution in fraud, bribery and breach of trust cases filed in 2019. He denies any wrongdoing.
Shortly after the Israeli leader first mentioned the supposed Hamas plan, reports apparently based on the same doctored material appeared in the British outlet The Jewish Chronicle and the German tabloid Bild, which were picked up widely by the Israeli media.
Worried that the articles’ publication would jeopardise intelligence-gathering efforts in Gaza, the Israeli army launched an investigation into the leak, announcing that it was “unaware of any such document existing”. The Jewish Chronicle later retracted the story and fired the journalist who wrote it.
The prime minister’s office on Friday said no one who worked for Netanyahu has been questioned or detained, but on Saturday did not deny that the leak may have originated from his office. Dozens of other leaks related to ceasefire and hostage release negotiations have appeared in media reports, it pointed out, without triggering investigations.
The charges are understood to be related to the leaking of classified documents, negligence in handling the material, and using it to influence public opinion, as well as the improper hiring of an adviser without adequate security clearance.
News of the arrests has been met with fury by the prime minister’s detractors in the bitterly politically divided country. On Saturday night, thousands of people across Israel joined what are now weekly demonstrations in favour of a deal.
The opposition leader, Yair Lapid, wrote on X: “We have tough enemies abroad, but the danger from within and at the most sensitive decision-making centres shakes the foundations of the confidence of the citizens of Israel in the prosecution of the war, and in handling the most sensitive and explosive security issues.” link There is very little doubt that, not only did Netanyahu know about what happened, but is very likely that the instructions/orders to do so came indirectly from Netanayahu or his wife (yes, his wife; she has a lot of power in that office). The fact that it would have come indirectly is for Netanyahu to maintain plausible deniability, which is something that he is a professional about. It is exactly for this reason that so many statements come out from unnamed 'officials' which always means it is coming from Netanyahu but he can deny that it did.
An IDF officer has been arrested as part of the investigation into leaked classified documents from the Prime Minister’s Office, according to Hebrew media reports, bringing the total number of suspects in the case to five.
The leaked documents were said to have been written by the Hamas terror group and to have formed the basis of a widely discredited article in the London-based Jewish Chronicle — which was later withdrawn — suggesting Hamas had planned to spirit hostages out of Gaza through Egypt; as well as an article in Germany’s Bild newspaper that said Hamas was drawing out hostage talks as a form of psychological warfare on Israel.
The leaked material was not found by IDF forces in Gaza, according to the Kan public broadcaster, but was uncovered through “another type of intelligence.” The case is being taken so seriously by prosecutors in part because it risks revealing to Hamas key intelligence-collection methods.
The controversial legislation passes the cabinet-level body despite opposition from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, which earlier today stated that it would not back the bill unless it also enshrines preferential treatment for the families of IDF reservists.
The bill aims to guarantee that the children of ultra-Orthodox men who are obligated to perform military service but have not done so will continue to be eligible for taxpayer-supported daycare subsidies.
Previously the law allowed families in which a mother works and a father studies full time in yeshiva in lieu of military service to receive the subsidies, worth thousands of shekels a month.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara recently declared the arrangement illegal after the High Court of Justice ruled in June that ultra-Orthodox men are obligated to serve in the IDF and that financial support for such students was also illegal by extension.
Addressing the bill ahead of today’s vote, Baharav-Miara’s office described it as “unconstitutional,” arguing that “the principle of equality will be harmed through state and institutional encouragement of avoiding conscription into the IDF.”
Responding to the bill’s approval by the government, the opposition Yesh Atid party states that “the names of the members of the ministerial committee who approved the law for financing mass evasion during a difficult and painful war will forever be a symbol of betrayal and a knife in the back of the middle class, the reservists, the IDF’s wounded and the memory of the fallen.” link. Netanyahu
Members of the Ministerial Committee on Legislation who voted in favor of the “‘evasion financing law” have dealt a fatal blow to the IDF soldiers and reservists today,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declares, following the committee’s approval of the so-called Daycare Law.
“This is an irreparable betrayal of our hundreds of dead and thousands of wounded fighters. Is their blood cheap?” he tweets. “The humiliating law must not get a majority in the Knesset.”
Lapid’s outrage is echoed by former religious services minister Matan Kahana (National Unity), who calls the bill “a slap in the face of the reservists.”
