π️Lonny's War Update- October 403, 2023 - November 12, 2024 π️
π️Day 403 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
*1:20am - north - hostile aircraft - Nov, Ramat Magshimim, Evnei Eitan
*7:00am - north -
*9:20am - north - hostile aircraft - Leeman, Milu'ot, Batzet, Rosh-Hanikra, Shlomi, Gesher Haziv, Ami, Kabri
*9:25am - north -hostile aircraft, Evron, Ben Ami, Kabri, Nahariya, Mizra'a, Regba, Lochamei Hagheto'ot, Nes Amim,
*9:30am - Haifa areas, Acre and north - hostile aircraft - Nes Amim, Acre, Kfar Maserik, Ein Hamifratz
*9:35am - Haifa and areas around - hostile aircraft - Haifa, Kiryat Ata, Kiryat Yam
*12:20pm - north -
*12:55pm - Haifa and areas around, Acre and around -
*1:15pm - north -
*1:50pm - north - hostile aircraft - Batzet, Rosh Hanikra, Shlomi, Milu'ot, Gesher Haziv, Nahariya, Saad
*2:20pm - north - hostile aircraft - Milu'ot, Leeman, Nahariya, Gesher Haziv, Saar ,Sheikh Danon, Ben Ami, Evron - Hezbollah drone hits kindergarten near Haifa; kids unharmed in bomb shelter
No sirens heard in community of Nesher, but staff moved youngsters to safety as a precaution; IDF bombs terror group’s southern Beirut bastion
A drone from Lebanon exploded next to a kindergarten in the northern town of Nesher on Tuesday, shattering windows and scattering debris across the outdoor play area.Although there was no warning siren in the Haifa suburb, the staff, aware of alerts nearby, had moved the children into the facility’s bomb shelter as a precaution.
There were no injuries to staff or children.
*2:25pm - north - hostile aircraft - Kabri, Nahariya, Sheikh Danon, Netiv Hashayara
*3:00pm - north - rockets/missiles
*3:05pm - north - rockets/missiles
*4:30pm - north - rockets/missiles
*4:35pm - north - rockets/missiles
*4:35pm - Tel Aviv and central regions, Petach Tikva, Savion, Lod, Benei Brak, Givataim, Airport City, Sharon area, Glilot, Ramat Gan, Kiryat Ono, Hod Hasharon -rockets/missiles
*4:35pm - north - rockets/missiles
*4:35pm - Center region - Lod, Glilot, Yagel, Yehud, Sde Warburg, Kfar Saba, Raanana, Givat Hen -rockets/missiles
*5:10pm - north - hostile aircraft - Dovev
Reserves officer killed by sniper fire in north Gaza fightingItamar Levin Fridman killed in Jabalia after a week with no Israeli deaths, IDF says; Palestinians report tanks rolling into central Gaza; bag of ammo found in internal aid convoyAn Israel Defense Forces reserves officer was killed amid fighting in Gaza, the army announced Monday, as tanks rolled into a central Gaza town and a humanitarian zone in the south of the enclave.
Maj. (res.) Itamar Levin Fridman, 34, was killed during operations in the northern Gaza Strip, the IDF said. Fridman, a high school math teacher and father of two, was in Gaza as part of the LOTAR Eilat unit, an elite squad tasked with protecting the Red Sea resort city from terror attacks.
According to an IDF probe, he was hit by sniper fire in Jabalia, an area in northern Gaza that has been the focus of the army’s efforts in the enclave in recent weeks.
Four IDF soldiers killed in fighting in northern GazaSlain troops named as Orr Katz, 20; Nave Yair Asulin, 21; Gary Lalhruaikima Zolat, 21; and Ofir Eliyahu, 20; Israel’s death toll in Gaza ground operation at 375
Soldiers killed in the northern Gaza Strip on November 11, 2024: (L-R) Staff Sgt. Ofir Eliyahu, Staff Sgt. Nave Yair Asulin, Staff Sgt. Gary Lalhruaikima Zolat, and Staff Sgt. Orr Katz. (Israel Defense Forces)
Four soldiers were killed during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Tuesday, bringing the total toll from the previous day to five.
The slain troops were named as:
**"I Knew Immediately. They Need Me, Now": Itamar's Haunting Letter to His Students Before He Fell**
Maj. (res.) Itamar Levin Friedman z"l, who was killed in Jabalia, served as both a high school teacher in Eilat and an officer in an elite unit since October 7. “In a single moment, you get up, leave your family and life behind, and go out to fight,” he wrote to his students before one of his reserve deployments. “This is the life of a reservist. Be worthy of the price we pay.”
Itamar Levin Friedman, 34, from Eilat, was an 11th-grade homeroom teacher and math teacher at Goldwater High School. Since October 7, he had been away from his teaching duties for reserve service as an officer in the Eilat Counter-Terrorism Unit. Just before another round of reserves, he wrote his students a letter about his life as a reservist. “At the moment of truth, we leave everything behind and enlist for the war effort,” he wrote to them.
Levin Friedman was killed on Monday by an anti-tank missile in Jabalia in northern Gaza, leaving behind his wife Alma and two children—three-year-old Ayala and six-year-old Uri. Efrat Zaks, principal of the school where he taught, shared that Itamar had asked for the letter to be read at the school’s last Memorial Day ceremony. In it, he wrote, “On October 7, I woke up to the same terrible news we all did. When I heard it, I knew. They need me, now. There’s no time; lives need saving, and action is needed immediately. Within hours, I was on the frontlines of October 7, in the border communities. My brothers-in-arms and I moved from one event to the next, fought, and even managed to save a few lives in Israel.”
“Yesterday, when I read the letter, I felt it was his will,” Zaks said. “Itamar was a teacher who connected with students on their level. Since October 7, he spent extended periods in reserves. Each time he returned to school, he planned and thought of ways to prepare his students for their exams. He impacted students deeply even when he wasn’t there.”
The last time he came home for a break, his students organized a heartwarming reception for him with cakes and fireworks, showering him with love. He also served as head of IDF preparation at the school, where students were captivated by his discussions on meaningful and combat service in the IDF. School Vice Principal Vered Adler recalled their last conversation before he returned to Gaza: “I asked him to keep himself safe, and he said, ‘Don’t worry. This time, we’re going to relieve other reservists so they can rest, and I promise I’ll come back.’ But he returned in a coffin.”
“Itamar started teaching at the school last year and quickly became a significant, influential figure,” she added. “I met him years ago; he was active in sports, did triathlons, and we ran together in the Eilat night race where he won a medal, which he gave to his son. Instilling the values of sportsmanship was important to him.”
“He was a man of values. He often talked with students about love for the land and country, and the importance of being a good person above all. He cared deeply for every student and wanted each of them to succeed. His students told me that they had never liked math until Itamar, who made them love and study it because they believed he truly cared about them. They’re already discussing ways to commemorate him.”
Itai Ziv, a 12th-grade student, eulogized his beloved teacher: “Beyond being a teacher, he was like an older brother to me. He always knew how to help and cared about keeping us in good spirits, and he joined in with our antics. There’s no one like him. Thanks to him, we love math; Itamar never gave up on us. We’re a tough class, and he took us on as if we were his own children.”
Yali Turgeman, also a 12th grader, shared, “He was someone who understood and appreciated us. He supported every student, no matter who they were. He was a different kind of teacher, balancing humor with seriousness, youthfulness with maturity. We had personal talks. He always taught about love of the land and how important it is to be a good person. We’ve never had a teacher like him.
“We know how much he wants us to be happy and to smile, and he’ll always be with us. We love and miss him. At first, we didn’t believe it because he always showed optimism and said we’d see him in two weeks and to wait for him—and now we can’t believe he didn’t come back.”
---
**Itamar's Full Letter:**
"Hello everyone,
My name is Itamar, and I’m a teacher here at the school. Some of you probably recognize me from class, the hallways, or maybe the teachers' lounge. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about today. Today, I’m here to tell you about a different side of me, about the reservist in me. In me, and in many others.
On October 7, I woke up to the same terrible news we all did. When I heard it, I knew. They need me, now. There’s no time; lives need saving, and action is needed immediately. Within hours, I was on the frontlines of October 7, in the border communities. My brothers-in-arms and I moved from one event to the next, fought, and even managed to save a few lives in Israel.
Many people ask me: Were you scared? Did you feel pressure? What were you thinking? I always give the same answer. At that moment, I didn’t think. Because this is the life of a reservist. In a single moment, you forget everything—you’re no longer a teacher, a carpenter, a CEO, or a taxi driver. You’re a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces. Once they call you, something in your mind changes—you think only of how to get ready, as fast as possible, to carry out the mission assigned to us, to stop the enemy that breached Israel’s borders. Thoughts of everyday life fade—it’s time for war.
This is the life of a reservist. In a single moment, you get up, leave your family, your job, your life, and go out to fight. I left my children at home, and I went out. I knew I would do everything to save the lives of the border residents, even at the cost of my own life. And that price hurts. The thought of the kids hurts. But you put it aside and keep moving forward.
This is the price we reservists pay, again and again. Maybe even every day. We have families; we have friends, but at the moment of truth, we leave everything behind and enlist in the war effort.
Don’t forget this—the price. The price paid by us, the reservists, by the regular soldiers, by the security forces, and especially by those who have fallen. Be worthy of the price we pay. Ensure we have a strong, united society where we respect each other, where everyone has a place, where it’s worth and possible to live a happy life. Because that’s what we fight for.
Be worthy of the price paid by the fallen for Israel’s future, because they did it for you and for the State of Israel." link
*7:00am - north -
*9:20am - north - hostile aircraft - Leeman, Milu'ot, Batzet, Rosh-Hanikra, Shlomi, Gesher Haziv, Ami, Kabri
*9:25am - north -hostile aircraft, Evron, Ben Ami, Kabri, Nahariya, Mizra'a, Regba, Lochamei Hagheto'ot, Nes Amim,
*9:30am - Haifa areas, Acre and north - hostile aircraft - Nes Amim, Acre, Kfar Maserik, Ein Hamifratz
*9:35am - Haifa and areas around - hostile aircraft - Haifa, Kiryat Ata, Kiryat Yam
*12:20pm - north -
*12:55pm - Haifa and areas around, Acre and around -
*1:15pm - north -
*1:50pm - north - hostile aircraft - Batzet, Rosh Hanikra, Shlomi, Milu'ot, Gesher Haziv, Nahariya, Saad
*2:20pm - north - hostile aircraft - Milu'ot, Leeman, Nahariya, Gesher Haziv, Saar ,Sheikh Danon, Ben Ami, Evron - Hezbollah drone hits kindergarten near Haifa; kids unharmed in bomb shelter
No sirens heard in community of Nesher, but staff moved youngsters to safety as a precaution; IDF bombs terror group’s southern Beirut bastion
*2:25pm - north - hostile aircraft - Kabri, Nahariya, Sheikh Danon, Netiv Hashayara
*3:00pm - north - rockets/missiles
*3:05pm - north - rockets/missiles
*4:30pm - north - rockets/missiles
*4:35pm - north - rockets/missiles
*4:35pm - Tel Aviv and central regions, Petach Tikva, Savion, Lod, Benei Brak, Givataim, Airport City, Sharon area, Glilot, Ramat Gan, Kiryat Ono, Hod Hasharon -rockets/missiles
*4:35pm - north - rockets/missiles
*4:35pm - Center region - Lod, Glilot, Yagel, Yehud, Sde Warburg, Kfar Saba, Raanana, Givat Hen -rockets/missiles
*5:10pm - north - hostile aircraft - Dovev
An Israel Defense Forces reserves officer was killed amid fighting in Gaza, the army announced Monday, as tanks rolled into a central Gaza town and a humanitarian zone in the south of the enclave.
