🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 397, 2023

🎗️Day 397 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!!!”

Einav Tzengauker - mother of hostage Matan Tzengauker holding a sign for us all
"Wanted: Hope

We’re waiting for you, all of you.
A deal is the only way to bring
all the hostages home- the murdered for burial and the living for rehabilitation.

#BringThemHomeNow #TurnTheHorrorIntoHope

There is no victory until all of the hostages are home!
‎אין נצחון עד שכל החטופים בבית

The two sections at the end, personal stories and Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages are very important to read, as important or more than the news of the day.

Netanyahu fires Gallant, says no trust in defense minister at time of war- Netanyahu always chooses his own personal and political needs over the good of the country and this is one of the biggest proofs of such. Netanyahu is the most dangerous person in Israel today

As a Hamas speaker announced this morning, the firing of Galant means that no hostage deal will be forthcoming and the war will continue. I think he is 100%. Netanyahu has condemned the hostages

Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements

10:05pm yesterday - south - Arava area of Negev desert- hostile aircraft - Elipaz and Timna mines north of Eilat
6:00am- south- rockets- Netiv Haasara
6:30am- north - rockets/missiles
9:00am- north- rockets/missiles
10:10am- north-rockets/missiles
10:45am -north-rockets/missiles
11:20am - Tel Aviv and central areas including Ben Gurion Airport area - rockets/missiles -Debris from an intercepted Hezbollah rocket directly struck a parked car in the central city of Ra’anana.
No injuries were caused in the Hezbollah attack. The IDF said that 10 rockets were fired, most of which were intercepted. One hit the Ben Gurion Airport area. video

11:20am - north and center north - rockets/missiles
11:25am -- Tel Aviv and central areas - rockets/missiles - over 20 missiles to the Tel Aviv area, more than any other barrage in this war -video and sounds of missile interceptions
11:50am - north - rockets/missiles
1:10pm - south - rockets - Netiv Haasara
1:55pm - Drone from Iraq intercepted before entering Israeli airspace, military says. A drone launched at Israel from “the east,” code for Iraq, was shot down by the Israeli Air Force a short while ago, the IDF says.
The drone was intercepted before entering Israeli airspace, according to the military.
2:55pm - north -rockets/missiles
3:00pm - north - rockets/missiles
3:10pm - north - rockets/missiles
4:05pm - north - rockets/missiles -Several people are wounded in a rocket impact in the area of the northern border community of Avivim, according to first responders.
The IDF says that some 50 rockets were launched in the barrage from Lebanon, some of which were intercepted. Merom Hagalil Regional Council says that several rockets hit Avivim.
4:15pm - north -rockets/missiles
4:15pm - center -Tel Aviv, Lod (airport area) and areas surrounding, Ramat Gan, Petach Tikva and all areas around -rockets/missiles - The IDF says the sirens that sounded across central Israel a short while ago were triggered by a single missile launched from Lebanon.
The projectile was successfully intercepted, the military adds. Hezbollah has fired over 120 rockets from Lebanon that crossed into Israel today, according to an IDF tally.
4:35pm - north - rockets/missiles
4:55pm - north - rockets/missiles
6:00pm - Haifa areas north- south and west, Acre and areas around -
6:20pm - north - hostile aircraft - Batzet, Rosh Hanikra, Milu'ot, Leeman
6:20pm - north -rockets/missiles - 25 rockets fired at Galilee and Haifa areas
Red alert area

6:20pm - north - hostile aircraft - Gesher Haziv, Naharia, Saad, Ben Ami
*

Hostage Updates
The election of Trump and the appointment of Katz as Israeli Minister of Defense does not change the reality that to get all of the hostages home, the war in Gaza must end, Israel must withdraw from all of Gaza, Israel will have to release Palestinian prisoners, and Hamas will have to confirm that they are going to transfer the government in Gaza to a civilian, professional, technocratic council that Hamas is not part of. (Gershon Baskin, Nov 6, 2024)