“The meaning of this law is the whitewashing and budgeting of evasion,” he says. “If any of the Zionist ministers have even an iota of care left for those who serve, let them immediately file an appeal with the government secretariat and stop the progress of this humiliating law.”
PM spokesman Eli Feldstein suspected of leaking intel that could have hurt hostage efforts
Former Ben Gvir aide and IDF spokesperson reportedly worked closely with Prime Minister’s Office despite failing security clearance; identities of 3 other suspects still under wraps
A court partially lifted a gag order Sunday on a case surrounding suspected leaks of classified information by an associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, unsealing the name of the central suspect and several other details.
Eli Feldstein, a spokesperson working with the Prime Minister’s Office, is accused of divulging top-secret information with national security implications to European media outlets, according to a ruling published Sunday evening by Rishon Lezion Magistrate Court head Menahem Mizrahi.
The names of three other suspects remain gagged by the court, but it confirmed that they were connected to the defense establishment. “The investigation began after significant suspicions arose in the Shin Bet and IDF — including as a result of media publications — that secret and sensitive intelligence information was taken from the IDF and removed illegally, sparking concerns of serious harm to national security and a danger to the sources of the information,” the court noted. “As a result, damage could have been done to the ability of defense bodies to achieve the goal of freeing the hostages [held in Gaza].”
In recent days Netanyahu had sought to distance himself from the case, claimed no one from his office was arrested or was under investigation, and pushing back against critics who claimed the leaks had been politically expedient for him. The premier had downplayed the affair and had publicly called for the gag order to be lifted. According to multiple outlets, however, Feldstein had functioned as a PMO employee in all but name over the past year, and was frequently in the premier’s close orbit. He is seen beside Netanyahu in various photos over the past year. Kan news reported that Feldstein was technically working for the PMO’s director-general and not the office itself due to failing a polygraph test, which made him ineligible for the security clearance required to work at the PMO, but was in close contact with the premier regardless.
The leaked documents are said to have formed the basis of a widely discredited article in the London-based Jewish Chronicle — which was later withdrawn — suggesting Hamas had planned to spirit hostages out of Gaza through Egypt; as well as an article in Germany’s Bild newspaper that said Hamas was drawing out hostage talks as a form of psychological warfare on Israel.
Israeli media and other observers expressed skepticism about those articles, which appeared to serve Netanyahu’s demands in the talks and to absolve him of blame for their failure. The pair of reports regarding Hamas’s strategy were nearly identical to talking points made by Netanyahu in interviews, statements at cabinet meetings and press conferences shortly before and after the articles appeared in early September, including a claim that Sinwar sought to smuggle Israeli hostages out of Gaza through the Philadelphi Corridor which separates the Strip from Egypt.
The case first became public on Friday, four days after Feldstein was arrested in an early morning police raid. He was remanded in custody until Tuesday at least, when another hearing is scheduled.
Ynet reported that investigators are examining four separate issues in the case: the leaking of top-secret documents; allowing an adviser without security clearance to access meetings and premises that should have been off-limits to him; negligence in the handling of classified documents; and the use of documents to influence public opinion on a hostage deal.
Some of the suspects in the ongoing investigation could face up to 15 years in prison, Ynet said, citing an official familiar with the details.
Who is Feldstein
Feldstein, 32, had been an officer in the military’s spokesperson unit, serving as spokesman for the religious Netzah Yehuda battalion and for the army’s West Bank Division. He was at one point an operations officer within the IDF Spokesman’s unit, winning plaudits as the first Orthodox person in the role, according to the Ynet news site. Following his discharge from the military, the Bnei Brak native briefly worked as a spokesperson for Otzma Yehudit head Itamar Ben Gvir, who is now national security minister.
On Saturday, the PMO did not deny allegations that a document was leaked from Netanyahu’s office, but sought to distance the premier himself from the episode. It claimed that the spokesperson “never participated in security discussions, was not exposed to or receive classified information, and did not take part in secret visits.” “The published document never came to the Prime Minister’s Office from the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate, and the prime minister learned about it from the media,” the PMO asserted apparently relating to the document cited by Bild.