Maj. (res.) Itamar Levin Fridman, 34, was killed during operations in the northern Gaza Strip, the IDF said. Fridman, a high school math teacher and father of two, was in Gaza as part of the LOTAR Eilat unit, an elite squad tasked with protecting the Red Sea resort city from terror attacks.
According to an IDF probe, he was hit by sniper fire in Jabalia, an area in northern Gaza that has been the focus of the army’s efforts in the enclave in recent weeks.
Soldiers killed in the northern Gaza Strip on November 11, 2024: (L-R) Staff Sgt. Ofir Eliyahu, Staff Sgt. Nave Yair Asulin, Staff Sgt. Gary Lalhruaikima Zolat, and Staff Sgt. Orr Katz. (Israel Defense Forces)
Four soldiers were killed during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Tuesday, bringing the total toll from the previous day to five.
The slain troops were named as:
Hostage Updates
- **Sharon Cunio Meets with Smotrich in Nir Oz: "The Abandonment Continues"**
In his first visit to Kibbutz Nir Oz since October 7, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich spoke with Sharon Aloni Cunio, the wife of hostage David Cunio, who is still held captive in Gaza. "I don’t want to hear about retrieving bodies; I want David to come back," she said.
During the visit, Cunio expressed her fears for her husband's fate. "You and David aren’t close in age. Imagine yourself when your child goes to sleep—you can hug her, kiss her, tuck her in, be there when she's scared. I don’t have that privilege," she told Smotrich. "I have to be both mom and dad. Until David comes back, I don’t have that ability. For me, I’m still in October 7, 2023. This is the greatest abandonment, and it continues."
Cunio stressed to Smotrich the urgency of bringing the hostages back. "What security is there before they're returned? Come to my home one day, see my daughters, and tell me if this is victory. I’m grateful we were brought back, but my husband is still there, and my daughters are currently fatherless. We’re two minutes from Gaza. Imagine how close he is and that we can do nothing about it. I expect you and the rest of the government to act on a deal; this isn’t a matter of right or left—it’s purely about human lives."
During his visit, Smotrich also spoke with Sigi, the widow of Dolev Yehud, who was murdered on October 7, and the sister-in-law of Arbel Yehud, who remains captive in Gaza. "Right now, I need help and someone to protect me," she told him. "I think that after what you’ve seen and heard here, and you've heard many stories, you need to take all this and give everything you have to those here, especially those who need to return here."
After touring the homes that were occupied, burned, and where atrocities took place, and after speaking with the families of the hostages and the murdered, Smotrich told the residents, "I am committed to the return of the hostages and to strengthening the affected communities. I will recommend to all my colleagues and the Prime Minister to come visit here; you don’t leave here the same as you came."link. Unfortunately, I don't believe a single word that Smotrich said. He and Ben Gvir have been the 2 ministers who have actively come out against every single hostage deal and threatened to leave the government if Netanyahu agrees to any agreement taht means the end of the war. By saying that he will recommend to his colleagues to visit Nir Oz (over a year after Black Saturday, which in itself is a disgrace that it took anymore than a week or even a month after the massacre - Nir Oz still has 27 people who are hostages in Gaza for 403 days), he is not saying anything about supporting a hostage deal. Here, the silence is deafening. Let us all remember other statements that Smotrich said regarding the hostages. When the video of horrors of what happened on October 7 was being presented to the cabinet ministers, he and others refused to see it. His reason was that he 'wants to sleep at night' - another horrendous disgraceful statement. And from early on in the war, he stated that sacrificing the hostages for the good of the goals of the war to destroy Hamas is a price that we can pay. This cowardly zebra has not changed any of his stripes.
- Limping toward the light: A letter from me in this moment - Rachel Goldberg-PolinIn this complex and loud world piled with confusion and brokenness, the most decent thing we can do is to revive the lost art of respectfulness
I have been asked questions about Hersh, about the plight to free the remaining hostages and about hopes for the future of our people. From within a place of loss and confusion, I share with you a piece of myself:
My name is Rachel and I am the mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the six beautiful hostages murdered in Gaza at the end of August. We buried his battered and bruised body on September 2nd, 2024, in Jerusalem.
I am also a wife, daughter, friend, student, teacher, Jew, Israeli, American, human and mother to two dynamic and vivacious daughters. And now, I am trying to become a navigator.
Like Magellan, Columbus and Sir Frances Drake, I am embarking on an odyssey into the unknown. My journey, I’m being told, can take the rest of my life to walk through. I am hoping to have a long life. And so I am starting my trek now.
‘Now’ can mean today, or this morning, or this hour. ‘Now’ is whatever I have the mental, psychological and spiritual strength to bite into at the moment.
I am asked what it is like to go through such a deep and profound blow while being watched by many people. I find it incredibly difficult and curiously fascinating. I have always been a happily anonymous person. I am a high-functioning introvert – I can be comfortable in a crowd, but I always prefer to be home or alone. Maybe that was from being an only child growing up in Chicago. I never had a problem with it, ever. I had a lot of friends and could be with them when I wanted, or be alone at home filling my time in creative ways. I performed epic puppet shows for my stuffed animals, who I would line up as my eager audience, just one of a myriad of examples.
After sharing Hersh with so many for 330 days in order to help save him, he and my family have become recognizable to some. I am deeply grateful that so many took Hersh to be theirs and have been with us during this dark chapter since October 7th, 2023, the date our world turned upside-down. With that, now comes a lot of pressure, which I am trying to learn how to hold.
People reach out or stop me to share their pain. They describe how broken they are by the loss of Hersh and so many others. They go on to share personal losses they have had in their lives. They see my family as a vessel for the throbbing that they feel, for hits they have endured. It teaches me that there is an excess and surplus of suffering most people carry in their pockets. It changes over time, but it is always there, being transported around, just waiting for someone to show it to when the opportunity arises. And my presence often is that opportunity.
There is no measuring stick for aches of agony. Mine is no longer than his or hers. It’s different, and maybe newer, but pain is pain. Jon and I discovered this since Hersh’s death when thousands have come to us and shared their grief and their sorrow. And each day, when someone stops us to tell of their anguish it shows how unaddressed and still packed their satchels are, filled with tears, lumps and scars.
I feel like I have third-degree burns on my skin, so when people grab me or try to hug me, it is not helpful for me at this time. I think this is confusing for the person offering themselves to me. I know it is coming from a benevolent place in their heart. Years ago, a gifted teacher, Elana Friedman, taught me a piece, by the famous Reb Shlomo Volbe, about true chesed (kindness). This most complicated of disciplines requires looking at the person in front of us and saying to ourselves, “What does this person need?” not “What do I imagine I would need in this person’s situation?” It is the hardest of challenges, not to put ourselves into someone else’s shoes, but to stay in our own shoes and look at this person who is not me. How do I allow them that room, that space, that air? How do we restrain ourselves from projecting what we need onto the person in front of us? Ouch. It is so very complicated to do successfully. We all fail at times. I know I certainly do.
When my girls and I are having a moment walking, breathing and smiling, and someone stops us and starts crying, they are robbing us of a moment of respite from the horror we are digesting. When I am walking alone, with a hat, glasses and my head down, it is me saying, “Please, oh please, let me breathe for a moment without having to also carry your pain. Your pain is as real as mine, but I have no strength at the moment to carry yours too. I love you and am endlessly grateful for you loving Hersh. I love you for loving the hostage families. I love you for trying to help. But please, if you want to help me, let me go on walking. When you see me and our eyes cross paths, please, oh please, just smile and wave. My knees are buckling from all the wounds people are sharing. I am just not formidable and powerful enough. Not yet. I am working on it. I wish to get there. Because I want us all to help lift each other, like the Amish do when they hoist up the frame for a new home they are all collectively building together. Let’s do that. But I am not robust enough…not yet.”
The Jewish people are at a juncture where we have so very much to figure out. The nugget of wisdom my mother taught me when I was young keeps nudging at my hip, with its hands raised, wanting to be picked up, asking for attention. Her friend Danny shared the idea that if we always treat the person next to us as if they are the Messiah, in disguise as a regular person, we will be careful with how we speak and what we do in their presence. And if they choose not to reveal themselves in our lifetime, it will not matter, because we will have behaved respectfully and carefully to that regular person next to us. This is the most decent thing we can do in this complex and loud world piled with confusion and brokenness. Let us work on the lost art of respectfulness.
Hersh and I spoke about this idea often. We talked about how wearing a kippah is a way to show we believe there is something above us, watching us. I asked him just a couple of years ago what person he would imagine was watching him, from a window above, who would cause him to behave in an improved way. Even after all these long years, he said, Mrs. Carlton, his beloved first-grade teacher from Virginia. We talked about that feeling of having someone or something we respect above us, how we behave differently. We behave better.
We seem to have lost this ability as a people. There is so much internal disagreement and strife in our Jewish world, and it has not served us well. I think our challenge as we limp forward toward the light, as we rise from the ashes that are still smoldering (and our cherished 101 hostages in Gaza, still languishing there as of this writing) is relearning how to listen. We have to master how to give space and oxygen, allow the person with whom we disagree to share their ideas, and try to understand them. And then they too should allow me to do that. Is it possible? Yes. Will it happen? As I have said since October 7, 2023, hope is still mandatory. And so of course I hope and pray we use all of our creative and godly resources to succeed. We must.
May we all know better days, and may we find true and restorative comfort. Imminently. link
Hostage Updates
- **Sharon Cunio Meets with Smotrich in Nir Oz: "The Abandonment Continues"**In his first visit to Kibbutz Nir Oz since October 7, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich spoke with Sharon Aloni Cunio, the wife of hostage David Cunio, who is still held captive in Gaza. "I don’t want to hear about retrieving bodies; I want David to come back," she said.During the visit, Cunio expressed her fears for her husband's fate. "You and David aren’t close in age. Imagine yourself when your child goes to sleep—you can hug her, kiss her, tuck her in, be there when she's scared. I don’t have that privilege," she told Smotrich. "I have to be both mom and dad. Until David comes back, I don’t have that ability. For me, I’m still in October 7, 2023. This is the greatest abandonment, and it continues."Cunio stressed to Smotrich the urgency of bringing the hostages back. "What security is there before they're returned? Come to my home one day, see my daughters, and tell me if this is victory. I’m grateful we were brought back, but my husband is still there, and my daughters are currently fatherless. We’re two minutes from Gaza. Imagine how close he is and that we can do nothing about it. I expect you and the rest of the government to act on a deal; this isn’t a matter of right or left—it’s purely about human lives."During his visit, Smotrich also spoke with Sigi, the widow of Dolev Yehud, who was murdered on October 7, and the sister-in-law of Arbel Yehud, who remains captive in Gaza. "Right now, I need help and someone to protect me," she told him. "I think that after what you’ve seen and heard here, and you've heard many stories, you need to take all this and give everything you have to those here, especially those who need to return here."After touring the homes that were occupied, burned, and where atrocities took place, and after speaking with the families of the hostages and the murdered, Smotrich told the residents, "I am committed to the return of the hostages and to strengthening the affected communities. I will recommend to all my colleagues and the Prime Minister to come visit here; you don’t leave here the same as you came."link. Unfortunately, I don't believe a single word that Smotrich said. He and Ben Gvir have been the 2 ministers who have actively come out against every single hostage deal and threatened to leave the government if Netanyahu agrees to any agreement taht means the end of the war. By saying that he will recommend to his colleagues to visit Nir Oz (over a year after Black Saturday, which in itself is a disgrace that it took anymore than a week or even a month after the massacre - Nir Oz still has 27 people who are hostages in Gaza for 403 days), he is not saying anything about supporting a hostage deal. Here, the silence is deafening. Let us all remember other statements that Smotrich said regarding the hostages. When the video of horrors of what happened on October 7 was being presented to the cabinet ministers, he and others refused to see it. His reason was that he 'wants to sleep at night' - another horrendous disgraceful statement. And from early on in the war, he stated that sacrificing the hostages for the good of the goals of the war to destroy Hamas is a price that we can pay. This cowardly zebra has not changed any of his stripes.
