🎗️Lonny's War Update- October 405, 2023 - November 14, 2024 🎗️

  

🎗️Day 405 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 don't abandon Itai Chen, my grandson in Gaza

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

#BringThemHomeNow #TurnTheHorrorIntoHope

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

‎אין נצחון עד שכל החטופים בבית

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

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

*7:45pm yesterday - north - rockets/missiles

*9:45pm yesterday - south - hostile aircraft - Eilat
*11:30pm yesterday - north - hostile aircraft - Dishon
*1:00am - north - rockets/missiles
*5:40am - north - for the second time early this morning, the army shot down a hostile aircraft in Syrian airspace which were on their way to Israel
*6:30am - north -rockets/missiles
*6:55am - north -rockets/missiles
*9:05am - north - rockets/missiles
*10:05am - north - hostile aircraft - Rosh Hanikra, Batzet, Milu'ot
*10:10am - north - rockets/missiles
*11:10am - north - rockets/missiles
*11:51am - north - rockets/missiles
*12:10pm - north - rockets/missiles
*1:25pm - north - rockets/missiles
*1:55pm - north - rockets/missiles
*2:25pm - north - rockets/missiles
*2:35pm - north - rockets/missiles
*2:40pm - north - rockets/missiles
*2:45pm - north - rockets/missiles
*3:35pm - north - rockets/missiles
*3:55pm - Haifa and areas around - rockets/missiles
*4:20pm - north - rockets/missiles
*4:25pm - north - rockets/missiles
*4:45pm - north - rockets/missiles
*6:10pm - north - rockets/missiles

**Permitted for Publication: Six Golani Soldiers Killed in Battle with Militants in Southern Lebanon**

Six soldiers from Battalion 51 were killed in close-quarters combat inside a building in a village in southern Lebanon. Another soldier was moderately injured. The IDF is investigating whether the militants emerged from an underground tunnel, allowing them to avoid prior strikes before the soldiers entered.

Yesterday morning (Wednesday), six IDF soldiers from the Golani Brigade’s Battalion 51 were killed in a confrontation with Hezbollah militants in a village in southern Lebanon. Another soldier from the unit was moderately injured. The unit entered the area last night as part of Division 36's operation to conduct searches near the Lebanese border.

The fallen soldiers are:

- Captain Itai Markovitz, 22, from Kokhav Ya'ir, platoon commander in Battalion 51, Golani Brigade, killed in action in southern Lebanon.

- Staff Sergeant Sharia Elboim, 21, from Mehola, squad commander in Battalion 51, Golani Brigade, killed in action in southern Lebanon.

- Staff Sergeant Dror Chen, 20, from Gan HaYim, section leader in Battalion 51, Golani Brigade, killed in action in southern Lebanon.

- Staff Sergeant Nir Gopher, 20, from Dimona, fighter in Battalion 51, Golani Brigade, killed in action in southern Lebanon.

- Sergeant Shalev Yitzhak Sagron, 21, from Sderot, fighter in Battalion 51, Golani Brigade, killed in action in southern Lebanon.
-Sergeant Yoav Daniel, 19, from Nahariya.

Soldiers killed in southern Lebanon on November 13, 2024: Top, left to right: Staff Sgt. Sraya Elboim, Sgt. Shalev Itzhak Sagron, Sgt. Yoav Daniel; Bottom, left to right: Staff Sgt. Dror Hen, Staff Sgt. Nir Gofer, Cpt. Itay Marcovich

MAY THEIR MEMORIES BE A REVOLUTION

An initial investigation indicates that around 10:00 AM, the Golani unit entered a building not previously entered by IDF forces. Militants lying in ambush opened fire from close range on the soldiers. The IDF suspects the militants emerged from an underground combat tunnel, enabling them to evade prior strikes before the infantry entered. Fierce close-quarters combat ensued inside the building, resulting in the elimination of at least one militant. Fighting in the area continued for several hours until control was secured.

This operation took place after most brigades in southern Lebanon had pulled back for a refresh, with a possible release of reserve forces. However, the government’s decision to extend the war, lacking political agreements, prompted the Northern Command to form additional operational plans for forces to operate in Lebanese territory.

Military analyst Ron Ben Yishai explains that each new phase of combat, especially in areas where the IDF has not previously conducted ground maneuvers, results in a high cost to IDF forces as they breach the enemy’s defenses. Hezbollah, observing Israeli media and political statements suggesting that the IDF had no intention to enter the second line of villages, fortified itself there, monitored IDF forces, studied operational methods, and positioned its resistance cells in village buildings where the Golani soldiers entered.

As a result, intense battles unfolded within several buildings where Hezbollah militants lay in ambush for IDF forces, leading to the soldiers’ deaths. The battle will be analyzed for operational lessons, but it is already evident that the IDF's progress has led to a decrease in short-range rocket fire.

An IDF officer was killed and another officer was seriously wounded during fighting in southern Lebanon earlier today, the military announces.

The slain soldier is named as Lt. Ivri Dickshtein, 21, a platoon commander in the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion, from Eli.

MAY HIS MEMORY BE A REVOLUTION

Another officer in the battalion was seriously wounded in the same incident, the IDF says.

Hostage Updates 

• Report: Israeli hostage envoy tells ministers ‘time is short, conditions deteriorating’
  

  The Israeli military’s envoy to negotiations aimed at freeing hostages held in Gaza, Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon, has warned cabinet ministers that “time is short and conditions are deteriorating” for the captives, Channel 13 reports.

  According to the network, Alon said “stagnation” could not be accepted on the issue. He noted that Hamas has “taken a beating everywhere” in Gaza, that “winter is arriving and conditions of the hostages are deteriorating.”