The two articles in September
On September 6, Germany’s Bild published a report that cited a document captured in Gaza indicating that Hamas’s main concern in ceasefire negotiations with Israel was to rehabilitate its military capabilities, and not to alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s civilian population. Bild said it had obtained the spring 2024 document exclusively, without offering further details. It said the document was found on a computer in Gaza that belonged to then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
The IDF launched a probe into the information leak at the time and said that the document had been found in Gaza some five months earlier, and was not written by Sinwar but was rather a recommendation paper drawn up by a mid-level Hamas officer.
The PMO called it “ridiculous” to allege that a sympathetic article in Bild “caused any damage to the negotiations for the release of the hostages, or to the security of Israel.”
Regarding a debunked September 5 Jewish Chronicle article headlined “Sinwar’s secret plan to ‘smuggle hostages to Iran'” — which alleged that a document had been uncovered in the Gaza Strip proving that Sinwar was planning to smuggle himself and some of the hostages out of Gaza and from there to Iran — the IDF said at the time it was unaware of any such document actually existing.
The Jewish Chronicle announced in mid-September that it had fired the writer who penned that article and others, amid doubts about their veracity, and had removed his stories from its website.
Opposition’s Gantz: If proven, it’s a national crime
Responding to the lifting of the gag order, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid charged that Netanyahu was either too incompetent to lead Israel during wartime or was “complicit in one of the most serious security offenses.”
“Netanyahu’s defense is that he has no influence or control over the bodies he leads. If that’s true, he’s ineligible, he’s not qualified to lead the State of Israel in the most difficult war in its history,” Lapid declared, calling for the probe to include an investigation of whether Netanyahu had ordered the leaks.
And “if he did not know that his close aides were stealing documents, operating spies within the IDF, forging documents, exposing intelligence sources and passing secret documents to foreign newspapers in order to stop the hostage deal, then what does he know?” he asked.
National Unity party leader Benny Gantz, a former member of the war cabinet, said the affair was “proof” of his earlier claims that political considerations were harming security deliberations.
“Contrary to the impression they are trying to create in the Prime Minister’s Office, this is not suspicion of a leak, but of state secrets being profiteered for for political purposes,” he said, speaking alongside Lapid. “If sensitive security information is stolen and becomes a tool in a political survival campaign, this is not only a criminal offense, it is a national crime.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum issued a statement on Sunday evening saying the information revealed in the case “indicates that those close to the prime minister acted in a manner that endangers national security in an attempt to thwart the return of the hostages.
“The suspicions indicate that individuals affiliated with the prime minister acted to carry out one of the largest efforts to at engineering a narrative in the country’s history. A government that abandoned citizens who became victims of brutal kidnappings is effectively working to slander them and to sway public opinion against the duty to return them — as though they were enemies of the nation.
Hard worker with ‘a pure heart’
On Instagram, Feldstein’s sister said he had been in Shin Bet custody for a week, describing her brother as a hard worker with a “pure heart.”
A source close to Feldstein told Channel 12 earlier that he had been sold out by the premier.
“He worked for Netanyahu and was an adviser to him over the past year and a half. He has dedicated his life to the prime minister and would endanger himself for him. The moment [the scandal] erupted, Netanyahu threw him under the bus and is even lying, saying he doesn’t work for him,” the source said.
On the hard-right Channel 14, devoted Netanyahu supporter Yaakov Bardugo, sometimes described as an associate of the premier, described the probe as “an attempt by people in the Shin Bet and the IDF to use their investigative power for a coup.”
“We’ve seen this over recent years — investigative powers, prejudiced enforcement and prejudiced investigations being used, all to get to Netanyahu.” link
The family of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin has requested the government cancel the state memorial service for the assassinated premier, the Ynet news site reports.
The family is concerned that the annual ceremony, this year scheduled for November 13, will be politicized amid the ongoing war, the report says.
Rabin’s wife and granddaughter do not offer a response to the report.
Last year, the annual memorial held at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl cemetery was canceled due to the war.
Rabin was shot to death by right-wing extremist Yigal Amir at the end of a mass peace rally in Tel Aviv on November 4, 1995, which was called to highlight opposition to violence and to showcase public support for his efforts to negotiate with the Palestinians.
The Foreign Ministry has officially informed the UN that Israel is withdrawing from the 1967 agreement recognizing Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, after the Knesset passed legislation to severely limit the operations of the agency in Israel and in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Foreign Ministry Director-General Jacob Blitshtein sent the letter to UN General Assembly President Philemon Yang of Cameroon, informing him that “Israel will continue to work with international partners, including other United Nations agencies, to ensure the facilitation of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not undermine Israel’s security. Israel expects the United Nations to contribute to and cooperate in this effort.”