- Limping toward the light: A letter from me in this moment - Rachel Goldberg-PolinIn this complex and loud world piled with confusion and brokenness, the most decent thing we can do is to revive the lost art of respectfulness
I have been asked questions about Hersh, about the plight to free the remaining hostages and about hopes for the future of our people. From within a place of loss and confusion, I share with you a piece of myself:
My name is Rachel and I am the mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the six beautiful hostages murdered in Gaza at the end of August. We buried his battered and bruised body on September 2nd, 2024, in Jerusalem.
I am also a wife, daughter, friend, student, teacher, Jew, Israeli, American, human and mother to two dynamic and vivacious daughters. And now, I am trying to become a navigator.
Like Magellan, Columbus and Sir Frances Drake, I am embarking on an odyssey into the unknown. My journey, I’m being told, can take the rest of my life to walk through. I am hoping to have a long life. And so I am starting my trek now.
‘Now’ can mean today, or this morning, or this hour. ‘Now’ is whatever I have the mental, psychological and spiritual strength to bite into at the moment.
I am asked what it is like to go through such a deep and profound blow while being watched by many people. I find it incredibly difficult and curiously fascinating. I have always been a happily anonymous person. I am a high-functioning introvert – I can be comfortable in a crowd, but I always prefer to be home or alone. Maybe that was from being an only child growing up in Chicago. I never had a problem with it, ever. I had a lot of friends and could be with them when I wanted, or be alone at home filling my time in creative ways. I performed epic puppet shows for my stuffed animals, who I would line up as my eager audience, just one of a myriad of examples.
After sharing Hersh with so many for 330 days in order to help save him, he and my family have become recognizable to some. I am deeply grateful that so many took Hersh to be theirs and have been with us during this dark chapter since October 7th, 2023, the date our world turned upside-down. With that, now comes a lot of pressure, which I am trying to learn how to hold.
People reach out or stop me to share their pain. They describe how broken they are by the loss of Hersh and so many others. They go on to share personal losses they have had in their lives. They see my family as a vessel for the throbbing that they feel, for hits they have endured. It teaches me that there is an excess and surplus of suffering most people carry in their pockets. It changes over time, but it is always there, being transported around, just waiting for someone to show it to when the opportunity arises. And my presence often is that opportunity.
There is no measuring stick for aches of agony. Mine is no longer than his or hers. It’s different, and maybe newer, but pain is pain. Jon and I discovered this since Hersh’s death when thousands have come to us and shared their grief and their sorrow. And each day, when someone stops us to tell of their anguish it shows how unaddressed and still packed their satchels are, filled with tears, lumps and scars.
I feel like I have third-degree burns on my skin, so when people grab me or try to hug me, it is not helpful for me at this time. I think this is confusing for the person offering themselves to me. I know it is coming from a benevolent place in their heart. Years ago, a gifted teacher, Elana Friedman, taught me a piece, by the famous Reb Shlomo Volbe, about true chesed (kindness). This most complicated of disciplines requires looking at the person in front of us and saying to ourselves, “What does this person need?” not “What do I imagine I would need in this person’s situation?” It is the hardest of challenges, not to put ourselves into someone else’s shoes, but to stay in our own shoes and look at this person who is not me. How do I allow them that room, that space, that air? How do we restrain ourselves from projecting what we need onto the person in front of us? Ouch. It is so very complicated to do successfully. We all fail at times. I know I certainly do.
When my girls and I are having a moment walking, breathing and smiling, and someone stops us and starts crying, they are robbing us of a moment of respite from the horror we are digesting. When I am walking alone, with a hat, glasses and my head down, it is me saying, “Please, oh please, let me breathe for a moment without having to also carry your pain. Your pain is as real as mine, but I have no strength at the moment to carry yours too. I love you and am endlessly grateful for you loving Hersh. I love you for loving the hostage families. I love you for trying to help. But please, if you want to help me, let me go on walking. When you see me and our eyes cross paths, please, oh please, just smile and wave. My knees are buckling from all the wounds people are sharing. I am just not formidable and powerful enough. Not yet. I am working on it. I wish to get there. Because I want us all to help lift each other, like the Amish do when they hoist up the frame for a new home they are all collectively building together. Let’s do that. But I am not robust enough…not yet.”
The Jewish people are at a juncture where we have so very much to figure out. The nugget of wisdom my mother taught me when I was young keeps nudging at my hip, with its hands raised, wanting to be picked up, asking for attention. Her friend Danny shared the idea that if we always treat the person next to us as if they are the Messiah, in disguise as a regular person, we will be careful with how we speak and what we do in their presence. And if they choose not to reveal themselves in our lifetime, it will not matter, because we will have behaved respectfully and carefully to that regular person next to us. This is the most decent thing we can do in this complex and loud world piled with confusion and brokenness. Let us work on the lost art of respectfulness.
Hersh and I spoke about this idea often. We talked about how wearing a kippah is a way to show we believe there is something above us, watching us. I asked him just a couple of years ago what person he would imagine was watching him, from a window above, who would cause him to behave in an improved way. Even after all these long years, he said, Mrs. Carlton, his beloved first-grade teacher from Virginia. We talked about that feeling of having someone or something we respect above us, how we behave differently. We behave better.
We seem to have lost this ability as a people. There is so much internal disagreement and strife in our Jewish world, and it has not served us well. I think our challenge as we limp forward toward the light, as we rise from the ashes that are still smoldering (and our cherished 101 hostages in Gaza, still languishing there as of this writing) is relearning how to listen. We have to master how to give space and oxygen, allow the person with whom we disagree to share their ideas, and try to understand them. And then they too should allow me to do that. Is it possible? Yes. Will it happen? As I have said since October 7, 2023, hope is still mandatory. And so of course I hope and pray we use all of our creative and godly resources to succeed. We must.
May we all know better days, and may we find true and restorative comfort. Imminently. link
Gaza and the South
- The IDF’s offensive in Jabalia began in early October, the fourth push into the northern Gaza refugee camp since the start of the war a year ago. The military has said that this operation will finally break Hamas’s forces in Jabalia, which it has called the “most significant center of gravity” for the terror group in northern Gaza.
The IDF claims that more than 55,000 civilians have left Jabalia after Hamas was allegedly forcing them to stay there to act as a human shield for their activities. Some 60,000 Palestinians were estimated to have been in Jabalia before the latest operation was launched last month.
The population has largely moved to Gaza City, with only a few dozen crossing the IDF’s Netzarim Corridor and heading to the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the Strip’s south.
Last week, the IDF estimated that only a few hundred people were left in Jabalia, both civilians and combatants. Several thousand Palestinians also remain in Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, and other northern Gaza towns, where the military is also operating against Hamas as part of the ongoing offensive.
A Palestinian man stares at the rubble of the Alloush family’s house, leveled in an Israeli strike in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 10, 2024. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)The army said it has killed over 1,000 Hamas operatives in the renewed Jabalia offensive, adding that it has taken over 1,000 operatives into custody.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says that over 43,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war in Gaza, though the numbers cannot be verified and do not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
The war erupted when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern communities on October 7, 2023, murdering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages to Gaza.
The IDF claims that more than 55,000 civilians have left Jabalia after Hamas was allegedly forcing them to stay there to act as a human shield for their activities. Some 60,000 Palestinians were estimated to have been in Jabalia before the latest operation was launched last month.
The population has largely moved to Gaza City, with only a few dozen crossing the IDF’s Netzarim Corridor and heading to the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the Strip’s south.
Last week, the IDF estimated that only a few hundred people were left in Jabalia, both civilians and combatants. Several thousand Palestinians also remain in Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, and other northern Gaza towns, where the military is also operating against Hamas as part of the ongoing offensive.
The army said it has killed over 1,000 Hamas operatives in the renewed Jabalia offensive, adding that it has taken over 1,000 operatives into custody.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says that over 43,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war in Gaza, though the numbers cannot be verified and do not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
The war erupted when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern communities on October 7, 2023, murdering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages to Gaza.
The security cabinet at a Sunday meeting approved a series of steps aimed at boosting the humanitarian situation in Gaza, ahead of the Wednesday deadline set by the US for Israel to address the crisis or risk a partial embargo on weapons from Washington, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel.
The US sent Israel a letter on October 13, warning that it had 30 days to take a list of steps or risk being out of compliance with US law, which bars the transfer of offensive weapons to countries that block access to humanitarian aid.
Among the steps demanded by the US was for Israel to increase the amount of aid going into Gaza to 350 trucks per day. That number has been well under 100 on average for the past several months.
Among the list of measures approved by the security cabinet on Sunday is an unspecified increase to the amount of aid entering the Strip, but an Israeli official tells Axios that Israel won’t be able to meet the 350 truck benchmark set by the US.
Another measure approved by the cabinet is the inland expansion of the Muwasi coastal humanitarian zone, which the IDF already started widening in recent weeks.
The ministers also agreed that Israel will send a written commitment that it is not seeking to forcibly deport Gazans from combat zones, Channel 13 reports. This appears to be in response to a US demand in its letter that Israel clarify that it is not seeking to “isolate northern Gaza,” through the implementation of the so-called General’s Plan.
The plan envisions the IDF laying siege to northern Gaza in order to prevent the resurgence of Hamas, and the IDF has insisted it is not carrying it out. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly do the same, but the premier declined to do so amid pressure from his far-right coalition partners, a US official told The Times of Israel last month.
It is unclear if the written commitment described by Channel 13 will suffice what the US was seeking from Israel.
The US letter made a separate, seemingly lower-tier request for Israel to allow the Red Cross to visit Palestinian security prisoners amid mounting reports of abuse in Israeli prisons.
Channel 13 reports that this request was denied by the security cabinet. Hamas has refused to allow the Red Cross to visit the remaining 101 hostages in Gaza.
Ministers during the security cabinet meeting pressed Netanyahu on why these measures were necessary, given that US President Joe Biden is on his way out and that Trump is unlikely to implement any sort of arms embargo against Israel, especially on his first days in office.
Netanyahu responded that Biden still can take steps against Israel in his final two-plus months in office and that boosting the Gaza humanitarian situation would be important in mitigating such moves, Channel 13 says.
A US official tells The Times of Israel that Israel has met some of the demands that the administration made in its letter but has fallen well short of others thus far.
Troops of the Kfir Brigade operating in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya have discovered and demolished a Hamas rocket launcher primed for an attack on Israeli border communities, the military says.