  The general is quoted saying the IDF’s achievements have created conditions for a deal.

  
  

• **Kidnapped Women's Posters Vandalized in Modiin**

  On the 404th day of the war, posters featuring photos of kidnapped women were vandalized. Among the defaced images were those of the kidnapped female soldiers. The Women's Lobby stated: "No one is immune from those who want to erase us from the public space."

  

  
  Posters with images of the kidnapped women were vandalized yesterday (Wednesday) in Modiin, on the 404th day of the war. The faces of women held captive in Gaza were painted over in black, concealed, and censored on several posters that had been put up over a year and a month after the war began.

  
  

  
  

  
  Among the defaced posters were those featuring images of five female soldiers held captive in Gaza, with the text "Look them in the eyes," as well as posters featuring all the kidnapped individuals, on which only the images of the kidnapped women were vandalized. In contrast, the images of the kidnapped men remained untouched.
  The Women's Lobby responded on platform X: "Modiin, 2024 — ironically, in the month of fighting violence against women, someone decided that the faces of 13 women still held captive by Hamas should not be seen. No woman is immune from those who wish to erase us from the public sphere, even the captives who have been held in Gaza for over a year." link the same bastards who do this are the ones who refuse to be enlisted in the army to do their share. Instead, they demand to be eternal parasites to the rest of the population whose taxes provide them with the 'stipends' for studying in yeshiva instead of serving, even if they stopped studying, and who receive money for sending their children to day care, something that none of the tax paying, army serving population receive. And then, they have the absolute disgusting gaul to do something like this!

  
  Kidnapped signs vandalized by Modi'in Photography: Lee Nebo
  

  

  The female observers who were kidnapped from the Nahal Oz outpost held by Hamas

  
  

• Family members of hostages being held captive in Gaza and Israelis who were freed from captivity meet with Pope Francis in the Vatican.

  Some of the families present the pope with gifts related to the hostages. The family of hostage Tal Shoham, from Kibbutz Be’eri, presents the pontiff with a soccer jersey of Shoham’s favorite team with his name on the back. Shoham’s 8-year-old son, Naveh — who was abducted and later released — had corresponded previously with Francis about their shared love of soccer.

  The family of Oded Lifshitz, who was kidnapped with his wife from Kibbutz Nir Oz, gives the pope a pin made from Lifshitz’s cactus garden.

  Freed hostage Louis Har, who grew up in Argentina, speaks in Spanish with the Argentinian pontiff and gives him a picture with the word “homeward.”

  Yelena Trufanova, who was freed from captivity, also attended, a day after Palestinian Islamic Jihad released a video of her son, Sasha, who is still being held hostage in Gaza.

  Pope Francis says he feels close to the hostage families, and promises to do everything he can for their release. “The most important thing is to save people,” he says, according to the Foreign Ministry.

  The meeting concludes with a silent prayer. “I hope that God releases these hostages,” Francis says.

  
  

Gaza and the South

•  Though ham-handed, report on Gazan anger at Hamas appears to reflect waning support
  Individuals in Strip say Palestinians no longer cheer rocket fire and some express happiness with defeat of terror organization, but say it’s time for Israel to end the war as well

  

  Displaced Palestinians leave western Khan Yunis to areas in the eastern parts of the city following reports of Israeli forces withdrawing from the area in the southern Gaza Strip on July 30, 2024 (Bashar TALEB / AFP)

  For the first time since war broke out over a year ago, Israel’s military permitted a journalist in Gaza to speak to Palestinian civilians there last week. The result, aired by Channel 12 news on Sunday, offered a significantly filtered peek into the mindset of displaced Gazan women and children from Jabalia in northern Gaza.

  Against a backdrop of debris, dust and armed Israeli soldiers, some residents speaking to the channel’s Palestinian affairs reporter Ohad Hemo vented their frustration at Hamas, shouting and cursing the terror group ruling Gaza for the devastation it wreaked on their lives.

  “I swear I was happy when you killed [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar, who caused destruction and killed our children,” one woman was filmed shouting. “God willing you’ll destroy them.”
  

  For over a year, Israeli and foreign journalists have only been able to enter Gaza from Israel under IDF oversight and were taken solely to areas devoid of civilians to document the military’s activities. CNN’s Clarissa Ward appears to have been the sole Western journalist who independently crossed into Gaza, speaking to Palestinians inside a field hospital in December.

  Hamas also strictly controls reporting out of Gaza and has threatened journalists who report on the group’s terror activities. For the past year, the only major outlet allowed by Hamas to operate inside the Gaza Strip has been Al Jazeera, which is known to have close ties with the terror group, portraying it as a “resistance movement.”

  To some observers, Hemo’s report appeared to be a piece of clumsy propaganda, portraying a sanitized view of Gazans supposedly welcoming the Israelis as liberators rather than capturing a balanced view of Gazan sentiment. Many of the comments dovetailed neatly with claims the army has made of evacuating Gazan civilians expressing anger at Hamas.
  

  Given the famine and devastation many Gazans have gone through, some have concluded that respondents were speaking under pressure, and might have directed their rage toward Israel as well for bombing their homes had they not been speaking to an Israeli journalist in front of Israeli soldiers as they traversed an Israeli-administered evacuation zone to escape Israeli fire.

  “In vain I waited for the frame to open up a bit and for Hemo to show Israelis the incomprehensible scope of destruction, which would perhaps explain why a line of desperate, tired, thirsty and hungry refugees were standing in front of his cameras, willing to say exactly what the soldiers standing outside the frame wish to hear,” wrote Haaretz’s Shany Littman.