Leak case timeline shows foreign reports dovetailed with PM’s claims against hostage deal
Netanyahu insisted Hamas didn’t want a deal, could smuggle captives to Iran; days later, the assertions were in print, and now an aide is accused of stealing and divulging secret info
On Sunday, a judge revealed that Eli Feldstein, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was arrested last week on suspicion of removing sensitive info from an Israel Defense Forces database and leaking it to a news outlet.
According to the suspicions, Feldstein was involved in leaking a document to the German tabloid Bild ostensibly showing Hamas as unwilling to reach a hostage release deal in Gaza.
A second story, published and later removed by the Jewish Chronicle, alleged that Hamas would try to smuggle terrorists and hostages out of Gaza to Iran via Egypt.
According to the court, the leaks in the case are alleged to have damaged efforts to secure the release of hostages in Gaza. Ninety-seven hostages kidnapped on October 7 remain in the Strip, many of them still alive, along with four others held there for around a decade.
Critics say the the Bild and Jewish Chronicle reports dovetail neatly with Netanyahu talking points at the time, which sought to play up the importance of Israel’s demand for soldiers to remain stationed inside Gaza while placing blame on Hamas for the lack of progress on a hostage release and ceasefire.
Netanyahu is not thought to be a suspect in the affair and no evidence of a direct connection has been presented. The Prime Minister’s Office has distanced itself from Feldstein.
Here is a timeline of major events related to the case known so far:
October 2023: Eli Feldstein is brought in by the Prime Minister’s Office to help liaison with military reporters following the October 7 Hamas massacre and the launching of a military campaign in Gaza, according to reports in Hebrew-language media. Feldstein had previously worked as a spokesman in National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s office, and prior to that was a senior officer in the Israel Defense Force’s spokesperson unit.
According to reports, Feldstein fails a polygraph test and is denied security clearance. It is unclear if he was directly employed by the PMO or simply worked alongside it.
April-May 2024: An internal Hamas document recommending that the terror group drag out the war in Gaza rather than seeking a ceasefire and hostage deal, in order to sow divisions within Israel, makes its way to the IDF. The army will later say the document is unremarkable and identical to other papers it had found in Gaza.
May 31: US President Joe Biden announces the outline for a staged hostage deal based on what he says is an Israeli offer, bolstering efforts to reach an agreement. There is no mention of troops remaining stationed inside the Philadelphi Corridor, a strategic strip of land on the Gaza-Egypt border that Israel says is a major smuggling route.
August: Despite high hopes, intensive diplomacy and international pressure, a deal to free the hostages remains elusive. Among the sticking points are Israel’s demand that any truce be temporary and that soldiers continue to be posted along the Philadelphi Corridor.
Critics in Israel accuse Netanyahu of complicating the talks by introducing the Philadelphi demand, and some question how committed he is to the negotiations, with the prospect of facing a political reckoning looming once the war ends. Members of his coalition, including Ben Gvir, also put pressure on Netanyahu, threatening to bolt the government if a hostage-ceasefire deal is inked.
August 29: Defense Minister Yoav Gallant gets in a heated argument with Netanyahu over the importance of the Philadelphi Corridor, with Netanyahu saying he would prioritize holding the area over freeing hostages, according to a Channel 12 news report. Gallant joins other senior officers in arguing that the border can be policed even if Israeli troops aren’t stationed there.
September 1: The bodies of hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat, and Almog Sarusi are found in a Gaza tunnel. According to the military, the six were found with signs of violence showing they had been executed a day or two earlier as troops closed in on the location.
The discovery heightens doubts about the wisdom of relying on rescue operations to save hostages and re-energizes protests pressuring Netanyahu and his government to seal a deal to free the remaining captives while they are still alive, even if it means halting the military offensive.
September 4: At a press conference for foreign press, Netanyahu emphasizes the importance of holding the Philadelphi Corridor, saying it could be used to bring weapons in and to spirit hostages out of the Strip.
“They can easily smuggle hostages out here to the Sinai desert in Egypt, they disappear,” he says. “They don’t even have to go underground. They disappear in the Sinai and then they end up in Iran or in Yemen. They’re gone forever.”
“You need something to squeeze [Hamas], to prevent them, to put pressure on them to release the remaining hostages. So if you want to release the hostages, you’ve got to control the Philadelphi Corridor,” he adds.
September 5: The London-based Jewish Chronicle publishes an article claiming a document uncovered in the Gaza Strip proves that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is planning to smuggle himself and some hostages out of Gaza to Egypt via the Philadelphi Corridor and from there to Iran.
The report is picked up by some right-wing Hebrew media outlets and shared on social media by Netanyahu’s son, Yair.
Netanyahu appears on US network Fox News, where he reprises some of the claims about the importance of holding Philadelphi. “It prevents Gaza from becoming this Iranian terror enclave again, which can threaten our existence, but it’s also the way to prevent them from smuggling hostages that they keep through the ceasefire into Egypt, into the Sinai, where they could disappear, and then they’ll end up in Iran or in Yemen, and they’re lost forever,” Netanyahu says.
He also claims that reports on progress toward a deal are a “false narrative,” and blames Hamas for holding up the talks: “They don’t agree to anything: Not to the Philadelphi Corridor, not to the keys of exchanging hostages for jailed terrorists, not to anything.”
September 6: German tabloid Bild publishes an expose claiming that a document found by troops on Sinwar’s computer in Gaza shows that Hamas is indifferent to seeing the ongoing war end quickly, instead prioritizing maintaining the terror group’s military capabilities and “exhausting” Israel’s military.
The report claims Hamas is following a strategy employing psychological warfare against the families of hostages and others, sowing divisions within Israeli society.
September 8: Netanyahu mentions the Bild report at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting, saying it is based on an official Hamas document and describing protests demanding a hostage deal as a “Hamas trap.”
That same day, the IDF announces that it has launched an internal investigation into the leak of documents to Bild, calling it “a serious offense.”
September 10: IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari officially denies that the army has any knowledge of the supposed intelligence the Jewish Chronicle story was based on. The comment follows several reports in which defense officials described the claims as likely baseless.
September 12: The IDF takes reporters on a tour of southern Gaza and debunks claims that tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border can still be used for smuggling, raising doubts about the necessity of holding on to the Philadelphi Corridor.
September 14: The Jewish Chronicle removes its story on Sinwar’s smuggling plans and all others by writer Elon Perry, wrapping up an internal investigation launched following questions about Perry’s background that arose alongside doubts about the reliability of his reporting. “We were not satisfied with some of his claims,” the newspaper writes.
In a statement, Perry says he refused to divulge his source to the JC and denies being a messenger for Netanyahu.
October 27: Feldstein is arrested in a 4 a.m. raid related to an ongoing investigation, involving the police, IDF and Shin Bet, which had remained under wraps until that point, of the alleged theft and leaking of one or more classified documents from IDF databases. Three others, who have yet to be identified, are also detained. Investigators, reportedly masked, raid the homes of the suspects.
October 31: Netanyahu’s office releases a statement saying it has demanded a gag order on the “secret case” be lifted. “The ongoing gag order is providing cover for the deliberate and malicious defamation of the Prime Minister’s Office,” it says.
November 1: Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court Judge Menachem Mizrahi partially lifts a gag order in the case, revealing that several suspects have been arrested in a case involving the illicit use of classified materials. Mizrahi writes that the leak could have harmed the war effort.
The Prime Minister’s Office issues a statement asserting that no one on its staff has been arrested as part of the probe, in response to media reports linking his bureau to the case.
A source is quoted by Channel 12 news saying the suspect had nevertheless worked closely with Netanyahu, and several outlets publish blurred pictures showing the two at meetings or events.
“The moment [the scandal] erupted, Netanyahu threw him under the bus and even lies by saying he doesn’t work for him,” the Channel 12 source is quoted saying.
November 2: The PMO denies that the Bild leak originated with it and downplays the seriousness of the case and its ramifications.
“The published document never reached the Prime Minister’s Office from the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate, and the Prime Minister learned about it from the media,” the PMO says. “The document only helped the effort to return the hostages, and certainly did not harm it.”
The statement also puts distance between Netanyahu and the suspect, noting that he “never participated in security discussions, was not exposed or received classified information, and did not take part in secret visits.”
November 3: Judge Mizrahi unseals further details about the case, naming Feldstein as the civilian suspect, alongside three others connected to the defense establishment who remain unnamed. Feldstein, who has been barred from meeting with a lawyer, is also remanded for two more days.
Mizrahi also confirms reports that the case involves suspicions that the document leak harmed efforts to free the hostages.
The Prime Minister’s Office declines to clarify questions about Feldstein’s role.
Reacting to the revelation, National Unity party head Benny Gantz says: “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 issues a statement 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.”
November 4: Hebrew media reports reveal that an IDF officer was arrested as part of the investigation.
A report by the Kan public broadcaster claims that the leaked document cited by Bild was not found by troops in Gaza searching Sinwar’s computer but rather via “another type of intelligence.”
According to the report, prosecutors fear that the leak could reveal key intelligence collection methods to Hamas. link

Gaza and the South

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria

Israel Erased About 30 Villages in Southern Lebanon from the Map

Destruction in villages in southern Lebanon, archive | Photo: From documentation that appeared on social networks, use according to Section 27A of the Copyright Law

According to the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, villages along 120 kilometers in southern Lebanon were destroyed. The Lebanese News Agency reported that 40,000 housing units were destroyed within a 3-kilometer depth from the border. A Lebanese journalist stated: "I don’t want anyone in Hezbollah to remain."

The destruction and figures come amidst the ground operation in the context of fighting in southern Lebanon. The Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported today (Tuesday) that Israel erased about 30 villages along 120 kilometers in southern Lebanon, from Al-Naqoura in the west to Shebaa in the east. According to Mohammed Shams Al-Din, a researcher at the "International Information Company," the affected villages mainly included Aita al-Shaab, Kafr Kila, Al-Adisa, Houla, Al-Dhaira, Marwahin, Muhaibib, and Al-Khiyam. Shams Al-Din also pointed out that around 25,000 housing units were destroyed.