The IDF says the soldiers also killed several gunmen who were holed up in a building in the area. The building, which the military says served as a command center for the terror operatives, was later demolished.
The Kfir Brigade has been operating in the Beit Lahiya area, close to Jabalia, amid an ongoing operation against Hamas in northern Gaza. Yesterday, four soldiers of the brigade were killed during the fighting.
The security cabinet at a Sunday meeting approved a series of steps aimed at boosting the humanitarian situation in Gaza, ahead of the Wednesday deadline set by the US for Israel to address the crisis or risk a partial embargo on weapons from Washington, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel.
The US sent Israel a letter on October 13, warning that it had 30 days to take a list of steps or risk being out of compliance with US law, which bars the transfer of offensive weapons to countries that block access to humanitarian aid.
Among the steps demanded by the US was for Israel to increase the amount of aid going into Gaza to 350 trucks per day. That number has been well under 100 on average for the past several months.
Among the list of measures approved by the security cabinet on Sunday is an unspecified increase to the amount of aid entering the Strip, but an Israeli official tells Axios that Israel won’t be able to meet the 350 truck benchmark set by the US.
Another measure approved by the cabinet is the inland expansion of the Muwasi coastal humanitarian zone, which the IDF already started widening in recent weeks.
The ministers also agreed that Israel will send a written commitment that it is not seeking to forcibly deport Gazans from combat zones, Channel 13 reports. This appears to be in response to a US demand in its letter that Israel clarify that it is not seeking to “isolate northern Gaza,” through the implementation of the so-called General’s Plan.
The plan envisions the IDF laying siege to northern Gaza in order to prevent the resurgence of Hamas, and the IDF has insisted it is not carrying it out. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly do the same, but the premier declined to do so amid pressure from his far-right coalition partners, a US official told The Times of Israel last month.
It is unclear if the written commitment described by Channel 13 will suffice what the US was seeking from Israel.
The US letter made a separate, seemingly lower-tier request for Israel to allow the Red Cross to visit Palestinian security prisoners amid mounting reports of abuse in Israeli prisons.
Channel 13 reports that this request was denied by the security cabinet. Hamas has refused to allow the Red Cross to visit the remaining 101 hostages in Gaza.
Ministers during the security cabinet meeting pressed Netanyahu on why these measures were necessary, given that US President Joe Biden is on his way out and that Trump is unlikely to implement any sort of arms embargo against Israel, especially on his first days in office.
Netanyahu responded that Biden still can take steps against Israel in his final two-plus months in office and that boosting the Gaza humanitarian situation would be important in mitigating such moves, Channel 13 says.
A US official tells The Times of Israel that Israel has met some of the demands that the administration made in its letter but has fallen well short of others thus far.
Troops of the Kfir Brigade operating in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya have discovered and demolished a Hamas rocket launcher primed for an attack on Israeli border communities, the military says.
The IDF says the soldiers also killed several gunmen who were holed up in a building in the area. The building, which the military says served as a command center for the terror operatives, was later demolished.
The Kfir Brigade has been operating in the Beit Lahiya area, close to Jabalia, amid an ongoing operation against Hamas in northern Gaza. Yesterday, four soldiers of the brigade were killed during the fighting.
Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria
- Hezbollah drone hits kindergarten near Haifa; kids unharmed in bomb shelter
No sirens heard in community of Nesher, but staff moved youngsters to safety as a precaution; IDF bombs terror group’s southern Beirut bastion
A drone from Lebanon exploded next to a kindergarten in the northern town of Nesher on Tuesday, shattering windows and scattering debris across the outdoor play area.
Although there was no warning siren in the Haifa suburb, the staff, aware of alerts nearby, had moved the children into the facility’s bomb shelter as a precaution. There were no injuries to staff or children.
The drone hit a tree next to the kindergarten and exploded, causing slight damage to the building and a fence.
The Israel Defense Forces said it was investigating why no sirens had been sounded in Nesher even though the early warning system was triggered in other northern areas as the military sought to intercept the drone.
Sirens were activated in the Western Galilee and areas near Haifa during the incident.
Israeli Air Force helicopters were scrambled to intercept the drone but failed to stop it.
Nesher Mayor Roi Levi said the children were moved to another kindergarten following the attack.
Footage posted to social media showed the Hezbollah drone flying over the Haifa area before it eventually hit Nesher.
The drone attack came as the IDF continued its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, aiming to make it safe for some 60,000 northern residents to return to their homes after being displaced by near-daily attacks by the Iran-backed terror group since ally Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror onslaught in the south triggered the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
After the IDF issued evacuation orders for 11 buildings in Beirut’s southern Dahiyeh suburb, Lebanese media reported Israeli airstrikes in the area.
The IDF said it was targeting Hezbollah assets. video of attacks in Lebanon
Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, published maps alongside the announcement calling on civilians to distance themselves at least 500 meters from the sites in Dahiyeh.
AFPTV footage showed plumes of smoke rising from the area. Witnesses told AFP gunfire could be heard in the area ahead of the strikes — warning shots by residents for people to leave following the evacuation call.
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs on November 12, 2024. (ANWAR AMRO / AFP)On Tuesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said “there will be no ceasefire and no pause in Lebanon” until war objectives are met, referring to US-spearheaded efforts to reach an negotiated end to the war.
Israel’s offensive actions “must continue to weaken Hezbollah’s capabilities and achieve the fruits of victory,” Katz wrote on X.
“We will continue to strike Hezbollah with full force until the war’s objectives are achieved,” he said. “Israel will not agree to any arrangement that does not guarantee its right to enforce and prevent terrorism independently, ensuring the war’s goals in Lebanon are met, including disarming Hezbollah, pushing them beyond the Litani River, and allowing northern residents to return to their homes safely.”On Monday, Hezbollah rained around 190 rockets and drones on northern Israel, injuring seven people and damaging buildings and cars. The IDF said most of the rockets were either intercepted by air defenses or hit open areas.
Fighting along the northern border escalated significantly in September when Israel, after 11 months of Hezbollah cross-border fire, carried out a wave of heavy airstrikes that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top commanders.
It then launched a ground invasion into southern Lebanon, aiming to push Hezbollah away from the border.
The attacks on northern Israel since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 41 civilians. In addition, 62 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.
Two soldiers have been killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
The IDF estimates that some 3,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has named 516 members who have been killed by Israel amid the fighting, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. These numbers have not been consistently updated since Israel began a new offensive against Hezbollah in September.
- Hezbollah boasts of no missile shortage amid Eastern attacks on Israel - analysisBoasting by Hezbollah comes as Houthis in Yemen also target Israel with long-range missiles, and Iraqi militias use drones to attack.
Grad rockets used by Hezbollah
Hezbollah’s media office claimed on Monday that it’s got plenty of missiles and rockets – enough for a long war with Israel. This statement was made in response to reports in Israeli media that Hezbollah’s arsenal was down to 20% remaining.
Hezbollah further said that the evidence it has to support this claim can be seen in its recent attack targeting areas near Tel Aviv, as well as Haifa and the Golan, in which it used the Fateh 110 missile.
The Iranian terrorist proxy group also fired 50 rockets toward Karmiel on Monday morning, injuring several people; Hezbollah took responsibility for the attack. More barrages followed in the afternoon.
It says it is ready for a long war, and also that it had not received a ceasefire proposal. This comes as reports claimed that Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who is fresh in the role, expressed optimism about a potential ceasefire, and Defense Minister Israel Katz indicated that Hezbollah has been defeated.
Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq also claimed to have targeted Israel with six drones late Sunday night, which the IDF said it intercepted: “Overnight, the IAF successfully intercepted four UAVs that approached Israel from the east. Two of the UAVs were intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory.”
Iranian proxies in Iraq and Yemen
Iranian state media IRNA said that “the Islamic resistance in Iraq announced fresh anti-Israel operations” and that its drones “hit a number of Israeli targets.” The Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq said they intensified drone attacks on Israel recently, claiming to have targeted Eilat, the Golan, and Jordan Valley. “The group has vowed to press ahead with its anti-Israel operations with increasing intensity,” IRNA reported.
In addition, the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen claimed to have targeted the Nahal Sorek area with a long-range ballistic missile it called the “Palestine 2.” The IDF responded that “following the sirens that sounded in the Shfelat Yehuda, Yehuda, and Lakhish areas of central Israel, the IAF intercepted one projectile that approached Israel from the direction of Yemen. The projectile did not cross into Israeli territory.” link
Video shows Hezbollah drone flying over Haifa areaFootage posted to social media shows a Hezbollah drone flying over the Haifa area a short while ago.
The IDF said it was tracking several targets that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon, as drone sirens sounded in the Western Galilee and Haifa Bay area. video of drone over Haifa
Lebanon’s health ministry says five people were killed in an Israeli strike on a village about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the Israeli border, which state-run media says targeted a house.
“The Israeli enemy strike on Tefahta killed five people,” the ministry says in a statement, with the official National News Agency reporting that “enemy aircraft launched a strike a short while ago on the town of Tefahta, targeting an inhabited house.”
The ministry doesn’t say if those killed are civilians or Hezbollah operatives. Israel says its strikes are directed against the latter.
Israeli fighter jets carried out a series of airstrikes on Hezbollah sites in Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier today, the IDF says.
According to the military, the targets included command centers, weapon manufacturing plans, and other military infrastructure.
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. video of the airstrikes
2 men killed in Nahariya by rocket from Lebanon
Two people were killed in a rocket impact in the northern coastal city of Nahariya a short while ago, medics say.
Magen David Adom says the victims are two men in their 40s, and they were both declared dead at the scene.
In Kibbutz Kabri, MDA says, another two men in their 30s were lightly hurt by shrapnel in another impact.
According to the IDF, 10 rockets were launched from Lebanon in the attack, some of which were intercepted while others struck inside towns in the Western Galilee or open areas.
Surveillance camera footage shows the deadly impact in Nahariya. video of the direct hit on the factory in Nahariya
May their memories be a revolution
The IDF’s 36th Division has reached “new targets” belonging to the Hezbollah terror group during the ongoing ground operation in southern Lebanon, the military says.
The IDF says troops with the division have located rocket launchers primed for an attack on Israel, and demolished sites belonging to the terror group.
Also in the past day, the military says the Air Force struck some 100 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, including dozens of operatives, rocket launchers, weapon depots, and other infrastructure.
Yesterday, fighter jets struck a Hezbollah military site in the Beqaa Valley, which the IDF says included tunnel infrastructure with underground rocket launchers aimed at Israel.
No sirens heard in community of Nesher, but staff moved youngsters to safety as a precaution; IDF bombs terror group’s southern Beirut bastion
A drone from Lebanon exploded next to a kindergarten in the northern town of Nesher on Tuesday, shattering windows and scattering debris across the outdoor play area.
Although there was no warning siren in the Haifa suburb, the staff, aware of alerts nearby, had moved the children into the facility’s bomb shelter as a precaution. There were no injuries to staff or children.
The drone hit a tree next to the kindergarten and exploded, causing slight damage to the building and a fence.
The Israel Defense Forces said it was investigating why no sirens had been sounded in Nesher even though the early warning system was triggered in other northern areas as the military sought to intercept the drone.
Sirens were activated in the Western Galilee and areas near Haifa during the incident.
Israeli Air Force helicopters were scrambled to intercept the drone but failed to stop it.