  Even those on the far-right were unimpressed, complaining that the comments did not reflect their view of all Gazans as Hamas supporters undeserving of sympathy. “Tonight in reality: the abhorrence of the propagandist media and the understanding of the Israeli public that there is not a single person [in Gaza] who is innocent,” tweeted one prominent settler extremist in response to a promo for the report.

  
  Palestinian demonstrators chant slogans against Hamas in the Gaza Strip during a protest against the territory’s chronic power outages and difficult living conditions along the streets of Khan Younis, Sunday, July 30, 2023. (AP Photo)

  Yet the comments captured by Hemo did accurately reflect the view of at least some inside Gaza, according to three individuals who recently spoke with The Times of Israel. (Their names have been changed for safety.)

  Polls by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research also point to waning support for Hamas among Gazans, with only 39 percent in the Strip reporting a positive view of the group in September, down from 64% in June.
  

  Mark, a European aid worker managing logistics for a large humanitarian organization in Deir al-Balah, reported that when Hamas fires rockets, a rare occurrence these days, only teenagers seem to cheer on the street.

  “Adults then invariably tell them there is nothing to cheer about. Every rocket that is fired causes trouble,” he said. “It will elicit an Israeli reaction and bombings for the following week.”

  “People have come to see Hamas as a problem. I have yet to come across any adult who openly supports Hamas or claims it can bring a solution,” Mark added.

  Khaled, a 30-year-old Palestinian man living in a crowded encampment for displaced Gazans in the south of the Strip, depicted general frustration with the terror group. His conversation with The Times of Israel was facilitated by the US-based Center for Peace Communications, which has sought to broadcast the sentiments of anti-Hamas Gazans to the world. (In January 2023, The Times of Israel published a series of shorts produced by the center.)

  “People hate Hamas more and more,” said Khaled, who was an opponent of the group before October 7 and has been jailed by Hamas in the past. “What they need now is peace.”

  
  Tent encampments housing displaced Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 11, 2024. (AFP)

  Khaled’s sentiments were echoed by Rashid, an anti-Hamas activist from Deir al-Balah who was previously jailed by the group for his participation in the 2019 “We want to live” protest movement.

  “Most people in Gaza are against Hamas; they want a future without it,” he said. “One good thing about the war is that they can now curse it openly on the streets without fear of retaliation.”

  “There was some optimism after Sinwar’s killing, with people hopeful that a ceasefire was near and normalcy would return – even among some Hamas supporters,” Rashid noted.
  

  Despite the decapitation of the Hamas leadership, a ceasefire still seems elusive, extending the hardship of Gaza’s civilians. “Without an Israeli decision to end the conflict, no one can put an end to the insane situation in the Gaza Strip. Following the collapse of Hamas governance, Gaza’s future rests in Israel’s hands,” Rashid said.
  
  Power vacuum
  While Hamas still attempts occasional attacks on IDF troops to create “victory images,” as one senior IDF officer recently told The Times of Israel, conversations with Gaza civilians indicate that the group is focused solely on survival, lacking the means to control the Strip.
  “They’ve lost the people entirely, along with their authority over minds and words,” Rashid observed.
  “Hamas has completely collapsed,” Khaled concurred. “That doesn’t mean it isn’t trying to regroup. It will keep trying indefinitely.”

  
  Members of the Palestinian National Security Service, loyal to Hamas, patrol the southern Gaza Strip border on February 10, 2015. (photo credit: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

  
  

  According to Mark, Hamas’s remaining authority in the Strip consists of members of the Hamas-run Civil Defense agency in balaclavas managing traffic at some intersections with rifles.

  The breakdown of its governance has forced the group underground, with the IDF reporting nearly 19,000 fighters killed. Local families and clans have since filled the power vacuum, some exerting control over entire areas through force.

  Large family clans are a traditional feature of Gazan society. With the displacement of hundreds of thousands from the Strip’s north to the south, many of the clans also relocated, and tried to assert their authority over new areas or take control of certain trades, entering into turf wars with existing clans.
  

  Gunfights between clans are not rare, Mark said, and sometimes result in casualties and deteriorate into bloody retaliatory feuds.

  The chaotic situation has significantly hampered the work of aid organizations that need to deal with the clans, forcing them to negotiate with multiple chieftains, he added.

  
  Armed and masked Palestinians sit on trucks leading humanitarian aid into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom Crossing with Israel, in the Strip’s south, April 3, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

  Rashid said that Hamas had allied with gangs connected to the clans, who act as its “mafia” within Gaza. These clans dominate the informal markets, where they enrich themselves by selling food and essential goods to civilians at inflated prices due to scarcity. Some clans also extort organizations and traders for payoffs in exchange for safe passage through areas they control.
  Channel 12 reported in September that Hamas had raised $500 million by reselling stolen humanitarian aid, and that the money was partly used to recruit new gunmen.
  Rashid confirmed that the terror group is attempting to recruit, but said that very few people were responding.
  
  Over and out?
  In September, then-defense minister Yoav Gallant said that Hamas was finished as a military organization, and was only engaged in guerrilla warfare.
  Two months on, the situation appears largely the same.
  “In central Gaza, where I live, we don’t even feel like we’re at war anymore. There’s a sense of clinical death,” Rashid said. “Israel’s operations such as the ongoing one in Jabalia are merely an excuse to prolong the conflict. After all, Israel’s goal was to dismantle Hamas as a governing force, not eliminate every single Hamas member.”
  While predicting that Hamas would attempt to declare victory the moment the IDF leaves Gaza, Rashid believes that “the center and the south of the Strip are ready for the ‘day after.”

  
  Palestinian children walk past tents at a make-shift camp for the internally displaced in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on October 17, 2024. (Eyad BABA / AFP)

  
  

  Khaled agreed that Israel had nobody left to fight, calling for the IDF to ease up on suffering Gazan civilians.