Last week, the Knesset passed a bill banning UNRWA from operating from Israeli territory and forbidding Israeli government agencies from working with UNRWA. The bill takes effect in three months.
“UNRWA — the organization whose employees participated in the October 7th massacre and many of whose employees are Hamas operatives — is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution,” says Foreign Minister Israel Katz. “The UN was presented with endless evidence about Hamas operatives working at UNRWA and about the use of UNRWA facilities for terror purposes and nothing was done about it.”
Katz also notes that only 13% of the aid to Gaza currently goes through UNRWA, and argues the idea that there is no alternative to UNRWA is a fiction.
The Region and the World
The family of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin has requested the government cancel the state memorial service for the assassinated premier, the Ynet news site reports.
The family is concerned that the annual ceremony, this year scheduled for November 13, will be politicized amid the ongoing war, the report says.
Rabin’s wife and granddaughter do not offer a response to the report.
Last year, the annual memorial held at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl cemetery was canceled due to the war.
Rabin was shot to death by right-wing extremist Yigal Amir at the end of a mass peace rally in Tel Aviv on November 4, 1995, which was called to highlight opposition to violence and to showcase public support for his efforts to negotiate with the Palestinians.
The Foreign Ministry has officially informed the UN that Israel is withdrawing from the 1967 agreement recognizing Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, after the Knesset passed legislation to severely limit the operations of the agency in Israel and in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Foreign Ministry Director-General Jacob Blitshtein sent the letter to UN General Assembly President Philemon Yang of Cameroon, informing him that “Israel will continue to work with international partners, including other United Nations agencies, to ensure the facilitation of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not undermine Israel’s security. Israel expects the United Nations to contribute to and cooperate in this effort.”
Last week, the Knesset passed a bill banning UNRWA from operating from Israeli territory and forbidding Israeli government agencies from working with UNRWA. The bill takes effect in three months.
“UNRWA — the organization whose employees participated in the October 7th massacre and many of whose employees are Hamas operatives — is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution,” says Foreign Minister Israel Katz. “The UN was presented with endless evidence about Hamas operatives working at UNRWA and about the use of UNRWA facilities for terror purposes and nothing was done about it.”
Katz also notes that only 13% of the aid to Gaza currently goes through UNRWA, and argues the idea that there is no alternative to UNRWA is a fiction.
The Region and the World
- Turkey leads multinational call to UN for arms embargo on Israel
Turkey’s foreign ministry says it submitted a letter to the United Nations, signed by 52 countries and two organizations, calling for a halt in arms deliveries to Israel.
“We have written a joint letter calling on all countries to stop the sale of arms and ammunition to Israel. We delivered this letter, which has 54 signatories, to the UN on November 1,” Hakan Fidan says at a press conference in Djibouti, where he was attending a Turkey-Africa partnership summit.
“We must repeat at every opportunity that selling arms to Israel means participating in its genocide,” Fidan says, who added that the letter is “an initiative launched by Turkey.”
Among the signatories were Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Algeria, China, Iran, and Russia, with the two organizations being the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the UN to impose an arms embargo on Israel, which he said would be an “effective solution” to end the conflict in the Gaza Strip. link. In the past, a call like this from Turkey would be little more than Erdogan's continued anti Israel attacks and it wouldn't go much further. His NATO allies wouldn't even comment and Israel would state that it is more of Erdogan's anti Israel rhetoric. However, times have changed and a number of countries have already announced arms embargoes on Israel, most of them with little impact but as the calls get louder and spread wider, there will be more and more embargoes and there will be impact on our defenses. This is also another area that Netanyahu and his cronies on the extreme right have fed everything into the hands of the anti Israel supporters and governments with their rhetoric, actions and failures to have the judicial system investigate so many actions that are being called war crimes, with many of them actually being war crimes.
Iran assails US deployment of B-52 bombers in Mideast as ‘destabilizing’ Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei criticizes what he calls the United States’ “destabilizing presence” after the deployment of B-52 bombers in the region.