Military affairs expert Hassan Jouni told the Saudi newspaper: "The blasting of villages and homes at the front was part of Israel's strategy to create a buffer zone 3 kilometers deep along the Israel-Lebanon border." Following the publication, the official Lebanese News Agency reported that over 37 villages were erased within a 3-kilometer depth from the border with Israel during the war, and that more than 40,000 housing units were destroyed.

Military affairs expert Hassan Jouni reiterated that the destruction was part of Israel's strategy to establish a buffer zone along the border. Satellite images recently released showcased the extensive destruction inflicted on villages in southern Lebanon, comparing the villages' appearance before the IDF operation to their current state. The Christian-Lebanese journalist Tony Abu Najm, from the anti-Hezbollah camp, said yesterday: "I don’t want Hezbollah to surrender today; I want them to continue to the end. I don’t want any of them left. No one should remain to ruin the country. They are dragging us into losses and insist on moving towards collective suicide."
According to data published in the Arab media, about 44,000 homes in southern Lebanon were completely destroyed as a result of the war, 22,000 homes were partially destroyed, and 120,000 homes were slightly damaged. The estimated cost of reconstruction and rebuilding is approximately $4.2 billion.

Recently published satellite images revealed the massive destruction inflicted on villages in southern Lebanon, showing how the villages looked before the IDF operation began compared to how they appear now.

The Lebanese Christian journalist Tony Abu Najm, from the anti-Hezbollah camp, said yesterday: "I don’t want Hezbollah to surrender today; I want them to continue until the end. I don’t want any of them to remain. No one who destroys the country should be left. They want to entangle us in losses and insist on heading toward collective suicide."
link

The Arrest of a Senior Hezbollah Naval Official – and the Embarrassment of the Lebanese Army: "Radar Blind Spots"

The dramatic operation by Israel's Shayetet 13 in northern Lebanon continues to preoccupy the country's government. The Lebanese army commander had to explain how the IDF managed to evade radar and arrest a senior official in Hezbollah's naval unit. Report: This is the explanation given to the Lebanese prime minister after the initial investigation.
The moment of the arrest in the IDF operation in northern Lebanon

A few days after the IDF raid in northern Lebanon, which resulted in the capture of Imad Amahaz, a senior figure in Hezbollah's naval force, the organization is struggling to address the magnitude of the event and provide explanations. Lebanese Army Commander General Joseph Aoun met with the prime minister and the parliament speaker to present the results of the initial investigation.

The Lebanese newspaper Al-Diyar reported today (Tuesday) that General Aoun explained to Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri the challenges in thwarting the successful Shayetet 13 operation. "Lebanon has ten maritime radars, but there are areas close to the shore and specific points that the radar cannot detect," he said. He also noted that "there are also small boats that lack tracking devices. They sail at speeds that the radar cannot detect." According to him, "the combination of boat size, speed, and wave height caused the object on the radar screen to appear and disappear, resulting in false or ambiguous alerts."

It was noted that the Lebanese army command is awaiting clarifications from UNIFIL's command regarding the reasons for the lack of early warnings. General Aoun stated that "investigations will continue until all circumstances related to the serious incident are clarified." He expressed "dissatisfaction with accusations of negligence against the army," emphasizing: "Doubting the army’s integrity in such dangerous circumstances serves the enemy’s goals, which seek conflict in Lebanon."

Well-informed sources told the Lebanese newspaper that General Aoun presented the radar records from early Friday morning. It was found that "the naval force did not detect any maritime breach along the coast."
Items found in the home of Hizbullah senior Imad Amhz

Emad Amhz from Hezbollah's naval formation

It was also claimed that the German forces operating within UNIFIL did not alert them to any suspicious activity before or during the landing and abduction. Mahmoud Komati, Deputy Head of Hezbollah's Political Council, denied yesterday any connection between Imad Amahaz and Hezbollah, stating: "He has no organizational or military ties; we heard about the abduction from the media." link

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi says the military must prepare to expand the ongoing ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Alongside the diplomatic attempt to reach agreements in Lebanon, we need to continue formulating the plans for the continuation of the fighting in Lebanon, including expanding and deepening the [ground] maneuver, and we will activate these plans as needed,” Halevi says during an assessment, in remarks provided by the IDF.
He adds that the IDF “continues to strike Hezbollah targets according to plan in the entire region, in southern Lebanon, the Beqaa Valley, Beirut and Syria.”
Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed at least 30 people around the eastern city of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley, according to the regional governor.
Around 20 Israeli strikes on the Baalbek-Hermel governorate killed 30 people and wounded 35, governor Bachir Khodr says on X. The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

People and rescuers try to put out a fire at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon's eastern city of Baalbek on November 6, 2024. (Nidal Solh/AFP)

He did not differentiate between civilians and Hezbollah members.
UNRWA chief says agency facing ‘darkest hour,’ calls on UN members for help after Israel ban

A UN employee stands at a UNRWA school in the Jalazone camp north of Ramallah in the West Bank, on November 4, 2024. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)

The UN’s aid agency for Palestinians is facing its “darkest hour,” its chief says as he implores member states to defend it against an Israeli decision to cut ties.
“Without intervention by member states, UNRWA will collapse, plunging millions of Palestinians into chaos,” the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, tells the UN General Assembly, calling for the body — which created UNRWA in 1949 — to prevent implementation of the Israeli ban.
Hezbollah leader says no diplomatic agreement with Israel before end of hostilities
In his second address since being appointed Hezbollah leader, Naim Qassem rules out a diplomatic settlement to the conflict with Israel before the end of hostilities.
In a pre-recorded televised address, Qassem says that the war will only end once Israel stops its “aggression” against Lebanon, and only at that point will the terror group agree to indirect negotiations, under the mediation of its ally Nabih Berri, president of the Lebanese Parliament.
Qassem does not indicate a ceasefire in Gaza as a precondition for a halt to its war against Israel.
Qassem claims that the terror group is conducting a defensive war of attrition and has been preparing for a long confrontation since the end of the Second Lebanon War in 2006. He further claims that Hezbollah has “tens of thousands of jihadis that are ready to die as martyrs,” strengthened by their Islamic ideology, their training and their weapons.
Qassem further accuses Israel of aiming to defeat the terror group as a first step to conquering Lebanon, and subsequently to “change the map of the Middle East.”
In response to the Israeli “aggression,” Qassem says that the terror group will continue firing rockets and drones at Israel, and that the launches of the past days are only a taste of what is to come next.
Touching on the heavy toll the war has imposed on the Lebanese civilian population, Qassem claims that it is the “price to pay for victory” and denies that there are frictions between displaced Shiites and other groups inside Lebanon, despite evidence to the contrary.
Qassem also comments on the abduction of a top Hezbollah naval operative in north Lebanon by Israeli commandos last week, saying that it was a “humiliation” for Lebanon and demanding explanations from the Lebanese Armed Forces and UNIFIL, in particular from the German contingent, which mans a naval patrol.
Israeli fighter jets struck a series of Hezbollah sites in Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier today, the IDF announces.
According to the IDF, the targets included Hezbollah command rooms, weapon depots, and other infrastructure.
All of the Hezbollah sites were located “in the heart of a civilian population,” the military says, accusing the terror group of using human shields.
Before the strikes, the IDF issued evacuation warnings to civilians in the area.