  “There is no justification to prolong the war. Israel has defeated Hamas and can end the conflict now, conducting targeted operations if necessary. There is no need to maintain the pressure on the civilian population. On the contrary, Israel needs to show goodwill toward civilians by establishing safe zones,” he said.

  Khaled has advocated for “safe zones” within Gaza through discussions with unnamed Israeli “institutions.” These zones would allow “peace-minded” civilians to administer themselves away from Hamas and clan control. “What is needed now is political will from Israel. Unfortunately, there has been no response from Israeli authorities,” Khaled said.

  On October 28, the Knesset passed two laws essentially barring the UN agency for Palestinian refugees from operating in Israel, and severely curtailing its activities in Gaza and the West Bank, despite widespread international opposition.

  UNRWA – short for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East – provides education, healthcare and food aid to millions of Palestinians across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

  
  Boys sit on a cart with humanitarian aid packages provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in central Gaza City on August 27, 2024. (Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP)

  Mark, the aid worker in central Gaza, warned that the shutdown of UNRWA will severely disrupt relief work.

  “Many assume another UN organization can just replace UNRWA, but it’s not that simple,” he said. “UNRWA was massive, running schools, clinics and food distribution. Without it, these responsibilities now theoretically fall to Israel, as the occupying power.”

  In contrast, Khaled, who grew up in a refugee camp and attended UNRWA schools, expressed little concern over losing the agency’s aid.

  “Since the start of the war, UNRWA was supposed to distribute food, but all I have ever received was one bag of flour – and I have to feed a family of ten,” he said.

  “We don’t want to live off aid forever,” he added. “We want to live like people in the Gulf, Europe or America. We want to develop a private economy, to work and be able to buy things. We don’t want to depend on UNRWA forever for a bag of flour or rice.”  link

• A rocket launcher positioned in the Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone” in the southern Gaza Strip was destroyed in an airstrike earlier today, the IDF says.

  
  An IDF-provided graphic showing the location of a rocket launcher positioned in the Israeli-designated 'humanitarian zone' in the southern Gaza Strip that was hit in an airstrike on November 13, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

  The launcher was loaded and primed for an imminent attack on Israel, according to the military.

  Before carrying out the strike in the humanitarian zone, where the vast majority of the Palestinian population in Gaza is currently residing, the IDF says it carried out steps to mitigate civilian harm.

  The steps included issuing warnings to civilians in the area to evacuate, as well as using a precision munition and aerial surveillance, the military says.

  The IDF says secondary blasts were seen following the strike, indicating that weapons were stored there.

  Palestinian media published footage of a strike in the humanitarian zone earlier today, which appears to have been the strike on the launcher. scary video of the moment of the strike on the launcher

• Six attempts by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to deliver aid to besieged areas in northern Gaza were blocked over the past two days by Israeli authorities, the spokesman for the UN secretary-general says.

  “Every attempt by the UN to access these areas with food, water and health missions this month were either denied or impeded,” Stéphane Dujarric says during a press briefing.

  Seventy-nine percent of Gaza remains under active evacuation orders, Dujarric says, as more and more Palestinians have been pushed into the coastal Muwasi humanitarian zone. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Israel yesterday to rescind evacuation orders once it finishes military operations in those areas — something the IDF has yet to do.

  Dujarric cites a World Food Program report from the end of October that found that entire food groups have disappeared from Gaza’s markets, with dairy products and eggs “nearly non-existent” and raw fruits and vegetables also scarce.

  “Many items have increased over 1,000 percent from pre-conflict prices,” he adds.

  COGAT did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the UN claims.

Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria

• 'History repeats itself' as South Lebanon Army veteran, Israeli killed side-by-side
  Friends Shamoun Najm, 54, and Ziv Belfer, 52, didn’t have time to reach a nearby shelter before impact of lethal Hezbollah rockets, their Nahariya neighbors say
  

  NAHARIYA — Nir Aloni stood in his backyard early Wednesday morning and held up a piece of the Hezbollah rocket that fell on a warehouse in the adjacent property, killing his next-door neighbors the day before.

  The terror group fired dozens of rockets and drones at northern and central Israel shortly before 5 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, striking Ziv Belfer, 52, and Shamoun Najm, 54, in Nahariya.

  Belfer lived in a house on the property. Najm was a carpenter who had a carpentry workshop in the abutting warehouse. The two men, who were friends, were together in the warehouse when it suffered a direct hit. They were pronounced dead at the scene.“There was a loud boom, smoke, and fire,” Aloni’s wife, Tsipi, told The Times of Israel. She said she rushed into the protected room in her house as soon as the sirens went off.

  Nahariya residents have 15 seconds to reach a protected area after the sirens go off. A spokesperson for the IDF Home Front Command told The Times of Israel that the sirens “went off in the time they were supposed to.”

  “The explosions came 15 seconds after the sirens,” Tsipi confirmed. But Belfer and Najm didn’t reach the shelter in time. Tsipi pointed it out, not too far from the warehouse.

  Tsipi said that sometimes they hear the “booms from afar, go into the shelter, and then there’s a siren, which means it has reached Nahariya.”

  “Ziv always goes to the shelter,” Belfer’s sister, Avital Friedman, told Hebrew media. “It hurts because if there had been time, he would have gone to the shelter.”

  
  
  

  Ziv Belfer (left), 52, and Shamoun Najm, 54, residents of the northern coastal city of Nahariya, who were killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack on the city on November 12, 2024. (Courtesy)

  According to the Israel Defense Forces, 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.

  The attack came hours after a Hezbollah drone struck a kindergarten in the Haifa suburb of Nesher. No siren went off in the area, but no one was hurt in that incident because staff rushed the children to a bomb shelter seconds before the impact after hearing a faint siren elsewhere.