“We have always believed that the presence of America in the region is a destabilizing presence,” Baghaei tells a news conference in response to a question about the deployment, adding that it “will not deter [Iran’s] resolve to defend itself
Iran is preparing an attack on Israel that will use more powerful warheads and “other weapons” not used in its previous two attacks, Iranian and Arab officials briefed on the plans tell The Wall Street Journal.
An Egyptian official tells The Journal that Tehran warned Cairo privately that its response to Israel’s airstrikes on its territory on October 26 — which was in retaliation for the Islamic Republic’s October 1 ballistic missile attack — will be “strong and complex.”
An Iranian official reportedly says that because its military lost four soldiers and a civilian, there is a necessity to respond.
The official says the attack will target Israeli military sites “much more aggressively than last time,” and that Iraqi territory may be used to launch projectiles.
Survivors
Personal Stories Taken captive: Daniella Gilboa, identified by the shirt she woreGilboa, 19, has been missing since October 7; family saw her in a Hamas video
Daniella Gilboa, 19, was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 7.
Gilboa was in touch with her family on the morning of the attack.
She also sent her boyfriend videos that morning, which showed what she was wearing that day.
When Hamas videos appeared later that day, showing three of Gilboa’s friends being taken hostage to Gaza, Gilboa’s family was able to identify her by the shirt they knew she was wearing, and a small, hidden ponytail on her head.
The army later confirmed that Gilboa was taken hostage to Gaza.
“I picture her walking in the door and coming home,” said her mother, Orly, in multiple interviews. link
The family of Israeli hostage Daniella Gilboa permitted media on Monday to publish a Hamas propaganda video of her from January, in which Gilboa says she has been abandoned by the government and begs to be brought home.
Though Hamas has from time to time issued clips of hostages as part of its efforts to pressure Israel into a hostage release deal, Israeli media does not publish the videos without the express permission of the families. The government has said the videos are an instrument of psychological warfare.
Hamas originally released the clip in January as part of a longer video that also showed hostages Karina Ariev, 19, and Doron Steinbrecher, 30. Like other outlets, The Times of Israel published news of the video’s release when it happened, but did not share the clip or a detailed description of it.
The decision to allow its release now was meant to galvanize support for the effort to arrive at a deal with Hamas, Gilboa’s mother told Kan news.
Gilboa was abducted from the Nahal Oz military base on October 7 of last year, when thousands of terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, and sparking the ongoing war between Israel and the Hamas terror group.
The hostage, who was 19 at the time but who has since turned 20 in captivity, was serving as a surveillance soldier as part of her mandatory military service. Many young female surveillance soldiers were killed during the Hamas assault on the base, while several were captured.
At the start of the clip, Gilboa identifies herself and says that she has been held by Hamas for 107 days, which would date the clip to January 22 (though the actual date of the video cannot be verified). Gilboa was likely coerced when she made the video.
“I am under bombardment and fire 24 hours a day. I am very, very scared for my life. You even almost killed me one time with your bombs,” Gilboa says in the video.
The sounds of explosions can be heard in the background while Gilboa speaks. It is unclear whether those were authentically recorded or edited in.
“Where were you on October 7 when I was kidnapped from my bed? Where are you now?” Gilboa says. “Why should I as a soldier… feel that I have been abandoned and thrown away?
“Get over yourselves, my dear government, and start doing your job as is necessary to bring all of us back home, while we are still alive,” Gilboa says.
“I don’t need any food, any money, any clothing, anything — just that you bring us home alive,” she adds.
Gilboa then addresses her family, saying: “I miss you very much, and I love you. I ask that you be strong, and that you do all that you can to bring me back home while I am still alive.”
The video resembled other videos Hamas has released of its captives, which in some cases have been the first sign of life from them since their abduction.
L-R: Hostages Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, and Doron Steinbrecher are seen in a Hamas propaganda clip published January 26, 2024. (Screenshot: Telegram)The Gilboa family has now joined some others in allowing the publication of the clip in order to draw attention to the plight of the captives, and to pressure the government into making a deal to bring them home.
Israeli negotiators are in Egypt and Qatar this week, in renewed negotiations for a hostage-truce deal, in which the terror group would release Israeli captives in exchange for a ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
In November, Hamas released 105 civilian hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and a one-week ceasefire. But further negotiations have been unsuccessful, as Hamas has demanded that Israel commit to end the war, a condition that Israel has refused to accept.
Over the weekend Hamas said it dropped its demand that Israel agree upfront to end the war, raising hopes for a deal, though it has also said it is seeking guarantees from mediators that the fighting will not resume.