West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel

Medics say 2 civilians lightly hurt in attempted ramming and stabbing attack in West Bank
The attack near the West Bank settlement of Shilo appears to have been an attempted car-ramming and stabbing, and not a shooting attack, according to first responders.
Medics at the scene say that the attacker was shot after crashing his car into a bus stop at the Shilo Junction and getting out with a knife.
The IDF confirms the details in a statement.
Magen David Adom says it is treating two civilians, a 26-year-old woman and a 15-year-old boy, who were lightly hurt in the attack, and taking them to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus. Several others are being treated for acute anxiety.

Politics and the War (general news)

Unofficial Oct. 7 probe issues ‘urgent request’ to Gallant to testify after being fired
Police probing ‘criminal incidents’ from start of Gaza war linked to PM’s office
The independent Civilian Commission of Inquiry investigating the government’s failures on and leading up to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack addresses an “urgent request” to outgoing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “to come and give your version of the events of the war.”
In a letter to the recently fired defense chief, the commission states that his “testimony is significant for strengthening public trust and revealing the truth as you yourself emphasized in your speech.”
“This is your civic duty,” the commission declares.
Addressing the nation after being informed of his termination last night, Gallant called for the formation of a state commission of inquiry, insisting that “only sunlight and a truthful investigation will allow us to learn and build our strength to face future challenges.”
This is the second time in less than a month that the commission has called on Gallant to testify.
In late October, it sent warning notices to several current and senior officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, offering them a final opportunity to testify before the release of the probe’s findings in the coming weeks.

Despite gag order, reports indicate investigation tied to allegations Netanyahu tried to alter transcripts of wartime meetings; detentions of suspects in separate leak case extended
Amid an ongoing investigation regarding illicit access to IDF intel and leaks by several suspects including a spokesman in the Prime Minister’s Office, a court cleared for publication Tuesday that an additional police probe is being conducted, into “criminal incidents” last year reportedly linked to wartime meetings.
While most of the details of the new case remain under a gag order, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to confirm that the investigation, which has been in progress for some six months, concerned his office, releasing a statement blasting it as “an unprecedented hunting expedition against the Prime Minister’s Office in the midst of a war.”
Earlier, a court allowed the publication of the fact that the police were probing “criminal incidents” related to the start of the war against Hamas in Gaza.
“The police’s Lahav 433 investigation unit is conducting a criminal probe related to incidents from the start of the war, including several open investigations,” the statement said, adding that further details are barred from publication.
Lahav 433 investigates serious crimes including public corruption.
Reports in Hebrew media indicated that the probe is linked to reported allegations earlier in the year that Netanyahu had been attempting to keep his conversations regarding the management of the war in Gaza untraceable.
The Kan public broadcaster reported Tuesday that the investigation was being carried out with the prior approval of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. The network also said that police were unhappy with the partial lifting of the gag order on Tuesday, arguing that making the existence of the probe public would lead to a “witch hunt” on a wide scale.
According to Channel 12 news, police carried out a highly unusual raid at Netanyahu’s office on Saturday night, although the network said it was not immediately clear to which investigation it was linked.
A statement from Netanyahu’s office Tuesday blasted the fact that, following a year of “criminal leaks” from government-level discussions, “the only two investigations that were opened were directed against the Prime Minister’s Office and not against the serial leakers, none of whom were investigated, and who caused tremendous damage to the hostages and Israel’s security.”
The PMO added that “as with the other attempts to inflate accusations against the prime minister and his entourage, in this matter, too, the mountain will turn out to be not even a molehill, but will certainly lead to difficult questions about unprecedented and unfounded selective enforcement of the law.”
Earlier this year, the Ynet news site reported that senior figures in the security establishment feared that efforts were being made to edit the minutes of wartime discussions held with Netanyahu after discovering discrepancies between transcripts of the meetings and what the figures had heard in real-time.
The report indicated that Netanyahu’s former military secretary, Maj. Gen. Avi Gil, had alerted the attorney general to such activity after he was reportedly approached by others in the PMO voicing their concerns.
At the time, Netanyahu’s office denied the report, calling it a “complete lie.”
“Whoever is familiar with the processes knows that something like this could not happen. All discussions are recorded and transcribed by law, and therefore their content cannot be changed,” his office said.
According to Haaretz, police have been probing the matter for around six months, following concerns brought to them by a former staffer in the Prime Minister’s Office.
The news of the ongoing investigation broke on Tuesday amid a separate deepening scandal linked to the PMO, in which top-secret documents held by the IDF were allegedly systematically stolen and leaked to officials in the premier’s circle, who leaked at least one of them to the foreign press for political gain.
Over the past week, five suspects have been arrested as part of the case surrounding suspected leaks of stolen classified information with national security implications. On Sunday, a court cleared for publication the name of the main suspect, Eli Feldstein, a former Netanyahu spokesman, while four unnamed IDF soldiers have also been arrested.
Feldstein’s detention was extended on Tuesday for another six days by the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court. Two of the other suspects also saw their detentions extended by the court for a further six days. One of the suspects has been released.
Separately on Monday, Netanyahu demanded that the attorney general investigate what he called “a never-ending flood of serious leaks and revealing state secrets” since the start of the war last year.
Netanyahu added that the leaks have come from cabinet meetings, the security cabinet, hostage negotiators and by other means in situations in which there were no government members present. link