  Belfer, who was single and had no children, owned a cafe, Tuk-Tuki, in Haifa.

  Najm, who leaves behind two adult children, was a member of the South Lebanon Army (SLA), which fought against Hezbollah and other terror groups before Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000. He fled immediately after the IDF pulled out of the security zone in May 2000, and has lived in Israel since then.

  Jonathan Elkhoury, a public speaker and Israeli advocate whose family were also SLA members, knew Najm.

  “History repeats itself,” Elkhoury wrote in a statement. “As it happened in the past, once again, SLA members and Jews fall side by side, under a common threat.”

  “It was a Hezbollah missile launched from Lebanese territory,” Hana Nora, Najm’s brother-in-law, told Ynet news. “I want to emphasize that the majority of Lebanese do not want wars with Israel. Our family is paying a very heavy price.”

  During Tuesday afternoon’s attack, another two men in their 30s were lightly hurt by shrapnel in another impact in Kibbutz Kabri, about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) away, the Magen David Adom emergency service said.

  

  A drone impacts a building in Nahariya on September 9, 2024 (Screen capture X/ used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

  The warehouse is in the Trumpledor Neighborhood of northern Nahariya, less than 2 kilometers (1 mile) from a high-rise residential apartment building that suffered a direct hit from Hezbollah’s explosive-laden drones on September 9. Nobody was hurt in that attack.
  

A strange new normal

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the neighborhood, lined with one-family houses behind Nahariya’s new public gardens, seemed strangely back to normal. A postman went from house to house, delivering mail. A man stopped his car in front of Belfer’s house and asked neighbor Tsipi Aloni if that was where the rocket fell.

When Tsipi nodded, the man replied, “[Let there be] only good news,” and drove off.

Another neighbor, who preferred not to give her name, said the explosions were “frightening.”

“But I have to earn a living,” she said as she headed toward her car to go to work.

The site of a Hezbollah rocket attack that killed two men in Nahariya on November 12, 2024. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)

Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there. That war began on October 7, when Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel, slaughtered some 1,200 people, and abducted 251 people to Gaza.

Some 60,000 residents were evacuated from northern towns on the Lebanon border shortly after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught due to fears Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack.

The attacks on northern Israel since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 43 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.

Last year, soon after Hezbollah started its rocket attacks, Tsipi said that her family added a bomb shelter to a house on the property where their son, his wife, and their two-week-old baby live.

Nir Aloni stands in his backyard in Nahariya with a fragment of the Hezbollah rocket that fell on his next-door neighbor’s property on November 12, 2024, and killed two men. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)

“The baby was born in the bomb shelter,” Tsipi said. “I look forward to being able to walk the baby in a stroller down the street, but right now, it’s too dangerous.”

She said that her other children, who live in Ramat Gan and Austria, “tell us to come,” but she and her husband won’t leave.

“We love to be in our home,” she said, even as rockets sounded as we spoke in the near distance.

Although she said she is “calm by nature,” she said that the current reality is very difficult.

Her father-in-law purchased the property as a working commercial farm 50 years ago, she said. The couple no longer grows produce commercially, but they have a vegetable garden with “a kale plant that has become a tree,” she said, along with bananas, oranges, and exotic fruit.

A soldier walks by the burning warehouse where a Hezbollah rocket fell in Nahariya on November 12, 2024. (Tsipi Aloni)

Nir, an agronomist, said he was in his office in Tel Aviv when someone sent him a message immediately after Tuesday’s attack asking if the rocket had fallen close to his house. He left his office and immediately drove home.

“The street was closed, and we were told to go inside our houses,” Tsipi said. “Soldiers walked from house to house, asking if we were okay, making sure that everyone was accounted for.”

“Ziv was a good neighbor,” Tsipi said. “He was always helpful.”

She paused.

“Life goes on,” she said as her husband stopped by a tree to pick two oranges to give to this reporter. “Look at how the sun is shining.” link

 

• The Israeli Navy has carried out dozens of missile strikes in Lebanon amid fighting against Hezbollah, including the assassinations of a top commander in the terror group’s drone unit and a senior Hamas member, the military reveals.

  On October 5, a Navy Sa’ar 6-class corvette launched a missile at an apartment in the Beddawi Palestinian camp near the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, killing Saeed Atallah Ali.

  Another missile strike carried out by a Navy corvette, on November 3, killed Ali Barakat, a top commander in Hezbollah’s aerial forces, known as Unit 127, which is responsible for drone and cruise missile attacks on Israel.
  

  Navy corvettes and missile boats have launched dozens more strikes in Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah sites and assets, including rocket launchers and weapon depots, in addition to supporting ground troops operating in the south of the country.

  The military says that Navy vessels are used for certain strikes in Lebanon, instead of the traditional fighter jets or drones, due to their constant availability at sea and because the attacks can be launched more discreetly.
  

  Navy submarines have also been used for their observational capabilities amid the fighting in Lebanon.

  The corvettes and missile boats have also been used to intercept projectiles launched at Israel, mostly drones but also some rockets, using the ship-mounted version of the Iron Dome, known as C-Dome.

  Separately, the IDF releases footage of a recent strike carried out by fighter jets in Beirut, targeting Hezbollah’s main naval base.
  

  According to the military, the base was used by Hezbollah to store fast boats, carry out tests, and train its naval forces.

• An Israeli attack targets the area of Al-Qusayr in the southern countryside of Homs province in central Syria, Syria’s state media says.

  Israel says it has been carrying out strikes to reduce the transfer of weapons from Iran through Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon, which it says has spread to the town of Al-Qusayr, near the Syrian-Lebanese border.

  Syrian media says air defenses intercepted “hostile” targets over the Homs countryside, though it often falsely claims such interceptions.