Nesher Mayor Roi Levi said the children were moved to another kindergarten following the attack.
Footage posted to social media showed the Hezbollah drone flying over the Haifa area before it eventually hit Nesher.
The drone attack came as the IDF continued its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, aiming to make it safe for some 60,000 northern residents to return to their homes after being displaced by near-daily attacks by the Iran-backed terror group since ally Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror onslaught in the south triggered the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
After the IDF issued evacuation orders for 11 buildings in Beirut’s southern Dahiyeh suburb, Lebanese media reported Israeli airstrikes in the area.
The IDF said it was targeting Hezbollah assets. video of attacks in Lebanon
Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, published maps alongside the announcement calling on civilians to distance themselves at least 500 meters from the sites in Dahiyeh.
AFPTV footage showed plumes of smoke rising from the area. Witnesses told AFP gunfire could be heard in the area ahead of the strikes — warning shots by residents for people to leave following the evacuation call.
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs on November 12, 2024. (ANWAR AMRO / AFP)
On Tuesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said “there will be no ceasefire and no pause in Lebanon” until war objectives are met, referring to US-spearheaded efforts to reach an negotiated end to the war.
Israel’s offensive actions “must continue to weaken Hezbollah’s capabilities and achieve the fruits of victory,” Katz wrote on X.
“We will continue to strike Hezbollah with full force until the war’s objectives are achieved,” he said. “Israel will not agree to any arrangement that does not guarantee its right to enforce and prevent terrorism independently, ensuring the war’s goals in Lebanon are met, including disarming Hezbollah, pushing them beyond the Litani River, and allowing northern residents to return to their homes safely.”On Monday, Hezbollah rained around 190 rockets and drones on northern Israel, injuring seven people and damaging buildings and cars. The IDF said most of the rockets were either intercepted by air defenses or hit open areas.
Fighting along the northern border escalated significantly in September when Israel, after 11 months of Hezbollah cross-border fire, carried out a wave of heavy airstrikes that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top commanders.
It then launched a ground invasion into southern Lebanon, aiming to push Hezbollah away from the border.
The attacks on northern Israel since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 41 civilians. In addition, 62 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.
Two soldiers have been killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
The IDF estimates that some 3,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has named 516 members who have been killed by Israel amid the fighting, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. These numbers have not been consistently updated since Israel began a new offensive against Hezbollah in September.
Hezbollah’s media office claimed on Monday that it’s got plenty of missiles and rockets – enough for a long war with Israel. This statement was made in response to reports in Israeli media that Hezbollah’s arsenal was down to 20% remaining.
Hezbollah further said that the evidence it has to support this claim can be seen in its recent attack targeting areas near Tel Aviv, as well as Haifa and the Golan, in which it used the Fateh 110 missile.
The Iranian terrorist proxy group also fired 50 rockets toward Karmiel on Monday morning, injuring several people; Hezbollah took responsibility for the attack. More barrages followed in the afternoon.
It says it is ready for a long war, and also that it had not received a ceasefire proposal. This comes as reports claimed that Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who is fresh in the role, expressed optimism about a potential ceasefire, and Defense Minister Israel Katz indicated that Hezbollah has been defeated.
Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq also claimed to have targeted Israel with six drones late Sunday night, which the IDF said it intercepted: “Overnight, the IAF successfully intercepted four UAVs that approached Israel from the east. Two of the UAVs were intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory.”
Iranian proxies in Iraq and Yemen
Iranian state media IRNA said that “the Islamic resistance in Iraq announced fresh anti-Israel operations” and that its drones “hit a number of Israeli targets.” The Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq said they intensified drone attacks on Israel recently, claiming to have targeted Eilat, the Golan, and Jordan Valley. “The group has vowed to press ahead with its anti-Israel operations with increasing intensity,” IRNA reported.
In addition, the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen claimed to have targeted the Nahal Sorek area with a long-range ballistic missile it called the “Palestine 2.” The IDF responded that “following the sirens that sounded in the Shfelat Yehuda, Yehuda, and Lakhish areas of central Israel, the IAF intercepted one projectile that approached Israel from the direction of Yemen. The projectile did not cross into Israeli territory.” link
Video shows Hezbollah drone flying over Haifa areaFootage posted to social media shows a Hezbollah drone flying over the Haifa area a short while ago.
The IDF said it was tracking several targets that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon, as drone sirens sounded in the Western Galilee and Haifa Bay area. video of drone over Haifa
Lebanon’s health ministry says five people were killed in an Israeli strike on a village about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the Israeli border, which state-run media says targeted a house.
“The Israeli enemy strike on Tefahta killed five people,” the ministry says in a statement, with the official National News Agency reporting that “enemy aircraft launched a strike a short while ago on the town of Tefahta, targeting an inhabited house.”
The ministry doesn’t say if those killed are civilians or Hezbollah operatives. Israel says its strikes are directed against the latter.
Israeli fighter jets carried out a series of airstrikes on Hezbollah sites in Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier today, the IDF says.
According to the military, the targets included command centers, weapon manufacturing plans, and other military infrastructure.
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. video of the airstrikes
2 men killed in Nahariya by rocket from Lebanon
Two people were killed in a rocket impact in the northern coastal city of Nahariya a short while ago, medics say.
Magen David Adom says the victims are two men in their 40s, and they were both declared dead at the scene.
In Kibbutz Kabri, MDA says, another two men in their 30s were lightly hurt by shrapnel in another impact.
According to the IDF, 10 rockets were launched from Lebanon in the attack, some of which were intercepted while others struck inside towns in the Western Galilee or open areas.
Surveillance camera footage shows the deadly impact in Nahariya. video of the direct hit on the factory in Nahariya
The IDF’s 36th Division has reached “new targets” belonging to the Hezbollah terror group during the ongoing ground operation in southern Lebanon, the military says.
The IDF says troops with the division have located rocket launchers primed for an attack on Israel, and demolished sites belonging to the terror group.
Also in the past day, the military says the Air Force struck some 100 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, including dozens of operatives, rocket launchers, weapon depots, and other infrastructure.
Yesterday, fighter jets struck a Hezbollah military site in the Beqaa Valley, which the IDF says included tunnel infrastructure with underground rocket launchers aimed at Israel.
West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel
- 2 Palestinians turn themselves in after allegedly ramming soldiers in West Bank
The IDF says two Palestinian suspects were detained for allegedly ramming their car into Israeli soldiers in the West Bank town of al-Khader last night.Two soldiers hit by the car were taken to a hospital in light and moderate condition.
The suspects initially fled the scene after hitting the soldiers. They later turned themselves in to security forces and were detained, the IDF says.
A Palestinian suspect who attempted to stab IDF soldiers near the West Bank town of Dayr Sharaf has been shot.
The scene of an attempted stabbing attack by a Palestinian against IDF soldiers near the West Bank town of Dayr Sharaf, November 12, 2024. (Rescuers Without Borders)The assailant’s condition isn’t immediately clear.
There are no other injuries in the incident.
An IDF soldier has been wounded after a group of some 50 settlers hurled stones and glass bottles at troops, following the evacuation of an illegal West Bank outpost.
The Tzur Harel outpost, close to Givat Asaf, east of Ramallah, was evacuated by authorities this morning for the second time in a day, prompting a riot by the settlers.
The soldier was hit in the head by a glass bottle and taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem for treatment, according to a military source. link Due to this extremist messianic government, we live with the absurd situation of extremist settlers who attack Palestinians with absolute freedom and no penalties. This attack is evidence that they can also attack our own soldiers and get away with it. This is far from the first time that the extremists have attacked and injured our security forces (soldiers and border policeman) and it is almost unheard of that the criminals who attack are apprehended and arrested and even rarer that they are brought to trial. This is Netanyahu's government with criminals in his cabinet who encourage this behavior with Netanyahu being the biggest enabler.
Two soldiers hit by the car were taken to a hospital in light and moderate condition.
The suspects initially fled the scene after hitting the soldiers. They later turned themselves in to security forces and were detained, the IDF says.A Palestinian suspect who attempted to stab IDF soldiers near the West Bank town of Dayr Sharaf has been shot.
The scene of an attempted stabbing attack by a Palestinian against IDF soldiers near the West Bank town of Dayr Sharaf, November 12, 2024. (Rescuers Without Borders)
The assailant’s condition isn’t immediately clear.
There are no other injuries in the incident.
An IDF soldier has been wounded after a group of some 50 settlers hurled stones and glass bottles at troops, following the evacuation of an illegal West Bank outpost.
The Tzur Harel outpost, close to Givat Asaf, east of Ramallah, was evacuated by authorities this morning for the second time in a day, prompting a riot by the settlers.
The soldier was hit in the head by a glass bottle and taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem for treatment, according to a military source. link Due to this extremist messianic government, we live with the absurd situation of extremist settlers who attack Palestinians with absolute freedom and no penalties. This attack is evidence that they can also attack our own soldiers and get away with it. This is far from the first time that the extremists have attacked and injured our security forces (soldiers and border policeman) and it is almost unheard of that the criminals who attack are apprehended and arrested and even rarer that they are brought to trial. This is Netanyahu's government with criminals in his cabinet who encourage this behavior with Netanyahu being the biggest enabler.
Politics and the War (general news)
National Unity party leader Benny Gantz criticizes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over reports he seeks to form a “special committee” to investigate the failures of Oct. 7, 2023, rather than a state commission of inquiry.
“The worst disaster we faced since Israel’s founding cannot end with a window-dressing committee, and no in any other format that seeks to evade responsibility,” he writes on X.
“Netanyahu, enough with the inventions and evasions. As the person at the top, it is your moral duty to the murdered, the fallen, the bereaved families, the wounded, the hostages, and the entire nation to establish a state commission of inquiry.” link One of Netanyahu's unstated goals of the war (actually of prolonging the war) is to prevent an official state commission of inquiry that is totally independent and will be able to issue legal recommendations, if not call for legal action against those responsible and criminally negligent for October 7, all that led up to Oct 7 and the mishandling of the war. Instead, he has stated on numerous occasions that there should be 'special committee' that is set up by the Knesset (government) which will have no legal mandate to recommend legal action or take legal action and would most likely have very limited investigative powers. Netanyahu knows very well that if there is an official state commission, his responsibility, culpability and guilt is virtuatlly guaranteed.
- State Attorney’s Office tells court it opposes Netanyahu’s request to delay testimony
National Unity party leader Benny Gantz criticizes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over reports he seeks to form a “special committee” to investigate the failures of Oct. 7, 2023, rather than a state commission of inquiry.
“The worst disaster we faced since Israel’s founding cannot end with a window-dressing committee, and no in any other format that seeks to evade responsibility,” he writes on X.
“Netanyahu, enough with the inventions and evasions. As the person at the top, it is your moral duty to the murdered, the fallen, the bereaved families, the wounded, the hostages, and the entire nation to establish a state commission of inquiry.” link One of Netanyahu's unstated goals of the war (actually of prolonging the war) is to prevent an official state commission of inquiry that is totally independent and will be able to issue legal recommendations, if not call for legal action against those responsible and criminally negligent for October 7, all that led up to Oct 7 and the mishandling of the war. Instead, he has stated on numerous occasions that there should be 'special committee' that is set up by the Knesset (government) which will have no legal mandate to recommend legal action or take legal action and would most likely have very limited investigative powers. Netanyahu knows very well that if there is an official state commission, his responsibility, culpability and guilt is virtuatlly guaranteed.