Netanyahu’s firing of Gallant mid-war is reckless, divisive and dangerous to Israel
For a prime minister bent on personal political survival at all costs, the ouster of his defense minister makes a terrible kind of sense. For the country, it’s just terrible
In March 2023, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he was firing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who had publicly warned that the internal rift in Israel over the government’s plans to weaken the judiciary was so deep as to embolden Israel’s enemies and pose a tangible risk to national security. Two weeks later, amid vast public protests, the prime minister reversed the move.
On Tuesday night, Netanyahu fired Gallant a second time — and, unlike the previous occasion, handed him a letter of dismissal, which takes formal effect after 48 hours.
The sacking, in other words, is emphatically for real this time. And the circumstances are far more devastating for Israel.
Far from facing concerns about the potential emboldening of enemies, Israel is more than a year into a war that began with Hamas’s invasion and slaughter in southern Israel and has spread to multiple fronts — including across the northern border, where the IDF is battling Hezbollah, and a direct confrontation with Iran, which is widely expected to soon carry out a third attack on Israel following strikes in April and again in October.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid immediately termed Netanyahu’s sacking of Gallant “an act of madness.” And while for the prime minister personally it makes a terrible kind of sense, for Israel as a whole, it is plain terrible.
His coalition depends on the support of two ultra-Orthodox parties, who are insisting that the government legislate to preserve the exclusion of most ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service. Netanyahu has been having great difficulty mustering a majority for such legislation, and Gallant — aware that the standing army and the reserves are under extraordinary strain, and that the IDF needs all the recruits it can get — was leading the opposition to it. Israel Katz, the Likud loyalist Netanyahu is installing in his place, will dutifully toe the prime minister’s line — on this issue and all others.
Gallant was also the most important advocate of maximal efforts to secure a hostage-ceasefire deal in Gaza, arguing, with the support of the nation’s security chiefs, that Israel should be pursuing a wide arrangement that would both end the fighting in the north — where Hezbollah has been greatly degraded, though certainly not destroyed — and in Gaza, where Hamas no longer functions as an organized fighting force.
Gallant urged prioritizing the return of the 97 hostages still held by Hamas since October 7, 2023, even at the price of ending the war, arguing that Israel could and likely would return to further tackle Hamas in the future. Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners, however, bitterly oppose any such arrangement, and have repeatedly threatened to bolt the coalition were it to advance what they have denounced as a “reckless” deal.
Gallant has also publicly called for the establishment of a powerhouse state commission of inquiry into the events surrounding Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre — which would focus heavily on the political and military failures that enabled the Gaza terrorist-government to carry it out. Netanyahu has steadfastly resisted any such inquiry, well aware that its findings would likely be ruinous for him.
With Gallant out of the way, therefore, Netanyahu considers that his ultra-Orthodox and far-right partners can be accommodated, his most irritating critic will be gone, and his hold on power will be secure for the foreseeable future.
The prime minister may also now set about ordering a changing of the guard in the security establishment, with Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar at the top of the list. The prime minister’s acolytes have tried ever since the Hamas massacre to shift maximal blame to the security establishment and away from the Netanyahu-led political echelon.
Netanyahu made his move days after a judge partially lifted a gag order into an investigation of what is reported to have been the “systematic” theft of classified intelligence documents from the IDF, and the transfer of at least one such document to a Netanyahu spokesman, who then allegedly leaked parts of it that served the prime minister’s interests to Germany’s Bild newspaper. And he acted just hours after news broke of a second investigation that has been conducted in secret for months concerning alleged “criminal incidents” linked to the Prime Minister’s Office since the start of the war, apparently related to reported efforts by Netanyahu to doctor minutes of war meetings.
Along with the small matter of the US elections, it is those two probes, deeply troubling for Netanyahu, that would have been making headlines in Israel on Tuesday night.
The prime minister may have assessed that Israelis, battered and exhausted by more than a year of a war that began with the single worst catastrophe in the whole history of the modern state, would be disinclined to rush into the streets in their hundreds of thousands, as they did in March 2023, to relentlessly protest the sacking of the defense minister. We shall see.

Netanyahu’s firing of Gallant is far more dangerous for Israel now than it was last time around. The prime minister has booted the experienced ex-general at the political helm of the military, an independent thinker dedicated to the security of Israel who sought to strengthen the army despite the potential political cost. Highly regarded by the troops, his casual ouster, and replacement by the lightweight Katz, can only undermine military competence and morale.
Gallant has also established very good relations with his US counterpart Lloyd Austin, in what has constituted a vital partnership as Washington has deployed forces to the region to deter Iran and led a regional coalition that helped intercept almost all of the drones and missiles the ayatollahs have fired at Israel.
In a video statement he recorded and issued immediately after firing Gallant, Netanyahu went so far as to accuse the defense minister of indirectly aiding Israel’s enemies, asserting that Gallant had said and done things that contradicted government decisions, and that their disagreements “came to the knowledge of the enemy — our enemies enjoyed it and derived a lot of benefit from it.”
In truth, however, it is Netanyahu’s unconscionable and reckless decision to dismiss a courageous, competent and patriotic defense minister at the height of a bitter war, undermining the internal cohesion on which Israel’s vital resilience depends, that will delight and potentially benefit Israel’s enemies. link

Netanyahu is Trying to Sacrifice the Country for His Rule

These are difficult times for Israel – dismissing the defense minister during wartime, right before an Iranian offensive, is an act of madness. Only the Israeli public and remnants of conscience among coalition members can save the rule of the people and ensure our collective security.
Contempt. This is the deep, central sentiment that Benjamin Netanyahu, his close associates, and allies feel toward all Israelis. It is this contempt that drives them to dismiss a popular, professional defense minister with extensive security experience and replace him with Israel Katz. This same contempt explains the timing of the dismissal, between the controversy of falsified protocols in the Prime Minister's Office and the results of the U.S. elections. These are people who believe that the people of Israel will remember nothing; that an intense news cycle can be leveraged to pull off a dramatic, unprecedented move. No defense minister has ever been dismissed during wartime, let alone just before an attack.
This contempt is not new. Netanyahu holds us all in disdain. It is the same contempt that allows the government, imposing huge financial burdens on a public struggling through war, to allocate more than 4 billion shekels (!) for coalition funds. It is the same contempt that motivated the previous attempt to fire Gallant – driven by a desire to dismantle Israeli democracy through a hasty, poorly planned, and dismal judicial coup. At that time, Gallant courageously stood up and warned against harm to Israel’s security. His dismissal led to an unprecedented popular uprising, the largest Israel has ever known. That coup was, at least for then, halted.
Now, the trigger for Gallant's dismissal is an attempt to give complete legitimacy to draft evasion in the IDF. For Netanyahu, the die was cast when it became clear that the defense minister would not fully cooperate with these draft evasion laws. This is an unforgivable sin because it undermines Netanyahu's most sacred principle, his only principle: retaining power at all costs. And if it means leaking a classified document to a German newspaper that endangers the lives of hostages, so be it. If it means falsifying protocols, then they will be falsified. And if you, the brave reservist who has served 230 days this year, whose children can’t sleep at night, whose business is suffering, and whose marriage is strained—if you have to pay the price so Netanyahu can appease the ultra-Orthodox, then you will pay. And if he has to fire a major general and appoint Katz? He will do so willingly. Because he holds you and your family in contempt; because power is above all. Let the country burn, as a certain family quote goes.
This is an act of madness. Forget all other reasons, here is the main one: nations need public legitimacy to win a war. Leadership is tested by creating trust among citizens for the sake of unified purpose. The way to achieve this is not by firing the most popular minister in the government, especially not against the backdrop of intending to lead to mass draft evasion.
Against these void values, Gallant's character shines. He bears responsibility for October 7 as the defense minister. From the moment he understood this and war broke out, Gallant put aside all political considerations, the exact opposite of Netanyahu. He speaks his mind and acts according to his value system: hostages come first, defense of the IDF, coordination within the security system, and more equitable recruitment. Netanyahu has made every effort to avoid meeting with families and victims; Gallant has met with them consistently since the war began, quietly bearing the criticism. Netanyahu’s sycophants will try to paint this as right versus left. But Gallant has been far more aggressive and offensive in the war than Netanyahu. Yet the Americans preferred to work with him. Why? Because he possesses an unbearable trait in Netanyahu’s eyes: he is trustworthy. “We are very impressed by the fact that he is not a liar,” an American source told me. He said it and did not elaborate. He didn’t need to.
There is another reason for Gallant's dismissal, a darker one. Unlike Netanyahu, who has given numerous interviews since the war began, he has never provided a comprehensive, on-the-record account of the circumstances surrounding the disaster we are experiencing. Gallant knows things about Netanyahu, about his conduct at the start of the war, about the decision-making process, and about the prioritization or lack thereof regarding the hostages. His dismissal creates a complete alibi; any account he provides will be portrayed as a repressed version, as "revenge" for being fired. This, among other reasons, is why Netanyahu felt compelled to dismiss him. He wants to erase the evidence, whether it is documented in protocols or held in senior testimonies.
These are difficult times for Israel. There are claims that Netanyahu intends to dismiss the heads of the security branches next. If the government, in the midst of war, while refusing an investigation, dismisses the heads of the army and the Shin Bet, not much will remain of Israeli democracy. This is a power grab with a clear purpose: to eliminate the only component of the executive branch that Netanyahu has not yet managed to completely corrupt.
Only the Israeli public and remnants of conscience among coalition members can save the rule of the people and ensure our collective security. link