  The Israeli military does not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• The IDF confirms carrying out airstrikes in Syria a short while ago, saying that it targeted several buildings and command centers belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.

  
  People check the damage following a reported Israeli strike in the Mazzeh district of Damascus on November 14, 2024. (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

  The strikes are a “significant blow” to the Gaza Strip-based Palestinian terror group and its operatives, the military says.

  Islamic Jihad carried out the October 7 onslaught alongside Hamas, and its operatives have also been involved in launching attacks on Israel from Lebanon, alongside Hezbollah.
  

  Syria’s Defense Ministry says that the strikes killed 15 people in the upscale Mazzeh district of Damascus and in the outskirts of the capital.

  “The Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan [Heights], targeting residential buildings in the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus and the Qudsaya area in the Damascus countryside, killing 15 people and injuring 16 others,” the ministry says. video of the airstrike near Damascus

• A response from Lebanon to a ceasefire proposal sent to Beirut from the US could come within the next 24 hours, Channel 12 reports.

  Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer was in Washington this week to meet with Biden administration officials on the finishing touches to the proposal, including written guarantees that Israel has freedom of action against Hezbollah threats in Lebanon.

  Dermer also met with US President-elect Donald Trump on his trip, according to Axios. link  The current problem in these ceasefire discussions is the absence of Hizbollah. The Lebanese government and the Lebanese Army do not have the power to impose a ceasefire on Hizbollah despite the damage that we have done to both their leadership and their arsenal. If they are not part and parcel of the agreement, a ceasefire agreement will only be a piece of paper.

• During expanded ground operations in new areas of southern Lebanon, IDF commandos located a multiple-rocket launcher belonging to Hezbollah, the military says.

  The Commando Brigade, operating under the 91st Division, has been operating in recent days at several “new targets” in southern Lebanon.

  
  A multiple rocket launcher is found by troops of the IDF Commando Brigade in southern Lebanon, in a handout photo issued on November 14, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

  The IDF says the commandos found and destroyed a rocket launcher with 32 barrels aimed at Israel, along with other weapons.

• The IDF says it has completed another wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah assets in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

  The strikes, targeting Hezbollah command centers, weapon depots, and other infrastructure, were carried out overnight and earlier today.

  Over 30 Hezbollah sites in Dahiyeh have been targeted over the past two days, the military says.

  
  Smoke plumes rise after an Israeli airstrike on the Chouaifet neighborhood in southern Beirut on November 14, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by ANWAR AMRO / AFP)

  The Hezbollah sites were located “in the heart of a civilian population,” the IDF says, accusing the terror group of using human shields.

  Before the strikes, the IDF issued evacuation warnings to civilians in the area.

  Footage shared by Lebanese media shows an Israeli airstrike in the vicinity of Beirut’s international airport, as a passenger plane is seen taxiing in the background.

  The IDF issued an evacuation warning ahead of the strike. video of the strike with airplane behind

• The IDF says that in the past week airstrikes have destroyed more than 140 Hezbollah rocket launchers.

  Among the launchers hit were those used to fire barrages at northern and central Israel yesterday.

  The IDF also says that an airstrike killed two senior commanders in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit, who were responsible for anti-tank units and operations in the coastal area.

  
  Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike targeting Hezbollah sites in the village of Kfar Roummane in the Nabatieh Governorate on November 13, 2024 (Photo by AFP)

  The IDF says some 200 Hezbollah operatives were killed during the fighting in southern Lebanon and in airstrikes over the past week.

  The IDF publishes footage of some of the strikes.

• 
  

West Bank and Jerusalem and Terror attacks within Israel

• 2 Israelis said lightly hurt in suspected West Bank car-ramming attack 
  The IDF reports that a suspected car-ramming attack was carried out near the West Bank town of Dayr Qadis a short while ago.
  First responders say two Israelis are lightly hurt in the incident.
  
  
• Counter-terrorism forces exchange fire with gunmen in West Bank’s Tulkarem  
  

  Officers of police’s elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit are carrying out an operation in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, a military source says.

  The troops are exchanging fire with gunmen in the area. There are no injuries to the Israeli forces so far.

• Two Palestinian gunmen, including a senior terror operative, were killed by special forces in the West Bank last night, the military and police say.

  Officers of the police’s elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit, alongside soldiers of the Kfir Brigade’s Haruv reconnaissance unit, operated in the town of Danaba, near Tulkarem, to arrest wanted Palestinians.

  During the raid, one of the wanted Palestinians, who was armed, attempted to flee with another suspect. The Yamam officer opened fire, killing the two Palestinians and wounding a third.

  The IDF and police say that one of the slain gunmen was the head of a terror network in Tulkarem. He was involved in attacks and responsible for recruiting operatives, according to the statement.

  No Israeli forces were hurt in the raid.

Politics and the War (general news)

• A bill obliging every Israeli government to formulate a national security strategy passes a preliminary reading 49-0 in the Knesset plenum.

  The bipartisan bill — sponsored by former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) — would require the National Security Council to formulate a national security strategy in consultation with the ministries of foreign affairs and defense, intelligence agencies and other relevant government bureaus.

  The proposed strategy document — which would have to be approved by the government within 150 days of its formulation and be updated regularly — would identify Israel’s national security challenges and establish its strategic goals, and provide a “critical assessment” of the country’s existing national security strategy.

  “The law obliges every government, upon its establishment, to determine and institutionalize the principles and rules of Israel’s national security. In this way, both the Knesset’s ability to supervise the government, and the government’s responsibility and commitment to its citizens in security matters will be expanded,” the National Unity party tweets following the vote.