The State Attorney’s Office tells the Jerusalem District Court that it opposes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request to postpone his testimony in his criminal trial on corruption charges, which is currently set to begin on December 2.
Netanyahu’s legal team filed a request this week to delay his testimony by two and a half months, claiming that the security situation had made it impossible to properly prepare the prime minister.
But the State Attorney’s Office insists he has been given enough time by the court to prepare already, and that it is in the public interest for the trial to proceed to a conclusion as quickly as possible.
In its submission to the court, the State Attorney’s Office notes that the court already gave Netanyahu and his legal team five months to prepare when, in July, it set the start date for his testimony for December 2.
“Now after five months have gone by, and just three weeks before the date set for the beginning of the testimony… the defense requests a delay of another 10 weeks,” it says.
Prosecutors also point out that the trial has already taken five years and says that “the public interest in this case is that the trial be concluded as quickly as possible” and that the principle be upheld that “everyone is equal before the law.”
Probe into doctored PM’s office protocols centers on warnings Hamas activated Israeli SIM cards ahead of Oct. 7The protocols from security meetings that senior officials in the Prime Minister’s Office allegedly sought to change had to do — at least in part — with warnings received by PMO officials about Israeli SIM cards activated by Hamas forces in the lead-up to the October 7, 2023, attack, Ynet reports.
The allegation that senior PMO officials tried to blackmail an IDF officer in the PMO to get him to change records of meetings is one of several scandals swirling around the PMO in recent weeks.
The IDF said earlier this year that “several indicative signs accumulated” in the hours before the early morning onslaught, “which included, among other things, the activation of only dozens of SIMs, which had been activated in previous events in the past.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that he was only told about the SIMs after the attack had begun.
Citing officials familiar with the details, Ynet reports that law enforcement is checking whether senior officials in the PMO tried to blackmail a military intelligence officer in Netanyahu’s office who received a warning about the SIMs ahead of time, in an attempt to force him to change the protocols in order to show less responsibility borne by Netanyahu for the October 7 failure.
The officer, Col. S., received an update hours before the attack about Hamas units in both northern and southern Gaza activating SIM cards, according to Ynet.
Months after October 7, Netanyahu’s then-military secretary Avi Gil “was surprised to discover, when the transcripts and logs [from that night] were brought to him, that important details in the logs, and some essential topics in the content of the transcripts, had been changed in a way that created the impression, apparently, that the PMO knew much less about the SIMs,” Ynet reports.
“When he approached the clerk who compiled the record and asked her the meaning of the incident, she answered that she had done so on the orders of the same senior official in the bureau and that she could not disobey his instructions for fear that he would mistreat her.”
Netanyahu’s office firmly denies the report, calling it “another complete fabrication that is also part of an unprecedented media witch hunt against the Prime Minister’s Office in wartime, designed to whitewash the serious failures of others on the night of October 7.” link. Once again, when given the choice to believe almost anyone vs. the Prime Minister's Office, the choice is simple. They are similar a criminal syndicate who do everything to protect their boss, make sure any negative press gets denies and deflected and build up only the positive press, even if they have to create it.
- Smotrich: Trump’s victory gives Israel ‘opportunity’ to apply sovereignty to West Bank settlements
Donald Trump’s election as the 47th president of the United States provides Israel with an “important opportunity” to “apply Israeli sovereignty to the settlements in Judea and Samaria,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declares.
Addressing the press ahead of his Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Smotrich welcomes Trump’s victory over incumbent Joe Biden, whose administration he complains “unfortunately chose to intervene in Israeli democracy and personally not to cooperate with me.”
The Republican politician’s first term in 2017-2021 was positive for Israel, Smotrich states, citing the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem, the recognition of the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, and the Trump White House’s decision to declare that Israel’s West Bank settlements were consistent with international law.
“We were a step away from applying sovereignty to the settlements in Judea and Samaria, and now is the time to do it,” Smotrich declares, calling 2025 “the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.”
The only way to remove the “danger” of a Palestinian state “is to apply Israeli sovereignty to the settlements in Judea and Samaria,” the far-right minister continues, calling such a course of action the proper response to Hamas, Hezbollah and the rest of the Iranian-backed terrorist axis.
Revealing that he had instructed the Settlement Directorate of the Defense Ministry and the Civil Administration to begin preparing the groundwork for applying sovereignty, Smotrich insists that while Israel’s enemies saw October 7 as “the first step in [its] destruction…the new Nazis have to pay a price in the territory that will be taken from them forever both in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria.”
While there will be criticism, the Abraham Accords prove that when Israel stands up for what is right “in the end it receives support and appreciation from the US and the neighboring Arab countries.”
“I have no doubt that President Trump, who showed courage and determination in his decisions in the first term, will support the State of Israel in this move,” he adds.
Addressing a gathering in Jerusalem late last month, shortly before the US elections, Smotrich made similar comments, calling for Israel to effectively annex the West Bank and Gaza Strip, calling for the establishment of new settlements deep inside Palestinian areas and the departure of Arabs harboring nationalist aspirations.
During a speech at the Middle East Summit, a conference in Jerusalem organized by Israel 365, an Israeli media outlet aimed at American evangelicals, he also called for Israeli sovereignty to be extended to the Gaza Strip because otherwise Israel’s war gains would dissipate without troops, and civilians, being posted there on a more permanent basis.
In his remarks, Smotrich envisioned Palestinians being given limited local self-rule “devoid of national characteristics,” saying those who continued to support Palestinian statehood would be unwelcome.
“Those who do not want or are unable to put aside their national ambitions will receive assistance from us to emigrate to one of the many Arab countries where the Arabs can realize their national ambitions, or to any other destination in the world,” he said. link I have stated on many occasions that Smotrich's ideology of settlement is more important to him than anything else; the hostages, the war, the budget and finances of the country (he is, after all the Finance Minister, a total failure of one), the country's laws, international law, civil and human rights of the Palestinians or the left wing. His demand to also be a minister in the Defense Ministry in charge of the Civil Administration was to build up settlements, expand and create illegal settlements, make sure they all get huge funding, and the make the lives of the Palestinians miserable so they would leave. He is banking on Trump's total acuquiecense to whatever the Netanyahu government does and believes that he will be able to push through the thoroughly illegal annexation of the West Bank to Israel. He is, undoubtably planning to do the same with Gaza and perhaps Southern Lebanon, so he will have totally free reign to continue his messianic settlement plan and transfer plan of the Palestinians. Full speed ahead and damn all the consequences.
'The blood of our combat soldiers is crying out': Religious-Zionist women support haredi draft
Protesters urged equal military service for unity and Israel’s defense, rejecting exemptions.
Dozens gathered in Jerusalem Monday to rally against a bill that would exempt haredim (ultra-Orthodox) from the IDF draft, at a protest organized by the Religious-Zionist women’s organization Shutafot Lasherut (women partners in service).
Protesters held signs saying “the blood of our combat soldiers is crying out,” and “those who believe don’t dodge the draft.”
The organization includes women whose families have been drafted for over a year, and they called on the public to join their protest.
“We as religious women know and believe that it is a commandment from the Torah to draft to the IDF,” the organization said.
“Everyone must get under the stretcher and shoulder the burden together. No sector of Israeli society can be exempt through one law or another, nor receive benefits for avoiding military service. We believe that the ultra-Orthodox public can and should enlist, with adjustments made by the IDF to accommodate them. This is essential for the unity of the people and the defense of the State of Israel.”
Ofra Lifshitz, one of the leaders of the forum, whose husband has served for over 250 days in reserves, “The holy One, blessed be He, is sitting in the sky and crying over you and over us... He is also saying to you – we need a replacement now, we need a draft now!”
Noah Mevorach
Noah Mevorach, another leader of the forum, whose husband has served as a doctor in combat for 240 days, called on politicians to get involved.
“We call on every minister and member of Knesset who is a Zionist – let the voice of the public who serves be heard and stand by us. We won’t give our approval for draft evasion from the IDF.” link
Probe into doctored PM’s office protocols centers on warnings Hamas activated Israeli SIM cards ahead of Oct. 7The protocols from security meetings that senior officials in the Prime Minister’s Office allegedly sought to change had to do — at least in part — with warnings received by PMO officials about Israeli SIM cards activated by Hamas forces in the lead-up to the October 7, 2023, attack, Ynet reports.
The allegation that senior PMO officials tried to blackmail an IDF officer in the PMO to get him to change records of meetings is one of several scandals swirling around the PMO in recent weeks.
The IDF said earlier this year that “several indicative signs accumulated” in the hours before the early morning onslaught, “which included, among other things, the activation of only dozens of SIMs, which had been activated in previous events in the past.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that he was only told about the SIMs after the attack had begun.
Citing officials familiar with the details, Ynet reports that law enforcement is checking whether senior officials in the PMO tried to blackmail a military intelligence officer in Netanyahu’s office who received a warning about the SIMs ahead of time, in an attempt to force him to change the protocols in order to show less responsibility borne by Netanyahu for the October 7 failure.
The officer, Col. S., received an update hours before the attack about Hamas units in both northern and southern Gaza activating SIM cards, according to Ynet.
Months after October 7, Netanyahu’s then-military secretary Avi Gil “was surprised to discover, when the transcripts and logs [from that night] were brought to him, that important details in the logs, and some essential topics in the content of the transcripts, had been changed in a way that created the impression, apparently, that the PMO knew much less about the SIMs,” Ynet reports.
“When he approached the clerk who compiled the record and asked her the meaning of the incident, she answered that she had done so on the orders of the same senior official in the bureau and that she could not disobey his instructions for fear that he would mistreat her.”
Netanyahu’s office firmly denies the report, calling it “another complete fabrication that is also part of an unprecedented media witch hunt against the Prime Minister’s Office in wartime, designed to whitewash the serious failures of others on the night of October 7.” link. Once again, when given the choice to believe almost anyone vs. the Prime Minister's Office, the choice is simple. They are similar a criminal syndicate who do everything to protect their boss, make sure any negative press gets denies and deflected and build up only the positive press, even if they have to create it.
Donald Trump’s election as the 47th president of the United States provides Israel with an “important opportunity” to “apply Israeli sovereignty to the settlements in Judea and Samaria,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declares.
Addressing the press ahead of his Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Smotrich welcomes Trump’s victory over incumbent Joe Biden, whose administration he complains “unfortunately chose to intervene in Israeli democracy and personally not to cooperate with me.”
The Republican politician’s first term in 2017-2021 was positive for Israel, Smotrich states, citing the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem, the recognition of the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, and the Trump White House’s decision to declare that Israel’s West Bank settlements were consistent with international law.
“We were a step away from applying sovereignty to the settlements in Judea and Samaria, and now is the time to do it,” Smotrich declares, calling 2025 “the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.”
The only way to remove the “danger” of a Palestinian state “is to apply Israeli sovereignty to the settlements in Judea and Samaria,” the far-right minister continues, calling such a course of action the proper response to Hamas, Hezbollah and the rest of the Iranian-backed terrorist axis.
Revealing that he had instructed the Settlement Directorate of the Defense Ministry and the Civil Administration to begin preparing the groundwork for applying sovereignty, Smotrich insists that while Israel’s enemies saw October 7 as “the first step in [its] destruction…the new Nazis have to pay a price in the territory that will be taken from them forever both in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria.”
While there will be criticism, the Abraham Accords prove that when Israel stands up for what is right “in the end it receives support and appreciation from the US and the neighboring Arab countries.”