"The Goal Behind Gallant's Dismissal: Funding Draft Evaders and Intimidating Security Investigators"

Opposition leaders issued a statement in response to Gallant’s dismissal. Lapid: “Let every Jewish mother know she has no one to rely on. He was the last one.” Gantz urged continued military service, while Golan called for a strike, receiving support from his peers: “Netanyahu has forgotten what it means to be a bereaved brother.” Edelstein announced he would summon the Prime Minister to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Lieberman predicted: “He will soon be dismissed.”
More than half a day after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant's dismissal, opposition party leaders held a special press conference today (Wednesday). Prior to their joint statements, the four — Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, National Unity Party Chairman Benny Gantz, Democratic Party Chairman Yair Golan, and Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman — met. They claimed that the primary aim of Gallant’s dismissal was to enable ultra-Orthodox exemption from military service and hinted at connections between the timing of the dismissal and serious security-related investigations within the Prime Minister's Office. Ynet broadcasted the joint statement live.

Opposition Leader Lapid began the statement, calling Gallant’s dismissal “an act of madness by an unfit Prime Minister. In the middle of a war, while Israel is fighting on seven fronts, Netanyahu weakened and harmed the IDF and its soldiers just to pass draft exemption laws.” He spoke to the public: “Don’t be fooled by the lies. Gallant wasn’t dismissed over professional disagreements. Just last week, Netanyahu stood in the Knesset and spoke about targeting Nasrallah, Haniyeh, Sinwar, and Deif — then fired the Defense Minister who led those operations.” He argued that “Gallant was dismissed solely for political reasons because Netanyahu chose draft dodgers over those who serve. What happened yesterday is not normal. It defies all logic. Let every Jewish mother know she has no one to rely on. You can’t trust the Prime Minister or the cabinet. The only reliable person was dismissed yesterday. Netanyahu is unfit, incapable of leading Israel in wartime. The soldiers cannot trust him. He had a choice — and he chose disgrace.”

Former War Cabinet member and ex-Defense Minister Benny Gantz spoke next. “What are our soldiers in Lebanon supposed to think today, seeing their Defense Minister fired after issuing draft orders?” Gantz wondered. “We’ve already seen what our enemies do when they see internal division. We cannot afford to face another scenario like October 7. The Middle East doesn’t allow for such privileges.” However, he noted, “The dismissal of the Defense Minister for the political need to pass legislation exempting the ultra-Orthodox from service is a severe blow to security and the nation’s spirit, but it will not break us. Without going into details, the timing of this decision is sheer security negligence.”

Gantz called on those serving to continue their service despite the tough moment and advised security chiefs, “Hold on, your responsibility is now sevenfold.” He emphasized, “Although we disagree on many things, we have more than 52 Knesset members behind us, and a large public majority, including many within Likud and the Religious Zionist Party, understand that we must not let Netanyahu take us back to October 6. They know that political deals at the expense of IDF soldiers will harm our security. I urge them to show courage and not abandon the citizens of Israel. Don’t act with double standards when the country’s security is at stake.”

Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Lieberman added, “Between state security and coalition security, Netanyahu chose to preserve the coalition, a path that fractures Israeli society. Where did we see celebrations and enthusiasm yesterday? In Iran. Anyone following Iranian media, and many do in Israel, saw their immense excitement. The entire axis of evil celebrated.” He said, echoing Gantz and Lapid, that “Gallant’s dismissal is primarily to pave the way for passing draft exemption laws, for funding draft dodgers, and so forth, but also to intimidate those currently involved in security investigations.” He predicted that Netanyahu’s next step might be dismissing Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chair Edelstein, who today said he would summon Netanyahu to the committee. “He will dismiss Edelstein as committee chair in the coming days, and then likely the Attorney General,” Lieberman projected.

Addressing Likud MKs, Lieberman said, “Those who still adhere to the legacy of Jabotinsky and Trumpeldor: They would be turning in their graves seeing Netanyahu advance draft exemption laws. Don’t let it happen. Vote against the draft laws, against funding draft dodgers, and don’t endorse tomorrow’s disgraceful appointments in the Knesset.”

For the first time, Democratic Party Chairman Golan joined the other opposition leaders and issued a harsh accusation against the Prime Minister. “I served in the IDF for 38 years and never thought I’d see the day an Israeli Prime Minister would knowingly and deliberately harm the IDF and the state’s security. Never has there been such a gap between Israelis willing to sacrifice everything for the state and a fundamentally corrupt Prime Minister. Netanyahu has forgotten what it means to be a bereaved brother; he is callous toward grief,” he said.
“His heart is cold, cruel, and evil. A Prime Minister who has never known sleepless nights because his son was on the front line, who has never had to lower his gaze when facing hundreds of victims under his watch, chooses his interests over Israeli citizens. Israel’s Prime Minister is unfit to serve. We have an illegitimate Prime Minister and government. Against this evil stood the good last night,” Golan declared, calling for a full national strike until elections are called.
“My friends, I tell you, there are no joyful battles, no easy decisions, and no situation where we will give up. I call on everyone to strike fully; there are rights we haven’t yet exercised. The protest must escalate; the power to effect change comes from you, the good people who serve, pay taxes, and uphold this country. You are the ones who can bring about change.”
Gantz later added that “every legal tool is one we should consider using.” The leaders referenced statements made by Minister Miri Regev, to which Lieberman remarked, “There are no second thoughts.”

**Edelstein to Summon Netanyahu to Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee**
Meanwhile, political reactions to Gallant’s dramatic dismissal during wartime continue to emerge. While National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir again praised the Prime Minister’s move, during a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting, opposition MKs protested Gallant’s dismissal and urged Committee Chairman MK Yuli Edelstein to summon both the Defense Minister and the Prime Minister. Chairman Edelstein responded, “I spoke with the Prime Minister and told him he must appear before the committee in the coming days due to what has happened. This directive has been passed to his chief of staff to set a date as soon as possible. I have not yet spoken to Gallant, but I’m willing to ask if he wishes to appear before the committee.”
Regarding reports that the draft law would return to the Knesset, MK Edelstein noted that an approach involving limited ultra-Orthodox conscription quotas would not satisfy him. “If and when the new Defense Minister, whom we all wish success both in the war effort and conscription efforts, is ready to talk, I have not changed my stance that the law must be genuine. The number 3,000 is no longer relevant to anything. I also don’t think the current law, which is 76 years old, will draft many ultra-Orthodox. We need a real law, with real numbers, sanctions, and all necessary elements.”