In an interview with the Ynet news site, Orly Gilboa, Daniella’s mother, addressed far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who have opposed hostage deals arguing the price demanded of Israel is too high.
“Enough, enough, let this deal happen,” she said, adding, “It seems this is our last opportunity to bring our children home.”
Activists protest calling for the release of hostages held in Gaza, outside the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, July 3, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Commenting on the video, Orly said: “Daniella is acting her part. I recognize that sense for acting that she has, that ability to say things the way they expect her to, the way they had it written for her. I know it’s an act, it’s psychological warfare.”
The hostage’s mother noted that the video was filmed some six months ago, and that “her mental state [was] not good even on the 100th day [of captivity] — today we’re on day 277.”
She added that the family had received notice from the military of a confirmed sign of life about two months ago, but was not given any further details.
Orly said she hoped her daughter was still with fellow hostages Karina Ariev and Doron Steinbrecher.
Asked if she had a message for her daughter, the mother said: “I just want to tell her, ‘Keep holding onto your optimism.’ That it will happen, that it will happen soon, that this time it’s closer than ever.”
The decision by Gilboa’s family to permit publication of the January clip followed an earlier decision in May by families of surveillance soldiers to release footage showing the five young women’s abduction from the Nahal Oz base.
In the footage, taken by the Hamas terrorists using body cameras, the women are seen bloodied and wounded, with their hands tied, while Hamas men are heard telling the captive soldiers, “You are very beautiful” and referring to them using a term that the Islamic State terror group used to refer to sex slaves.
A still from footage showing the capture and abduction of Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa and Naama Levy at the Nahal Oz base on October 7, 2023. (The Hostages Families Forum)At least one hostage released in November has testified to sexual abuse in captivity, while others have attested to hearing accounts of abuse from other captives in Gaza.
A United Nations report in March said there is “clear and convincing” evidence that hostages have been raped in captivity, and that those currently held captive are still facing such abuse.
It is believed that 116 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that.
Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 19 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military. The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 42 of those still held by Hamas, citing intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza. One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown. 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
Turkey’s foreign ministry says it submitted a letter to the United Nations, signed by 52 countries and two organizations, calling for a halt in arms deliveries to Israel.
“We have written a joint letter calling on all countries to stop the sale of arms and ammunition to Israel. We delivered this letter, which has 54 signatories, to the UN on November 1,” Hakan Fidan says at a press conference in Djibouti, where he was attending a Turkey-Africa partnership summit.
“We must repeat at every opportunity that selling arms to Israel means participating in its genocide,” Fidan says, who added that the letter is “an initiative launched by Turkey.”
Among the signatories were Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Algeria, China, Iran, and Russia, with the two organizations being the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the UN to impose an arms embargo on Israel, which he said would be an “effective solution” to end the conflict in the Gaza Strip. link. In the past, a call like this from Turkey would be little more than Erdogan's continued anti Israel attacks and it wouldn't go much further. His NATO allies wouldn't even comment and Israel would state that it is more of Erdogan's anti Israel rhetoric. However, times have changed and a number of countries have already announced arms embargoes on Israel, most of them with little impact but as the calls get louder and spread wider, there will be more and more embargoes and there will be impact on our defenses. This is also another area that Netanyahu and his cronies on the extreme right have fed everything into the hands of the anti Israel supporters and governments with their rhetoric, actions and failures to have the judicial system investigate so many actions that are being called war crimes, with many of them actually being war crimes.
Iran assails US deployment of B-52 bombers in Mideast as ‘destabilizing’ Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei criticizes what he calls the United States’ “destabilizing presence” after the deployment of B-52 bombers in the region.
“We have always believed that the presence of America in the region is a destabilizing presence,” Baghaei tells a news conference in response to a question about the deployment, adding that it “will not deter [Iran’s] resolve to defend itself
Iran is preparing an attack on Israel that will use more powerful warheads and “other weapons” not used in its previous two attacks, Iranian and Arab officials briefed on the plans tell The Wall Street Journal.
An Egyptian official tells The Journal that Tehran warned Cairo privately that its response to Israel’s airstrikes on its territory on October 26 — which was in retaliation for the Islamic Republic’s October 1 ballistic missile attack — will be “strong and complex.”