“I have no doubt that President Trump, who showed courage and determination in his decisions in the first term, will support the State of Israel in this move,” he adds.
Addressing a gathering in Jerusalem late last month, shortly before the US elections, Smotrich made similar comments, calling for Israel to effectively annex the West Bank and Gaza Strip, calling for the establishment of new settlements deep inside Palestinian areas and the departure of Arabs harboring nationalist aspirations.
During a speech at the Middle East Summit, a conference in Jerusalem organized by Israel 365, an Israeli media outlet aimed at American evangelicals, he also called for Israeli sovereignty to be extended to the Gaza Strip because otherwise Israel’s war gains would dissipate without troops, and civilians, being posted there on a more permanent basis.
In his remarks, Smotrich envisioned Palestinians being given limited local self-rule “devoid of national characteristics,” saying those who continued to support Palestinian statehood would be unwelcome.
“Those who do not want or are unable to put aside their national ambitions will receive assistance from us to emigrate to one of the many Arab countries where the Arabs can realize their national ambitions, or to any other destination in the world,” he said. link I have stated on many occasions that Smotrich's ideology of settlement is more important to him than anything else; the hostages, the war, the budget and finances of the country (he is, after all the Finance Minister, a total failure of one), the country's laws, international law, civil and human rights of the Palestinians or the left wing. His demand to also be a minister in the Defense Ministry in charge of the Civil Administration was to build up settlements, expand and create illegal settlements, make sure they all get huge funding, and the make the lives of the Palestinians miserable so they would leave. He is banking on Trump's total acuquiecense to whatever the Netanyahu government does and believes that he will be able to push through the thoroughly illegal annexation of the West Bank to Israel. He is, undoubtably planning to do the same with Gaza and perhaps Southern Lebanon, so he will have totally free reign to continue his messianic settlement plan and transfer plan of the Palestinians. Full speed ahead and damn all the consequences.
'The blood of our combat soldiers is crying out': Religious-Zionist women support haredi draft
Protesters urged equal military service for unity and Israel’s defense, rejecting exemptions.
Dozens gathered in Jerusalem Monday to rally against a bill that would exempt haredim (ultra-Orthodox) from the IDF draft, at a protest organized by the Religious-Zionist women’s organization Shutafot Lasherut (women partners in service).
Protesters held signs saying “the blood of our combat soldiers is crying out,” and “those who believe don’t dodge the draft.”
The organization includes women whose families have been drafted for over a year, and they called on the public to join their protest.
“We as religious women know and believe that it is a commandment from the Torah to draft to the IDF,” the organization said.
“Everyone must get under the stretcher and shoulder the burden together. No sector of Israeli society can be exempt through one law or another, nor receive benefits for avoiding military service. We believe that the ultra-Orthodox public can and should enlist, with adjustments made by the IDF to accommodate them. This is essential for the unity of the people and the defense of the State of Israel.”
Ofra Lifshitz, one of the leaders of the forum, whose husband has served for over 250 days in reserves, “The holy One, blessed be He, is sitting in the sky and crying over you and over us... He is also saying to you – we need a replacement now, we need a draft now!”
Noah Mevorach
Noah Mevorach, another leader of the forum, whose husband has served as a doctor in combat for 240 days, called on politicians to get involved.
“We call on every minister and member of Knesset who is a Zionist – let the voice of the public who serves be heard and stand by us. We won’t give our approval for draft evasion from the IDF.” link
The Region and the World
- Iranian bank cards can now be used in Russia, state television reports, as the two countries link their banking systems in the latest bid to counteract sanctions.
Iranian banks have been excluded since 2018 from the SWIFT international financial messaging service, which governs the vast majority of transactions worldwide. The move is part of a raft of sanctions that were re-imposed on Iran after the United States withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.
Iranian bank cards can now be used in Russia, state television channel IRINN says, showing the withdrawal of money using an Iranian bank card from an ATM in Russia.
The operation was made possible by connecting Iran’s interbank network Shetab to its Russian equivalent Mir, the channel says.
Iranians can currently withdraw money in Russia, and will in the future be able to use their cards to pay for in-store purchases, it adds.
“The plan is also going to be implemented in other countries that have a wide range of financial and social interactions with Iran, for example Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkey,” it says.
Both Iran and Russia have sought to counteract the effects of sanctions on their economies.
- US, UK airstrikes target two Yemeni governorates, Houthi-backed outlet reports
Al-Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, says a series of airstrikes have targeted the Amran and Saada governorates, which they say have been carried out by the US and Britain.
Survivors
Personal Stories Taken captive: UK citizen Emily Damari from her Kfar Aza apartment27-year-old was taken captive with friends from the youth neighborhood of Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7
Emily Damari, 27, was taken hostage on October 7 by Hamas terrorists who attacked Kibbutz Kfar Aza, killing, assaulting and abducting dozens to Gaza.
Damari is a British-Israeli dual citizen whose last message was around 10 a.m. on October 7, when she wrote that terrorists were in her neighborhood and shooting around her apartment.
Bar Kislev, a friend from the same neighborhood who survived that black Shabbat, later reported in a Channel 12 interview that he saw Damari’s car being driven at around 11 a.m. in their neighborhood.
He watched the car, which was being driven by a terrorist, stop in front of his house, and heard arguments in Arabic before the car was reversed and driven quickly in the direction of Gaza.
He said he believed that was the moment when Damari and the Berman twins, Gali and Ziv, were abducted. He witnessed other abductions, all within a one-hour window,
Out of 37 residents of Kibbutz Kfar Aza’s “young generation” neighborhood, 11 people were murdered and seven were kidnapped and taken to the Strip — among the 1,200 who were killed and 253 kidnapped when gunmen rampaged through southern Israeli communities.
In January 2024, released hostage Dafna Elyakim, 15, said in an Israeli television interview that she and her younger sister, Ella Elyakim, were taken into Hamas’s underground tunnels, where they met five other female hostages who haven’t yet returned — Liri Albag, Naama Levy, Romy Gonen, Agam Berger and Emily Damari. link
‘She likes drinking pints and watching the footy’ – Emily Damari is the last remaining British captive of HamasOn the eve of the one-year anniversary of her abduction, Emily’s mother appealed to thousands of people to help secure her safe return
Emily Damari's poster is raised at a London event to mark one year since October 7 (Credit: social media)
She likes watching the footy, drinking pints, dry humour and having cuppas with mates. It has now been one year since Emily Damari – the last remaining British hostage, who has dual nationality – was abducted into the terror tunnels of Gaza.
Damari, who celebrated her 28th birthday in captivity, was taken from her home on Kibbutz Kfar Aza by terrorists, and her beloved dog, Choocha, was shot.
Since then, she has missed her grandfather’s death in London earlier this year, births, weddings and the numerous birthdays of her many friends.
The youngest of four siblings, Emily is the “light and life” of her family and friendsm according to those who knew her and, as the host of the “best barbeques on the kibbutz” and armed with her sharp wit, her home was frequently full of people eager to be in her presence.
Emily has always remained close to her British roots too, her family says, and loves visiting London with her mum to engage in all-too British pastimes, such as visiting Primark, attending Ed Sheeran and Adele concerts, and cheering on her favourite football team, Tottenham Hotspurs, in the pub.
Former hostages, who were held captive with her, have testified to Emily’s unyielding bravery in the face of impossible circumstances, raising the spirits of her fellow captives in the dark tunnels of Gaza by leading singalongs of Boker Shel Kef (it’s a great morning) every day.
Now though, it has been a long time since any more reports of her condition have surfaced. Her mother, Mandy, has existed through a “living nightmare”, she said, not knowing “what torture” – from starvation to sexual abuse – Emily is being subjected to at the hands of terrorists.
Mandy Damari, 63, was born in Surrey and travelled to Israel to volunteer in her 20s. There, she fell in love and got married to an Israeli, had four children and eventually four grandchildren, living happily for over 30 years on Kibbutz Kfar Aza where she taught English as a nursery schoolteacher in her free time. That was until October 7, when her life was “turned upside down”.
On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the abduction of her daughter, Mandy spoke about her anguish for the first time publicly in front of many thousands of people in Hyde Park at an event to mark one year event since Hamas terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and took around 250 hostage.
“Soon, there will be nothing left of my heart, or Emily,” she said on stage. “Every second she is held there is a second too long.”
In her remarks, Mandy said she was “raised with the great British ideals of pubs, parties and freedom”. It was this last and most important value – freedom to think, to speak, to live – that she tried to instil in her children and grandchildren. “Today I am here because my daughter Emily, a British-Israeli woman, is no longer free to do any of these things,” Mandy said.
Mandy Damari implores the UK government to do more to bring her British-Israeli daughter, Emily Damari, held hostage in Gaza for a year, home (Photo: Gary Manhine)
She beseeched everyone present, who stood silently and attentively in the rain before her, “to use every ounce of influence they have” to advocate government leaders to prioritise the release of the hostages.
Emily’s love for life is “contagious”, said Mandy, and she “adores” time spent visiting family in England. “She had the classic British sense of humour with a dash of Israeli chutzpah thrown in for good measure,” Mandy said.
“When she was young, her favourite place was London Zoo, not far from here. As she got older, she turned into a big foodie, always dragging us to her favourite restaurants. We’d go shopping in Primark and visit markets for a good bargain. She went to see Spurs, who she loved, in their new stadium with her brother, and she loved going to the pub. For her, that was England, and she loved her second home across the sea and always looked forward to coming here. Now, all that joy and that light is locked away.”
Mandy recounted how hostages who came back from Gaza in November last year had comforted her with stories of Emily’s bravery and courageousness while in captivity. “They told me that some of them had met her while they were being moved around, some for short periods, some for longer. But they all told me about her bravery and courage and even her laughter, and the way she helped hold everyone together even in the worst times.” One former hostage told Mandy that Emily sang Boker Shel Kef every morning, despite the darkness.
“I’m sure she’s not singing now,” Mandy said. “I keep thinking of the six hostages that were murdered hours before they were discovered by the IDF. About Eden Yerushalmi, who weighed just 32 kilos. In the tunnel they were kept in, there was no room to stand up in and hardly any air to breathe, with just a bucket to relieve themselves in.
“How is it that she is still imprisoned there after one year? Why isn’t the whole world, especially Britain, fighting every moment to secure her release? She is one of their own,” Mandy said to applause. “But her plight seems to have forgotten. My beautiful, funny and brave daughter, who I love to the moon and back deserves to come home. I need to hug her again. I need to see her smile.”
A photo of British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari is projected onto the Brighton cliffs by the Yellow Ribbon Campaign. (Photo: Nikki Greco)
She said she “sometimes wonders” if people are even aware that there is a British woman hostage in Gaza.
“Imagine, for a moment, if Emily was your daughter. Try to picture what she is going through,” Mandy requested. “Since October 7 last year, she has been held a hostage by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza terror tunnels, 20 metres or more underground, kept in captivity, tortured, isolated, unable to eat, speak or even move without someone else’s permission. Stripped of every human right. It is almost impossible to comprehend her pain. Yet it is the reality she is living every single day.”
Mandy castigated the British government for not doing more to bring home one of their own: “Diplomatic pressure, negotiations, humanitarian efforts, whatever it takes, we cannot let another day pass. We cannot afford to lose any more lives to this nightmare. We don’t need tea and sympathy; we need actions, not words.”