Former War Cabinet member MK Gadi Eisenkot said during the discussion, “I also criticized him, but from criticism to outright dismissal, as if he were just a platoon commander, is inappropriate. We should be greatly concerned by how the Prime Minister is acting.”

**Coalition Abandons Draft Exemption Funding Law**
The morning after Gallant’s dismissal, the coalition also celebrated Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential elections and began assessing how to resolve the political stalemate on the ultra-Orthodox conscription issue. The daycare funding law, intended as a temporary solution to calm ultra-Orthodox anger by funding children of those not enlisting, will be set aside, and the legislative process will not continue. Efforts and resources will now be directed toward a permanent solution: a draft law, with hopes that incoming Defense Minister Israel Katz and new Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar will provide support, even if the law is controversial among the general public.

Likud sources state there is an understanding that the law must include sanctions for non-compliance, aiming to create a balanced mechanism acceptable to the ultra-Orthodox. The coalition expects efforts to draft a comprehensive law to intensify once Katz becomes familiar with his new responsibilities. The issue remains Chairman Edelstein, who insists on a fair law with substantial numbers of ultra-Orthodox enlistees, alongside several other Likud MKs. The question is whether a law acceptable to the ultra-Orthodox MKs will gain majority support in the Knesset, with backing from both Likud and the Religious Zionist Party. link

The Region and the World
Egypt joins a call led by Turkey and backed by dozens of countries urging the United Nations to halt arms deliveries to Israel, citing concerns over their use.
The call comes as Israel battles Hamas in the Gaza Strip while also fighting a war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
A foreign ministry statement says Egypt has joined the call as part of “international efforts to pressure Israel to cease its continuous violations of international law and international humanitarian law.”
It also aims to stop “Israeli violations” against Palestinians and protect civilians, the statement reads.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon on Monday accused Turkey of “malice” after Ankara submitted a letter signed by 52 countries calling for a halt in arms deliveries to Israel.
Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, followed by Jordan in 1994.
In 2020, the Abraham Accords, mediated by the United States, saw the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco recognize Israel.

Survivors

Personal Stories
  Meet the Seven American Hostages Still Held By Hamas

The American families whose sons, fathers, husbands, and mother have been held hostage by Hamas since the October 7 terrorist attack wear silver dog tags engraved with their one and only wish in two languages. The English inscription pleads, “Bring them home;” the Hebrew inscription reads, “My heart is in Gaza.”

Meet the seven American hostages. Whether raised in Israel or spending a gap year before college — their lives were interrupted – and in some tragic cases, lost – when thousands of Hamas terrorists breached the border between Israel and Gaza intent on terrifying and destroying the Jewish state.

Edan Alexander

Edan Alexander’s sister Mika describes him as her best friend. Growing up in Tenafly, New Jersey, whenever any of their favorite artists put out a new album, Edan would grab the car keys and take his sister for a drive so they could analyze every song.

A happy-go-lucky guy, a champion swimmer for his high school team, and a big fan of the New York Knicks, Edan spent most of his young life in Tenafly. But he was born in Israel just a few months before his parents moved to the U.S. He spoke Hebrew at home and visited Israel often to see both sets of grandparents. He even celebrated his bar mitzvah there.

His mother, Yael, was surprised when Edan announced his senior year in high school that he wanted to postpone college and try Garin Tzabar, a program founded in 1991 for young Jewish adults who want to explore serving as lone soldiers in Israel’s Defense Forces.

Edan and 16 other American high school graduates, including a classmate in Tenafly, moved to a kibbutz and did four months of training before committing to serve in the IDF. He returned for a visit home in August and expected to return again in April for his brother Roy’s bar mitzvah.

He was on patrol at a kibbutz on the morning of October 7 and called his mother after the Hamas attacks began.

“I told him at the end of the call: ‘Listen to me, Edan. I'm here. I'm with you. I love you. Just protect yourself. Just be safe,’” Yael recalled on AJC’s podcast, People of the Pod. “And that's it, we hang up. I didn't know I'm not gonna hear from him again.”

Itay Chen Z”L

Itay Chen, 19, is the youngest American hostage in Hamas captivity. After months of holding out hope that their son would return, Chen’s parents, Ruby and Hagit Chen, learned that he died on October 7 defending civilians living in an agricultural area near the Gaza border. His body is still being held by Hamas.

Born in the U.S., Itay grew up in Israel, in the city of Netanya, just north of Tel Aviv, but the family frequently visited his father’s hometown of New York. He was a Boy Scout who played basketball and, like many teenagers, loved his PlayStation.

The fun-loving middle child, he was also the “life of the party” and the “connector” of their family, his father said. The only reason he was on duty that day was because he had switched weekends with another soldier so he could attend his brother’s Bar Mitzvah the following week.

Sagui Dekel-Chen

An avid fixer-upper who often repaired his farm equipment by hand, Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, had been working in his machine shop 200 yards from his home when Hamas terrorists entered Kibbutz Nir Oz after sunrise on October 7.

He and a few others sent text messages warning neighbors to seek shelter from the gunmen in their safe rooms. He made sure his then-pregnant wife Avital and their two other daughters were safe inside a bomb shelter before confronting the terrorists. His wife heard him fighting off the terrorists when they broke into their home. She last heard from Sagui around 9:30 a.m. She gave birth to the couple’s third daughter in December.

Hostages who returned home months ago say they saw Sagui alive in Gaza. The grandson of Holocaust survivors whose parents were raised in the U.S. but came to Israel to raise their family, Dekel-Chen was one of the few Israelis who knew how to play baseball, playing in Israel’s junior national league as a kid.

“I’d love to share all kinds of photos: him as a little boy, as a baseball player,” his father Jonathan told Slate. “A lot of the photos that we’ve had for Sagui and from my other kids and grandkids were burned on Oct. 7.”

Gadi Haggai Z”L

“Here in the fields, we are full of fear. People are dying, and birds aren’t flying.”

Those prescient lyrics, composed in the 1980s by Gadi Haggai, capture the last moments of the musician’s life on the morning of October 7. Haggai, 73, died face down in a field as Hamas rockets streaked across the sky and terrorists stormed his kibbutz, kidnapping and murdering its residents.

Haggi, 73 was a retired chef, jazz musician, father of four, grandfather of seven, exercise guru, and pacifist. During his mandatory military service, he served as the first flutist in the IDF orchestra.

After several years in the U.S. pursuing a jazz career, Haggi returned to Israel where he met his wife Judi, an American-Canadian volunteer. The couple founded their own jazz orchestra called the Jazz Union. Unable to support his wife and four children as a musician, he studied cooking and the family eventually moved to Kibbutz Nir Oz where Gadi served as chef.