An Iranian official reportedly says that because its military lost four soldiers and a civilian, there is a necessity to respond.
The official says the attack will target Israeli military sites “much more aggressively than last time,” and that Iraqi territory may be used to launch projectiles.
Daniella Gilboa, 19, was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 7.
Gilboa was in touch with her family on the morning of the attack.
She also sent her boyfriend videos that morning, which showed what she was wearing that day.
When Hamas videos appeared later that day, showing three of Gilboa’s friends being taken hostage to Gaza, Gilboa’s family was able to identify her by the shirt they knew she was wearing, and a small, hidden ponytail on her head.
The army later confirmed that Gilboa was taken hostage to Gaza.
“I picture her walking in the door and coming home,” said her mother, Orly, in multiple interviews. link
The family of Israeli hostage Daniella Gilboa permitted media on Monday to publish a Hamas propaganda video of her from January, in which Gilboa says she has been abandoned by the government and begs to be brought home.
Though Hamas has from time to time issued clips of hostages as part of its efforts to pressure Israel into a hostage release deal, Israeli media does not publish the videos without the express permission of the families. The government has said the videos are an instrument of psychological warfare.
Hamas originally released the clip in January as part of a longer video that also showed hostages Karina Ariev, 19, and Doron Steinbrecher, 30. Like other outlets, The Times of Israel published news of the video’s release when it happened, but did not share the clip or a detailed description of it.
The decision to allow its release now was meant to galvanize support for the effort to arrive at a deal with Hamas, Gilboa’s mother told Kan news.
Gilboa was abducted from the Nahal Oz military base on October 7 of last year, when thousands of terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, and sparking the ongoing war between Israel and the Hamas terror group.
The hostage, who was 19 at the time but who has since turned 20 in captivity, was serving as a surveillance soldier as part of her mandatory military service. Many young female surveillance soldiers were killed during the Hamas assault on the base, while several were captured.
At the start of the clip, Gilboa identifies herself and says that she has been held by Hamas for 107 days, which would date the clip to January 22 (though the actual date of the video cannot be verified). Gilboa was likely coerced when she made the video.
“I am under bombardment and fire 24 hours a day. I am very, very scared for my life. You even almost killed me one time with your bombs,” Gilboa says in the video.
The sounds of explosions can be heard in the background while Gilboa speaks. It is unclear whether those were authentically recorded or edited in.
“Where were you on October 7 when I was kidnapped from my bed? Where are you now?” Gilboa says. “Why should I as a soldier… feel that I have been abandoned and thrown away?
“Get over yourselves, my dear government, and start doing your job as is necessary to bring all of us back home, while we are still alive,” Gilboa says.
“I don’t need any food, any money, any clothing, anything — just that you bring us home alive,” she adds.
Gilboa then addresses her family, saying: “I miss you very much, and I love you. I ask that you be strong, and that you do all that you can to bring me back home while I am still alive.”
The video resembled other videos Hamas has released of its captives, which in some cases have been the first sign of life from them since their abduction.
The Gilboa family has now joined some others in allowing the publication of the clip in order to draw attention to the plight of the captives, and to pressure the government into making a deal to bring them home.
Israeli negotiators are in Egypt and Qatar this week, in renewed negotiations for a hostage-truce deal, in which the terror group would release Israeli captives in exchange for a ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
In November, Hamas released 105 civilian hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and a one-week ceasefire. But further negotiations have been unsuccessful, as Hamas has demanded that Israel commit to end the war, a condition that Israel has refused to accept.
Over the weekend Hamas said it dropped its demand that Israel agree upfront to end the war, raising hopes for a deal, though it has also said it is seeking guarantees from mediators that the fighting will not resume.
In an interview with the Ynet news site, Orly Gilboa, Daniella’s mother, addressed far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who have opposed hostage deals arguing the price demanded of Israel is too high.
“Enough, enough, let this deal happen,” she said, adding, “It seems this is our last opportunity to bring our children home.”
Commenting on the video, Orly said: “Daniella is acting her part. I recognize that sense for acting that she has, that ability to say things the way they expect her to, the way they had it written for her. I know it’s an act, it’s psychological warfare.”
The hostage’s mother noted that the video was filmed some six months ago, and that “her mental state [was] not good even on the 100th day [of captivity] — today we’re on day 277.”
She added that the family had received notice from the military of a confirmed sign of life about two months ago, but was not given any further details.