Last week, Mandy met with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy to implore that they do all they could to secure the safe return of all the remaining hostages.
She handed the prime minister a letter she had written for Emily and requested he did all in his power to get it to her.
“I hope this letter gets to you when you are alive and home with me, Abba and all your family, and you’ll see that we are all alive,” the letter read. “If it gets to you in Gaza, know that we all love you and miss you and are sick with worry about what is happening to you every day, and we are praying and meeting whoever we can to get you back home,
“Please keep strong, keep praying and just be your beautiful self that I love to the moon and back. You will come home. And I promise that I’ll never complain again about your perfume sticking to me when you’re home.”
Emily was one of 19 people kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Sixty-four of her neighbours – men, women, children and elderly – were murdered. link
Iranian banks have been excluded since 2018 from the SWIFT international financial messaging service, which governs the vast majority of transactions worldwide. The move is part of a raft of sanctions that were re-imposed on Iran after the United States withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.
Iranian bank cards can now be used in Russia, state television channel IRINN says, showing the withdrawal of money using an Iranian bank card from an ATM in Russia.
The operation was made possible by connecting Iran’s interbank network Shetab to its Russian equivalent Mir, the channel says.
Iranians can currently withdraw money in Russia, and will in the future be able to use their cards to pay for in-store purchases, it adds.
“The plan is also going to be implemented in other countries that have a wide range of financial and social interactions with Iran, for example Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkey,” it says.
Both Iran and Russia have sought to counteract the effects of sanctions on their economies.
Al-Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, says a series of airstrikes have targeted the Amran and Saada governorates, which they say have been carried out by the US and Britain.
Emily Damari, 27, was taken hostage on October 7 by Hamas terrorists who attacked Kibbutz Kfar Aza, killing, assaulting and abducting dozens to Gaza.
Damari is a British-Israeli dual citizen whose last message was around 10 a.m. on October 7, when she wrote that terrorists were in her neighborhood and shooting around her apartment.
Bar Kislev, a friend from the same neighborhood who survived that black Shabbat, later reported in a Channel 12 interview that he saw Damari’s car being driven at around 11 a.m. in their neighborhood.
He watched the car, which was being driven by a terrorist, stop in front of his house, and heard arguments in Arabic before the car was reversed and driven quickly in the direction of Gaza.
He said he believed that was the moment when Damari and the Berman twins, Gali and Ziv, were abducted. He witnessed other abductions, all within a one-hour window,
Out of 37 residents of Kibbutz Kfar Aza’s “young generation” neighborhood, 11 people were murdered and seven were kidnapped and taken to the Strip — among the 1,200 who were killed and 253 kidnapped when gunmen rampaged through southern Israeli communities.
In January 2024, released hostage Dafna Elyakim, 15, said in an Israeli television interview that she and her younger sister, Ella Elyakim, were taken into Hamas’s underground tunnels, where they met five other female hostages who haven’t yet returned — Liri Albag, Naama Levy, Romy Gonen, Agam Berger and Emily Damari. link
Emily Damari's poster is raised at a London event to mark one year since October 7 (Credit: social media)
She likes watching the footy, drinking pints, dry humour and having cuppas with mates. It has now been one year since Emily Damari – the last remaining British hostage, who has dual nationality – was abducted into the terror tunnels of Gaza.
Damari, who celebrated her 28th birthday in captivity, was taken from her home on Kibbutz Kfar Aza by terrorists, and her beloved dog, Choocha, was shot.
Since then, she has missed her grandfather’s death in London earlier this year, births, weddings and the numerous birthdays of her many friends.
The youngest of four siblings, Emily is the “light and life” of her family and friendsm according to those who knew her and, as the host of the “best barbeques on the kibbutz” and armed with her sharp wit, her home was frequently full of people eager to be in her presence.
Emily has always remained close to her British roots too, her family says, and loves visiting London with her mum to engage in all-too British pastimes, such as visiting Primark, attending Ed Sheeran and Adele concerts, and cheering on her favourite football team, Tottenham Hotspurs, in the pub.
Former hostages, who were held captive with her, have testified to Emily’s unyielding bravery in the face of impossible circumstances, raising the spirits of her fellow captives in the dark tunnels of Gaza by leading singalongs of Boker Shel Kef (it’s a great morning) every day.
Now though, it has been a long time since any more reports of her condition have surfaced. Her mother, Mandy, has existed through a “living nightmare”, she said, not knowing “what torture” – from starvation to sexual abuse – Emily is being subjected to at the hands of terrorists.
Mandy Damari, 63, was born in Surrey and travelled to Israel to volunteer in her 20s. There, she fell in love and got married to an Israeli, had four children and eventually four grandchildren, living happily for over 30 years on Kibbutz Kfar Aza where she taught English as a nursery schoolteacher in her free time. That was until October 7, when her life was “turned upside down”.
On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the abduction of her daughter, Mandy spoke about her anguish for the first time publicly in front of many thousands of people in Hyde Park at an event to mark one year event since Hamas terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and took around 250 hostage.
“Soon, there will be nothing left of my heart, or Emily,” she said on stage. “Every second she is held there is a second too long.”
In her remarks, Mandy said she was “raised with the great British ideals of pubs, parties and freedom”. It was this last and most important value – freedom to think, to speak, to live – that she tried to instil in her children and grandchildren. “Today I am here because my daughter Emily, a British-Israeli woman, is no longer free to do any of these things,” Mandy said.
Mandy Damari implores the UK government to do more to bring her British-Israeli daughter, Emily Damari, held hostage in Gaza for a year, home (Photo: Gary Manhine)
She beseeched everyone present, who stood silently and attentively in the rain before her, “to use every ounce of influence they have” to advocate government leaders to prioritise the release of the hostages.
Emily’s love for life is “contagious”, said Mandy, and she “adores” time spent visiting family in England. “She had the classic British sense of humour with a dash of Israeli chutzpah thrown in for good measure,” Mandy said.
“When she was young, her favourite place was London Zoo, not far from here. As she got older, she turned into a big foodie, always dragging us to her favourite restaurants. We’d go shopping in Primark and visit markets for a good bargain. She went to see Spurs, who she loved, in their new stadium with her brother, and she loved going to the pub. For her, that was England, and she loved her second home across the sea and always looked forward to coming here. Now, all that joy and that light is locked away.”
Mandy recounted how hostages who came back from Gaza in November last year had comforted her with stories of Emily’s bravery and courageousness while in captivity. “They told me that some of them had met her while they were being moved around, some for short periods, some for longer. But they all told me about her bravery and courage and even her laughter, and the way she helped hold everyone together even in the worst times.” One former hostage told Mandy that Emily sang Boker Shel Kef every morning, despite the darkness.
“I’m sure she’s not singing now,” Mandy said. “I keep thinking of the six hostages that were murdered hours before they were discovered by the IDF. About Eden Yerushalmi, who weighed just 32 kilos. In the tunnel they were kept in, there was no room to stand up in and hardly any air to breathe, with just a bucket to relieve themselves in.
“How is it that she is still imprisoned there after one year? Why isn’t the whole world, especially Britain, fighting every moment to secure her release? She is one of their own,” Mandy said to applause. “But her plight seems to have forgotten. My beautiful, funny and brave daughter, who I love to the moon and back deserves to come home. I need to hug her again. I need to see her smile.”
A photo of British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari is projected onto the Brighton cliffs by the Yellow Ribbon Campaign. (Photo: Nikki Greco)
She said she “sometimes wonders” if people are even aware that there is a British woman hostage in Gaza.
“Imagine, for a moment, if Emily was your daughter. Try to picture what she is going through,” Mandy requested. “Since October 7 last year, she has been held a hostage by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza terror tunnels, 20 metres or more underground, kept in captivity, tortured, isolated, unable to eat, speak or even move without someone else’s permission. Stripped of every human right. It is almost impossible to comprehend her pain. Yet it is the reality she is living every single day.”
Mandy castigated the British government for not doing more to bring home one of their own: “Diplomatic pressure, negotiations, humanitarian efforts, whatever it takes, we cannot let another day pass. We cannot afford to lose any more lives to this nightmare. We don’t need tea and sympathy; we need actions, not words.”
Last week, Mandy met with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy to implore that they do all they could to secure the safe return of all the remaining hostages.
She handed the prime minister a letter she had written for Emily and requested he did all in his power to get it to her.
“I hope this letter gets to you when you are alive and home with me, Abba and all your family, and you’ll see that we are all alive,” the letter read. “If it gets to you in Gaza, know that we all love you and miss you and are sick with worry about what is happening to you every day, and we are praying and meeting whoever we can to get you back home,
“Please keep strong, keep praying and just be your beautiful self that I love to the moon and back. You will come home. And I promise that I’ll never complain again about your perfume sticking to me when you’re home.”
Emily was one of 19 people kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Sixty-four of her neighbours – men, women, children and elderly – were murdered. link
Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages
The 16th HostageMichael SfardHuman Rights Lawyer.
Dear Prime Minister,Tell me, how do you sleep at night?Let me tell you about myself. I haven’t been sleeping well. Truth be told, I sleep like shit. It’s not only that I’m afraid of things to come, terrified of the fighting in Gaza and the horrifying prospect of a Northern Front. It’s not only the pestering questions that won’t let go, nine months after October 7th, and the inability to understand how we got here. Our reality contains ample causes for insomnia: the political police force you’ve created, the vicious incitement against those who oppose your policies, the paralyzing fear of what will become of us as a society in the coming decades. What will be the values guiding us after the violence and terror inflicted upon us at the beginning of the war, and everything we have been doing to them ever since? It’s no wonder I sleep so poorly.I’m raising two children here, and you and your government have provided me with a million reasons to worry about their future in Israel. But these are not the issues I want to discuss with you, Prime Minister. I would like to tell you that among other reasons, I have not been sleeping well because of the hostages. Thinking about them and their situation gives me no rest. And I’d like to share a secret. The reason that the hostages, these men and women, give me no rest stems not only from thinking about their situation, the terror that grips me every time I try to imagine what they’re going through. It also stems from a feeling with which I’m not sure you’re familiar: responsibility. No, I did not hold a formal position on October 7th. I was not in charge of the army, Intelligence, Israel’s policy towards Hamas, or the political reform that weakened the remains of Israel’s solidarity and ethos. It was not on my watch that 1,200 people were murdered in the Gaza Envelope, and 251 children, elderly, women, and men were taken hostage. And yet I feel responsible. Do you know why? Because I’m Israeli. These are my brothers and sisters rotting in tunnels. As an Israeli, I’m responsible for bringing them back.Contrary to what you might believe, Prime Minister, responsibility is not something that you receive, like cigars or bottles of champagne; nor is it something you take, like bribes. Responsibility is something that you carry, like a burden. It doesn’t matter if you are cowardly — with no integrity whatsoever. You can’t choose to “receive” or “take” responsibility for the greatest failure in Israel’s history. You carry the responsibility, period. You are in charge of the failure and therefore you’re in charge of the hostages’ destiny. You are the person in charge, number one. And by failing to secure deals to return them, you carry the responsibility for abandoning them. You are in charge of their kidnapping, their abandonment, and your supporters’ despicable and unforgivable propaganda against their families.Honestly, Prime Minister, I do not know how you sleep at night. Do you read a book or scroll through TikTok until your eyes shut? I have a suggestion: count the hostages. One, two, three. Maybe by the 16th hostage, you’ll finally understand: you are responsible for them.
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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