Gadi and Judi had been on their daily stroll outside Kibbutz Nir Oz when rockets and gunfire tore through the early morning tranquility. Laying face down in the field, they called their daughter in Singapore to tell her what they saw. Shortly after, Haggi was shot by terrorists on a motorcycle. Paramedics tried to send an ambulance, but it was struck by a rocket en route. Though Israel confirmed his death in December, his body is still being held by Hamas.

Judith Weinstein Haggi Z”L
Born in New York and raised in Toronto, Judi Weinstein Haggi, 70, made aliyah to Israel in 1976. There, she and her husband built a life around music, art, family, and healthy living. They ate a plant-based diet and walked every morning, which is why they were in a field near Kibbutz Nir Oz in the early morning hours of October 7.

Even after decades in Israel, Judi still added ing to every verb she spoke in Hebrew. English was the language in which she wrote and which she taught both Israeli and Palestinian students.

As the security situation along the Israel Gaza border deteriorated, Judi introduced mindfulness into her curriculum, to help her students cope with their anxieties. Following retirement, she continued helping children with anxiety through puppeteering.

In addition to her books of poetry, Judi practiced her own mindfulness by writing haikus, which she posted on her Facebook page daily. She posted her last verse on the morning of October 7.

“pulse accelerates

mind makes new connections

as Fall shows her face”

Judi called paramedics when her husband was shot that morning. But the ambulance never made it. Terrorists returned and shot Judi too. Her death was confirmed in December, six days after her husband’s, but her body remains in Hamas captivity.

Omer Neutra

Omer Neutra, 22, another grandson of Holocaust survivors, was born in Manhattan a month after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, and more than a year after his parents immigrated from Israel.

A loyal Knicks fan, he knew the stats of every player, led the local chapter of the United Synagogue Youth group, and served as captain of the basketball, volleyball, and soccer teams at the Conservative Jewish school he attended from first grade until high school graduation.

After being accepted to Binghamton University in 2020 to study business and medicine, Omer decided to take a gap year in the country where his parents were raised – and stayed, opting to serve in the Israel Defense Force’s tank brigade.

When Hamas attacked, Omer’s team drove two miles to the border, where Hamas militants ambushed his tank with rocket-propelled grenades.

Keith Siegel

Keith Siegel, 64, originally from North Carolina, moved to Israel 40 years ago. He met Aviva, a kindergarten teacher originally from South Africa, and fell in love. They lived on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, close to the Gaza border, where he worked as an occupational therapist.

Keith’s mother, Gladys, still lives in North Carolina in an assisted-living facility where the staff has shielded her from knowing that the youngest of her four children is a hostage.

Keith has four children of his own and five grandchildren. He is a calm person and an optimist and loves the outdoors.

On October 7, he and his wife were taken hostage and driven to Gaza in their car with a neighbor and her two children. Aviva was released on November 26 as part of a hostage-release deal. Keith remains, his ribs broken from being captured on October 7, his wife said.

“My parents have an innate faith in the goodness of humankind,” his daughter Elan wrote on Fox News. “That is why, even after living through decades of conflict, they believe that peace can be reality … Their worldview can be summed up in the conviction that love of humanity will always defeat hatred.”

AJC has assisted all of these families and 53 others whose loved ones are held hostage by Hamas in sharing their stories with decision-makers including the President and Vice President of the U.S., more than 200 members of Congress, multiple national media outlets, the State Department, and countless more officials in foreign capitals around the world.

AJC also has worked to ensure passage of House and Senate resolutions calling for the immediate release of the hostages and helped secure State of the Union tickets for the families of each of the American hostages, for as long as there are Americans held hostage, our Union is incomplete.

How You Can Take Action: Urge elected officials at all levels of government to continue to ramp up public pressure on Hamas to help secure the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. We Must #BringThemHomeNow: Ramp Up Public Pressure on Hamas.  link

Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages

Citizens of Israel!
Professor Nitza Ben-Dov
Israel Prize Laureate for the Study of Literature.

It is hard to forget the humanity of King Hussein on his knees before the parents of the seven girls who were shot by a Jordanian soldier on March 13, 1997, on Peace Island in Naharayim. Hussein immediately cut short a visit to Spain and went to Beit Shemesh to ask for forgiveness. In a physical gesture that will forever be etched on the collective memory, he said: “Your loss is my loss, I feel as if I have lost a child of mine.”
What a great distance there is between the Jordanian king and the Prime Minister of Israel, who, in the face of the terrible massacre in the Gaza Envelope, did not see fit to visit families whose worlds were destroyed. Like Pontius Pilate in his day, as soon as he learned of the worst disaster since the Holocaust, he hastened to wash his hands of the blood of babies, adults, and old people, entire families, who, one fine morning, were suddenly cut off from the land of the living. Not to mention the hundreds of hostages, with whose families he met only after three weeks of public pressure. And when he met them, he resorted to “divide and conquer.”
It is difficult to understand how a person devoid of emotional intelligence and deprived of human warmth continues to serve as the head of a country in which men and women have gathered from all over in search of comfort, reassurance, and mercy. It is difficult to understand how the person who stands at the head of a country that is bruised and crushed, in pain and grief, does not show a shred of empathy towards its sons and daughters, who, unlike Yehuda Amichai's God that “has mercy on the children of the kindergarten”, did not have mercy on the morning of Simchat Torah on kindergarten children, or on school children, or on true lovers. In a baritone voice, our Prime Minister addresses us, his voice booming: “Citizens of Israel!” Never, not even now in the face of terrible disaster, has he appealed to us with friendship, with the required softness, neither saying “My brothers and sisters”, or “Dear citizens of Israel”. The disaffected address "Citizens of Israel!" sounds like a scolding, like a reprimand, which will obviously be followed by empty words, that will never be accompanied by an admission of error nor by a bowing of the head, let alone a noble kneeling in the style of King Hussein.
Who is this Prime Minister who has brought us to the brink of the abyss? Who is his wife, a Child Psychologist with academic degrees, B.A., M.A, as she announces at the top of her lungs, and yet did not see fit to comfort even one child who was uprooted from his home. Always accusing, always demanding, always being owed thanks - although for what, it is not clear.
In the book Kaf ha-Hayyim, a halachic treatise by Rabbi Ya'akov Hayyim Sofer, it is written: “When one asks for forgiveness from one’s friend, one should specify to them what one is asking forgiveness for”. Netanyahu can be excused from specifying what he will seek forgiveness for. The list is too long and loaded to bear: the Carmel disaster, the Meron disaster, the coalition agreement disaster, the regime coup disaster, the Hawara disaster. He managed to shake off responsibility for all of these. But from the disaster of the Gaza Envelope, and the war that has been dragging on without a purpose, we will not let him avoid responsibility. He must let us alone, whether or not he wants to.
In the middle of the war, he moved house and when he returned, he renovated a swimming pool. Is it possible that all the transitions and renovations stem from identification and empathy with the tens of thousands of displaced persons whose homes were abandoned and burned? Maybe, like all displaced people, he too is an exile in his own land?

Acronyms and Glossary

COGAT - Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories

ICC - International Criminal Court in the Hague

IJC - International Court of Justice in the Hague

MDA - Magen David Adom - Israel Ambulance Corp

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

PMO- Prime Minister's Office

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

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