  “After more than a year of strenuous fighting and under tremendous security challenges, the importance of this arrangement, for national security and resilience, is clearer than ever.”  link This is a good thing especially in light of the fact that Netanyahu has never had any strategic plan or goals about anything, let alone security.
  



• **The Additional Document Released by Military Intelligence and Investigated: Unusual Activities in the Area During the War**

**Revelation:** An officer in Military Intelligence provided the Prime Minister's Office with a document detailing actions by regional actors that could be suspected of targeting Israel—claiming he feared Netanyahu was not updated on the information. Both the Prosecutor's Office and the Shin Bet are aware of the event, uncovered during the investigation into the secret documents case. 

It was revealed yesterdat (Wednesday) to *ynet* that an intelligence officer handed an additional document to the Prime Minister’s spokesperson, reportedly containing information on unusual actions by regional actors during the war in Gaza, with potential targeting of Israel. The officer’s act was unauthorized, allegedly due to concerns that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not briefed on critical security information. The document was received by Eli Feldstein, the Prime Minister’s spokesperson on security affairs, who has been detained in the secret documents affair, with his detention extended by another day. The Prosecutor’s Office and Shin Bet are aware of the incident. 

The investigation indicates that the additional document was passed to Feldstein after he had already received the "Hamas Document," but before its publication in Germany's *Bild* newspaper.

Meanwhile, *ynet* has learned that the detainees in the secret documents affair are being held in harsh conditions reserved for security detainees within a Shin Bet facility. According to sources familiar with the details, the suspects have been isolated, each in a separate cell, for weeks since their detention. These cells lack reading materials or any means of passing the time, and the detainees do not leave them during the day. Additionally, when taken for questioning, Shin Bet agents cover their eyes. Netanyahu claimed yesterday that the suspects are being held "in basements for 20 days" and subjected to "abuse," which his office alleges is intended to coerce false statements against Netanyahu. A security source commented on this, saying, "Using the term 'abuse' in this investigation is not only a complete falsehood but also serves as ammunition for our enemies as a tool to criticize the Shin Bet in security investigations. We shouldn’t be surprised if this argument is later used against us in the Hague. As far as we know, none of the suspects or detainees have so far complained of abuse or violation of conditions and rights."

Meanwhile, Feldstein completed his Shin Bet interrogation today and is expected to be transferred to regular police detention, which will ease his conditions. Recently, there has been significant tension between Shin Bet agents and officers from the Lahav 433 unit, with the latter pushing to conclude the investigation, claiming it has already reached a conclusion. However, Shin Bet, with the backing of the Prosecutor's Office, argued that further investigative actions are necessary, advocating for the extension of the suspects’ detention. Lahav officers argued in internal discussions that sufficient evidence had already been gathered regarding at least three of the detainees, and that a prosecutor’s statement should be filed to end their detention under the stringent conditions at the Shin Bet facility. link

• The Ministerial Committee on Legislation is slated to vote Sunday on a bill prohibiting the waving of the flags of enemy nations or the Palestinian Authority on the grounds of any institution funded or supported by the state.

  
  Israelis stage a protest at Tel Aviv University against a far-right bill to ban waving Palestinian flags on Israeli campuses, May 28, 2023. (Credit: Standing Together)

  According to the bill, an amendment to the penal code sponsored by Deputy Knesset Speaker Nissim Vaturi (Likud), a gathering of two or more people at which such flags are waved would be considered an unlawful assembly, with participants facing a year in prison and a minimum NIS 10,000 ($2,674) fine.

  The law would apply to institutions such as universities, where protesters have at times waved Palestinian flags at demonstrations.

  Vaturi has been critical of anti-government demonstrations in the past, stating this summer that protesters demanding early elections and the release of hostages held in Gaza were a “branch” of the Hamas terror group.

  Vaturi later backtracked amidst widespread criticism, claiming in a tweet that his comments were “taken out of context.” The protests “harm our national resilience,” but “the horrible actions of the Hamas Nazis are not fit to be compared to any protest or political act,” he wrote.

  Similar bills, promoted by members of the far-right Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties, were advanced in the Knesset last year amid fierce opposition from university presidents, but were not voted into law.  link This is yet another nail in the coffin of democracy in Israel. The Palestinian Authority is not only not an enemy of Israel, we have signed agreements from the time of Oslo with the PA that still hold such as the security cooperation which has saved countless lives in Israel by preventing terror attacks. The PA flag is a symbol of a people, just as the Jewish star and the Israeli flag are symbols of Jews and the State of Israel. I, myself, have carried a poster that has both the flags of Israel and Palestine together in peace. That would become illegal under this bill. And this is just the start

• 
  

The Region and the World

•  The US military says it has conducted several days of strikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

  The strikes included US Air Force and US Navy aircraft, including the Navy’s F-35C stealth fighter jet, it says Thursday.

  The military also released video showing a strike by an MQ-9 Reaper drone on a mobile missile launcher placed on the back of what appeared to be a truck. A person standing next to the launcher is seen running away after the strike.

  “This targeted operation was conducted in response to the Houthi’s repeated and unlawful attacks on international commercial shipping, as well as US, coalition and merchant vessels in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden,” the US military’s Central Command says. “It also aimed to degrade the Houthi’s ability to threaten regional partners.”

  The strikes happened Saturday and Sunday.

  The Houthis launched an attack this week targeted two US Navy destroyers entering the Red Sea. The Americans said they “engaged and defeated” eight bomb-carrying drones, five anti-ship ballistic missiles and four cruise missiles that the Houthis used to target the vessels.

    
  
  

• European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has proposed that the bloc suspend a political dialogue with Israel, citing possible human rights violations in the war with Hamas in Gaza, according to four diplomats and a letter seen by Reuters.