Orly said she hoped her daughter was still with fellow hostages Karina Ariev and Doron Steinbrecher.
Asked if she had a message for her daughter, the mother said: “I just want to tell her, ‘Keep holding onto your optimism.’ That it will happen, that it will happen soon, that this time it’s closer than ever.”
The decision by Gilboa’s family to permit publication of the January clip followed an earlier decision in May by families of surveillance soldiers to release footage showing the five young women’s abduction from the Nahal Oz base.
In the footage, taken by the Hamas terrorists using body cameras, the women are seen bloodied and wounded, with their hands tied, while Hamas men are heard telling the captive soldiers, “You are very beautiful” and referring to them using a term that the Islamic State terror group used to refer to sex slaves.
At least one hostage released in November has testified to sexual abuse in captivity, while others have attested to hearing accounts of abuse from other captives in Gaza.
A United Nations report in March said there is “clear and convincing” evidence that hostages have been raped in captivity, and that those currently held captive are still facing such abuse.
It is believed that 116 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that.
Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 19 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military. The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 42 of those still held by Hamas, citing intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza. One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown. 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
Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages
Retaining Power in Exchange for Criminal NeglectProf. Shlomo Ben-AmiFormer Member of Knesset and government minister, Professor of history at Tel-Aviv University.
The crime of forsaking the hostages in Hamas’s death tunnels by the person who has been primarily responsible for their kidnapping - Benjamin Netanyahu, the man whose entire, unbearably long political life has been a permanent display of narcissistic obliviousness to the fate of individuals (“You bore me”, he once told a citizen when she dared complain about the absence of health services in the city of Kiryat Shmona) - will surely be recorded in the chronicles as his greatest transgression. Apropos Kiryat Shmona, whose inhabitants are currently dispersed across the country - following a woefully wrong decision by him to evacuate them - he has arrogantly dismissed the demand to open the next school year in the town. “What’s so sacred about September 1st?” said he who would not dare say so about Yeshiva students, the apple of his eye, as without them he cannot remain in power.Which is truly the crux of the matter: whatever is useful at the moment for securing his position in power is worth every effort and humiliating supplication. And if, as anyone can plainly see, the continuation of the war in Gaza, with its constant bloodshed - their blood as well as ours - with the Carthage-like devastation that is taking place there, and with the criminal abandonment of the hostages, for whom every passing day is a death sentence hanging over the weakest and most vulnerable amongst them, is indeed the winning formula for his enduring rule, then so be it. Recently, he has gone even further, when in an interview on his “base” channel, he objected to the ceasefire and hostage release proposal which he himself had previously put forward through President Biden. Now this compulsive liar asserts that he would only agree to the release of “some of the hostages” in return for a ceasefire, after which he plans to quickly resume his war of destruction, as otherwise he stands to lose the support of the only parties to whom he feels truly accountable: Minister of Finance and head of the Religious Zionist Party Bezalel Smotrich, and Minister of National Security and head of far-right Otzma Yehudit Party Itamar Ben-Gvir.As the great author Primo Levi suggested, every generation has its own kind of fascism. And Netanyahu’s conduct in recent years leaves no doubt that the man strives to impose a quasi-fascist dictatorship in Israel. Furthermore, the damned judicial coup that has led us into the current tragedy has not ceased for a minute, whilst our sons are being slain in battle and the hostages are perishing. This coup is also a blatant payoff to his political allies. There really is no difference between Netanyahu and his kind: Erdogan in Turkey, Donald Trump in the U.S., or Viktor OrbΓ‘n in Hungary. They all share the conviction that the enemy within—the left, the liberals, the rival party - must be eradicated.Unfortunately for the majority of those murdered and those taken hostage in the community of the Gaza Envelope localities, they are categorized as - heaven forbid - “Leftists”. They are part of the same community that Netanyahu and his poison machine have been fighting against as “traitors” and a “fifth column”. No wonder he has yet to set foot in the region to offer condolences. Oops, sorry - he did visit, but that was only in order to impress his antisemitic pal Elon Musk with his war propaganda. For Netanyahu, being in power is always an ongoing performance of disinformation and pretense, posturing and swagger. There is never a real, attentive and empathic discourse with the public, and in these dark hours, not even with the victims of the fiascos of his own doing; first and foremost, the hostages.
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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