  In the letter sent EU foreign ministers ahead of their meeting this coming Monday, Borrell cites “serious concerns about possible breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza” and says “thus far, these concerns have not been sufficiently addressed by Israel.”

  The political dialogue is enshrined in a broader agreement on relations between the EU and Israel, including extensive trade ties, that entered into force in June 2000.

  “In light of the above considerations, I will be tabling a proposal that the EU should invoke the human rights clause to suspend the political dialogue with Israel,” Borrell writes.

  A suspension would need approval from all 27 EU countries, which the diplomats say is very unlikely. Multiple countries objected when a senior EU official briefed ambassadors in Brussels on the proposal on Wednesday, say three of the diplomats, who speak on condition of anonymity.

  Borrell’s proposal is intended to send a strong signal of concern about Israel’s conduct in the war, one diplomat says.

  It will be discussed at the foreign ministers’ meeting, the last he will chair before ending his five-year term.

Survivors

Personal Stories

  Taken captive: Gali Berman, from Kfar Aza’s ‘young neighborhood’

He and twin brother Ziv went missing after the Hamas onslaught of October 7

Gali Berman, 26, is being held captive in Gaza, after being abducted by Hamas terrorists who overran Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7.

He was taken along with his twin brother, Ziv Berman.

Gali and Ziv Berman

Both brothers live in the kibbutz’s “young generation” neighborhood. Out of 37 residents of that neighborhood, 11 people were murdered and seven were kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip — among the 1,200 who were killed and 240 kidnapped when gunmen rampaged through southern Israeli communities.

Their older brother, Liran Berman, 36, didn’t spend that holiday weekend with the rest of his family because his wife had tested positive for COVID, he told The Guardian.

Liran was at home in Zichron Ya’akov when sirens began sounding on Shabbat morning. He texted his mother, Talia, 60, Ziv and Gali, and a third brother, Idan, 32, as they hid in their safe rooms.

Berman texted with his younger twin brothers for hours, asking how they were doing and whether they were safe. In the evening, they stopped answering.

Hours later, Talia and the boys’ father, Doron, 64, who has Parkinson’s disease and dementia, were rescued by IDF forces on the kibbutz. Idan was rescued the following afternoon.

It took several days to regain control over Kfar Aza, where more than 60 of 400 residents were murdered and 18 were abducted. During this time, the family didn’t know if Ziv and Gali were dead or kidnapped.

After 10 days of attending countless funerals — sometimes several in one day — the Bermans were told by Israeli officers that the twins were kidnapped by Hamas.

“When we were told they were kidnapped, we were joyful,” said Liran Berman to The Guardian. “It’s such a weird thing. It was a glimmer of hope.”

Dark Legacy - The Abandonment of October 7th Hostages

The Bitter Fruit of Populism

Prof. Mordechai (Mota) Kremnitzer

Professor Emeritus, the Faculty of Law of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

There are several possible explanations for Netanyahu’s indifference towards the Israeli hostages and their families.

On the most basic human level, one must compare his attitude towards the Israeli hostages with those of foreign politicians and heads of state to their kidnapped citizens and even to the Israeli citizens held captive. The difference is quite striking and points to Netanyahu’s hardened heart. This indifference characterizes more than just his treatment of the hostages; it characterizes his behavior towards the citizens of the Israeli South and North, exiled in their own land; towards the families of fallen soldiers who are not aligned with his political views; towards those risking their lives in the Israeli Defense Forces while he adamantly refuses to discuss strategies for the future, thereby leading to a loss of momentum, burnout and an attrition of military achievements. This is his approach to all Israeli citizens, imposing on them a never-ending war, seeking a “complete victory” - meaning his own survival as Prime Minister. How can someone so uncaring possibly understand what the hostages are going through at the hands of Hamas, let alone empathize and be horrified?
The truth must be told: this is not surprising in the least. He who holds a populistic, authoritarian, nationalistic ideology is not one to prioritize humankind. His first and foremost priority, according to his principles, is the national collective, represented solely by the Prime Minister. It is therefore reasonable in his eyes to be willing to sacrifice humans for a cause far greater than them - the good of the nation and the good of the nation’s representative, which are one and the same. Moreover, populists do not see themselves as responsible for upholding the sanctity of human life and considering all humans to be born in God’s image. They are therefore not held down by morality, rationalism or truth. Netanyahu believes that his remaining in power as Prime Minister is for the good of the nation and that it justifies any price - including the lives of the hostages.

The populist lives in a dichotomous reality: "Us” - the political camp led by the Prime Minister, and “Them” - those who are not part of that camp. “They” are considered bitter enemies who must be delegitimized and are fair game for any injustice. As fate would have it, he views all the hostages, collectively, as “Them” and therefore minimizes their value as humans.

The slow deterioration of their human value occurs because Netanyahu knows, deep in his heart of hearts, that he is the one who is mainly responsible for the atrocities that transpired and continue to transpire - among others, the brutal kidnapping of our brothers and sisters. Netanyahu knows this, and at the same time vehemently denies it. He is incapable of bearing this heavy burden of responsibility, and so he shoves the hostages and the need to bring them home out of sight. He believes that bringing them home is hardly the most important thing. The most important thing is ending the war in complete victory, in his name, a victory that will help him atone for his unspeakable failure - and the hostages are his sacrifices.

Netanyahu, in his unyielding arrogance, believes he is always right. Here, yet again, he is gravely mistaken. Abandoning the hostages will finally bring about his political demise and his name shall be a source of disgrace in Israel forever. 

Acronyms and Glossary

COGAT - Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories

ICC - International Criminal Court in the Hague

IJC - International Court of Justice in the Hague

MDA - Magen David Adom - Israel Ambulance Corp

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

PMO- Prime Minister's Office

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

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